The Declaration of Independence is probably Thomas Jefferson's most enduring legacy, but they weren't the only words of wisdom he penned. Consider for instance, this little gem. "No duty the executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right person in the right place."

Anyone who's ever tried to put together a world class sales force can relate to Jefferson's observation. The surest way of filling those slots with the right people is to begin with the recruiting process.

Getting the Competitive Edge
Effective recruiting can be a powerful strategic weapon. Developing innovative sources through which to find the best people is just as important as the selection process. The challenge is not only hiring the right people, but how to find them before your competitor does. Here are what some companies are doing through traditional methods -- and non-traditional.

The September 1997 issue of Fortune magazine highlighted a Silicon Valley networking company, Cisco Systems, for its non-traditional recruiting methods. Now employing 10,000, Cisco took on more than 1,000 new employees in each quarter of 1996; making it responsible for roughly 10% of the total net job gains in Silicon Valley.

To attract the highest caliber people, Cisco's recruiting team targets what they call passive job seekers, people who are happy and successful where they are. That's because the most sought-after employees aren't very accessible; or, as Barbara Beck, Cisco's vice president for human resources, says, they "usually aren't cruising through the want ads."

The Fortune article revealed that Cisco "learned to reach potential applicants through a variety of routes not usually used in recruiting, such as infiltrating art fairs and microbrewery festivals. Silicon Valley's annual home and garden show has been a particularly fruitful venue. The first-time home buyers that the event attracts also tend to be young achievers at successful high tech companies. Cisco recruiters work the crowd, collecting business cards from prospects and speaking with them informally about their careers."

They also began holding focus groups with ideal recruitment targets, such as senior engineers and marketing professionals from competitors. Cisco sought to learn how happily employed people could be enticed to interview for a job. The response of, "I'd do it if a friend told me he had a better opportunity at Cisco than I have at my current employer" caused Cisco to launch an initiative - the "friends" program - to help prospects make a pal at Cisco who could describe what it's like to work there.

According to Fortune, 1,000 Cisco employees have volunteered for the program, enticed by a generous referral fee and a lottery ticket for a free trip to Hawaii for each prospect they befriend who is ultimately hired. Cisco employees are matched up with people who have approached the company as prospects and who have similar backgrounds and skills. They then call the prospects to tell them in their own words about life at the company. Though the program is advertised only in local movie theaters, Cisco receives 100 to 150 requests each week from applicants wishing to be introduced to a friend at Cisco. This source provides about a third of Cisco's new hires.

Cisco does continue to place newspaper help-wanted ads; but rather than listing specific job openings, the company runs ads featuring its Internet address and an invitation to apply at Cisco. On the net, it can inexpensively post hundreds of job openings and lots of information about each one. It also the company has a built-in monitor allowing it to easily measure important aspects of its recruiting programs, such as the number of visits to its site. Since most prospects visit Cisco's Website from their jobs, the company can even tell where they work.

Cisco is also making their managers' time-consuming recruiting process easier by hiring in-house headhunters. Since hiring a new salesperson six months earlier can mean several million dollars in incremental revenue, expediting the hiring process far outweighs the expense of the additional staff.

Based on performance reviews conducted three months after employees start work, and a continued low turnover rate, the networking giant believes its talent pool remains undiluted. CEO John Chambers says, "Our philosophy is very simple - if you get the best people in the industry to fit into your culture and you motivate them properly, then you're going to be an industry leader."

Employee retention
Once you've hired the right employees the challenge is to keep them. In addition to the reasons already mentioned, the key to low-cost customer retention is loyal employees.

Research from Harvard Business School found a correlation between employee turnover and decreased purchasing frequency and volume. But that's hardly surprising. because sales is all about relationships.

When a sales reps leaves the company, the customer has to readjust his or her expectations. The customer knew the sales rep, and the sales rep knew the customer's business. Now, the comfort and dependability of that relationship are gone.

There are three keys to retaining those important sales employees: