Most sales managers love the idea of having some or many young and eager reps on their team that they can take under their wing and mould into loyal and strong performers, but finding the “diamond in the rough” is risky business at best since entry level candidates have little or no work history to
There are many different types of sales roles, but traditionally there have been two main divisions in selling: those who sell to the people that come to them (inside sales, aka in-house sellers, aka inbound) and those that go out and hunt down their own prospects then close the deal (outside, those who sell on
When our research tracked 20,000 new hires, 46% of them failed within 18 months. But even more surprising than the failure rate, was that when new hires failed, 89% of the time it was for attitudinal reasons and only 11% of the time for a lack of skill. The attitudinal deficits that doomed these failed
These days most leading employers use some kind of psychometric testing and proven selection techniques, along with a lot of hard-earned hands-on experience and good judgment to narrow the list down to one or two possibles from hundreds, sometimes thousands of hopefuls. You can learn a lot about someone from a well constructed psychometric test
There are literally a million different varieties of sales roles from those that handle inbound calls for information to those that manage existing relationships and those that open new accounts. The most coveted type of sales professional, what we tend to call, ‘Hunters’ pound the pavement (or the phone as the case may be), find
In the weeks to come we are going to address the various questions that a VP of Sales or CEO are faced with as they are looking at developing a kick-a$$, bullet-proof sales recruiting strategy and process. These strategies will apply whether you are a VP Sales/CEO of a enterprise or a small company. The topics
Never underestimate what you can learn from checking the references of someone you are thinking about hiring and never get so enamoured by a prospective hire that you don’t bother to make reference checks part of your hiring process. Here are some of the most insightful things we have learned from years of checking sales
When we say that sales people often do their best selling during interviews, we know that we sound like a broken record, but that doesn’t change the fact that getting past the sales job is a critical challenge in sales hiring. There are many ways to figure out the “real” salesperson during the hiring process,
I receive regular requests from authors to review books and the title of one recently caught my attention. The book’s title, Turbulent Times Leadership for Sales Managers: How the Very Best Boost Sales, piqued my interest because it speaks to the world that many sales leaders find themselves in today – the real world. I
You’ve heard it before, when hiring a salesperson make sure you have a clear description of your sales needs and a detailed screening process. Problem is, what you know and what you do, are often two different things. Defining mandatory, versus non-mandatory hiring criteria, allows you to find the best sales fit without wasting time
