Hiring for Sales? Then read on!

Though they don't give out degrees for it, selling is a true skill.  And because most people can not do the job successfully, sales people do get paid well-above average wages.  

Yet, hiring for sales professionals in our current economic client, remains one of the most challenging disciplines to hire within. The primary reasons being:

1. The career is lost on many millennials and Gen Z, as they perceive sales to be constricting and highly accountable, which often is in conflict with their goal of having flexibility, especially now in our Post-Covid world.
2. Sales can be stigmatized, as many people perceive sales people as pushy and aggressive used car sellers and they don't realize that "good selling techniques" are a real skill.
3. There is a great mismatch. Unfortunately, natural sales people are rare and sales managers are misled during the job interviews by sales people who are good at disguising themselves as some one capable of producing successful sales results.
4. Not using all the tools to hire the greatest sales talent possible. That includes, advertising, networking and using recruiters when necessary. 

And once you have the right sales people, keeping sales talent is challenging. Good sales people leave for many reasons including: limited career growth, limited and constricted commission structure and/or poor management.

And since it takes as long as 18 months for most technology-centric/SaaS sales people to break even for a company, a new hire can be a costly venture, and one that as a hiring manager, you want to do everything possible to get right.

With the mandate by clients to find superior sales talent, I have learned over time (when recruiting sales talent), that when it comes to sales, a leopard does not change its stripes. In other words, past performance indicates future performance, which is why you need to find sales talent that has been in most, if not all of their roles for nothing less than three years (though to be fair, everyone is allowed at least one or two mulligans, yet more than two can indicate poor judgement).  

Why three years? The first year, you can sell nothing, the second year the company is trying all sorts of reasons to get rid of you; therefore, you can fake it for 18-24 months and sell nothing. Or to put it another way-it is all about actual sales. Sidebar: Once I received a resume from a sales person who listed all of the companies that were currently in their pipeline. Unfortunately, pipeline doesn't generate a paid contract or revenue. So, if you make it to year three and beyond, you have the potential to be a keeper and one that knows the rigors and disciplines of sales. 

So, what does that equate to you when hiring sales talent?  

It means you need to be less enamored with their sales jargon and more concerned with what they learned and accomplished and understand why they left each job for the next career opportunity (more on that below). Reasons like change in management (sales is a profession of nimbleness-so frequently a poor excuse), reduction in staff (great sales people rarely get terminated even during the bad times-so another possible poor excuse) are reasons that usually don't hold water. So be mindful of such statements.

However, a change in compensation structure or having a product that cannot be successfully sold are valid reasons for a departure, yet they can not be consistent excuses for leaving throughout one's career. In any one sales person's career, they need to (through metrics and sales numbers) demonstrate consistency and accomplishments in their sales career.

For each job in their career, it is important to ask: What learnings they garnered, why they left and how they got into their next role. You will find out imperative pieces of information that are rarely on their resume. For example, some of my favorite sales candidates are the ones who have been hired by previous managers who have known their work and hired for past and successful performance. Most likely that is NOT on the resume and you would not find that out sort of information, if you didn't ask.

So, in summary, make sure you include these three questions when interviewing sales professionals:

1. What were your three key learnings from that company you worked for?
2. Why did you leave your last role?
3. How did you get to your next role?  

What are some of your favorite questions that yield sales success when hiring?

#saleshiring #sales #recruiting #hiring