Editor’s note: Paul Kirch is CEO of Actus Sales Intelligence, a Fort Worth, Texas, business and sales consulting agency. Kirch can be reached at 214-295-6111 or at pkirch@actussales.com.
Over the past three years, during many of my company’s engagements, several clients have asked us to help them find good sales professionals. I’ve gladly made connections, many of which turned into hires, but I was not interested in providing executive recruiting as a service offering. That all changed when I started to see how there could be a better way to find talent, qualify them and help develop them - all as part of the placement process. In my experience - both personal and through client relationships - there are many areas for improvement in the executive recruiting space.
For example, I spoke with a business leader who was very frustrated with his foray into outsourcing the hiring process. I asked him where his frustrations lied and of course he brought up what he referred to as inflated placement fees. He also mentioned something that at first seemed like a positive: He felt the recruiters were good at finding résumés. Surely this is desirable, right? Unfortunately, he felt that’s all they were doing for him. They were finding résumés and passing them on without understanding his business or his cultural needs. So he got candidates but not the right ones.
The recruiters also weren’t sales professionals. They didn’t know how to properly screen for the appropriate person. Their objective was to place employees with the firm and get paid - not find the perfect fit.
The purpose of this article is to offer suggestions on how anyone hiring to fill a sales or business development position can more effectively vet their candidates. After all, the cost of a failed hire can be great. That doesn’t just pertain to sales professionals but often the impact can be more visible, since revenue and sales may be directly impacted by bringing the wrong individual(s) to the firm.
A handful of challenges
For the purposes of this discussion, I’m providing a list that is specific to hiring business development and sales professionals. This is not meant to be all-inclusive, as every candidate and every position opening may have specific items that need to be addressed. Let’s look at handful of challenges and areas to spend time.
Résumés
Are you relying solely on this document to decide if a candidate is a fit? More than 30 percent of all résumés contain false or misleading information, according to HireRight. In addition, 10 percent of all résumés contain what HireRight categorized as "blatant falsehoods." Résumés must be used but they shouldn’t be the only piece you request or review. How do you handle the résumé document?
LinkedIn discrepancies. One of the first areas to research an individual is through LinkedIn. Why? Simply because a shocking number of individuals have information on LinkedIn that is not on their résumé and vice versa. This is not an instant red flag but it’s definitely something that you should ask them to clear up.
As a word of caution, make sure you are looking at the correct individual on LinkedIn. We recently had a client who refused to consider a candidate because he felt his LinkedIn and résumé experience pieces didn’t match. It turns out that our client was looking at a profile of a different person with the same name, living in the same major market.
Google or other search engines. Look candidates up by name. You might have to sort through a lot of pieces to find something relevant but it can be a great way to find out more. Were they part of a lawsuit? Are they doing charity work? Do they have a business on the side? These are all pieces that help you intelligently interview them. Don’t be afraid to tackle concerns head-on.
Addressing discrepancies. I like to believe that people are generally honest. Despite my maybe-overly-optimistic view, I look for elements that are hard to believe or that do not add up and address them directly. For example, many sales professionals will include performance numbers in their résumé. If the numbers do not add up or if they seem unrealistic, get some clarification. How they respond and how I feel about their answer will determine if they are still active, if they are no longer under consideration or if further information is necessary. No matter what, it’s a mistake to not look at these pieces carefully.
Tenure at previous positions. I recommend that you exercise caution while making assumptions when seeing short tenure. Of course, if there is a trend from job to job, that’s a different situation, but it doesn’t necessarily indicate underperformance. Individuals who post on their résumé that they were in a role for six months or less may be one of the following: 1) ignorant to think that is not going to raise questions or 2) of high integrity and honesty not to pad or exclude such a situation. It’s easy to have a follow-up conversation to give them an opportunity to address your concerns. For example, just today my team spoke with an individual who took a job with a firm that laid off his entire team six months after he joined. The next position he took was with a firm that was acquired shortly after his joining and it closed down the office where he worked. If you saw two jobs in one year, you might assume an underperformer. In this case, he’s a top performer with some bad luck on his side.
Interviewing
If you aren’t compiling a list of questions for your interviews, you’re missing a golden opportunity to compare one candidate to another. How did they respond? Were they confident? Did you make them think? If you’re asking questions off the top of your head, it’s likely you’ll miss critical pieces that might later frustrate you or that might have been a major red flag.
Interviewing isn’t just about the candidate being prepared; it’s as much about you. When you think about the questions you want to ask, don’t just look up interview questions on Google. Instead, think about real challenges you’ve faced with previous hires. Are there cultural challenges within your firm that you want to see if they can handle? Is there a certain characteristic you believe they should have? Ask questions that help uncover their compatibility and that challenge them.
