Times are tight right now, but that doesn’t mean that an intrepid sales recruiting consultant can’t thrive. Now is the best time for recruiting sales people, and an even better time for new recruiters to get creative and prove themselves. If you can recruit effectively now and survive until the upswing, you’ll be at the top of the game when the flood for new hires comes in.

Sales recruiting in an economic downturn can go one of two ways: a slam dunk, or right in the garbage. On one hand, a lot of talented, qualified people may be out of jobs, making the applicant pool full of excellent candidates eagerly looking for a new position. This gives recruiters a lot of applicants and résumés to go through, creating more work, but it also ups their chances of finding the perfect fit for a position.

However, the other side of the coin is that people might not be hiring, or if they are they may not want to spend money on a recruiter and prefer to spend time looking for themselves.

Now is the best time to be recruiting sales people: when you need them most

Let’s look at the second scenario first: companies aren’t hiring, or don’t want to work with a recruiter. When times are bad, sales people are often the only employees bringing in revenue, so this is the one area employers should be looking to hire. Once they see that, your job is to convince them that a recruiter will do the job better than they can—faster, more efficiently and with more promising results. How do you do this? Think outside the box.

With more people looking for jobs, you can be more selective in sales recruiting

Now we’re back to the first situation, that companies are hiring, albeit selectively, and from a larger applicant pool. This makes the sales recruiting process a little more time consuming, but easier in the end. You have better people to pull from, and the best will naturally rise to the top. But how do you narrow it down? Here’s where you need to put your thinking cap on and get creative.

Social networks can make recruiting sales people a self-selection process

Now more than ever people are using social networks and the internet to pre-screen potential candidates; if you haven’t been doing this, get familiar with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter—fast. Recruiting sales people can involve a lot of talking and social sites are all about conversation, so they’re a good way to see (or hear) the candidates out there and weed out the ones who don’t fit the position you’re looking to fill.

Once you have a list of people you’d like to talk to on the phone or meet with, figure out what you can offer them. A lot of companies may not be in a position to provide the salaries they used to, but some of these candidates may be willing to work for less if they are not currently employed. What can you give them if not a raise? Perks.

Get more creative than commission: offer time and flexibility

When recruiting sales people, one of the first things to think about is commission. People work hard when they get a tangible reward, and commissions are a great way to increase salary without draining the employer. But don’t stop there, what else can you offer? Non-monetary incentives can be just as valuable as more take home pay.

One thing every employer can offer is time. More vacation time, flexible hours, telecommuting options. These things mean a lot to people and can cut down on their spending (commuting costs, childcare), resulting in a win-win situation for the new hire and his or her employer.

There are tons of other sales recruiting ideas you can think of to entice candidates; use these suggestions as a jumping off point to discuss what kinds of perks and benefits you can offer when recruiting sales people. Remember, sales recruiting is all about selling, and the best way to do that is to offer something no one else has.