“Where are all the good salespeople?” That’s a question I’m often asked.
Here’s what my experience has shown to be of proven value. Know What to Look for in a Good Salesperson.
Evaluate the really good employees at your office. Pay close attention to your top performing people. What personality traits do they have, where do they come from, what are their parents like (large family, small family), their work history, etc.? If you do this on a regular basis, you’ll have an exact blueprint of the type of people you need to hire.
Ask your top performers questions like “How did you get all these good habits?” and “What’s your secret?” Read my monthly print newsletter, Chris Mullins’ Nuggets® for Sales. Each month we do a personal interview with a Sales Hot Shot to find out what makes him or her so successful. Read each interview more than once with highlighter in hand, and soon you’ll have a great head start as to what to look for when interviewing candidates.
Birds of a feather flock together. Ask if your top performers have friends like themselves who may be interested in sales work.
Most of the really good salespeople have grown up in a family business—their parents ran a company, and the kids worked there after school or in the summer. Most seem to have experienced the restaurant business as bartenders or wait staff. Other hard-working environments from which to recruit candidates include jobs where they deal with the public and difficult or unhappy customers, such as landscapers, cleaning companies, factory workers and retail. These workers are the best, and you should build this into your advertising copy writing.
Folks who play sports are goal oriented and competitive. Ask questions: What are your goals? Are you a team player? Great! Give me some examples. What’s the last goal you achieved? How did you achieve it? Believe it or not, these personal questions are even more important than any level of sales success or experience in any industry.
