Too many rising sales stars are missed by employers who focus too much on industry experience or track record and too little on attitude and aptitude. People with healthy attitudes and intelligence can usually be educated on the industry or even thought how to sell.
A Viable Compromise.
Now it goes without saying that someone with the right attitude, aptitude, industry experience and sales ability should be the optimum choice. However if you are looking to tick all these boxes on a salary package you can afford, you might be waiting a very long time!
Consider the impact to the business whilst you are waiting indefinitely to get the perfect candidate on board. Perhaps there needs to be a viable compromise between ticking all the boxes, time taken and simply offering the job to whoever is willing to accept it.
Ideal Candidate Profile.
Holding out for the absolutely perfect candidate is rarely a viable option. However it is critical to have a very clear idea of your ideal candidate profile and to rate all candidates against this. This will give you a valid benchmark against which to compare candidates.
How are you going to determine what a viable compromise will be, unless you introduce enough objectivity into the game. Recruitment decisions based purely on subjective elements (I like them, I can get on with them, they like me, etc) are fraught with danger.
The Harsh Reality.
When it comes to recruiting B2B salespeople, many of those on the market are the very ones that you probably don’t want to touch. Many of these can be better at selling themselves at interview than they are likely to be at selling your B2B solutions or services.
Considerable due diligence is to be advised when it comes to selection of the very people that you will rely on to drive your business growth. Getting it wrong can be very costly in terms of direct expense and also in terms of lost business opportunity.
Challenge & Check!
Many interviewers devote too much time to selling the company and opportunity to the candidate. Any candidate that appears really keen may be looked on favourably and the interviewer is effectively blinding themselves to the actual calibre of the candidate.
Effective interviewing is a two way process, demonstrating that both parties are being discerning. Both interviewer and candidate should constructively question and challenge each other throughout the interview – how else will they know whether to proceed or not?
The Good News.
You may at this stage be thinking of your existing sales team and just how many of them will ever make the grade. Well the good news is that many averagely or even poorly performing salespeople can improve, provided they have the right coaching and direction.
In this less than ideal world, sometimes you just need to make the best of what you have, developing those that warrant it and weeding out persistent non-performers over time. However, it’s probably best not to knowingly add to your problems by indiscriminate recruiting!
Please visit the Perform website for further information.
Attitude is Everything in Sales - To learn more about this author, visit Harry Hayden's Website.
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(Visit Harry's Website)
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