It doesn’t need to be mystery.

Here are six questions that need to be asked before the process begins to help ensure the right outcome.

1. Are the performance objectives clearly identified?

The reason a salesperson is hired is to satisfy a business need. It may be revenue, it may be margin it may be account management. Whatever the desired result, it needs to be clearly identified. Think about defining success before the person comes on board.

Develop a list of short, medium and long-term results the person needs to deliver to earn the label of success. Knowing the “performance expectations” puts you in a position to clearly define the specific knowledge, skills and abilities the person needs to bring to the job.

2. Are the desired behaviors mapped to your sales process?

A deep understanding of the sales process helps to identify the behaviors necessary for success. Begin by mapping the typical sales process.

Are there multiple steps? How many people are involved? How long does it typically take? What is the profile of the person being sold? How much writing is involved? How many presentations are required?

These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered prior to putting together the profile of the salesperson. The answers to the questions identify the specific behaviors necessary for success. Creating the template of the successful salesperson is straightforward when armed with the performance expectation and the sales process.

3. Has a recruiting strategy including budget and resources been created?

More time, effort and money are wasted on recruiting mostly because there is no plan. It is vital to the success of the business that recruiting is treated like any other strategic business activity. That means there needs to be a plan. There needs to be a budget. Resources need to be allocated and most importantly, results need to be tracked.

Who is going to do the work? Will it be done in house? How much money is budgeted for the recruiting? What sources will be used to attract candidates? What is our Unique Hiring Proposition (why should someone work for us)?

Every step of the process should show a positive ROI. Like any other investment, evaluate the variables and decide on the best course of action whether using a recruiting service, posting ads or working your own network.

4. Is the selection process defined?

A sloppy approach to selecting salespeople leads to poor results. Use a proven selection process to get the best results.

Start with a system to screen candidates. This allows you to spend time with those people who have the highest probability of being successful on your job. This may include phone screens, phone interviews and possibly the use of an assessment tool.

Next, have a proven interview system. The “I’ll know it when I see it” model is guaranteed to result in failure. Use a system designed to predict success. A behavioral interview system like Selecting Winners helps get the right data that predicts success.

5. Is there an evaluation and decision criteria?

Don’t leave the hiring decision to chance. Don’t rely on your gut-feel to make the decision. The first two steps above resulted in a profile of the target person that includes both the performance expectations and the necessary skills and behaviors.

In step 4 a proven interview system was used to get specific data that helps predict success. The last step is to map the person’s skills and behaviors to the success criteria. This sounds simple and obvious. However, this is where gut-feel and impressions often lead down the wrong path.

Of course creating a good first impression is important but it is not predictive of success on the job. Enthusiasm is important but once again is not predictive of success. It is very easy to be swayed during the interview by factors that are not the best predictors of success.

Past behavior is a much better predictor than interview behavior. Everyone is going to be on his or her best behavior during the interview. But the use of a thorough interview process results in large quantities of data when the focus is past behavior.

Rather than making decisions based on a few impressions, the goal needs to be to gather as much factual data as possible.

6. Is the table set for the new salesperson to succeed?

The first step in success is bringing the right salesperson on board. The second step is to make certain the person has the tools necessary to be successful. What resources will the salesperson need to succeed?

Is product training needed? Is specialized sale training required? Will the new person need a mentor? These are some of the questions requiring answers. The way to get the best return on the investment in the new salesperson is to give the person the tools required to succeed.

Hiring new salespeople can be a great investment. Be certain to view the process like any other strategic business process. Apply the right resources, use the right tools and the return on the investment can be tremendous.

The best solution is to adopt a hiring model (like my Selecting Winners program), and have it proliferate throughout your organization. Without a model you are flying blind.

A consistent methodology and language when hiring is absolutely essential if you are going to get it right.  If everyone in your organization is “doing there own thing” your probability of making hiring mistakes goes up astronomically.

Here’s an example.  Two people interview the same person and agree the person has good presentation skills.  Do they really agree?  The answer lies in how each person defines presentation skills and how they apply that evaluation to the person.  One person thinks if the person can just get the point across, that is good presentation skills (the easy grader).  The other person wants someone who can create and deliver persuasive presentations to customers (the hard grader).

