To Hire a Great Sales Person, Do This

The last time you hired a sales person, did you think, This time, it’ll be different! Were there stories of impressive wins and nods of recognition, that they understood your world and your customers? And then, as the weeks passed, promises became excuses instead of the calls and the forecasts you two were sure would be yours.

Well, it happens all the time. There are a few reasons why it’s not easy to hire a great sales person and one proven solution.

1. The best salespeople are all working

You placed your sales position on Indeed or Monster and got flooded with emails, but you only read through to the end of a few resumes.

That’s because the great sales reps are out there working, and not just working, but selling and making money. If you want to hire a sales person worth hiring, you can’t look for them on mass job sites because they’re just not there.

2. Bad salespeople are pretty good at convincing you they’re not bad

We actually have names for the three types of sales hires that cripple companies:

The Great Pretender
This is the guy (or gal) that nails the interview. They know your lingo. They pretend to know what to do, and then you get them at the desk with a phone and it doesn’t take long for you to see what you didn’t want to see: They are pretending and now they’re just hanging around on payroll. Read more about The Great Pretender.

The Price Slasher
The Price Slasher wants to take on the competition, and they want to do it on price. They want to offer rebates and discounts and tiers, but there’s a reason this type of sales person needs to sell on price because they can’t sell value.

The Excuse Maker
There’s always a reason: Joe didn’t email back. Sue didn’t make that introduction. The manager was out that day. They’re waiting for the pricing on that advertising package, etc., etc. This sales person is always waiting for something to happen, but somehow, nothing ever happens.

3. Hiring good salespeople is a specialization

HR departments bring incredible process and project management to the people side of your company, and that works well for hiring most roles: accountants, administrators, IT.

But hiring a sales person? It requires a unique understanding of the nature of salespeople, of how to attract the ones worth attracting, and how to get candidates excited about your opportunity. And then, how to set them up for a really strong start in your company.

We guarantee our sales hires.

You read that right: We guarantee our sales hires. That’s because we have more than 30 years of experience hiring, firing, training and coaching sales people. Working independently or complementing your HR team, we’ve created a sales hire process that’s proven.

What’s different about our approach is we specialize in recruiting salespeople, and recruiting is just the start. To guarantee your sales hire, we also make sure they’re starting off with a solid onboarding plan and we coach them. Because this is sales, and in sales, you want fast success.

Are you ready to turn the corner so you can hire a great sales person who will excel? Reach your sales targets and say goodbye to costly bad hires! Get in touch to discuss how we can help. We offer complementary introductory calls.