This text is from an online ad to assist job seekers in their quest (my emphasis):

—I am able to get job interviews anywhere I want. This is key because once you get the interview, you can get the job

— I CAN SHOW YOU WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO!!!!!! I can school you on behavioral interviewing. Also, I can provide a background check for you– so you know what your potential employer will see.

I have had MANY interviews and job OFFERS (entry level and mid level) from some of the most hard to get into firms in the Twin Cities…

I can also show you how to use, but not really “use” job placement firms.

Nice, isn’t it? These types of services are the reason why it is most important to run a hiring process that smokes out the pretenders. Do not rely upon the face-to-face interview and your gut to make a hiring decision or you may fall prey to a well-coached candidate.

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Inc.com offers a short article titled Employers Focus on Worker Retention. The takeaway graphs (emphasis mine):

Small businesses are focusing more resources on employee-retention plans, rather than recruiting efforts or new benefits policies, a recent survey found.

Of 241 small-business executives surveyed nationwide, 21 percent said they have expanded training and professional development to boost employee retention, while 80 percent said they considered their salaries “as competitive” or even “more competitive” than larger competitors, according to Employco, a Westmont, Ill.-based business services firm.

Salary is a natural point in which it compete with larger companies. Most small companies are not constrained by salary slotting for specific positions as is the case in large companies. Paying more in sales is always a good retention strategy. The key is to ensure that you are paying for the right salesperson.

I would offer that sales hiring in small companies is more mission critical than in larger companies. The reason being that a bad sales hire at a small company can jeopardize the entire company. A bad sales hire in a large company can survive under the radar for some time before being discovered (unfortunately we have seen this phenomenon on numerous occasions).

In any sized company, lost opportunities are the largest risk with the least amount of measurability. One bad sales hire can cost a company far more than they will ever fully know.

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SellingPower.com has released their monthly sales management newsletter which is usually filled with insightful articles. How Long Are Ya€™ Gonna€™ Be New Here? is a client study on one company’s efforts to shorten their sales ramp time.

One of the universal problems all sales managers face is getting new hires up to speed quickly. It€™s simple math: the longer it takes for a rep to learn the €œins and outs€ of your company, your product, and your sales process, the longer it will take him to stop dragging down the average performance of your sales team and start producing meaningful results.

Another universal problem is sales managers hiring salespeople with whom they are unfamiliar. A new salesperson from outside of the company brings a unique skill set, motivation pattern and natural aptitude. The fastest method for learning these traits is to assess sales candidates before you hire them. Not only do you get an objective view of their abilities, you have the basis for a sales development plan to expedite their on-ramping time frame.

In regards to this article, the sales manager took the correct steps to accelerate the on-ramping of new sales hires:

First, he formalized his sales process. Aethon, like many companies, had a €œgut-feel, informal process€ that always worked for them, but it wasn€™t formalized anywhere, says Saman Haqqi, VP Marketing for Landslide, the company that worked with Aethon on this project. If you want new hires to catch on quickly, they need documentation showing each step of the sales process.

This step is often overlooked. Unfortunately, “gut-feel, informal process” describes many of the sales processes we encounter when first working with our clients. A sales process should not be cast in stone since each salesperson has his or her own style. But the absence of any sales process leads to confusion about where prospects are in the sales cycle. This confusion leads to unreliable forecasts. Unreliable forecasts lead to revenue surprises (usually of the negative variety).

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This week we explore an important aspect of a salesperson’s psyche.  If you are a sales manager, this trait will explain your salesperson’s view of himself and how best to manage to that view.

Self Assessment
The ability to practically and objectively identify one€™s personal management strengths and weaknesses. This is the ability of a salesperson to take the skills and techniques that they have gained in evaluating external situations and apply them to evaluating their own performance and abilities.

A salesperson with strength in this area is capable of accurately evaluating his or her own strengths and weaknesses. They see themselves clearly.

A weakness in this area indicates a salesperson who does not judge his or her own capabilities accurately. They incorrectly evaluate their abilities (either over-estimate or under-estimate).  This inaccuracy can create trouble when they set their own goals and expectations.

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