Hiring Salespeople

While I have spent most of my adult life hiring and training salespeople, it has been two years since my last new hire and that was for a client. I left my last management job in 2005 and have been blissfully semi-retired since that time. Well, here I go again and once again for a client.

The most challenging, and grinding, part of this whole process is fielding and reviewing applications. I rank them yes, maybe, no. You have to be able to filter through a lot of dirt in order to find the diamonds. Even then, it’s a crap shoot.

Here’s the thing. I can train product knowledge and sales skills. I can’t train “attitude” including drive and competitiveness. Therefore, I largely hire based on characteristics. If they are open to, eager for, new ideas … I can work with that.

This is often a challenge with seasoned sales reps. Many are not open to my suggestions. In fact, some are downright insulted by them. Oh well. Move on. My ONLY goal is to see my hires excel. I get no greater pleasure than from seeing that happen. It’s my reward.

I do integrate behavior and selling skills assessments into this process, but only with the top candidates. The results don’t necessarily influence my decisions. The discussions that I have with candidates when we review them will. The points raised, good and bad, and how they react to them, can be windows into the soul.

They can also identify those areas where we might spend additional time during training. Reading those reports can also often knock a candidate off of their high horse. In the immortal words of Dr. Evil … “I guess you are not all that and a bag of potato chips”. Like the military … break them down and build them up.

I am a keen observer of “demonstrated behaviors”. I will assume that what I see during the interview process I will also see during training, how they will work with potential clients, and what will be their ability to earn repeat business and referrals. I’m rarely disappointed in my assessments.

I recently developed a spreadsheet where I score each candidate on a variety of areas. It helps me to avoid mixing one from the other, it is my memory tablet, and I update it with each interaction. I wish I had thought of this 40 years ago:)

My training methodology has constantly evolved. For that matter, my selling style has also evolved, substantially, through the years. I am, what I term, a “sales fundamentalist”. This means that I focus on the sales process vs. shiny tools and mounds of data. If you can’t do the fundamentals, nothing can help you!

The funniest part of selling is that it isn’t even sales skills that will earn you that sale. It’s being perceived a being different than other salespeople. This isn’t that hard to do. People, and salespeople, are notoriously bad at the little things like being responsive and setting and then exceeding client expectations. Long list.

I also think that, the holy grail of selling, the “close” is highly overrated. The close is “the natural culmination” of a well executed sales plan. It’s not the end of the sale. It is entirely contingent on what happened before you get to that point.

I thrive on competition and nothing thrills me more than a great battle and a vanquished enemy … my competitor. There ain’t no honor in being the low bid. I can train a monkey to sell low bid. Or an elephant. Those guys will work for peanuts.

Think of the poor soul who came in second place, otherwise known as “first loser”. “I was substantially under their price and I still didn’t get the sale!?”. Later gator.

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!