Experienced sales professionals can make excellent recruiters as both roles call for similar skills and experience.

Successful sales professionals are good at relationship building, selling and negotiation, attributes that are invaluable in recruitment.

They also tend to be thick-skinned, something that is extremely useful when dealing with potential candidates who can be difficult to persuade and hard to get hold of.

On a basic level, recruitment consultants match people to jobs, linking their candidates to their client companies.

But, of course, there is much more to this diverse and demanding role. Not only do recruitment consultants need to build a strong relationship with their client companies in order to understand their requirements, they also need to be able to find and attract strong candidates for those clients.

Sales people are used to using their networking skills to find the right contact and build connections. They know how to ask questions that identify the needs of a client to make sure they find the right candidate for them. Recruitment consultants use various methods to find candidates, including networking and referrals, which are achieved through strong relationships and excellent communication.

Good communication skills help recruiters find out what people really want to do in their careers so that they can sell them on based on their talent and passion. The best recruiters are not afraid to take a proactive approach, reaching for the phone to find out what opportunities are out there and who the best candidates are.

The people skills sales professionals have mastered during their career, teamed with expertise in selling, will be invaluable in finding the right candidates for our HVAC clients.

If a sales person also has a way with words, they will be able to come up with targeted job ads that will attract the exact type of candidate their client is looking for.

If they have worked in a management role within sales, they will be familiar with reviewing applications from potential candidates, as well as carrying out interviews and checking references.

People skills will also be invaluable when interviewing candidates to find out how they match the job that is on offer.

Negotiation skills acquired during a sales career will be invaluable when it comes to helping client and candidate agree a salary and package.

Finally, sales people who appreciate a good basic salary and a chance to work as part of a team will like the Thornhvac approach. We’re less target driven than other recruitment firms and we offer a company bonus when the team does well.

l If you are an experienced sales professional and would like to find out more about a recruitment role with Thornhvac, contact Jason Thornhill on 0115 8714 777