Hiring is Hard. How Will You Get It Right?
Your crackerjack sales team isn’t hired. You nurture and develop it over time by implementing consistent training and process. However, choosing the right sales professionals is the first step. And, the better the hire, the faster they’ll produce, making your life as a sales leader easier and eliminating the overhead of managing a non-performer. Even with focus and diligence, bad hires are made.
How can you tell? Sometimes it’s easy. In one instance, a candidate inadvertently copied me on an email rant to her recruiter expressing frustration about scheduling time with me. She did me a favor by demonstrating her lack of attention to detail and poor composure in what could have been an embarrassing customer-facing gaffe had she been hired. Unearthing the truth about a candidate’s professionalism, work ethic and certainly his or her character is rarely that easy.
Adam Bryant in his NY Times column, The Corner Office, in which he has interviewed over 500 CEO’s, states that one of his biggest surprises, “has been all the different answers I’ve heard to the simple question I’ve posed to each leader: How do you hire?” Bryant goes on to say that, when hiring, the CEO’s “creativity is no doubt born of necessity. Candidates are so trained to anticipate the usual questions — “What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?” — that C.E.O.s have to come up with bank-shot questions to get around the polished facades.” Some techniques I’ve learned to discern good from bad candidates in my career as a sales leader are these.
- Plan your interview questions in advance and be direct. Interview time is precious and there’s more to accomplish than building rapport.
- Don’t let them “sell you” while you are evaluating their fit for the position. Remain objective while being approachable and human. This goes for group input on the hire, as well. If people are strongly enthusiastic, understand what is driving their enthusiasm.
- Be aware of your natural biases that cause you to hear what you want to hear to make an “easy” hiring decision.
- Seek evidence of character, work ethic and a desire and tenacity to succeed. These are the lowest common denominators and qualities you’ll find in your A-players.
- Make the reference process matter. Pay attention to details. Trust your instincts and look for small indicators that may reveal something you would want to explore before you’re satisfied.
- Implement a 90-day plan with your new hire. Even for the most experienced sales leader using a solid approach, hiring the right person every time is not possible. A written 90-day plan with regular check-ins holds you accountable to assess progress and provide support early and often.
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Stay tuned for the next installment of this blog containing detailed techniques for avoiding hiring pitfalls. Hiring good people is hard and no one gets it right every time.
