Recruiting a sales team isn’t easy. I once ran an ad for a week asking companies “Tell Me Your Biggest Sales Hiring Challenge Recruiting a Sales Team.” Nothing to buy, just tell me what doesn’t work for you when you hire salespeople.

Some of the complaints in recruiting a sales team were:

1. Applicants don’t show up for interviews.

The fact that 30-40% of sales applicants don’t show up is a good thing

I didn’t understand that one. And I don’t see that as a problem. I like to know they have no follow-through BEFORE I hire them.

The fact that 30-40% of sales applicants don’t show up is a good thing. I say “The mass of sales applicants are full of bull. They went into sales for all the wrong reasons and your job is to spot them. Get rid of them from your sales hiring system.”

2. Can’t find applicants for commission-only jobs.

Our clients don’t have that problem. If the sales cycle is longer than a couple of weeks, real salespeople need a draw to stay alive. That’s reality.

We prove in our ads that good quality salespeople make a pile of money. One of our clients pays a $50,000 bonus if their sales hire hits certain benchmarks in the first month.

If the sales cycle is longer than a couple of weeks, real salespeople need a draw to stay alive. That’s reality.

Salespeople who lack confidence in their ability to hit these benchmarks are not real salespeople.

3. Applicants who sound good in the interview, but can’t sell once they’re hired.

This was the biggest category. It is an interesting problem and it has two parts to it.

First, who are you letting in your office? What is your system for selecting applicants to invest energy in? Hint: if you’re using LinkedIn Profiles and job experience you are way off the mark.

Second, what are you doing in the interview? Why are you not getting to the heart of the matter when interviewing?

who are you letting in your office? What is your system for selecting applicants to invest energy in? Hint: if you’re using LinkedIn Profiles and job experience you are way off the mark.

People can be divided into many different categories. When it comes to hiring salespeople we divide applicants into two piles. “People who fulfill their potential” and “People who fail at it.”

Dr. Carol Dweck of Harvard University has a foolproof method. She explains people have two distinct worldviews when it comes to accomplishment.

There are those who believe in fixed prior ability and there are those who believe in growth of ability.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author and New Yorker writer, has suggested that as a society we value natural, effortless accomplishment over achievement through effort. We endow our heroes with superhuman abilities that led them inevitably toward their greatness. It’s as if Midori popped out of the womb fiddling, Michael Jordan dribbling, and Picasso doodling. This captures the fixed mindset perfectly. And it’s everywhere.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author and New Yorker writer, has suggested that as a society we value natural, effortless accomplishment over achievement through effort.

People with the growth mindset, however, believe something very different. For them, even geniuses have to work hard for their achievements.

Our clients use an interview that we call the FST Intelligence Interview Sequence. It’s based on this model. We look for learners and growers — and of course those who enjoy the process of influencing others.

The next time you find yourself saying, “He or she handled themselves well in the interview” you might well be on the road to making another bad sales hire

For nearly twenty years, I’ve been involved with hiring sales people. I had an interesting chat the other day with a well know and respected sales trainer. I was a bit surprised when he indicated that most of the sales coaches, sales trainers, and sales consultants typically focused on improving the quality and performance of an organizations existing sales team. Makes sense. What if the existing sales team has very few if any people who will ever be able to be top performers. There are certainly people who just aren’t cut out for sales on many sales teams around the world.

He really didn’t have an answer for my question. In all fairness, sales trainers or sales coaches are usually put in the position of working with the people their clients have on board. But it seems to me that it would benefit not only the sales organization to have better quality sellers but also would enhance a trainers ability to deliver good results to their clients. He’d be working with better “raw materials.” Consequently, our discussion moved to how his clients recruit sellers. And this revealed another issue for sales management.

Most sales managers do not have a systematic process to recruit good sales reps. The typical method of resume review to figure out who to call is usually a huge waste of time and results in poor results from the the new hires.

It is essential for those charged with sales recruitment for their organizations use a process consistently to get better results.

The slow but sure reopening of the economy is not only a relief, but is also an opportunity. You must reposition your business to meet customer’s needs in the business “new normal.” In order to capitalize on the opportunity, you must have a sales organization populated with real sales studs who can adapt to a very new sales reality. The talent pool of great sellers looking for their next opportunity has never been higher. Consequently, it’s a good time to make sure your sales hiring strategy includes some key elements used by the best sales recruiters.

1. First, you must have a solid compensation strategy to attract and keep top sales talent on your team. Real sellers want to know that they will be well paid for performance. They’ll have a goal to be at the top of your sales stack quickly. Any good outside sales recruiter should be ask about and guide you on compensation strategy before any recruitment ads are placed.
2. You need to have a recruitment ad that will attract the right type of person. Real sellers want to know specifically what the position you have will offer in income potential. Use specifics on current top earners’ income.
3. Use profiling to “check under the hood” of your applicants. There are personality profiles which are both scientifically measurable and associated with top sales performers. Resumes and previous sales experience are not going to reveal the truth about a candidate. Therefore, combining profiling with the next essential step become critical.
4. Finally, you must have a good interview strategy. It will put your in a position of being able to make decisions based on a process. Never, ever hire by “gut feel.” It is the most common error made in the sales recruitment process.

Making sure you’ve got these 4 essentials wrapped up before you start sales recruiting will increase your success rate.