Hiring A Salesperson?
8 Tips To Help You Avoid A Bad Hire
By Glenn Fallavollita, President - Drip Marketing, Inc. & SellMorePayroll.com
- Word Count: 521
- Time To Read: 2.1 Minutes
50% to 66% of all newly hired salespeople* quit or get fired in their first 4- to 12-months of employment. That’s right; almost 66% of all newly hired salespeople won't last longer than 12 months!
This One Business Lost $200,000 With 5 Bad Hires.
I recently spoke with a business owner who hired and fired one sales leader and four salespeople in 18 months - who lasted, on average, 6.4 months. By the way, his out-of-pocket expense for these bad hires exceeded $200,000. Yes, $200,000. What’s worse is this: The five hires above generated less than $15,000 in new sales for the $200,000 spent.
8 Tips To Help Avoid A Poor Hiring Decision.
Tip #1: Don’t Rush The Hiring Process - While you may want a salesperson on your staff, keep in mind the cost of hiring the wrong person; therefore, take a careful look at your interviewing, reference checking, and onboarding process.
Tip #2: Pay A Bounty - Go to your staff, database of contacts, and vendors and say, “I’ll pay you $5,000 in cash if you can help me recruit a successful salesperson.” What you need to do next is hand each person a one-page overview of whom you are looking for and how the $5,000 is paid. By the way, you will only pay the $5,000 if the salesperson produces $X in revenue in their first 12-months of employment.
Tip #3: Check References As Salespeople Will Embellish Their Success - References are the best chance you have at gauging whether someone can perform a sales job at your company. By the way, the most common lies of a resume, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com, relate to:
- Embellished skill set – 57%
- Embellished responsibilities – 55%
- Dates of employment – 42%
- Job title – 34%
- Academic degree – 33%
- Companies worked for – 26%
- Accolades/awards – 18%
Tip #4: Ask Past Employers This Question - “If you had the chance, would you hire <first name> again?” Their response, or lack of an answer, will be eye-opening.
Tip #5: Look Deep Into Your Rolodex, LinkedIn Contacts, And Vendors - When you have an open sales position, reach out to your contacts to see if they know of anyone (or maybe themselves) who might be interested in a sales position at your company.
Tip #6: Test Them On The Computer - The days of not being computer savvy are over for a salesperson. Because of this, test every candidate on their ability to use a CRM program and Outlook BEFORE you hire them.
Tip #7: Don’t Hire Salespeople Who Will Work From Home - If you can avoid it, hire a salesperson within a reasonable driving distance from your office. I've seen more salespeople who work from home fail - especially when they didn't have a full-time sales manager.
Tip #8: Make Sure You Are Ready - BEFORE you consider hiring your next salesperson, make sure you are ready (sales training manual, sales tracking reports, prospecting databases, sales scripts, etc.).
Executive Summary: Before you hire a salesperson, ask them to role-play on these two things:
- Their discovery process when talking with a prospect.
- A PowerPoint presentation on what they are currently selling. Wow, what a novel idea!
*At smaller, independent businesses.
About The Author:
Glenn Fallavollita is a nationally recognized keynote speaker providing money-making advice to help owners, sales pros, and marketing gurus build more profitable relationships with their database of prospects, referral partners, and clients.
Additionally, Glenn is the president of Drip Marketing, Inc. and has written 50+ whitepapers and three sales/self-marketing books, Supercharge Your Payroll Sales NOW!, Stop Whining AND Start Selling, and Drip Marketing: A Powerful New Marketing Strategy That Gets Prospects To Buy From You. He also writes blogs for LinkedIn and other national websites.
To hire Glenn for your next conference, visit DripMarketingSpeaker.com.
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