I’m back from a needed break in this sour economy.  Everywhere I go I ask people about their business.  It is fairly consistent – something from “could be better” to “really down.”

That economic context allows some freedom for hiring companies to incorporate what I call contextual hiring techniques.  These are typically techniques that take longer to measure and allow the hiring company to see the salesperson in action.

Some examples:

Job Shadowing – just as it sounds, the candidate spends time with an existing sales rep to get an understanding of the position.  Peggy McKee at Medical Sales Recruiter has a post on this topic.  A friend of mine recently did this for a sales position that provided him the opportunity to ask many questions that would be difficult to ask in a formal interview.

I am a fan of this approach especially if the job market is slow.  It can be difficult if the market is hot and candidates have many opportunities.  However, this approach is a strong qualifier for the candidate’s interest.

The one caveat here is to pick the right salesperson for the candidate to shadow.  My friend learned many topics about the hiring company from the sales rep.  The topics that the rep offered up were too much of “inside baseball” to be sharing with a good candidate.

Trial Periods – yes, every position is technically a trial for the first 90 days.  What I’m talking about involves is a 30 – 60 day trial for observing a new salesperson.  Again, I’m a fan of this approach in this type of economy.

The main topics that can be ascertained in this time period is the candidate’s fit to your culture, his or her approach to the job and his or her interaction with you the boss.  Unless you have a short sales cycle, you won’t be able to observe them through the entire sales cycle.  You will have to monitor/observe their activity and extrapolate from that data.

It is a short window, but combining pre-hire assessments with a day of job shadowing and a trial period and you will have an in-depth understanding of your newly hired salesperson.

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