Hiring mistakes are never good. In selecting a salesperson, a bad decision can cost significant dollars. The financial hit in terms of lost business and turnover can be staggering. The answer is to do it right the first time. There are things you can do in the hiring process to help ensure that you pick a star performer.
Don’t Start a Search Without a Compass
You never find more than you look for. In selecting a quality salesperson, it is important from the outset to sort out your “wants” from your “needs.” It would be great if a salesperson could be all things to all people, but compensation, time constraints, job priorities, strengths of colleagues and other factors all help shape what is absolutely needed in a top performer, versus what you would ideally like to have.
It is essential to define the role up front. Candidates need to know what they are signing on for. Will he be asked to build a territory from scratch? Will she be taking over a well-established region? Is the job more relationship type sales, with less of a hard-selling component?
Don’t Place All of Your Hopes on Interviewing
Sales candidates, almost to a person, interview quite well. Their natural inclination is to be warm, attentive and outgoing. However, interviewing alone reveals practically nothing as to an individual’s sales abilities, willingness to cold call, maintain ongoing relationships, up-sell, serve customers, present to a group, close, get up to speed quickly on highly technical products, etc.
Research has consistently shown that interviewing alone yields the right candidate only about 50 percent of the time—the equivalent of a coin flip. It is clear that interviewing, in and of itself, has limits.
Beware of Off-the-Shelf Test Measures
The use of assessment instruments greatly enhances predictability in picking a top performer, but only if the tests are proven winners. An instrument that a consultant develops on his or her laptop one afternoon and puts on a Web site the next day will not get the job done.
When using testing, be an informed consumer. Ask the assessment company you are partnering with to provide information regarding whether their products have been reviewed by Buros Center for Testing or other reputable test review organizations. Good assessments will also use multiple data points and not simply focus on the findings of one test. They will not be “cookie cutter.”
Avoid “Rose-Colored Glasses”
Some hiring managers make the mistake of equating a relatively long tenure in sales with sales success. A lengthy career in sales can mean one of two things. It can mean that a person has done well, steadily progressed professionally and switched positions as better opportunities presented themselves.
Conversely, it also can mean that they hired on, coasted until they wore out their welcome, and moved on. Doctored resumes and several stints at start-up companies no longer in existence can further mask their lack of effectiveness. Don’t assume extensive time in sales equals success.
Don’t Procrastinate
It is no surprise that good people do not stay on the job market indefinitely. Many searches tend to bog down someplace between decision-makers and the volume of inquiries.
The objective is to identify and spend time with top prospects. All too often, best-fit candidates are lost while the hiring manager is sorting through average or even poor fits.
Avoid “Pick of The Litter”
There is nothing more discouraging than to come to the end of a search without an obvious candidate. At that point, there is a strong temptation to settle for the best of what is left.
The consequences of “settling for less” are obvious. Training time may take longer. Performance may be substandard. Moreover, it usually takes more than a year to admit the mistake and deal with the problem. Have the courage to start the search over.
Avoid Mediocrity
It has been said that on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being poorest and 10 being top performers), if you allow your 5’s to be the hiring decision-makers, they will pick 3’s and 4’s. There is considerable evidence to support this.
All too often, companies create an invisible ceiling, which prevents hiring the best. This may take the form of using managers who are effective in some areas, but not in selection. Be certain that you are getting the best people into the selection process.
The search process for a successful salesperson can move fast or it can move slowly. What you cannot do is skip steps. The information gained from each step paints the broader picture. The decision moves from a coin toss to a higher percentage chance for success.
