Recruiting, Interviewing, and Hiring the Ver y Best 99 be inheriting difficult personalities or marginal or low performers, you are likely also getting some very talented sales professionals. Whatever the case, what is best for your team from this time for- ward will vary based on many factors. The following are some of the core areas to consider: • Existing competence level of team members • Changes in business direction (introducing new products/ser- vices or expanding into new markets) • Regulatory changes (possible need for a new skill set) • Corporate mandate (due to increased or decreased budget) • Corporate culture (how the sales force fits in with the overall corporation) • Economy (recession or growth) • Major industry changes (mergers, acquisitions, expansion, contraction, etc.) Add to this list by thinking about the areas that affect your sales team and what might cause the need for minor shifts or broad changes in your current staff. D EVELOPING S PECIFIC C RITERIA FOR THE S ELECTION P ROCESS You have heard the advice to ‘‘think before you act.’’ When it comes to the recruiting process, this especially rings true.
Too often sales managers post job descriptions based on the requirements of the position but then just select the candidate whom they feel they can get along with best. This is a selection based on emotion rather than reason. While it might have its place in your social life, you really need to remove the emotion and base your decision to hire someone on specific criteria that you have set up and that the candi- date then meets. Before searching for a candidate, managers must know whom they want for the position.
A starting point would be to consider the characteristics best suited for the position, and how the person in the position needs to fit with the team. In analyzing the territory, the sales manager must look at both functional skills and other requirements for the job. For example, the sales manager must consider the territory itself and the strengths 100 F U N D A M E N TA L S O F S A L E S M A N AG E M E N T and weaknesses of the team as a whole. It is only by having goals and objectives and sticking to the plan that you will hire the right person for the job, and as a bonus, you will also avoid turnover, which is just as important due to all the costs in money and time associated with hiring and training.
Some core questions to ask are: • Is this a new territory? • If so, is it similar to any other territory? • Is the territory open due to either turnover, termination, or promotion? • What worked with the person who represented the territory? • What areas need improvement? • What personality styles would best fit this territory? • Will it require a significant amount of prospecting or will it require more servicing and relationship building? • What technical expertise, if any, is required? • Is this an isolated territory where the salesperson needs to be an independent self-starter? • Is this a territory that requires teamwork? • Has the candidate already offset any potential weakness? • What training will be necessary (immediate and long-term)? By proper planning, these and other questions can be addressed early on in the recruiting process. Sales managers with no plan usu- ally make the mistake of hiring in their own image. This is only successful when it matches what is needed for the territory. So odds are that you are not getting the right candidate when you hire in this fashion.
One way to help you with this is to make a list of your specific criteria. Once you have this, it is critical to stick to it (assuming no major changes in the sales environment are taking place). Of course, you will never find someone who fits every single criterion to per- fection. One way to help keep you on track is to rank criteria and to correctly weight the categories.
For example, if you are looking for someone who has specific technical knowledge, you can rank each candidate (1-10, with 1 being very weak and 10 being very strong). You could then give a Recruiting, Interviewing, and Hiring the Ver y Best 101 weight to technical knowledge (for example, 3) whereby it is 3 times as important as something with a weight of 1. You would end up with something like this for a candidate: Criteria Rank (1–10) x Weight (1–3) Total Ability to Read Financial Statements 7 2 14 Ease at Cold Calling 8 3 24 Industry Contacts 6 3 18 Total: 56 This means that candidate X got a ranking of a 7 (out of a total of 10) for her ability to read financial statements, a job requirement. Of a total of 3, it is considered a 2 (of medium importance).
When you run the numbers, you get a total of 56 for candidate X. Then you can see how she stacks up against the other candidates. We will look at the interview process more in a moment. You will also notice that this criteria fits in nicely with the sales skills model (technical knowledge, business acumen, communica- tion skills, market experience).
This ties in to the fact that the ex- ceptional salesperson is what you inherited, are training someone toward, and/or are looking to bring on board. In fact, those companies that excel at hiring today are more and more hiring to plan. So if a candidate does not have X years’ experi- ence doing Y, then he would not be a strong candidate. While this may seem overly stringent and could keep some potentially strong applicants, it helps you to maintain focus and hopefully bring to the top of the list those with the highest degree of matching skills and background, thus lowering the burden on training, coaching, and other areas.
