Ashlar Performance

Hiring a Sales Rep shouldn’t be this hard!

Many companies find that trying to effectively hire a Sales Rep is one of the most elusive and difficult tasks their managers have to do. In spite of best intentions, the success rate is woefully low when compared to hiring for other job functions. Many Sales Managers will state that the percentage of hiring mistakes is as high as 50%. So, is it the problem the Candidate or the Hiring Manager? In fact, it may very well be that both contribute to making the process difficult to complete successfully. Let’s look at some of the factors that complicate the process.

To begin with, the entire Sales Rep hiring cycle is quite often misunderstood. The Candidate often believes that interviews are ‘sales calls’, and that they should treat the hiring cycle as a sales cycle. Success comes by ‘making the sale’ and getting the job offer. They sell their skills, closing rates, industry experience and history of success to a hiring manager just like they would sell a product or service to a customer.

On the other hand, hiring managers will quite often expect to be sold in the interview process. How many times have you heard a Sales Manager say that they ask a Candidate to “sell me this pen”? Questions like this one perpetuate various myths relative to hiring Sales Reps. They make an incorrect assumption that if a Candidate sells themselves well in the interview, then they most certainly will be successful working here.

Not enough emphasis is being placed on assessing and hiring for the right ‘fit’. We hear the word being spoken repeatedly, but not being put into action. Both Candidate and hiring manager need to strip emotion, stereotypes and appearances out of the process. Real effort should be made on both sides to formulate questions that will effectively showcase true elements of a possible fit. Once a proper fit determination has been made, the next steps will be obvious.

Sound idealistic? Not really. It all starts with a company formulating a hiring process that is totally focused on establishing proper fit. The key is the hiring manager: they will drive this process change. Following training, the hiring manager will then be much more effective at uncovering those key elements of fit. Hiring Reps that are a closer fit will reduce attrition and contribute to a better on-boarding process, and thus greater success, quicker. And, this change is worth it since the consequences of hiring mistakes are quite significant.