Smart Thinking: The mysteries of hiring salespeople unlocked: Part I

You were the top salesperson for years. Then one day you accepted management’s offer to become a sales manager—and that’s when the nightmare began. That was the point at which you discovered the reality: The sales manager’s position is one of the most difficult positions in the company—caught between playing nursemaid to your people and bringing the numbers in for top management.

This article is one in a series devoted to at least discussing, if not solving, real problems that managers and owners face every day while trying to hire salespeople who not only say in interviews that they can sell but who actually bring home the bacon. These vignettes may help you produce a champion sales team.

1. Don’t blue-sky the job. For years you’ve boasted and told your company story to countless job-seekers, hoping to attract the best. You want the best, but when do you want to find out whether you are going to get the best? During the interview would be nice. However, most owners and managers usually spend more time trying to convince the applicant to work for them than they do really finding out not only whether the applicant can sell but also whether the applicant will sell in your industry and to your prospects. Let that job-seeker know how tough it’s going to be. Ask how he or she plans to start working the territory. Only those who talk about making cold calls will actually make them. Ask three more tough questions behind every answer you hear. By putting the pressure on the sales candidate in the interview process, you can determine whether that person is more likely to roll over or to be assertive. Based on what you see and hear, ask yourself, “Is this the person I want in front of my prospects and customers?”

2. Only decision-makers can get other people to make decisions. I know you’ll continue to make hires from your gut; I can’t talk you out of that in this short monthly column. But there are some things you can do that will increase your odds of making a successful hire. Open your interview with, “At the end of the interview, if I were to offer you this position—and I’m not saying I will—I would ask you to tell me yes or no. So be sure to get all your questions answered.” Any applicant who won’t give you a decision isn’t worth hiring. After all, isn’t that what you want your sales people to do—get customers to make decisions? If the sales applicant can’t make a decision under fire, how is he going to get a customer to make a decision? Only decision-makers can get other people to make decisions.

3. Unlearn your present interviewing system. First, throw away the hiring profile assessment you are using now (are you using one?), and instead find one that measures sales skills, adversity, toughness and, most important, whether this applicant will sell for you in your industry. Second, remember this applicant was someone else’s salesperson. Salespeople who “turn over” get good at giving you answers you like to hear. Third, instead of using your natural bonding skills, try “anti-bonding”—making the applicant work extra hard to bond with you. After all, isn’t that what your prospects will do? You want stronger salespeople? Become a stronger interviewer and “unlearn” what you did yesterday.

4. Manage “at-leasters” out of the business. Existing salespeople—now there’s your biggest challenge. Change the sales culture you put in place. People who don’t produce at the least acceptable level must be fired (correctly). And remember, managers: The degree of difficulty in firing salespeople increases exponentially the longer they work for you.

Happy hiring…and here’s to a wildly successful 2008!

Cathy Atkins is a professional speaker, executive coach and vice president of Awareness Management Systems, a mid-Missouri franchise for the Sandler Sales Institute. For information, call Atkins at 573-445-7694 or visit www.awarenessmanagement.com.