HOW DOES THE TOP SALES ROOKIE DATABASE WORK?

When students submit their Round 1 entry for the Great Canadian Sales Competition their contact information and their video are housed in the Top Sales Rookie Database. As a partner of the GCSC you can filter your searches by school, hometown, graduation year and whether they are willing to relocate. Once Semi-Finalists and Finalists have been confirmed (January and May respectively) we will also update their placement in the competition under ranking (Entrant, Semi-Finalist or Finalist).

WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE TO BEST MAXIMIZE THE AVAILABLE GCSC RECRUITMENT TOOLS?

We all know that good sales candidates have choice. Lots of choice. The same goes for high caliber students. According to the Definitive Sales Salary Guide 2017-2018, we found the top 2 items that are important to someone seeking career options are compensation potential and career development opportunities. In a recent study - facilitated by LinkedIn and tailored specifically to new grads - the findings were the exact same.

Whether speaking to a student you found on the Top Sales Rookie Database or posting a job on our CareerHub, we encourage you to highlight these 5 important layers to your employment value proposition:

1. How are you solving an important problem?

2. How are you uniquely able to solve that important problem?

3. How have you made clear progress?

4. How is your growth creating great career opportunities?

5. How do you ensure that your people feel important and valued?

If you think you or your team would benefit from more tips on how to best position your opportunities to new grads please let us know and we'd be happy to help.

WHEN TO START REACHING OUT TO STUDENTS?

Start early, you don’t have time to lose. Because competition for junior talent is high, the best students are getting hired fast. The GCSC sent out a survey and we found that 77% of students are proactively interviewing/searching for jobs before January of their graduating year. To ensure you don’t lose your candidate, make sure to streamline your recruitment process by starting early.

HOW MANY STUDENTS SHOULD I REACH OUT TO?

Our advice is to treat recruitment as a sales function. To fill an average role we have found that you should expect to have 72 conversations, 18 phone screens and 6 in-person interviews before making 1 hire. While this platform is a different in that many of these students are actively seeking great opportunities there are still many factors involved for those students when making entry-level career decisions from where they will be living after graduation to what kind of job function they are ideally looking for.

Ultimately the best results can be found when we recruit proactively, not reactively. Just because a student isn't graduating this year does not mean that they wouldn't be a great fit for future roles. We encourage you to speak to as many students as you can and to also get creative with your outreach such as inviting students to an open house.

If you are struggling to find the resources to connect with GCSC students, please let us know and we can discuss options.

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS PARTICIPATING ARE GRADUATING?

Approximately 70% of students are graduating either this year or next year. That said, the majority of students have jobs lined up before they graduate, so we encourage you to start conversations with promising students early so they keep you top of mind as an employer of choice.

WHAT OTHER OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE TO ENGAGE WITH GCSC STUDENTS?

This year, the GCSC is introducing 5+ Regional Events across the country to extend an opportunity for the Top 25% of student competitors to make meaningful interactions with our partners. These events will take place in Toronto, Waterloo and Vancouver in January 2019.

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO CONTACT STUDENTS?

The GCSC wants you to recruit the very best candidates for your entry-level sales roles. There are of course a few ways to do this, but one of the quickest and most effective methods is to pick up the phone and speak with them directly. Results from the Global Recruiting Survey 201 found that phone conversations are hands-down the most effective way of contacting candidates, with a 44% response rate in comparison to a 35% response rate on LinkedIn.

If you have any questions, you can reach out to the
Competition Team at info@greatcanadiansalescompetition.com