Some companies focus on hiring from their competition almost exclusively and I am not exactly sure why. I realize they believe they are bolstering their sales department while depleting their competition’s. But taken too far, this approach becomes a detriment to a successful hiring campaign.
I’ve seen it with one of our customers who has become infatuated with hiring someone away from a certain competitor. His desire to do so is driven by the fact that a third competitor recently hired someone from the second competitor. It doesn’t matter if you tracked that last sentence, the fact of the matter is still the same.
I now refer to this approach as a “trophy hire.” It doesn’t matter if any of the salespeople from this competitor are strong, a good fit or worth the money it will take to pull them out. Our customer wants to be able to tell others in the industry that he recruited and hired a salesperson from this competitor.
To be fair, there may be a strong salesperson in this competitor’s company. We just haven’t found them yet. In the meantime, our customer has passed on a handful of strong salespeople not from this competitor.
Frustrating.