How 90% of Sales Managers Skip Steps in Sales Hiring

Sports analogies and sales are made often for a very good reason – because there is a direct connection between what it takes to succeed in sports and what it takes to succeed in sales.

Less than 10 weeks ago I announced that I was going to run the Tel Aviv Marathon.

The idea of running a non-US marathon was so exciting to me. Since I was scheduled to be in Israel at the time of the marathon and had always wanted to run one in a foreign country it would be perfect.

Except training for a marathon takes 18 weeks if you are 58 years old while I was allowing 12 weeks.

Sales managers who skip steps hiring salespeople to end up with duds 3 out of 4 times.

When we talk to managers we often hear that they start by evaluating less than 20 applicants. Yet, one of the steps to making a good sales hire is to evaluate a minimum of 20 applicants.

Managers will tell us “I only got 5 applicants from Craigslist” or “When I ran my newspaper ad I only got 8 applicants.” As if that fact means they then skip the “Minimum 20 applicant rule” and head on to make a sales hire with what they got. Nope. Sorry, Charlie.

If you only get 5 applicants from Craigslist that means you’ve got to run an ad on Careerbuilder. Or, better yet, use the section in the Sales Hiring E-course on Using Social Media.

I hesitate to identify any step as more critical than the other steps, but making a good sales hire requires that you pick from many applicants. Evaluating fewer applicants is about as sure a predictor of failure as I can think of.

Oh, and about that marathon…I’ve learned my lesson. I’m going to scale back to a half marathon. Still a decent goal, but nowhere near as impressive as a full marathon. Next time I won’t skip steps. How about you?

If you’re in sales you realize that the best way to make more sales is to get more prospects.

Salespeople who have one prospect and have to make the sale usually end up putting too much pressure on the sale – and blowing it.

Hiring salespeople in some ways is like making a sale – the more applicants you have the better off you are.

You want to go into the sales hiring process with lots of choices.

I don’t need to tell you how many losers get hired for sales jobs. In my experience one of the biggest reasons for hiring sales losers is because managers find “this great candidate.”

You know the kind: he’s an amazing sales applicant, he’s got previous sales experience, previous industry experience, went to a great college, comes recommended by your buddy at Kiwanis Club….

So you spend the entire hiring process justifying why to hire your one candidate.

Total mistake. Yet, every month all across American business (and UK, Australian, Jamaican, German and Indian business based on our experience) sales managers are justifying hiring that one applicant.

What’s really sad about this is you can have a floodgate of applicants for nothing.

Two sources are standouts in getting lots of applicants for your next sales job:

Simply Hired let’s you post jobs to their stream here:

http://www.simplyhired.com/a/add-jobs/request?type=feed

And of course, there’s the venerable www.craigslist.org.

Post to both and review a minimum of 20 applicants before making a hire. It’s the best way to make great sales hire.

One of the hardest things I do is to try to convince sales managers that sales hiring needs to be an ongoing part of your work. You can’t wait to hire salespeople until you need one. Instead, you need to be constantly scanning the market for top performers.

Your sales department, if you are going to have top performers as opposed to mediocre salespeople, needs to have a constant program going to attract top performers to apply.

Most sales managers start the sales hiring process way too late. And, although it seems logical to wait until you need a salesperson (you don’t start looking to buy a car until you need one) it results in way too many mediocre sales hires.

Having thought about sales hiring for sixteen years now, here is my theory on why it doesn’t work to wait:

1. Too much pressure to “make the hire” and get on to the next thing. The odds of success go down dramatically when doing anything under pressure.

2. Top salespeople have a unique personality style. Unlike MD’s or Attorneys who have a degree to prove their qualifications, salespeople have a “sales personality” and a propensity for sales.

The problem is only 2 of every 30 people has the personality style of a top sales performer. But since no degree is required, if you really want a good sales to hire, you need to sift more.

Too, since the majority of salespeople hired turn out to be average (or worse), don’t get all excited about “previous sales experience.” In most cases, you are getting some other sales manager’s retread.

Want more ideas on hiring a great salesperson? Click here