What should you be looking for in your next salesperson? And if you are looking for a sales job, what should you be working on to attract top employers?
Sales managers ask this question when they realize they need to recruit. Business owners ask it when they want to hire their first salesperson. Salespeople (and non-salespeople) ask this (ie: what are companies looking for when they hire salespeople?) when they are unhappy or unemployed.
If you are a salesperson reading this and on the job hunt, the things a company should look for are the things you should be doing to attract the companies you want to be a part of. Treat your job hunt just as you would treat your sales process. Even if you aren’t hunting for a job, these things will help you prospect and sell better. (And you’ll never have to hunt for a job again, because they will come to you.)
First, if you are looking to hire a salesperson, you will need a profile that has the criteria of how your best salesperson thinks and behaves in order to be successful in the role and a good culture fit with your company.
Other things to look for might be if they have an online personal presence and following. What are they sharing, writing about, or passionate about? Do people recommend them online and interact with them? Are they responsive and consistent?
If you are looking for a new job, or considering one, you should do the same thing. What criteria do you need? What companies are a good example? What do they ‘look’ like online?
What to look for is going to depend on the profile of your ideal salesperson in the specific role you need them to fill. That is too many variables to cover here, so here are a few of the fundamentals:
How they perform during the interview is an indication of how they will engage with your customers and team. Here is how one VP of Sales conducted interviews.
In addition to the questions already mentioned, here are 10 more to consider:
Whether or not your next sales hire will be successful can be predicted, to a degree. Variables like your industry, buyer, life-cycle stage of your business, the ideal salesperson profile, how you recruit, hire, on-board, and the development program are all examples. Click here for a free trial of the scientific sales candidate assessment for your next hire to get started on the right foot.
Hindsight is always 20/20 after you hire, and even if you already feel the sting of an unsuccessful hire, the hiring cost of an unsuccessful salesperson is probably far greater than you think.
Click here to answer 15 questions (less than 5 minutes) instantly get a calculation of your total cost of hiring mistakes including your cost of recruitment, development and lost business.