How to Recruit Successful Sales People
President of search firm explains how to hire the right sales employees
Successful sales employees are critical to the success of a business. While every company may have its own unique process of selling, hiring the right people to do the selling is essential. Steve Fretzin, President of team discovery, teaches his clients how to do just this.
“Without a successful sales staff, it makes it very difficult to grow a business. As the employer, there are several simple yet critical steps you can take to ensure you’re hiring the best prospects,” says Fretzin.
- Have a plan- Like anything in business, the best results are typically achieved with a formal written plan. In hiring a new salesperson, we suggest starting with a written job description that clearly outlines the responsibilities, behaviors and expectations for the new sales hire.
- Include assessments in the process- Many people hire strictly on their gut, falling in love with a quick salesperson that seemingly has all the right answers. Unfortunately, these salespeople may be good at talking, but may fall far short after being offered the position. Area’s including behavior of the job, sales skills and an individual’s motives play a huge role in the salesperson’s success or failure.
- Develop a process for hiring that saves YOU time- Many business owners and managers hire people differently every time. Do they come in one, two, three times? How many people do they meet with? What order does all of this happen? Not having a structured process to weed out the bad potential hires quickly creates a huge time waste for the hiring party when interviewing.
- Use the same interview questions every time- While it is much easier to walk into an interview and say “tell me about yourself,” this may not be the best strategy. By creating a list of solid, open-ended questions to use with each and every candidate, you put yourself in a much better position to interview and accurately compare.
- Develop a behavioral employment agreement- Many salespeople fail because their employer does not set up clear written expectations prior to entering into a contract. In addition, expectations were never adequately reviewed and mutually agreed upon in writing by both parties. This agreement also allows the employer to regularly review goals with the new salesperson and hold them accountable to achieve these goals.
Fretzin says that while these points are only the tip of the iceberg for effective hiring, without them it can cost an employer between $100,000 to $200,000 dollars for each bad hiring decision. These numbers can include: salaries, time and energy invested and lost opportunities with a failed hire.
Source: Team Discovery www.teamdiscoveryonline.com
