Assess All Candidates

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Good news for your organization: you can remedy these problems when you establish a proven process for hiring top salespeople.

Follow this Proven Seven Step Process for Hiring Top Salespeople:
Determine Your Ideal Salesperson Criteria.
What skills, habits, strengths, and motivations do you need? What do top salespeople who sell to your ideal customers actually do?

Attract Top Salespeople.
The major online job sites are a good place to start. Write an ad that describes the top salesperson, their experiences and their accomplishments; you want top salespeople to say “that’s me”. For example, “You must have successfully sold services like ____… to people like____. You have earned at least _____. You are good at ___, ____, and _____. You’re looking for a company that ___, ___, and ___.”

Consider letting a well validated and predictive assessment perform your first screen. Don’t look at the resumes of candidates. Many potentially top performing salespeople are screened out with this flawed process. A good gambling database assessment not only saves time, but also delivers more qualified candidates! A validated and predictive assessment is critical to getting more of your sales hires to be in your “A” category.

Qualify.
Conduct your first interview by phone if possible, make it a brief, tough, interview to further qualify your sales rep candidates.

Full Interview.
This longer, recommended, in-person interview needs to challenge each candidate to confirm that they are truly qualified and a fit for your company. Have at least two people participate in this step to minimize your personal bias. Make sure these people have the necessary skills to interview effectively.

Persuade.