Though this may not seem like a tough question, one of my favorite things is to ask them to describe their selling style. Often you’ll hear them ramble and struggle to respond, which is very concerning. In many instances, I hear, “I’m consultative” or “I’m a relationship builder.” You might perk up from hearing such a response because that’s what you view as the ideal fit for the person you want to hire. But beware of buzzword answers with no substance behind them. When you receive such a response, it’s time to dig in and see if there is real experience behind their answer. It’s not about doubting them or putting them on the spot but if someone tells me they are consultative, I want concrete examples of what that means and how they can back it up. Sadly, this simple question is what trips up people who rely more on catchphrases than real-world experience. We recently had a candidate address the selling-style question by stating that she’s a hunter. Before I could ask for clarification, she had laid out several solid examples of what that meant. When you prepare your questions, anticipate possible answers and have more questions ready. In this case, she addressed my concerns proactively. It was refreshing.
Real scenarios
I’m shocked at how few managers have any idea how their sales team performs in front of clients or how they handle themselves with prospecting and sales calls. I’m not referring to a group conference call or something where other team members are involved. I’m talking about real sales situations. Today’s phone systems allow, at the very least, a method of conferencing in another individual who can simply listen in to help evaluate and develop the person making the calls. So few managers or leaders take advantage of that. What’s even more shocking is how few ever consider doing a similar evaluation during the interview process. Staging an interactive sales scenario or a role-playing session may be a great way to see what candidates are like while talking to a prospective client. They likely can’t effectively sell your products during this stage, since they are not experts on what you offer, but they can sell you on theirs (i.e., their recent product/service offering).
It doesn’t have to be perfect but did they engage you, ask you good questions, uncover your needs or concerns and then address them? These are just a few of the critical elements to be looking for. If you don’t know what to look for or are not comfortable doing such an evaluation, feel free to reach out to me at pkirch@actussales.com and allow me to share some ideas.
References
Ask for them early and ask for details about their professional relationship. Personal references are a nice-to-have piece but focus on the professional ones. Whatever you do, don’t skip calling the individuals they provide, especially if you’re close to making an offer. Why? After all, aren’t references just the people who are going to give positive feedback? You’d be surprised. I’ve seen the following situations arise during reference follow-up:
- Unaware. I’ve seen individuals listed as a reference but, upon calling, they were never asked or never told there might be a call coming from you. Depending on the situation, this may be a huge red flag.
- Negative feedback. I’ve seen references throw a candidate under the bus with all-too-honest feedback. It was never malicious but rather an accidental sabotage of character or an instance where they couldn’t substantiate the candidate's experience.
- Lack of knowledge. When following up on references for a recent candidate, I spoke with a former client of this person. It turns out he had only talked with this individual once during a group conference call. His firm was a customer of this individual’s company and he was assigned as the decision maker. They had no knowledge of each other beyond the one call and a couple of e-mails. I would be concerned about hiring any candidate who can’t provide a deeper relationship-based reference than this.
Employee or personality assessment tools
I was recently speaking with a CEO who had fired an individual two months after hiring them. His justification was that the person wasn’t putting in any effort and while tracking progress in his CRM tool, it was obvious the advertised work ethic wasn’t there. His comment to me was one I’ve heard before: “Clearly some people are better at interviewing and selling me on them than they are at actually selling.” This is one reason I always recommend a good assessment tool as the last stage of the hiring process. I am not aware of any free products that give you really good feedback but by spending anywhere from $200-$500, you can get analyzed feedback that can give you confidence the person is the right fit. I wouldn’t hire a salesperson without going through such a tool, even if the candidate has done something similar in the past. After all, people change, skills change and a person's inner drive changes, so get a fresh snapshot prior to giving them an offer. The cost is a drop in the bucket compared to what it will cost you to figure out six months later that they are not a fit.
Run into resistance
With some of the elements above, you’re going to run into resistance with certain individuals. For example, we’ve talked with senior sales professionals who tell us at their level they shouldn’t have to do role-playing or shouldn’t have to go through a sales assessment. They believe they should share their credentials and accolades and you should hire them. A strong ego can be a positive for sales hires if they can keep it buried as part of their overall confidence. Ironically enough, the ego-driven statements I expressed in this paragraph are also associated with individuals who have performed poorly during a review of their skills. In my opinion, if you’re hiring, you’re controlling the process. Anyone who doesn’t want to work within the parameters you’ve laid out should be removed from consideration. If they can’t play nice during the interview process then it’s likely you’ll have a mess on your hands if you award them a job.
Find that perfect fit
Hiring isn’t easy and it often isn’t fun. However, if you put some energy behind preparing and doing it right, you can find that perfect fit. It helps to know what you ultimately want but you must focus on finding the individual who fits that vision.
If you do engage an executive recruiter to find your staff, make sure they are not just passing on résumés. Ask them what their screening process is and what makes them qualified to find your sales candidates. Have they been in a sales role? What are the top five or 10 things they look for when screening résumés? And when they send you a candidate, ask them to share why the feel that person is a good fit.