When looking to fill sales positions it will take more than looking through sparkling resumes or even strong recommendations from your existing staff. Once all of the applications and resumes have been sorted, with some filed for later consideration, it’s time for the face-to-face interview process. Some company owners and hiring managers see this process as a necessary evil, almost complaining about the time it takes, but it should be an exciting time when you are hiring salespeople.

To begin with, you are going to have more than one person to interview for the position. If one is all you have you will have nothing to compare them to and even with the right sales personality will likely end up with the wrong person in the position. There should be a minimum of three candidates interviewed for each open position.

One interview is not going to be enough for you, even knowing how to conduct an interview to get an honest picture of the candidate. They have probably done their homework they know what the company does and have probably put together some stock answers in an attempt to impress you with their knowledge. That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t provide a complete picture. Like selling in the field some clients will throw them a curve ball during a sales call and how they can handle the pitch will determine if they strike out or hit a home run.

You will want to put them in the hot seat at least three more time. You should never hire someone on less than three interviews and four will give you a better picture of the job candidate. It is also helpful to have different people that know how to conduct an interview. You are going to ask the same questions in the same order and if you do it all yourself they may question if you were paying attention during the previous interview. Having different people conduct the interviews also keeps emotions out of the process and then comparing the answers will give you the best indication of whether they are suited for the position or not.

Always take notes about the answers because you won’t remember what they said or who said it. You can also grade their answers A to F for example, or on a number scale and at the end of all interviews grade each of the candidates to determine which one scored the highest and is the most qualified for the sales position you are trying to fill.

When you’re a sales manager, you generally wear a lot of different hats, but you wish you could leave your sales hiring hat it the closet. You have to develop and implement marketing strategies, prepare action plans, oversee sales tactics, keep an eye on expenses, monitor goals and profitability, and provide feedback to your salesmen. And that’s just the short list!

Your job keeps you running hither and yon, doing this and that, with barely enough time to catch your breath. That’s why many sales managers consider sales hiring to be an intrusion on their routine. And, if the new sales hire doesn’t work out for some reason, you end up with more work than if you had never made the hire in the first place.

Granted, using the Advanced Hiring System to hire sales people takes some time if you do it right, but consider this: the success rate of old-fashioned methods of sales hiring is only 1 successful hire out of 4. Isn’t it worth it to invest a little more time in a process that will bring you 3 successful hires out of 4? When you have that kind of success rate you can concentrate on getting your job done, instead of running around putting out the fires started by a bad hire.

Of course, no hiring system is perfect; if it were, the success rate for sales hiring would be 4 out of 4! When you make the effort to follow the path laid out by AHS and do the right kind of targeted recruiting, use a sales personality test to screen the applicants for candidates that fit the salesperson profile, and conduct a scripted interview using your “engineer persona,” you will be rewarded with salesmen who are energetic, focused, and creative. Moreover, they will be quick thinkers who can solve problems for themselves, instead of running to the sales manager. . . you . . . at   every little bump in the road.

The truth is, a bad hire costs more than your time and effort. If someone is not pulling his weight, it seems that the salary, training expenses, and benefits package he receives are just money tossed out the window. That amounts to tens of thousands of dollars. Factor in lost customers and sales opportunities, and the figure can soar upward to the triple digits. If you decide to un-hire a bad hire, there is the problem of an increase in your company’s unemployment rate to make this misstep even more expensive. PLUS, you have to begin the sales hiring process all over again. There’s just no way that anyone can win with a bad hire.

We’ve talked about what makes a good salesman before—a high-energy individual with a strong sense of integrity; someone who is a quick study; someone who works to keep the momentum going in good times and bad, etc. But have you ever thought about what good salesmen can do for your brand? After all, your brand is what defines your company, your reputation, your message, and your image. When you’re building a sales team, assessing  the personality traits of your candidates will ensure that, not only are you hiring the right people for your company’s financial success, you’re building customer loyalty by boosting perception of your brand.

                  When you understand what makes a good salesman, you’re more likely to be hiring salespeople who will not only close the sale, but will also exercise behaviors that engage with customers, let them know what your brand stands for, and deliver on the brand promise.

Now, you may or may not be one of the millions of fans of Justin Bieber, but that’s irrelevant in this context. Justin  is a great example of a concept who became a brand, who became a phenomenon. It didn’t just happen, it took a fair amount of work. Once he was discovered on YouTube by an individual who essentially has a great salesperson profile, it was time to promote, promote, promote. In this case, social media was the mode of “selling” Justin’s brand, since that’s the preferred means of communication for  Generation Y, his target “customer.”  It took about three years, but then, as anyone knows who hasn’t been living under a rock, Justin’s brand took off, and now he’s flying higher every day.

OK, so Justin isn’t really a product, and your product is not Justin Bieber; the point is, without all the work and promotion, Justin would still be just one of the millions of YouTube videos instead of the youngest person to ever appear on the cover of Forbes magazine. The ability to promote a product is what makes a good salesman.

If you know you have good salesmen, but they haven’t been relating the value of your brand as part of the selling process, you can start now to consider brand impact as part of what makes a good salesman. Implement brand education as part of your sales training, so that each member of your sales team has a clear understanding of the importance of your brand to them, the message you want your brand to deliver, and a specific way of communicating its relevance to customers.

As your sales force grows, you can be assured that every new hire you make using the Advanced Hiring System will fit the salesperson profile to be a motivated go-getter who will not only work to advance his own success, but the success of your company’s brand. And, since the AHS Sales Hiring Course supplies all the steps to assuring that you understand what makes a good salesman, chances are good that your sales team will help your product evolve to a brand, then to a phenomenon.