Is Using Past Success In Hiring A Mistake?
Is Using Past Success In Hiring A Mistake?
Questions are rarely asked of how the candidate might perform in the new job, if the applicant is selected for the position. If the candidates are applying for a opening with new responsibilities or a new product or service line, different from what they have sold in the past, what’s to say they have the untested skills to do this job for you. As discussed in earlier myths, most interviews seem to focus on the functional skills that you can measure. Does the candidate have the needed degrees, licenses and training? Do they have experience or will they need to be trained?
Most interviews focus on what an applicant has done in other jobs similar to the position you have open. There’s this illogical conclusion that if they succeeded in the past, they will succeed again. And if a candidate is good at describing past successes, they will do the same for your organization. Past performance is no guarantee of future success. What is really important is how you evaluate an individual’s competencies, defined as the skills, knowledge and personality needed to do the job that you are trying to fill. To learn more about the do's and the don'ts of hiring sales professionals, check out my new manual 101 Sales Management Myths
Is Using Past Success In Hiring A Mistake - To learn more about this author, visit Virden Thornton's Website.
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A sales candidate’s resume will tell you about the sales experience of an applicant and other work related information that might impact performance in the sales position you have open. If the candidate’s smart, the resume will also highlight past successes in glowing terms. However, just because it is written in the resume, doesn’t mean what is written there is true or that the candidate can repeat the successes that are listed or attain the performance levels again for you. What is vital for you to learn in selecting a candidate for an open sales position, is how well a candidate will perform in a job like the one you are trying to fill. Often a employment interview will never even touch on the candidate’s competence for the new position.
Questions are rarely asked of how the candidate might perform in the new job, if the applicant is selected for the position. If the candidates are applying for a opening with new responsibilities or a new product or service line, different from what they have sold in the past, what’s to say they have the untested skills to do this job for you. As discussed in earlier myths, most interviews seem to focus on the functional skills that you can measure. Does the candidate have the needed degrees, licenses and training? Do they have experience or will they need to be trained?
Most interviews focus on what an applicant has done in other jobs similar to the position you have open. There’s this illogical conclusion that if they succeeded in the past, they will succeed again. And if a candidate is good at describing past successes, they will do the same for your organization. Past performance is no guarantee of future success. What is really important is how you evaluate an individual’s competencies, defined as the skills, knowledge and personality needed to do the job that you are trying to fill. To learn more about the do's and the don'ts of hiring sales professionals, check out my new manual 101 Sales Management Myths
Is Using Past Success In Hiring A Mistake - To learn more about this author, visit Virden Thornton's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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