Finding good salespeople is hard but it is much harder if you don’t have a process to make your hiring systematic and scientific. While some of the hiring can be an art, a lot of it can also be a science too.
Key Steps:
- First create a good Sales Org design – this “design” must precede your recruiting because whom you recruit depends on that design.
- Then you need to make a Scorecard for what you’re looking for – it should include: traits/characteristics, capabilities, and skills
- Align on the process with all the stakeholders who will be recruiting and interviewing
Key Personality Traits / Characteristics / Attributes:
- Drive / Ambition / Desire to Win / Healthy Competition
- Hard Work
- Conscientious / Dedicated / Gets the Job Done
- Optimism / Grit / Resilience / Thick Skin / Tenacity / Confidence
- Coachable / Adaptable / Flexible / Open to Feedback / Learner Mentality
- Intelligent / Analytical / Reasoning Skills
- Empathetic / EQ / People Skills
- Passion (any: a sales career, or your company, or your industry, etc.
Key Capabilities:
- Prior Successes
- Time Management
- Conflict Management & Resolution
- Continuous Learning & Improvement
- Resourceful / Problem Solver / Has Critical Thinking Abilities
Key Selling Skills: (if you’re hiring an experienced salesperson)
- Time Management
- Active Listening
- Rapport / Relationship Building
- Value-Creation
- Prospecting
- Discovery
- Qualification
- Positioning
- Demoing
- Storytelling
- Objections
- Closing
- Deal Negotiations
- Pipeline Management
- Forecasting
- Excel skills
When in doubt, the Most Basic Formula is: Intelligence/Capability + Energy/Hard Work + Character.
And generally, look for people with drive, smarts, coachability – you can build an army based on these attributes and recruit athletes who will take to training and coaching. Look for outstanding people in a group of outstanding people and find people who can look at themselves objectively.
If you would like a Scorecard with Interview Questions relating to each specific criteria above – please contact me and happy to share with you the one I’ve put together over the years and have used successfully.