Monster.com offers Hire Great People: 10 Simple Rules which contains some straight-forward, sound advice for any hiring activity. The article starts out with one of the most important rules to hiring (and often least followed):
Rule number one is clear, but very counterintuitive: Don’t ever, ever hire somebody just like yourself. Why not? Because from the beginning of time, executives have been unconsciously cloning themselves, stocking the shelves with vanilla young men from impressive schools.
It takes an enlightened executive to abide by this rule. Many executives believe they embody the gold standard for the position (especially in sales). They may be, but the best teams we evaluate have a variety of team members, not a group of clones.
A couple other excellent rules from the article:
6. Fill in the Blanks
Look carefully at the aggregate strengths and skill gaps of your teams in various work units, and go for the qualities and styles that are missing.8. Stock the Bullpen
Keep an eye out for prospects before the need arises. Don’t wait until a vacancy occurs. Keep a pool of potential employees under the watchful eye of somebody who’s responsible for hiring. Evaluate your recruiting team in terms of how well they keep the bullpen ready. And tell them never to turn away an interesting candidate with the line, “We don’t have any positions open right now.”
The bullpen approach is a difficult one for companies to maintain. That is one area where we stand in the gap for our customers and work through our sales network for strong candidates at the appropriate time.
In terms of sales, here are our 10 Commandments of Successful Sales Selection.