We are quickly approaching the end of the year. In fact, many (and maybe most) would say the business year is as good as over. As you take stock of your team's performance, what concerns you most? Is it the challenge of maintaining your company's market share? Are you worried that your people are not selling? Are you concerned that they have what it takes to sell?

If you are struggling with any of these questions, you're probably wondering if you even have the right salespeople in place. Today and tomorrow, Promotional Consultant Today shares these tips for increasing the quality of your sales organization.

The first key step is to recognize that you and your process are responsible for the quality of the salespeople on your team today. In other words, your recruiting process is perfectly designed for the team you have. So, if you need more productive salespeople, you will need to change your recruiting process.

Recruiting is like sales. A salesperson must have a system, a pipeline. Activity must be consistent. Like this salesperson, you must have a system and you must execute the recruiting process exactly like you want your salespeople to execute their sales process. Recruiting, like selling, is not a "sometime" thing— it must be a consistently planned and implemented activity.

If individual salespeople are required to fill their prospecting pipelines, shouldn't sales leaders also be required to fill their recruiting pipelines? After all, if you had salespeople who didn't have sufficient prospecting pipelines, you would be concerned about their future and the future of your company. As the person responsible for recruiting and sales production, the same should hold true for you and your recruiting pipeline.

There are a few ways to go about implementing a recruiting pipeline. The first is the most obvious: Ask your sales team to be alert to potential candidates at the networking events they attend. Ask them: "Who should we be talking to? Do you know anyone who might be looking to make a change?"

Meet with other employees to find out if they know people who might be a good fit. Put together a recruiting team and ask them to submit candidate names once per week. Implement a recruiting huddle and hold yourself and everyone else on the team accountable for keeping the pipeline of potential recruits filled. Talk to your neighbors, your tennis partner, your golf friends, etc. Ask them who they know who might be looking for a sales position. You never know where you will find your next sales producer.

Like a sales pipeline, you should also determine your pipeline success formula— the number of names you must have in your pipeline to hire one good recruit. Recruiting requires you to be proactive. Develop a consistent process, do the behaviors and inspect your activity just like you do your sales team's activities.

Ready to recruit? Not so fast! Tomorrow, PCT explains how to identify the ideal candidate.

Source: Tony Cole is president & CEO of Anthony Cole Training Group and author of two free e-books: Hire Bankers Who Will Sell and The Extraordinary Sales Manager.