One of the most challenging and important things a business will do will be hiring the right people. This is especially true for small businesses and startups as your success is more impacted by a single bad hire. This is a list of my hiring tips that have served me well over my career working with both small and large organizations.
Situational questions with specific answers. The most important component of my interview process is to ask situational questions. Examples could include “Tell me about the most important sale of your career and why you feel that way” or “Tell me about your biggest sales disappointment and what you learned about it”. The answers can be very telling about what is actually done, instead of just how situations would be handled hypothetically. It is also interesting to find out how long ago the situations happened. Be wary of the candidate that has all the answers coming from situations that occurred 10 years ago.
Understand the role you are hiring for today and tomorrow. When you are a startup, you are often hiring a VP of Sales that needs to provide a sales strategy as well as being your main sales rep as you grow. Some candidates may be good at one and not the other. Make sure you explain the role and ask questions for the different attributes and experiences that are relevant. A blog from earlier this year expands on this point.
Make sure your sales compensation plan is set and review it with the candidate. One of the biggest issues that lead to employee and employer dissatisfaction is different expectations. The sales compensation plan should help to guide the sales professional’s activities. Make sure they understand it and the expectations. I did a recent post on the components of a sales compensation plan.
Be prepared for the interview. This sounds ridiculous, but I see managers going down a candidates resume and asking adhoc questions. I create a set of questions for each position that I hire for and would ask most, but not always all to each candidate.
Some good candidates may not have much sales experience. Many startups cannot afford to hire expensive and experienced sales resource. When hiring new grads or sales people with little sales experience you need to change the questions. The key for me is find out if they are they a hard worker, intelligent, willing to learn, can work independently, and can put themselves in sales like situations. There are still many situational questions that can be asked about school or their jobs that will lead you to evaluate these attributes.
Hiring the right team members can be the most important decision you make as you grow your company. Take time during the interview process to get it right and make the best choice. If you have any questions on the blog please leave a comment or contact me and I would be happy to give you some additional information on hiring the right sales person.
