Top Sales Manager Blog

OK, you need to hire a new sales rep.

Maybe, the one you just let go just couldn’t cut it…

Or maybe, your company is going through an expansion and you have to hire three more…

Or perhaps your best rep just got promoted, congratulations by the way…even though it does stink for you.

So what do you do?

In our next series of blog posts, we’ll be going through some of the essential steps required to hire top salespeople. In this first series, we touch on screening sales candidates prior to the interview phase.

Beware however, the tendency is to do a “one and done” interview and hire, you will regret this very poor decision later…trust me, Ive done it and it’s the worst thing you can do.

What you need is a strategy to screen resumes, determine which ones you want to either phone screen or interview, then interview, then hire.

You’ve go a lot to do, you are busy and getting busier by the second.

Well for the next few posts, we will be gong through this entire process step-by-step so you make the right decision, minimize the chances of making the wrong decisions, and hire the next sales superstar for your team.

So let’s get into the first step in the entire process of interviewing: resume screening.

Step 1: Examine your hiring criteria

The first real step is to identify what your hiring criteria really is.

Like many companies, you most likely have a job posting somewhere on your company’s website for all to view to the world. It may go a little something like this:

Currently, we seek a Sales Executive in our East Bay, California territory.

As part of our highly visible sales team, Sales Executives target and secure profitable new business to build relationships as aligned with regional and national marketing strategies. You will provide overall support and expertise to new accounts to ensure the highest level of quality service and provide customer education on ABC Corporation’s processes and procedures.

We Require:

• A Bachelors degree in Business, Marketing or the Life Sciences
• 5 years successful front line sales experience including strong “closing” skills
• Knowledge of the healthcare industry and the general economics of business
• Ability to develop and sustain strong customer relationships
• Strong business planning and organizational skills
• Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills
• Solid PC skills including knowledge of Microsoft software
• A valid driver’s license

Well there you go, all you need to do is find all that and you’re on your way to hiring a sales superstar!

Hardly. I’m guessing that this is not the exact candidate you’re looking for….

The problem is that with most postings looking like this, there is really nothing in the posting that will help you to screen out the resumes you don’t want and help you bring in the ones you do want. Nor does it give you any indication of the types of talents that you are actually looking for.

So, Step 1 is examine your hiring criteria and make a list of qualities you cannot live without in a new sales recruit. In The Sales Management Mastery Academy, we have a list of five and we call them the “Fabulous Five”.

You need to come up with your sales management “Fabulous Five”…before we reveal our five…and here’s how you do it:

1. Sit quietly with a yellow legal pad and pen for about 15 minutes or so and think about what characteristics you absolutely need to have in a sales candidate in order to achieve the results you want. Think about all your top performers, or maybe top performers that are in other sales groups. What core characteristics do they have in common?

2. Write down five absolutely essential character traits that those sales reps have, (there could be more but don’t get too complicated)

With all the work you have to do…you need to get some help sifting through the bad resumes so you can focus on the good ones.

To save you TONS of time, a sales recruiter will do this work for you – so you can stay focused on other things.

We’ll give you more insights on excellent sales recruiters in our next post.

To learn more about sales management training, click here to get your choice of free sales management training courses.

Do you have your own hiring criteria? Please leave a comment after this post.

Filed under: Hiring by ralphburns