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Successful Sales Hiring Tips

Never take your sales hiring skills for granted.  And never assume you’ve got all the answers until you get some sales hiring training under your belt.  Hiring mistakes can begin before the applicant is even in front of you for the first time.  If your old sales hiring habits keep creating stagnant (or worse) sales results, let these quick tips help steer you back on the right path.

 

  1. 1.       Start with Enticing Job Postings and Advertising

 

You’re actually starting the sales applicant screening process the moment your job listings are posted.  Writing enticing job ads is the first step for attracting top performing sales people to your company.  Save time and money on the hiring process by getting the right people in the interview chair.

 

  1. 2.       Never Underestimate the Power of a Great Headline

 

What makes a good salesman want to find out more about the job you’re offering? A great attention-grabbing headline.  Use specific details about the job benefits, when possible. Entice them in a headline that lays out exactly how much money they could make at your company in the first year or two.  For example, your headline might read “If You Don’t Want to Make Six Figures or More, You Need Not Apply.” Always be truthful with your headlines and ad content, but bring the most enticing details forward.

 

  1. 3.       Use Important Key Words to Attract the Right Applicants

 

If you want to know how to hire employees with great sales skills, appeal to the skills they feel they already have and you need them to have. Use key words like independent, strong-willed and persuasive in your job candidate requirements. Top salespeople want to be where those traits are rewarded.  The role of sales hiring gets much easier when you appeal to sales professional egos in this way.

 

  1. 4.       Learn that What Makes a Good Salesman Might Be a Surprising Discovery

 

Don’t just depend on your skills regarding how to take interview questions. Successful sales hiring requires more. Use sales assessment testing to determine each sales candidate’s values and sales personalities. See this section in the AHS Sales Hiring Course for more details.

 

  1. 5.       Know How to Ask Interview Questions like a Hiring Expert

 

Vary the kinds of questions you ask in each interview. Ask your applicants to answer fully and creatively to resolve sales challenges they might face. The AHS Sales Hiring Course interview model is easy and comprehensive. The questions are already provided for your convenience.

 

  1. 6.       Be Professional.  Be Fair. And Be Quiet.

 

Sometimes how to hire employees with the traits you need requires more than just the right process. Be professional in all communication. Be fair by using the same testing and interview questions with every applicant.  And let the applicant do most of the talking.  This is their time to shine and your time to make note of whether or not they can.

 

  1. 7.       How to Hire Employees with Top Sales Potential Starts With You

 

Think successful sales hiring depends solely on the quality of sales applicants? Think again. Going about sales hiring the proper and professional way has a huge impact on your hiring success.

 

These tips can enhance your sales hiring skills by leaps and bounds, providing your company with the support needed for better sales. To be truly great at sales hiring, use the comprehensive information provided by the AHS Sales Hiring Course.

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Hire Sales People by Talking to a Former Employer


Trying to gain valuable information about an applicant from their former employers can be nearly impossible. Certain laws are in place protecting the former employee, so companies are very careful about what questions they answer and how. In fact, some managers refuse to answer questions about former employees at all. If that’s the case, how will you get the information you need about a job applicant’s previous job performance?

There are ways of communicating with former supervisors legally and successfully. Here are a few suggestions for how to make that happen in a professional manner.

  • Contact Human Resources – You could start with the Human Resources department of the job applicant’s former employer. HR acts as the middle man between you and the supervisor, making sure all communication is legal and handled properly. This method would give you employment verification, and maybe some job responsibilities and salary details but very little more than that.

 

The manager you’re reaching out to still might refuse (or be told to refuse) to answer any questions about the employee’s performance. Even if they wanted to, the HR department would likely need something in writing from the former employee first before giving permission to give out certain information.

 

  • Ask the job applicant to set up a phone meeting for you – This method requires the applicant to make the call to their former manager to ask if they would speak with you – the prospective employer – about their former employment. If the applicant sets up the call, they are giving permission for you to ask questions to their former supervisors. Those supervisors still have the right to refuse to answer any of your questions, but this puts you in direct contact for a conversation.

