When Sales Designer retention became an issue, we had to start with recruitment
Hammonds is a 100-year-old fitted furniture company, their mission and passion is to create order in people’s lives so that their customers can live better. Hammonds is a digital-first, retail and manufacturing business with serious ambition. They are unique in that they control every aspect of the customer’s order, from initial enquiry, sales process, manufacture and installation. This means they cover all business disciplines and offer a full 360 service to their valued customers.
The Sales Director initially approached Citrus Connect as their current methods of recruitment were not attracting the right quality sales candidates (they were using another agency at the time also). During the first few years, Citrus supported Hammonds recruitment with geographical needs when required. But then post covid, retention became an issue, and we were the first port of call to understand why as the Founder, Leena Parmar understands that retention first starts with recruitment. With an increase in sales targets, not only did Hammonds have to retain their Sales Designers but also increase their headcount.
After a few meetings and discussions and understanding that recruitment is a skill which needs to be learned, the Sales Director at Hammonds invited the Founder, Leena Parmar to present a full Citrus Framework workshop to all the Divisional Managers which encompassed recruitment, retention, and candidate profiling. We considered the recruitment process, conversions and each stage and whether their current recruitment process was working optimally. We understood the average time to hire and that the reality is that you need to interview far more candidates far earlier in order to positively impact retention. And finally, post-pandemic candidate profiles have changed for direct sales roles, and the imperative need to recruit to competencies required for the role rather than gut.
With the Management team now fully aware of how to interview, and what to look for in terms of competencies and motivations; the headcount has grown to the desired amount of 280 Sales Designers to ensure the meeting and exceeding of sales targets, with a 90% offer rate from an interview and a 60% offer to start rate. Retention is improving year on year, with the support and expertise of our Founder Leena Parmar, Hammonds is focussing on the Sales Designer journey from an onboarding perspective to improve this further.
When we asked Audrey, what she liked about working with Citrus Connect Recruitment, her response was:
I am so pleased with how you and your amazing team have helped us at Hammonds
Audrey - Hammonds
A pilot so successful that Citrus Connect Recruitment now handle 100% of our sales recruitment.
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