Selling Power has a fantastic article about hiring salespeople – Avoid Hiring Mistakes. There are many truths in the article so I recommend you read the entire article.
First, some compelling stats:
A recent survey shows that 53 percent of all sales recruiting efforts lead to miss-hires. And according to a Miller Heiman white paper, The Three Top Challenges Facing Sales Leaders Today, only 28 percent of sales leaders believe they have an effective process for recruiting and hiring qualified salespeople.
More than half of all sales recruiting efforts end up in mishires (my preferred spelling). Now try to tabulate the lost revenue in this futile approach and you realize how much money companies are losing in their sales hiring processes. We can help.
Here is the number 2 reason why these companies hire the wrong salesperson:
“Most people hire the person who interviews the best, not necessarily the person who is the most experienced or who can best succeed in their environment,” says Henry Glickel, owner and recruiter of Sales Recruiters, Inc.
The number 1 reason for a mishire is not defining the sale. Again, companies need to know what it takes to successfully close 1 deal. You cannot ask a new salesperson to close 10, 20 50 deals a year if you cannot clearly define what it takes to close 1 deal. This fact is where we start in our process.
Lastly, Mr. Glickel recommends:
“It will take you a lot longer in this economy to find the right person. For this reason, I encourage my clients to have a back-up candidate and to keep the search open. It’s just one more precaution in a tight market.”
Yes, it will take longer and having a second candidate is crucial to a timely hire. Too often, we encounter companies who want to identify the top 3 candidates in a process and then pursue the number 1 candidate. If for some reason they do not hire them, they often want to run another process. In some way, I believe they feel rejected and are not interested in “settling” for their second choice.
Big mistake, especially since the 3 candidates are usually 3 of the best candidates they have ever seen. In fact, all 3 may be better than all but the best of their current sales team.