Avoiding Bad Sales Hires

When I speak to groups and network at various events and associations I hear all types of grumbles and grips around the profession of sales and getting the most out of their people. One of the most common sales challenges I hear business leaders lamenting over is how difficult it is to hire good, quality sales reps and sales managers. And for good reason. The financial impact of a bad sales hire can be upward of 2-4 times of their base salary.

The struggle is real. Finding sales people that can actually sell, and managers that can actually manage is not easy. The talent pool is full of smoke and mirrors, it's hard to get a clear view, but let's face it - companies, maybe even your competitors are finding and keeping good sales talent. You are probably already following the best practices for hiring and have crafted some awesome interviewing questions - so what's the problem?

Do any of the two descriptions below sound remotely familiar?

• The confident salesperson that 'can close anything that moves' but ends up leaving a trail of destruction with internal and external clients, while draining the energy and culture.
• The gregarious salesperson that 'loves people' who ends up being a professional visitor with a lot of activity in the pipeline, but nothing ever ends up closing.

You think you are Hiring Don Draper from Mad Men! - "Here is the signed agreement and PO Number."

But End up with Michael Scott from the Office! - "They said they loved it and to call back next week!"

Does your hiring process, more or less, consist of a resume, interview and reference check? The problem is that even bad salespeople can interview like a rainmaker. Anyone can do some research and put together a professional resume, or just pay someone that specializes in resumes to do it for them. Anyone can figure out how to interview well and tell people what they want to here for 60 minutes, and find a couple people to say nice things about them. Seriously, who would provide a bad reference? If we only rely on our gut and intuition within the traditional hiring process we can leave ourselves wide open for bad sales hires.

There needs to be some serious grunt work before we ever start talking to candidates. A structured process for developing a Job Profile, which includes the primary function identifiers for job success, and a Hiring Template, which identifies the profile of the ideal candidate. We help our clients utilize a SEARCH model - Skills, Experiences, Attitudes, Results, Cognitive Skills and Habits to create the criteria for the ideal candidate. Additionally, when creating a hiring template, it's important to consider the existing culture and makeup of the team. Will the candidate fit in to the culture and fill the gaps needed to reach the department goals?

Adding some science to the process can help increase the odds of finding the best fit hire. Behavioral assessments that can be adjusted to specific competencies required for a particular job profile are valuable tools when utilized properly. They can give you a better idea of how a candidate will actually behave in a role after you hire them. A huge time saver that provide insights on potential red flags and deal breakers. If you hire them, the assessments serve as an ongoing development tool during coaching sessions and reviews.

Timing is crucial when utilizing assessments. If the assessment is administered too late, emotional involvement comes into play that can cloud judgement and the data can't be leveraged during the interviewing process. If you're going to leverage behavioral assessments in your hiring process, which I recommend, make sure you administer them early in your process, ideally before you ever meet them face to face in most circumstances. How you weight the assessment results in your decision making process is important to consider. They are not the end all be all, and should only influence a portion of your decision making process.

There are no silver bullets to avoid bad sales hires, but making small upfront investments in your sales hiring process can pay huge dividends in the long run. Relying solely on gut and intuition when hiring people you don't really know is basically like flipping a coin on potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. Putting in the work to set up an air tight job profile and hiring template, while adding some behavioral science to the process can save a lot time, money and stress.