How to Hire the Best Salespeople

By Allan Pulga

January is a great time to start recruiting, says Inc.com’s Hiring Center columnist Tim Augustine. “The holiday parties are over, the big bonuses managers promised turned into holiday hams, making many candidates rethink their current situations and start thinking about new opportunities.”

In cellular retail, however, hiring salespeople is less about stealing promising candidates from competitors and more about finding the people who fit your business needs. And as it turns out, January is a good time for re-evaluation and new beginnings – starting with the relationships you can develop with new employees.

But first, how to find them? Wendell Williams, an HR consultant and contributor to Electronic Recruiting Daily, says hiring the best salespeople requires an eye for four “skill areas”:

1. Ability to learn, solve problems and make decisions

To gauge a candidate’s skill level in this area, Williams says, employers must attempt to measure his/her general knowledge of the business (in this case, cellular retail). Ask questions like: “What do you know about this store” and “What do you think about when somebody mentions this store name?” Find out how much they know about cellphone technology and the industry at large. More importantly, are they interested in cellphones and related technology?

Good salespeople will also be able to learn and apply information quickly, especially in order to learn new product or customer information. They must possess natural problem solving skills to overcome daily obstacles such as unhappy customers, sales objections or unexpected personal issues. Can they think on their feet?

*Effective hiring tools: Product knowledge tests; customized problem solving simulations, behavioural event interviews.

Williams advises employers to find out if a candidate is able to plan ahead, set priorities when presented with conflicting objectives, and stay focused on achieving goals. It seems like common sense, but it’s crucial for salespeople to stick to a plan and prioritize. Candidates who lack these basic skills are at risk of failing to meet deadlines or performance objectives, or even worse – not caring about deadlines or objectives. In measuring this skill set, the biggest question to ask a sales candidate is: Is it important to you to meet your goals?

*Effective hiring tools: Project planning case studies; behavioural event interviews.

3. Ability to get things done through people

Essentially, this skill set boils down to one thing: people skills. These are without a doubt the most important attributes of a good salesperson. Anybody can know a lot about a product, or formulate a thorough sales strategy, but without the essential rapport-building, human touch, he/she won’t get the job done.

Williams says good salespeople have the ability to develop trust and probe for information, persuade others to follow a course of action, present ideas and write effectively, and work effectively with co-workers. In all, the ideal candidate is charismatic, persuasive, articulate and team-oriented.

*Effective hiring tools: Project planning case studies; behavioural event interviews; teamwork problem simulation; presentation simulations; writing exercise.

4. Specific attitudes, interests and motivations associated with selling

This fourth skill set refers to the candidate’s own personality. Here’s where the employer really needs to get inside the candidate’s head and find out what makes him/her tick. Williams suggests looking for an internal drive to succeed, and a positive attitude toward work and learning. Without those characteristics, the candidate could end up being underproductive, displaying a poor attitude to customers, or indifferent to learning about new products or markets.

Ultimately, the employer must seek self-motivated, enthusiastic and intellectually curious salespeople. Having an upbeat and inquisitive personality not only contributes to the salesperson’s development within the company, it projects a positive energy to customers and engages them naturally.

*Effective hiring tools: Behavioural event interviews, tests of specific attitudes, interests, and motivations.