Interviewing and choosing good salesmen

Finding a good salesman is a tricky business - but getting it right is worth all of the effort. The problem is that there isn't a formal qualification that says: "This person is a fully trained fully qualified salesman". The only thing you have to go on is their track record. This post does not describe a comprehensive selection process, but having recruited many sales people over twenty years it gives some useful tips that I have learned through experience:

1. Interview lots of people at first interview stage and just go on gut feel. Are they nice people, do you get along, do you find them interesting, engaging or funny? Don't get too hung up on sales stuff just yet. After all people buy from people so the first thing you want is someone who gets along with people.
2. Use the first interview process to build a short list of three - then task each of them with doing a short presentation to you and a couple of colleagues. Give them a simple brief like: "Please tell us in no more than 10 minutes why we should hire you and what you are going to do in your first 3 months to be successful". What you are doing is putting them in a sales situation - seeing if they can sell. Think of it as being a bit like test driving a car.
3. In the Q&A ask them this question: "Rank the following 5 attributes of this role in order of importance to you - 1) career prospects 2) job title 3) job satisfaction 4) money 5) good working environment. You are only interested in one thing - that the answer in money! A salesman who is interested in any of these attributes ahead of money isn't a salesman. You want your sales guy foaming at the mouth at the prospect of making a big commission cheque - not worrying about his status in the company or his next career move.
4. Finally when you have chosen your man take up references. Don't use his - insist on your own criteria. I recommend you get a minimum of three 1) His last boss 2) A current customer and 3) A current work colleague. Spend time on these conversations. What was he like, was he punctual, was he easy to get on with, was he sociable, did his customers like him, did he make his targets? You can find out a lot from innocuous question. Always ask if they would re-engage with your candidate - i.e. would you hire him again, would you buy from him again. Listen to how much conviction is in the answer. They will all say yes - but how they say yes is what you are listening for.
5. If your candidates previous company say they don't give reference you should smell a rat. That may be a company saying we may give a bad reference and don't want to do that.

Finally on a practical note make sure you build in some terms and conditions with your recruiting partner to protect yourselves when things don't work out. I always insist on a free replacement if the candidate leaves, for whatever reason, in the first three months. Don't sign anything that says you only get a rebate for the first few weeks. If your recruiter is doing his job (i.e. sending you good people) he shouldn't be afraid of this. Good luck

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I am lucky enough to have been successful several times with start-up and early stage businesses (there's a topic - was it really luck?).

I aim to put something back by offering advice of any description to today's entrepreneurs and small business leaders. This blog is designed to oil the wheels of that process by discussing the issues that I think were important to me in building my businesses and that are important to the current generation of entrepreneurs.

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