Sales Hiring Metrics

How many mistakes have you made in hiring salespeople?

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Well, STOP making them! WE ARE NOT A RECRUITING FIRM! We give you the tools to hire better, A LOT BETTER!! Recruit YOUR Ideal Candidate! By Greta Schulz It’s a well-known fact that building a successful organization can’t happen without success in sales. So how do you build a successful sales department? Well, you can start by recruiting the right people to make up that sales department. Wait a second…when I say “right people,” I don’t mean just anybody. It takes a little effort, but once you find that “special someone,” you’re on your way to that successful organization we talked about. Let’s discuss the steps involved in recruiting the salesperson of your dreams:

• Identify the Ideal Candidate.

Most organizations don’t take the necessary time or energy to do this step well. If I asked you to travel from Oklahoma City to Tennessee, what’s the first thing you would do? You would map out a plan to get there. It’s highly unlikely that you would just jump in the car, take a highway that others mentioned is a “good highway,” and if it doesn’t work out after a while, switch to a different one. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it!? Well that’s what most of us do when it comes to qualifying a potential candidate. If someone says that they’re good, or if their resume says that they have experience…so what! You need to first identify the qualities that will make this candidate successful for your company, not just any organization. Have they sold high- priced products like yours before? What level of decision maker do they need to be in front of to be successful at your company? There are several qualities that can be mapped out right away to identify a potential candidate or a no-deal.

• Search for the Ideal Candidate.

A good way to start this step is by asking yourself this question: “If I found someone better then my best person tomorrow, would I find a place for them in my organization?” If the answer is a resounding YES, then why are you only looking when you need someone? A good salesperson is worth their weight in gold! They’re an asset, not a liability. They make you money, not cost you, right? Then get searching! Searching for a candidate is something that should go on for owners and managers every single day. Let me ask you a question. If one of your salespeople mentioned that they have enough sales right now, but that they’d try to fill an empty spot if they lost a client, how long would it take you to fire them? One nanosecond? Well that’s what you and your sales managers are doing when you’re not prospecting for the best candidates out there every day. Whenever you meet with a colleague, a friend, or a client, you should be asking them, “Who calls on you that impresses you so much that when they come into your office or call on the phone, you always make time for them? I want to meet that person.”

• Pre-Qualify the Candidate.

This should be done on the phone and should take no more then 10 minutes. The role-play template should be customized by you to create a scenario that is a realistic one. What you are looking for is to see the style of the representative, their ability to ask questions, have some general knowledge and how they use that knowledge and most importantly to see the confidence they show in the conversation. *remember, how they do here will be the “best” that they will do with what they believe is the right way. You can always train and should train them your way, but their first instinct is to do what they believe. Once the role-play is complete don’t feel the need to critique. Just take notes on how you felt it went. *If you like what they did, then you should have questions ready to ask the candidate (the same questions you ask for all candidates), and they should be asked quickly and succinctly as to not allow them too much time to think. Their initial response is the best one because it comes from the gut. Note- If you didn’t like how they did in the role-play, don’t go any further with the interview. Thank them and say goodbye. If too much time is allowed, the candidate will be too concerned to answer “the correct way.” Once you have completed these few minutes on the phone, you will have a gut feeling that they either are or they are not “pre-qualified” to go to the next stage in the recruiting process.

• Assess the Candidate.

At this stage in the process, the candidate has met your initial criteria and should be asked to take an assessment. You can use the assessment of your choice. Obviously, we have an assessment available to you, which we recommend that you use. Either way, an assessment should help you with the following factors: ! Assess the candidate using some sort of benchmark common mistake is to use your best salesperson as your benchmark! This mistake is very often made in organizations. Just because someone is doing well doesn’t mean that all of their characteristics are duplicable, nor should they be duplicated. You may have a top performer who has the ability to always hit his numbers, but this may be happening because strong relationships have been built. Though that is important, it isn’t necessarily what you want or need in a new hire that needs to go out and “hit the pavement.” Whatever assessment or pre-employment test you use, please be clear about that detail. ! The assessment should be able to uncover weaknesses that are hidden and can’t be picked up in the regular interview process. Some examples of these “hidden weaknesses” are the ability (or inability) to discuss money, having an overwhelming need to be liked, and the ability to recover after a feeling of rejection, just to name a few.

• Interview the Candidate in Person.

At this point in the recruiting process, you should be able to concentrate on things like eye contact, hand shake, personality, bonding ability and hopefully the candidates´ ability to ask you questions, not just letting you do all of the talking. You should also have a battery of questions that you are going to ask here, dependent upon the outcome of the assessment. It would be helpful if you had some questions to ask regarding the weaknesses that were exposed in the assessment to see how you feel about their problems with these issues. When you have a crew of sales superstars, the sky is the limit. So go out there and build that sales department of your dreams!  It’s not as hard as you think!

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