Q. We hire sales reps to be out in the field. Some are not even in Southern California. Hiring successful salespeople seems to be the most difficult hiring we do. How can we ensure they aren’t just selling us in the interview?
This is one of the most asked questions I receive from my clients. It all starts with expectations. I find that often the expectations when hiring sales people aren’t very realistic. The company wants the salesperson to start booking sales right away, bring a book of business with them, have quotas none of their other sales people attained when hired or they expect the salesperson to start making cold calls on day one. All of these are good things, but for many companies not realistic. I would start with a reality check on your expectations for the first year. Ask yourself, “How many new salespeople have met these sales goals?” If the answer is none, then you might have to realign your expectations.
There are a couple of things I like to do when hiring salespeople. I like to find out what they have done to become better at selling. So I like to know what continuing education they have received in sales training, what books on selling they have read recently, and have they or do they use formal training to become better at their job. Most salespeople have never received much formal sales training, never read a book on selling, or how to get to the decision maker. So what do they do to become better salespeople? I think salespeople should have continuing education similar to most professions.
If making sales presentations is important for your salespeople ask them to come in and make a sales presentation. They will probably tell you in the interview that they make a lot of sales presentations. Great, ask them to do the presentation for you. Then you can evaluate if it is at the standards you expect for your company’s sales force.
Finally, I have a client that actually pays the person he is seriously considering to take a day off and they spend the day in the car making sales calls together. He gets to see and learn a lot about the potential hire. This is really putting the candidate in the job before hiring them.
