It’s one of the most common problems in the sales industry: “How do I hire the right sales team?” If our sales managers got a dime every time someone said that, they’d be sipping margaritas on a beach in the Bahamas, happily retired. But the question itself brings up a very real concern for most organizations about their hiring practices, which is that simply put, making a bad sales hire can be costly. Unlike a poor hire in another department, a bad sales hire doesn’t just cost the company payroll, it leads to lost sales. It’s one thing to have a programmer who simply isn’t putting out great product. Sure, the lack of production can be damaging, but when a bad hire happens in sales, it doesn’t just cost payroll, it directly leads to lost sales, and potentially bad marketing (people always talk about poor sales experiences much more than the good). A bad sales hire is important because it costs money at both ends of the continuum—outstanding lead management practices can produce good leads, but if a sales rep isn’t closing, marketing budgets go to waste. So what are the secrets of avoiding a bad sales hire?
- Build a business organization that someone might actually want to work for. Success leads to success in hiring; people want to be employed by companies where they will be valued, and enjoy their work.
- If at all possible, find people who get referred by someone already on the team. It’s not a hard‐and‐fast rule, but a referral generally creates a small amount of built‐in trust.
- If you have to use a job Web site, there’s a reason Monster gets more results than the others—it’s the largest site, with the widest range of available positions.
- Advertising in typical media only produces average results. If you have to use the want‐ads or job boards, make sure you have a unique way of filtering candidates.
The candidate
- Finding a way to reach a unique niche on the Web is the way to go. Are their unique mailing lists or social media spaces where good potential hires might be available to be contacted?
- If the job mandates a specific set of technical skills, use candidate interviews as a way to evaluate those specific skills.
Even the best organizations miss on a quarter of their hiring prospects, but if you’re willing to make the effort to build your own ideal employee profile, you’ll have greater success.