Hiring key to a good sales staff

"Why won't my salespeople prospect? All they ever do is complain that they don't have enough leads." In the first article of this series we looked at what can be one of the main contributors to this lament: marketing.

Salespeople always want leads from marketing.

When they don't get them, the war between sales and marketing ensues.

As I said in the last article, management should expect good marketing to produce good leads for salespeople.

If not, something needs to change.

I believe that generating leads is also part of a salesperson's job.

Consequently, another major contributor to the lack of finding quality leads is not hiring the right salespeople.

Prospecting skills are different than other selling skills.

When managers hire salespeople they often look for someone who has a history of meeting or exceeding quota, a good closer.

After hiring a heavy hitter, many managers scratch their heads wondering why this heavy hitter is sitting around waiting for leads.

What are the potential causes for this? It may not have been revealed in the interview that leads were provided to this candidate at her previous job.

Prospecting needs vary from company to company.

Some companies have more leads than they can follow up on so salespeople never have to prospect.

Others require serious prospecting.

How can you determine a candidate's prospecting skills during an interview? Hiring good salespeople is not that easy.

Most companies have a hiring process, however, hiring salespeople is a multifaceted task and they don't have a good process in place to do this.

A salesperson leaves or the company is growing and suddenly you are in desperate need of a new salesperson.

Desperate need is not a good way to hire anyone.

Even if hiring is not done in desperation, the process used is usually not adequate.

How many of you have actually been taught how to hire a good salesperson? Anyone? By show of hands, don't be shy.

Vice presidents of sales and sales managers usually aren't sent to a course on how to hire.

Too bad; it would save companies hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Oh, yes they have a human resources department to help them, but are the HR people sent to a class on how to hire a good salesperson? First you have to determine what you are looking for.

How can you spot success? How do you know that this candidate can sell? How do you know she will be successful at prospecting? There are some very simple things that can be done.

For example, assessing presentation skills.

In most cases salespeople are asked to do presentations for potential customers, so why not have the candidate give a sales presentation as part of the hiring process? You will have to determine what defines a good presentation.

Lots of PowerPoint slides and a good pitch? Wrong answer.

You are looking for a salesperson who is customer focused, therefore, a few slides and a few good questions would keep a candidate in the running in my book.

Can you assess their prospecting skills in a similar fashion? Give the candidate a list of companies and ask them to return a plan for prospecting the list.

The answer should contain certain elements.

One of the important elements is how many attempts they will make at each company on the list.

Howard Stevens, CEO of The HR Challey Group, states, "Managers who identify these 'failure points' and build them into the selection process can reduce hiring mistakes by as much as 25 percent.

In most sales situations, for example, the average prospect buys from a new salesperson only after six contacts.

The average unsuccessful sales person gives up after three contacts.

While that salesperson's techniques may be adequate, the tendency to give up after three rejections was never uncovered or evaluated." (Selling Power, Smart Hiring, How to Avoid the Nine Most Common Sales Hiring Errors, Volume 18, number 7, page 23).

Before making the final decision, have the candidate tag along with one of your successful salespeople.

Years ago, I interviewed for a position at Coca Cola for their Minute Maid(R) division.

They decided to hire me and asked me to ride with a sales rep before I made my decision.

Arrangements were made and the sales rep said, "I'll pick you up at four o'clock." Surprised, I asked, "Isn't that awfully late to get started?" She laughed, "A.M." Our first stop that dark morning was a grocery store that was part of a large chain.

Job one was to reset the frozen juice case.

I knew that job wasn't for me long before we had finished.

I think my hands are still frozen.

Avoid this huge hiring faux pas: Neglecting to properly check references.

Too simple? Then how do some people get away with misrepresenting themselves on their resumes? We have all read the headlines about CEOs who didn't really have a Harvard degree or doctors who never finished medical school.

How does that happen? Didn't anyone check their references? Sad to say that someone probably did.

Poor reference checking is rampant, who has time? We tend to go more by the "oh, she seems so nice" or "he is a great guy." It never hurts to have good information.

Calling three handpicked references supplied by the applicant is just not enough.

What to do?

* Establish a process for hiring.

* Brainstorm with those you work with to gather ideas.

* Have your salespeople make a list of the things that make them successful.

* Take a look at the difference between high performers and low performers.

Make checklists based on successful and unsuccessful behaviors.

* Check references.

Call at least three people who worked for the candidate, two to four who worked with him and two or three who he reported to.

If you have talked to eight to 10 people you will have a much better picture of the candidate.

You could even call a few of the candidate's customers (if you can get that information from the candidate).

* Prepare good questions for those reference checks in advance.

Ask things like, "How did the candidate react in situations with tight deadlines? When under stress, what behaviors does the candidate exhibit? What are the qualities that you feel make the candidate a good salesperson?" This may not be easy as confidentiality and other issues limit what employers can say, but give it a try anyway.

* Ask candidates to demonstrate their knowledge and skills, not just tell about it.

* Prior to hiring, have the candidates ride with or listen in on a successful salesperson.

* Do a trial period with strict guidelines.

Many candidates will self-select themselves right out of that process.

Any salesperson worth her weight will agree because she knows she will be successful.

I would love to hear your stories about hiring sales and sales management.

Please send stories to stories@aliceheiman.com Alice R.

Heiman owns and manages ARH Consulting, LLC, The Sales Experts, a sales consulting firm based in Reno.