🔝 3 mistakes when hiring SALES 🤑 to your TECH startup
Thinking of hiring somebody to sell for you? Here’s how to ensure that you hire somebody who can help your business grow.
Interviewing sales people is a lot like peeling an onion — it involves peeling away the superficial layers and getting past the conditioned sales responses to learn about their capabilities and traits, and determine whether they will fit with your sales team culture and produce superior results.
Here are a list of the most common mistakes you certainly need to be aware of:
Mistake #1 : Hiring a senior leader
Often startups get greedy and go after the big name leader in their space. Here is the issue — this leader has not sold on the front-line in years. The first question she will ask when joining the company is “where is my assistant?”. You need someone who is closer to the front line and is willing to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty.
Mistake #2 : Placing too much weight on industry experience
However, believe it or not, it was a minority case. Most folks came from outside of the marketing software space and even outside of software and tech altogether. I would rather have the below average performers stay with our competitors. Go find the rock star from a dying industry and bring them into your space.
Mistake #3 : Overlooking sales process development experience
Every sales person (no matter how talented s/he was) will ask first questions when s/he arrives at your company:
“Where is the pitch deck?”
“What is the sales process I should follow?”
“Where is the list of top 10 objections and how I should handle them?”
You’ll be 🥊 your head, “I thought that is why we hired you”.
When this top salesperson started at your Fortune 500 competitor, she attended a month of training, walking through the blueprint of success. She is great at following the blueprint. In fact, she is the best.
However, can s/he build the blueprint? Probably not. You need someone that can work in a far less structured environment and at least lay out the foundations of the company’s first sales process.
🔥 Bonus Tips:
- Avoid the “show me how you sell by selling me on the idea of hiring you” charade. Unless you’re hiring the salesperson to be a headhunter, the exercise is completely meaningless, and most of today’s sales jobs don’t involve on-the-spot “sales pitches” anyway.
- Avoid hiring from a direct competitor. If you think such a candidate will bring his customers along with him, think again. He’s been telling his customers that his current product is the best. If he switches to you, they’ll realize he was lying.
Summary
As you’re reading this blog, I’d like to assume that you are interested in personal development and HR (and that you like my blog)!
And if my assumption is correct, then you definitely need to check out the recruitment blogs above too! They’re really good.
PS: I am going to edit this post based on your feedback. So if you want me to add something feel free to contact me or add your thoughts here in the comment section.
