It doesn’t matter whether it’s an employers market or an employees market, finding top talent for your role will always be a challenge. While there are many complex steps to the hiring process, this post is about your job posting and how you can apply some simple marketing tips to make it stand out on Indeed, LinkedIn, or wherever you’re posting it.

In general, you want to write your job description in a way that is authentic, clear, and honest. Keep it brief but informative. Tap into anything that’s unique about your organization. Showcase your strengths.

Avoid trying to be clever or spin your description to hide the fact that you aren’t paying as much as similar roles at other organizations. Be careful not to misrepresent your organizational culture.

Marketing Tips for Sales Job Descriptions:

Writing your job description and posting is a form of copywriting, but chances are you’re not hiring a copywriter to do it. So here’s some copywriting advice: The purpose of a headline is to get a prospect to read the next line. The purpose of the next line is to get the prospect to read the line after that. And so on.

That said, you want to make every piece of your job posting relevant and compelling to read. Here are a few ways you can do that.

1. Name the Role After the Responsibility

This can be tricky because you don’t want to be “cute” just to get attention. However, including some information about what your salesperson will be doing in the name of the role will help job hunters make a quick decision about whether to continue reading your post. For example, rather than calling your role simply, “Sales Representative,” you may try something like, “Senior Solar Sales Rep.” Some other examples include:

2. Remember Your Audience

Ideally you’ve identified the “hero” on this journey. Make sure that you are speaking directly to that person in terms of what they want to know in order to keep engaging with your job description. Tell the prospective salesperson what’s in this for them, what they’ll be doing, how they’ll be making an impact, and where they can go from here.

3. Use short paragraphs, bold fonts, and bullet points

People have short attention spans. They’re looking for relevant information that they’re interested in and they want to find it as quickly as possible. Some writing guidelines to stick to are:

• Pick one font style (Arial, Times, Helvetica) and stick to it.
• Pick one font size and stick to it.
• Use “bold” within paragraphs for single statements about pay, training, job requirements or any other quick facts you want to make sure get seen.
• Use bullet points for role responsibilities, job qualifications, and benefits.

4. Find Your Voice

Again, you don’t want to get cute and clever if it’s inauthentic to do so. But don’t be afraid to exhibit some personality. Here are some examples of sales positions written with personality. While some of these may have benefited from some copyediting, the point is that they are interesting and unique thanks to the authenticity of the voice:

Are you ready to become a Wall Street Wolf? Come join the pack and take your career to new heights...

This position is the one who gets to play with puppies everyday. However, it is also a challenging and difficult job matching these babies with a perfect home...

Do you want to come to work with a smile and leave with one as well?

A hallmark of these very real opening lines from recent job postings is that, not only do they put the "hero" first, they also immediately tell you what story they're in. The story of a rookie stockbroker joining the big leagues. The story of a good-hearted hero saving puppies and finding them their forever home. The story of a person helping improve a product that helps people's smiles.

They all tell you who the hero is, what they can expect, and where they are going in the space of just one or two sentences.

5. Be Specific About Job Duties

Weave in the behaviors you’re looking for to your job duty bullet points. Expect your sales rep to meet with prospective & existing clients with the intent to close sales. That’s not just one job duty, it’s several. These might include:

• Meet face-to-face with executive level clients.
• Prepare detailed, well-organized presentations.
• Actively listen and ask inquiring questions for the intent of getting to know your prospects business challenges
• Create plans and strategies for meaningful engagement and following-up with existing customers.

Create a Job Description that Attracts the Right People

No matter what the market’s like, whether there are more candidates than jobs or vice versa, attracting the right people will always be a skill that’s worth optimizing. It saves you time and frustration when the resumés that are coming in are from people who are actually qualified and interested in your role. The tips in this post should help you not only stand out in the market, but also draw the attention of the right candidates.