You can see from this example how ambiguity and a lack of process leads to mistakes.  Common methodology and language are necessary to keep hiring mistakes to a minimum.

So my answer to the sales executive was to “get everyone on the same page”.  He needs to implement a process that includes a common language and methodology and make certain all of his managers are using the process.  Then he can have intelligent conversations about candidates.

I have always said that any process is better than no process when it comes to hiring.  There are 3 things that you need to verify before you adopt any new process.

1. Is it effective?  Does the methodology have a track record?  Are there people similar to you that have succeeded with the process?

2. Is it easy to implement?  Let’s face facts, your managers are not going to use any process that requires too much work.  That is just the nature of the beast.

3. Be certain the process does not put your managers in a position they are not qualified to be in.  Too many models out there advise you to ask questions that require interpretation and force you to get into the candidate’s head.  That is not a place you want to be.

The process and model you choose should pass your common-sense test.  Do the tools and techniques make sense?

Of course I would like you to try y Selecting Winners tools.  Please click here to learn more about our process.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Your UHP simply answers the question, “Why should I work for you?” Think of it as the driving force, your mission statement for all your recruiting activity. People need a reason to work for you and your UHP supplies that reason. As a side note, your UHP also helps identify those people who should NOT work for you.

With your UHP in hand, you need to view attracting candidates as a sales problem. How do you go about attracting prospects for your product or service? First, you identify what a good prospect looks like. What interests them? Where do they live? What do they read? What do they do for fun? Where do they congregate? Once you know all this, then you can determine the best way of raising their interest. Finally you present your product in an appealing way and try to close the deal.

Recruiting is no different.

You can start to put your strategy in place armed with all the information you know about your prospective candidates. You use this knowledge to decide where to advertise, in what publications or on which sites. More than 50% of the success of any ad is determined by where it is placed. The greatest ad running in the wrong location is not likely to generate a whole lot of response. Industry specific publications, web sites, ezines and discipline specific sites are a much better source than general newspaper classified or generic job-posting boards. Think strategically about where you will place your ad.

Next, you have to attract attention. This is done with the headline. Forget the boring “Tax Preparer” headline. You need to use the right words to attract just the right types of people. Remember, you must break the person’s pre-occupation and get them to read the copy. The purpose of the headline is simply to get them to read the ad copy. Here are some great words for your headlines:

Imagine
You
Amazing
New
Introducing
How would
Discover
Life
Do you
Now
Join

The best way to get the person’s attention is to appeal to something important to them … NOT YOU! If you have the word “we” in your headline, get rid of it. Remember, the focus of the ad must be on the candidate not you or your company. Candidates want to know what is in it for them.

In the body of your ad, you must appeal to the person’s interest or they will not read the ad. Once again, what’s in it for them? Talk about how they will benefit instead of features of your company. Solve their problem!

View this situation just like a marketing document. How do you stimulate interest in the prospect to learn more? You will not hire someone with an ad alone, but you will get the person to take the next step.

Finally, here is the most important technique you can use in creating a good recruitment ad: “Use Plain Language!” Write you ad as if you were talking to a prospect. After you write your ad, read it out loud. Does it read like a conversation or does it sound like an ad?

Your results will be significantly better when you use these techniques.

Samples Headlines

1. Join the fastest growing sales team in Cleveland
2. Join the #1 sales team in Seattle
3. Do you enjoy being on a winning team?
4. Imagine being surrounded by the best team in the industry?
5. Your life will never be the same
6. Now is the time to discover a winning opportunity
7. Do you want to help us grow in the fastest growing industry?
8. You have an amazing opportunity with our breakthrough
9. Discover and amazing opportunity
10. If fast growth and opportunity appeal to you, come talk to us
11. Want to sell the #1 product in the market?
12. Help us solve real problems for our customers
13. You will make a difference when you represent out product
14. Are you a quick study? There is an opportunity waiting for you
15. State of the art products require state of the art salespeople
16. Come grow with us
17. Your sales skills + our products = success!
18. Controlling your future is not an option, it is part of the job
19. Read on to find out why our salespeople are ranked #1
20. How would you like to write your own ticket?

One final thought, make it easy for them to respond. Give them as many options as possible. You don’t want to seem like a difficult place to do business with. You wouldn’t make it difficult for a prospect to get in touch with so don’t make it difficult for a candidate to get in touch with you.