10 Startup Steps for Hiring a Great Sales Team

Properly define the job.

Most managers try to determine whom they want to hire rather than hiring the best fit for the job. If you profile the person whom would do a superior job, the resulting profile might define some one totally different than originally planned, filling the position based on skills, behaviors and motivators inherent to the job.

Benchmark the position.

Job Benchmarking is a definitive tool designed to take the guesswork and bias out of the hiring process. It assesses the job based on the merits of the work required by the employee and not on their perceived abilities and personality. It also eliminates comparing the new employee to others already doing the job. Hiring as hired in the past will not target super stars needed to excel and grow your business.

Re-write your ad.

Most ads ask what the candidate has done in the past, and while it might be important, it doesn’t tell you what they can do or how well they will do the job. Specifically state the outcomes you want each candidate to display while employed. Most will not apply if they feel pre-screening will not meet your requirements.

Pre-screen the applicants.

To many, this means going over the resume to qualify backgrounds, experience or education. Instead, E-mail each applicant a set of questions to weed out ones who are clearly a poor choice for the job especially if they interface with internal or external customers, and are unable to represent the company in a professional manner.

Screen the applicants.

Most companies have set pro-cedures in place to screen out prospects that do not meet the basic requirements of the job. However, pre-screening via email and a set series of questions will help to further weed out unprofessional or less than desirable candidates.

Pre-interview meeting.

Many companies have multiple employees interview prospective candidates. What they fail to do is preplan the interview process to consistently obtain the same information from each of the candidates. When possible, interviewers should also be included in the benchmarking process to ensure buy in and accountability.

Interview the Candidate.

Most managers have not been trained on how to interview a perspective new employee. When possible, companies need to hire a coach to train managers on how to interview and determine a good fit for the organization. Most interviewers make the decision to hire based on a person’s past performance and within the first five minutes of an interview. Companies need to teach how to avoid these pitfalls by reducing the hiring bias and taking the guesswork out the hiring process.

Assess the Candidate.

Talent assessments tell how closely the candidate matches a job. Many feel this part of the process should come after the interview. A well-designed talent report will help determine not only if a candidate can do the job but also how well they might do it. It will often highlight deficiencies that might detract from the individuals’ overall performance as well. Why waste more time and money interviewing a candidate requiring compromise to hire?

Post-interview meeting.

Debrief each of the interviewers on their choice of candidate(s). Interviewers need to justify choices based on the sample questions each asked and on relevant feedback and agree as a group. If you did your benchmark correctly, and you have already run a talent report, there should be a stand out candidate.

Don’t hire to just to fill a slot.

Some just want the hiring process to stop because it is taking to long and fill the position with a “body”. Managers who are willing to settle for a so-so employee are probably just so-so managers. Either you did not throw a wide enough net to capture enough good prospects or your ad writing needs improvement. It costs just as much to find a good employee as it does to find an incompetent one.

Leave a Reply