Hiring anyone in an economy with less than 4% unemployment is a challenge. Hiring Salespeople in an Economy and using a hiring process that has not had success in the past is like beating a dead horse. It will also:
- Kill the bottom line
- Increase the speed of the revolving door the sales department – turnover
- Probably produce the same weak performing salespeople
- Put your culture at risk
- Waste an immense amount of time and money. See just how much here.
Here are 3 Tips:
- Clearly Define the Sales Role. Yes, there are competencies that every salesperson needs; in fact, there are 21 Sales Core Competencies. However, the sales roles of a Farmer is different than that of a Hunter or Account Manager. They do different things and need different strengths. If you are looking for the best salesperson, well, you will likely be disappointed, and you may not need her/him. This article defines why the wrong salesperson is hired 77% of the time.
- Interviewing Plan. Does your ad attract the right people? Does it start by selling how great your company rather than describe the ideal candidate? Salespeople should be good at selling themselves. You need to understand how to evaluate a resume, challenge the ambiguous statements. Grew revenue by 20%. How? Did you maintain margins? Did you increase wallet share? Did everyone else grow by 45%? The cadence for an interview is a 5-minute phone screen, a face to face (or On-Line) all challenging the candidates to determine how they perform when a tough prospect asks them questions. The last face to face is when you sell the sizzle of your company and the opportunity because that is when you have the right people in front of you.
- Use the right Assessment. Many of the popular personality, behavioral and intelligence assessments are awesome tools…for assessing cultural fit, how they might behave on your team and if you sell a highly technical product, how much intellect they have. However, none of these assessments are predictive of the success of the salesperson. They each have merit, but when it comes to evaluating if a salesperson has the Sales DNA and the Will to Sell, they miss the mark completely. The Benchmark based on likely tendencies.
What is the right assessment?
The only sales specific hiring assessment is the Objective Management Group’s Sales Candidate Assessment. It has an over 93% success rate with data set from 1.8 million evaluations of recommending a salesperson based on your role and our criteria, if the candidate will rise to the top half of your sales team within 12 months.
Blue Smoke Consulting is the only Objective Management Group Partner in Michigan offering this solution. Want to learn more? Click Here. 8 Years in row we have been awarded the Top Sales Assessment Tool.
