{"id":1334,"date":"2007-12-12T13:03:53","date_gmt":"2007-12-12T19:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/mediocrity-in-the-hiring-process\/"},"modified":"2007-12-12T09:06:18","modified_gmt":"2007-12-12T15:06:18","slug":"mediocrity-in-the-hiring-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/mediocrity-in-the-hiring-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Mediocrity In The Hiring Process"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hiring salespeople is the difficult combination of science and art weighted perfectly to select the right person for the position&#8217;s requirements.\u00a0 Obviously, knowing the position&#8217;s requirements is the preeminent step.\u00a0 Many sales managers believe they know what it takes to be successful in the position and they do to a certain extent.\u00a0 Yet, their knowledge often consists of themes as opposed to specifics.\u00a0 This reason drives us to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Recruiting\/profile.html\">profile the sale<\/a> as the very first step in our sales hiring process.<\/p>\n<p>ManageSmarter.com&#8217;s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.managesmarter.com\/msg\/content_display\/management\/e3i6b6540829fe60950a853d2d89e0f8065http:\/\/www.managesmarter.com\/msg\/content_display\/management\/e3i6b6540829fe60950a853d2d89e0f8065\">Is Hiring Mediocre Good Enough?<\/a> approaches a hiring process with some valuable insight and other items I wouldn&#8217;t recommend.\u00a0 First, the reason astute hiring is mission-critical to corporate success (my emphasis):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>According to a 2004 study by HR Hub.com, more than 1 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) or <strong>$105 billion is lost every year to &#8220;poor hiring and management practices<\/strong>.&#8221; The Society for HR Management found the cost of a poor hire can range from $20,000 to more than $300,000\u2014as much as 15 times the employee&#8217;s base salary.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course the hidden cost of a bad sales hire &#8211; the opportunity cost of losing good prospects to your competition &#8211; is immeasurable.<\/p>\n<p>This approach from the article is one we don&#8217;t use:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We evaluated each of the most successful &#8216;A&#8217; performers in a particular position according to intellectual, behavioral and occupational interests,&#8221; says Vancini. &#8220;Using that as the standard, as candidates were interviewed, they were screened and matched against those known &#8216;A&#8217; performers. It made the decision process easy and fact-based.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Cloning may work for other positions, but I do not recommend it for sales positions.\u00a0 The strongest sales teams have a variety of styles and abilities.\u00a0 That variety is what gives the team strength.\u00a0 There are core sales abilities that transcend positions and companies (e.g. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Assessing_Aptitudes\/Handling_Rejection.html\">handling rejection<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Assessing_Sales_Skills\/Qualifying.html\">qualifying skills<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Assessing_Motivations\/Utilitarian.html\">Utilitarian motivation<\/a>, etc.), but most cloning involves behavioral styles which is not a predictor of success in a given sales position.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t fall for this conventional wisdom.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Companies like to be inclusive, inviting as many peers and associates into the process as possible. Yet these interviews are not well thought through, and do not dig in and measure critical skills, which results in marginal feedback. This can stall the hiring process for weeks or months. Feedback from the myriad of interviews needs to be collected and easily available to provide detailed but focused feedback.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Drilling down on candidate responses; having clarity about their answers is the essence of good interviewing.\u00a0 Yet, most prospects that we encounter over-rely upon the interview.\u00a0 Using bad interview techniques as the backbone of your hiring process is the ultimate recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n<p>If you are facing many challenges when it comes to hiring successful salespeople, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Recruiting_Main.html\">we can help<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hiring salespeople is the difficult combination of science and art weighted perfectly to select the right person for the position&#8217;s requirements.\u00a0 Obviously, knowing the position&#8217;s requirements is the preeminent step.\u00a0 Many sales managers believe they know what it takes to be successful in the position and they do to a certain extent.\u00a0 Yet, their knowledge often consists of themes as opposed to specifics.\u00a0 This reason drives us to profile the sale as the very first step in our sales hiring process. ManageSmarter.com&#8217;s Is Hiring Mediocre Good Enough? approaches a hiring process with some valuable insight and other items I wouldn&#8217;t recommend.\u00a0 First, the reason astute hiring is mission-critical to corporate&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/mediocrity-in-the-hiring-process\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,16,10],"tags":[130,125,1755,38],"class_list":["post-1334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiring","category-hiring-salespeople","category-interview","tag-bad-hire","tag-hiring-process","tag-interview","tag-sales-hiring"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-lw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1487,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/03\/assessments-shorten-interviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":1334,"position":0},"title":"Assessments Shorten Interviews","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've read many sales technique articles recently that discuss how to approach a prospect.\u00a0 Salespeople are expected to have a cursory knowledge of the company itself, it's market and, to some extent, whether or not they have a solution that may be a fit for this prospective customer.\u00a0 Gone are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1013,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/the-1-week-window\/","url_meta":{"origin":1334,"position":1},"title":"The 1 Week Window","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"There is a subtle psychology to working with sales candidates in a hiring process when you get to the offer stage. The ideal time frame for an offer is approximately one week after the final interview. This 1 week window provides enough time for both sides to contemplate the position\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Compensation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Compensation","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/compensation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/windowslivewriterthe1weekwindow-7782clock-angled1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1040,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/misguided-hiring-a-hunter-assumptions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1334,"position":2},"title":"Misguided &quot;Hiring A Hunter&quot; Assumptions","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I just read another article about hiring sales \"hunters\"\u00a0that was filled with simplistic tips and tricks.\u00a0 The article triggered a thought - there seems to be much conventional wisdom about hiring strong salespeople that permeates these articles.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I think the logic behind them is overly assumptive. Let's look at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":682,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/02\/top-10-selling-mistakes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1334,"position":3},"title":"Top 10 Selling Mistakes","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"February 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Don't Make These Top 10 Selling Mistakes!\" Bet that got your attention. I found it on the Business Buyer Directory which provides a non-traditional means for business buyers to locate businesses for sale worldwide. The article is a couple of years old, but makes some excellent points, in fact ones\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":970,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/sales-is-more-than-5-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":1334,"position":4},"title":"Sales Is More Than 5 Things","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Top five traits you gotta have to sell! The top five traits of a successful salesperson! Discover the 5 key behaviors of sales superstars! You have probably seen these amazing statements across the web.\u00a0 Isn't it interesting how \"5\" seems to be the magic number for sales traits, behaviors or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1943,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/03\/spooky-accurate-assessments\/","url_meta":{"origin":1334,"position":5},"title":"Spooky Accurate Assessments","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From Inc.com\u2019s article on how to screen sales candidates: It cost $400 a candidate, and the recruits took the tests online. Dolan and Kinaxis's star salesperson took the test, too, and Opus analyzed their test scores and created a personality benchmark. Afterward, Opus discussed the results with each of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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