Welcome first time visitor. If you like what you see, you can receive free twice weekly posts by email or RSS feed. See the right side of the screen for instructions; it only takes 10 seconds. You will receive a verification email if you choose to receive by email. If you don't immediately receive this, please check your spam folder. We will never sell or misuse your email address.

I have mentioned in earlier posts that I’ve interviewed thousands of individuals for sales positions. A bad habit I got into earlier in my career was to interview too quickly and make hiring decisions too quickly. I don’t think I was alone in doing that. One can understand why sales managers don’t always take the necessary steps in interviewing:

1. Sales managers are responsible for a revenue commitment and don’t have a lot of time to interview.
2. Since a sales position is measured almost solely by sales results, the sales manager doesn’t have to feel a lot of chemistry with the applicant. They just need to feel that the applicant could successfully sell the products or services.
3. Most sales positions are commissioned positions so the loss to the company of a poor performer is somewhat minimized.
4. Salespeople are professional interviewers. What can you really know about them until you put them out in the field with a sales budget?

All of the above are true. However, if you take the near-sighted view of hiring you will pay, pay and pay for making a bad hiring decision. Customer damage and opportunity costs are just two of the problems caused by a bad sales hire.

I have two pieces of advice that will help you to stop making bad hiring decisions.

1. Make a sales call with the sales applicant before making a job offer. This one is so obvious that we can’t see it. It’s like grandpa looking for his glasses that are on his head. Yes, it takes some time and planning but you will gain tremendous insight into how this person behaves in front of customers in a real customer environment. Depending on the sales level being hired, I would even agree ahead of time for the applicant to engage the customer in a certain topic or point.
2. Slow down. Any incremental gain you might make by hiring quickly will be lost a 1,000 times if you don’t perform your due diligence and as a result end up hiring the wrong person.

We all know that hiring salespeople is an art and a science at best. Sales applicants are professional interviewers and know how to sell themselves. And everyone knows that a salesperson (or sales manager in this context) is the easiest person to sell because they often make emotional decisions. Apply the two simple points above and you will put a little more science in your hiring decisions.

Tags: interviewing

We'd like to hear your feedback on this post - feel free to comment below!