So you hired a sales person who can’t sell (again!)
So you hired a sales person who can’t sell. Well, you’re not alone.
Let me guess at some scenarios that happened leading up to that bad hire.
- Their CV showed they’d worked for some respected competitors
- At interview they said all the right things and name dropped the right people
- Your recruiter said they were the best sales person they’ve represented in ages
- You actually had a gut feeling they wouldn’t work out, but took a chance anyway
- The candidate was the best of a bad bunch
And how many of these scenarios are also true?
- You didn’t reference them prior to offer
- You didn’t check their achievements against their targets
- You didn’t speak to the people they name dropped
- You waste lots of time inducting and training them
- They upset your existing staff
- Having introduced them to your customers, they caused issues with them
- You paid a recruiter a hefty fee and have nothing to show for it other than a mess to clear up
- Your reputation is tarnished with your team, your boss and your customers
- You did 4x 1st interviews, 2x 2nd interviews and made an offer
- Not all the people involved in hiring we’re convinced but you overruled them
As Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
So, now we know the story and believe me it happens all the time, how are you going to recruit the next sales person?
As a lifelong recruiter and founder of a successful recruitment agency I’ll share my top 5 tips.
1. Check sales achievements against sales targets thoroughly.
There is only one mark of a good sales person and that’s RESULTS. Good sales people ALWAYS put their results against targets on their CV.
2. Verbally reference the best candidate prior to offer.
And do it personally. Don’t get HR to send your standard reference request to another HR person who will send back a generic, dates of employment pointless reference that you’ll receive 3 weeks after they’ve started. Instead pick up the phone, call their old bosses and ask for an ‘off the record heads up’
3. This is tough to do – but LISTEN to your gut feeling.
Even if it means starting the process again. Your years of experience, your human intellect, first impressions, naturally suspicious mind works best instinctively so USE IT. The time and money you will waste with each mis-hire is up to 3x their salary.
If you don’t believe me check out this Bad Hire Calculator and work it out for yourself.
4. Work with one specialist agency on an exclusive basis.
Working with multiple agencies or any agency that sends you an interesting CV is a quick way to make a bad hire. There are many reasons why this is true, read my blog to find out more.
5. Screen candidates thoroughly.
This should be through multiple ways. Some examples are: psychometric assessment, competency questions, trial day, test written communication, Maths, English, scenario based
You can do all these things easily and cheaply yourself, however if you would prefer a professional recruiter to take care of it for you for NO EXTRA COST book a call with us.
With an average recruitment for of 16% we offer all of the options below:
- Free replacement guarantee up to 12 months
- Psychometric assessments
- Fee payment installments
- Competency based questioning
- Video interviewing pre-recorded
- 100% money back guarantee if we don’t deliver