by John Carroll

How do you hire the right person for a sales position? Here are six tips to improve your selection success rate.

1) Always be recruiting. One of my colleagues recommends budgeting up to 20 percent of your time as a sales manager or owner in recruiting activities. When you wait until you need someone to begin your search, you run the risk of hiring anyone who fogs the mirror. Warm bodies make poor distributor sales representatives.

2) Use selection tools. There are plenty of appropriate and legal questionnaires that provide added insight into your candidates. You decide at what point you use these instruments. Keep in mind that small investments now can prevent costly mistakes later.

3) Use the rule of threes. When you interview, speak with at least three candidates. Speak with each candidate at least three different times. Interview each candidate in three different settings. By doing so, you give yourself a much better basis for making a sound decision.

4) Enlist professional help. Make your human resources function earn its keep by finding out how much you can learn in advance through testing instruments and interviews. Know what you can ask and what you cant ask. Learn the art of behavioral interviewing and use it as one of several tools.

5) Do your homework. Follow through by checking all references. Ask the initial references for others who know the candidate personally or professionally. Contact the candidates former customers (and current customers, if practical). When you can talk one-on-one with people not listed on the candidates resume, youre likely to get more accurate and less biased answers to your questions.

6) Do a gut check. Ask yourself if you would like your son or daughter to be working with this candidate. Would you enjoy having this person come to your home for Sunday dinner?

If youve taken these steps and like the answers to your questions, youve taken much of the guesswork out of hiring. Youre likely now to make a good selection and save yourself from some of those Excedrin headaches in the weeks and months to come.

John Carroll is president of Unlimited Performance, a Mt. Pleasant, S.C., consulting firm. He can be reached at or .

This article appeared in the January/February 2000 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2000.

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