We work with customers from around the country who sell in a myriad of markets. Some positions are far more difficult to fill than others. I am speaking in terms outside of the position itself. Some hiring managers provide difficult roadblocks to sales hiring success.
One of the most important reasons for running a hiring process is to remove biases. Biases are the single largest detriment to successful hiring we encounter. We released an article last week that speaks to these gut-level decisions. There is no accounting for these biases. There is no repeatable measurement for these biases.
We preach this approach constantly – run a hiring process that pushes the gut-level decisions to the end stage. There is less chance of bias entering a process if you phone screen candidates first. The next step is to send them to an objective, online assessment. After that, bring them in for the face-to-face interviews and explore some of your findings. At that point, when you have reached your final 2 candidates and accumulated much objective and subjective data, let your gut lead you in the decision.
Please remember: The best time to get rid of a bad salesperson is before you hire them.