You’ve probably heard that tired old cynical definition of insanity; it’s doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It’s supposed to be a quirky way of bringing you to some kind of epiphany, in case you’re in a rut. And for people who are constantly trying to achieve better sales by using the same sales hiring practices, the rut can be pretty deep.

I think most would agree that one of the traits we like to see in salesmen is the ability to step out of their comfort zone and address objections and resistance with confidence and assurance. Ironically, many people trying to hire good salesmen prefer to remain in their own comfort zone, keeping them in the same old rut of getting only one successful hire out of four—that’s if they’re lucky. They may not feel as if they’re truly insane, but as one hire after another goes south, they may feel a little like they’re going crazy.

Why are so many employers using the same old hiring process they used twenty or thirty years ago, when the manner of applying for employment has changed? While there are still a number of jobs that prefer candidates to apply in person, there are all kinds of alternatives to the face-to-face applications. Candidates can apply from their home computers via email, company websites, or job search engines. It’s even possible in some cases to apply over the phone or fax machine.

Some may tell you that they don’t need to change because their sales hiring process works. They fondly remember that time they hired Clarence, who turned out to be a real go-getter. They forget about the other ten salesmen they hired that ended up just taking up space, and actually costing the company more than they brought in.

If you really want to see better sales (and who doesn’t?), it’s time to step out of your comfort zone and start using a different system—one that guarantees that you can raise your successful hire rate to 75%, instead of 25% or less.

AHS has the track record to show that this sales hiring system works. It’s worked for us, and it’s worked for our clients. When we get the occasional claim that it hasn’t worked, we find that the client has been afraid to step out of their comfort zone and use all of our recommended methods—the aggressive recruitment process, the pre-employment testing, the graphs and wheels, the interview strategy.

Instead, some employers rely on experience over talent. They take the information in the resume seriously, and accept the “canned” recommendations of the references. Instead of the standard DiSC assessment that many companies use to analyze personalities of candidates, AHS uses its own version to identify candidates’ personality styles and value systems–what motivates them, what drives them, what makes them wake up in the morning. With this type of test, it’s easy to weed out the candidates who are most likely to be poor or only average salesmen and hire the ones who will do the most for themselves, and therefore, your company. It’s not at all complicated, and it sure beats insanity!