Imagine a salesperson who comes to a forecast meeting and puts down a huge forecast.  The savvy sales manager naturally starts asking a few questions of the salesperson regarding each forecasted account.

• What is driving them to look for a new solution?
• What is their decision process?
• When do they want to have a solution in place?
• Who else are they looking at for this project?

Now imagine the salesperson’s responses involve statements like this:

• I know we are the best solution for them.
• I have a good feeling about this one.
• They will make a decision shortly, they have to think it over.

If you have been in sales more than one day, you know this salesperson doesn’t have much of a forecast.  Sure, some of the deals may close, but I wouldn’t count on many.  Most sales managers would nuke this forecast fairly quickly and tell the salesperson to get back into the accounts and get them properly qualified.

Yet that basic tenet of management is often ignored when it comes to hiring salespeople.  The very sales manager who busted the salesperson for a “gut-level forecast” now turns around and trusts his or her gut on a hire.

We encounter many sales managers who prefer to make a sales hire based on propaganda that populates a resume and their own gut feeling after interviewing the candidate in person.

This approach is as effective as the salesperson’s gut-level forecast.

I think Lou Adler wrote a book titled Hire With  Your Head.  That is sound advice.  Your gut is subjective which means it is influenced by biases and blind spots we all possess.  The better approach is to keep objectivity in your hiring process as much as possible.

This can be accomplished by incorporating a hiring process that respects, but limits, the amount of hiring by gut that appears in the process.

Think of this approach the next time you sit in that weekly forecast meeting.

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I propose that it is hiring new employees without performing a thorough background verification.  Think of the implications if you are wrong.  The outcomes can be the ultimate dealbreaker in that they can end a company’s existence.  With the stakes that high, it never ceases to amaze me that companies take this risk when hiring.

Clayton at Salesopedia links to an excellent article concerning this topic in the context of sales hiring.  Take this point from the article in Clayton’s post:

Some of you may be reading this and thinking that you already have a defined scope for all applicants so there is no need to be concerned. However, the scope of the background investigation for your sales people should be different than others in your company. Sales people cover a large geography by nature of the job, deal directly with the public, represent your brand and have access to sensitive and proprietary information.

Follow the link and read the article – it is well worth your time.  Again, this is a topic for which there is no margin for error.  You simply have to be correct every time.  If you are looking for a company that performs thorough background checks, I would suggest Verified Credentials.

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