Here are the steps we suggest for this method in gaining past performance information about prospective employees:

  1. Explain to the prospective employee that part your interview process is to have applicants set up brief phone meetings with former supervisors.
  2. Pull out a calendar and tell the employee that you’d like them to set up the best timing for this call.
  3. When on the call with the former manager, ask basic employment verification questions and then ask “Was this person an A-Player?” An A-Player is a salesperson who is a strong asset to a sales team. The employer could give a simple yes or no answer or elaborate further within the boundaries of the law.

With an answer to that key question – if the applicant was an A-Player for the former supervisor – you will have all the additional information you need. You definitely want the answer to be “yes” to that question before hiring the applicant. Trying to take a B-Player (or further up the alphabet) and turn them into an A-Player won’t likely be successful. Committing to only hiring A-Players is how you find the top sales performers you need to succeed. If you receive a “no” answer from the former supervisor, it is best to pass on this applicant.

It’s important to know the laws in place regarding sharing information about former employees. Treat those laws with respect and you’ll still get some answers you need to hire great A-Player salespeople.

 

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Know How to Hire Employees For Top Sales Teams? Here’s Your Pop Quiz

Knowing how to hire employees with top sales performance skills starts with you. Are you sure you know how to conduct an interview correctly? Do you know what makes a good salesman a top performer? Do you know what it takes to entice and excite top salespeople to apply at your company? Well, you’re about to find out. Take the quiz below to see how ready you really are to be a sales recruiting powerhouse. How to hire employees with the right stuff might require changing your mindset about how to get the job done right.

  1. 1.      Which job applicant is most likely the best salesperson in the bunch?
    1. The one who values knowledge above all else.
    2. The one who values money above all else.
    3. The one who values creativity above all else.
    4. The one who values social acceptance above all else.

The answer is b: The one who values money above all else. Believe it or not, that’s exactly what makes a good salesman. Top sales performers are creative and knowledgeable, but they show up for work every day to make money and make lots of it. Knowing how to hire employees with this trait is as good as gold. The more income they want to make for themselves, the more they’ll make for you.

  1. 2.      What’s the best role to take with applicants during the job interviews?
    1. Educator Persona – They are the student and you are the teacher. Treat the interview like an initial training workshop, educating them about the job as you gather information.
    2. Mentor Persona – Excite and inspire the applicant during the interview process, showing lots of emotion to keep them excited and engaged with you.
    3. Engineer Persona – Stick to the questions and do a lot of listening. Stay objective and don’t show excitement. The applicant should do most of the talking.

The answer is c: Engineer Persona. This approach allows the applicant’s personality to come through naturally instead of simply as a reaction to yours. The other personas might find the applicant trying to adapt to what they think you want to hear. The more reserved Engineer Persona allows you to observe and really listen. Successful sales recruiting means sitting back and letting their authentic personalities shine through.

  1. 3.      What are the great places to post sales job listings?
    1. Social media accounts
    2. Internet job boards
    3. Shopper papers
    4. Church bulletins
    5. All of the above

The answer is e: All of the above. Most of those suggestions are obvious, but church bulletins, you ask? Mega churches can have congregations of more than 2000 members. If it makes sense to the kind of business you do, tap into the church bulletin readers. They deserve great sales jobs, too.

  1. 4.      Which of these applicants should you interview based strictly on the information below?
    1. The one with the best resume.
    2. The one with the best looking suit.
    3. The one with the prettiest face.
    4. The one who wants your job.
    5. None of the above.

The answer is d: The one who wants your job. Assuming you’re the business owner or sales manager, you should know how to conduct an interview that reveals an applicant who wants power, leadership and has an entrepreneurial mindset. As for the resume, it tells you nothing about a job candidate’s true ability to be a top sales performer. Only pre-employment testing and proper job interview practices can achieve that. It is best of you learn how to hire employees without using the resume as a crutch.

  1. 5.      What’s the most important question to ask a job applicant’s former supervisor?
    1. What is the applicant’s age?
    2. Would you consider this applicant a horrible or wonderful person?
    3. Was the applicant an A-Player?
    4. All of the above.

The answer is c: Was the applicant an A-Player? This question requires a simple yes or no answer and simply asks if the sales applicant was a great asset to their previous employer. The other questions above aren’t legal for former employers to answer. If you guessed either a or b, brush up on these important details before calling any of your job applicant references.

For more insightful instruction about how to hire employees for a top sales team, become a member of the AHS Sales Hiring Course.

 

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