Good post over at Data Dome about top sales hiring mistakes and how experience is not the only thing that matters. We absolutely agree and while experience is absolutely important, it is only in so much as it is both relevant to the unique selling environment the person will need to succeed in and if the experience is evaluated properly. We posted a video about The Most Common Sales Hiring Mistakes that we see (link here) and hiring mistakes you want to avoid (link here). See the Data Dome article here -> Sales Hiring Mistakes – Experience isn’t Everything

Some very good advice from Dave Stein about the importance of a structured approach required to consistently hire sales reps – Three Hiring-Related Truths About Sales Effectiveness. As always he is logical in his observations:

1. If you don’t have the right people in the right jobs, all the training, coaching, tools, technology, and support in the world is not going to result in sustainable sales effectiveness.
2. You can’t coach, train, motivate, incentivize, or otherwise transform C-players into B players. Not according to ESR’s definition of those categories. So, to put it simply, don’t hire any more C-players and put a plan together to redeploy the ones you currently have.
3. ESR has seen very limited cases where hiring authorities can consistently select the right salesreps, sales managers, or VPs of sales without a formal process, including profiling, structured behavioral interviews, psychometric/predictive tests, and simulations.

We frequently see companies hiring based on smile and confidence and it is no surprise that this often doesn’t translate to the desired sales results from the hire. To help ensure our clients select the right candidates, we put candidates through a set of steps designed to properly determine that they have the right competencies and cultural fit with our client’s selling environment. Our process is unique to selecting sales professionals and includes such elements structured and behavioral interviews, role plays, sample exercise, psychometric testing, thorough reference checks depending on the project and role. As a result we are consistently able to achieve a 90-100% hiring success rate for our clients.