Some companies focus on hiring from their competition almost exclusively and I am not exactly sure why.  I realize they believe they are bolstering their sales department while depleting their competition’s.  But taken too far, this approach becomes a detriment to a successful hiring campaign.

I’ve seen it with one of our customers who has become infatuated with hiring someone away from a certain competitor.  His desire to do so is driven by the fact that a third competitor recently hired someone from the second competitor.  It doesn’t matter if you tracked that last sentence, the fact of the matter is still the same.

I now refer to this approach as a “trophy hire.”  It doesn’t matter if any of the salespeople from this competitor are strong, a good fit or worth the money it will take to pull them out.  Our customer wants to be able to tell others in the industry that he recruited and hired a salesperson from this competitor.

To be fair, there may be a strong salesperson in this competitor’s company.  We just haven’t found them yet.  In the meantime, our customer has passed on a handful of strong salespeople not from this competitor.

Frustrating.

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