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Book Review – Hire Right, Higher Profits: The Executive’s Guide to Building a World-Class Sales Force

Recruiting high performance sales people is something that very few companies do well and there are a limited number of books on how to attract and hire great sales people (including ours – Sales Recruiting 2.0 – How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast), so we are always keen to review what others have to say on the topic.

Hire Right, Higher Profits: The Executive’s Guide to Building a World-Class Sales Force, by Lee B. Salz (@SalesArchitects), was released in 2013 and what immediately catches my attention is the link between sales hiring and profits in the book’s title. Too often business leaders fail to acknowledge the enormous impact of hiring superior sales people.  Salz identifies the risks of hiring under-performers and more importantly, a system for defining unique sales hiring requirements, how to attract top talent, how to assess which candidates are most likely to achieve or exceed objectives and how employers can present offers to hook candidates.

Salz has real world experience leading sales teams, working in the assessment sector, and as a consultant to sales teams. He knows that employers with a great sales hiring record are a rare breed and he does not sugarcoat the challenges in getting sales hiring right. Moreover, he doesn’t pretend that the secret lies in simply hiring the perfect sales person. In the chapter entitled, The Myth of the Great Sales Person, Salz warns that sales leaders are likely to be grossly disappointed if they hope to hire the kind of sales people “who will produce millions of dollars in revenue while the executive masters his golf swing.”  Instead, and arguably as important as finding the right talent,  Salz outlines a skill development program for ensuring that potential opportunity from hiring a new sales person is turned into reality.

“In top-performing companies, the objective is not simply to hire sales people or search for great sales people. These companies do something far more beneficial and impactful. They hire right; they put a laser focus on finding the right sales people with the potential to be great in specific roles for the company. ” ~ Lee B. Salz

Members of Peak’s sales recruiting division really like this book because it aligns very closely with our philosophy on sales recruiting and the process for selecting top sales performers. Our school of hard knocks experience in building and managing sales teams over the last 20 years has taught us the critical importance of a structured and rigorous approach to attracting and selecting sales professionals as well as the necessity of new hire on-boarding and ongoing development programs to ensure that the new hire generates the desired results.

Employers that hire sales people without following some or all of the suggestions in this book, compromise the success of the sales people that are hired and risk the investment made in recruiting and hiring sales people. I consider this a must read for all sales leaders and hiring managers.

To your success!

Enjoyed Lee’s book? You would love our FREE eBook: Make the Right Sales Hire Every Time.

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Connect:

Eliot Burdett

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.

Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.

He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.

Connect:

Eliot Burdett
Connect:

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting

Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless. Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner. He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.