| Imagine this picture. Turnover occurs - sometimes at | | | | without questions designed to discover competencies, |
| an excessive rate. Sales managers work hard and | | | | important personality traits, and character attributes. |
| struggle to find quality candidates for open sales | | | | 6. Recruit personality traits and sales skills over |
| positions. They place ads in local newspapers and get | | | | character values like honesty, personal responsibility, |
| many responses. Some use Monster. Some use | | | | and hard work ethic. |
| recruiters. However, many of their candidates come | | | | 7. Do not use a validated personality profile. |
| from people who cannot find a job anywhere else. | | | | 8. Sell their company to candidates during most of the |
| Sales managers then sift through dozens of resumes | | | | interview time. They even sell themselves on the |
| to find only a few candidates worth an interview. | | | | candidate. |
| While they sift through resumes, they find themselves | | | | 9. Talk more than the candidate does during an |
| stressed to find someone fast - stressed by their | | | | in-depth interview. |
| bosses and by a decrease in sales team production. | | | | 10. Do not involve other employees during final |
| When the candidates arrive, the resumes look better | | | | interviews. |
| than they do! Even so, sales managers decide to | | | | 11. Save candidates when they struggle with a question |
| move ahead with the best candidates. They sell | | | | - sometimes even giving them the answer. |
| themselves - they make themselves see what isn't | | | | 12. Hire candidates when only their instinct says yes. |
| really there. This results in hiring people who do not | | | | 13. Hire candidates when their instinct says no. |
| possess the personality traits of high performers. | | | | What's wonderful when you look at these behaviors? |
| Eventually, sales managers begin to lower their | | | | Yes. Wonderful? |
| standards. They shift the focus and blame a difficult | | | | People can change. That's right. They can change. |
| career for the inability to recruit high quality people. For | | | | Sales managers who want to get better can get |
| every three to seven people they hire, only one | | | | better. Better ways do exist. |
| seems to start off well. First year production | | | | Multiple sources can be used for candidate leads. A |
| decreases, turnover increases, and overall team | | | | sales manager can always be recruiting in advance of |
| production decreases. A negative sales culture forms. | | | | their needs. |
| What do these sales managers do wrong in the | | | | Top traits do exist in high performers and sales |
| recruiting process? | | | | managers can discover them. Structured interviews |
| Sales managers make poor hiring decisions when | | | | can be written to assess the presence of these traits |
| exhibiting the following behaviors. They ... | | | | within people. Character traits like honesty can be |
| 1. Do not use multiple sources for finding job | | | | made nonnegotiable for winning a sales position. |
| candidates. | | | | Validated personality profiles can be used as objective |
| 2. Source for candidates just before they need a | | | | and predictive recruiting tools. |
| position filled. | | | | Sales managers can learn to develop interviewing skills. |
| 3. Rush through hiring without a multistage process ... | | | | They can learn not to save people. They can learn to |
| interview and then hire (a pipe process instead of a | | | | hush and listen. They can to learn to follow a process. |
| funnel). | | | | And, they can learn to follow their gut when their gut |
| 4. Have not analyzed and do not know the top 6 | | | | says, "No," and to keep following the process when |
| personality traits necessary in top performers for | | | | their gut says, "Yes." Sales managers can learn to |
| industry sales competence. | | | | recruit well. They can. Now, go do it. You can. |
| 5. Do shoot-from-the-hip nonstructured interviews | | | | |