At the same time, remember that in most cases you are legally required to allow anyone interested the chance to apply, and always be sure that each candidate is properly and fairly considered. Before getting the posting out into the marketplace for candi- dates to see, the sales manager needs to take the time to ensure that she is familiar with all of the key elements of the position. Ideally you should have some part in writing the job description. Fortu- nately this serves you as a sales manager as well as the candidate, because the job description sets the stage for many things, including delegating, motivating, and counseling, among other areas.
102 F U N D A M E N TA L S O F S A L E S M A N AG E M E N T Below are some of the questions you should be asking to ensure an accurate job description that will be useful in the interview itself. Education and Experience What formal skills and knowledge are needed to function well in this job? Why are these skills and sets of knowledge important? Could someone without these skills do the job well? Are there parallel skills that would substitute for what is listed? Do the requirements coincide with the job description? Are the requirements fair to all applicants? What is most important of all of them? Reporting Relationships Where is the position on the organizational chart? Who will the candidate report to, and will the candidate super- vise anyone? What compatibility is needed? Are there also informal or dotted-line reporting relationships? Work Environment What will the working conditions be? Is this job permanent? Will the description be changing soon? Is there travel involved? How often? What is the duration? Are there specific work hours? Do they rotate? Is there regular overtime? Salary What is the starting salary? Any flexibility or room for negotia- tion? What is the commission structure? Is there a bonus plan? Merit versus across-the-board increases? When is the salary review period? Are there opportunities for raises before the standard review? Recruiting, Interviewing, and Hiring the Ver y Best 103 Benefits Is there health insurance, life insurance, dental insurance, auto insurance, etc.? Is there a profit sharing, 401(k), retirement, or pension plan? What is the vacation, holiday, sick day, and long- /short-term disability policy? Do we offer specific training or other education programs as well as tuition reimbursement? Growth Opportunities What is the company policy on promotions, and are there inter- departmental promotions and/or lateral transfers? Can a promotion be turned down? Will that impact future of- fers? Special Requirements What else is expected and/or provided—for example, company car, tools, uniforms, dress code? Behavioral Analysis What communication style did the previous person to hold this position exhibit? What were the strengths and weaknesses? What type of communication style would work best for the opening? with the territory? with the existing sales team? What are the probable strengths associated with this pattern? Will this pattern help compensate and/or offset any weaknesses on the team? Internal Motivators What is the ideal internal motivator for a person in this job? What is a secondary motivator? What are the internal motivators of others on the team? Will they be compatible and/or complement one another? Of course, the job posting will not need all the answers to these questions, only those most pertinent to the job. Think of them as 104 F U N D A M E N TA L S O F S A L E S M A N AG E M E N T the need to know versus the nice to know. For example, if travel is a large percentage of the time and requires a car (that the company will not provide), then this should be stipulated in order to be able to focus on the appropriate candidates.
After all, omitting pertinent facts or responsibilities on the job description, while not always pur- poseful or misleading, could prove to be a waste of the candidates’ time as well as yours. O PTIMAL S OURCES FOR R ECRUITING The recruiting process is an ongoing effort and responsibility of most sales managers. Though a corporate structure may be in place vis-à-vis human resources to generate candidates and to conduct the initial screening, being aware of exceptional people is part of a manager’s ongoing function. Successful sales managers will take a proactive stance when recruiting to support the larger corporate effort.
That being said, there is no greater misuse of time than sort- ing through pages of unqualified candidates because the initial screens were not in place. Hopefully you have a human resources department that can help with this process. Either way, there should be some involvement on your part, so having a plan and maintain- ing the discipline to stick to it will be up to you. Below are some of the major sources to consider for recruiting.
• Campus recruiting • Contingent staff • On-line job sites • Company Web site • Job fairs • Newspaper ads • Recruiting firms • Trade associations and magazines • Referrals by company employees • Internal candidates Campus Recruiting The advantage of campus recruiting is that the candidate pool is wide and enthusiastic. A great opportunity exists to hire potential winners at entry-level salaries. Recruiting, Interviewing, and Hiring the Ver y Best 105 The disadvantage is the risk of early turnover because the candi- date cannot do the job or discovers that the job is not what they anticipated. Maximizing Campus Recruiting • The Internet.
Many online job sites provide a specific category for posting jobs for college students or recent graduates. Here you can fine-tune your search and post a position only with the schools you preselect. Also, you do not have to spend the time going from campus to campus posting a position, as it can be disseminated cen- trally to all the chosen schools via the site.