In this episode of the Sales Leadership Awakening podcast, Steven Rosen and Colleen Stanley discuss the high cost of making a bad hire in sales. They emphasize the importance of creating an ideal hiring profile with hard and soft skills and non-negotiables. They also stress the need for a systematic hiring process, including behavioral interviews and assessments.
“As you said, be ruthlessly rigorous, but also follow a defined process. For those who are not that skilled, having the questions helps. Listening helps, and making notes is integral to a good process.” – Steven Rosen
Key Takeaways:
- Making a bad hire can have significant costs, including opportunity costs, training expenses, and lost sales to competitors.
- Best practices in sales, such as defining an ideal client profile, can also be applied in the hiring process.
- Non-negotiables should be established to ensure a clear red line when evaluating candidates.
- Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is a crucial skill for salespeople, and specific questions can be asked during interviews to assess EQ.
- A systematic hiring process, including fit interviews, behavioral event interviews, and psychometric assessments, can help make better hiring decisions.
- Recruiting should be ongoing to build a pipeline of potential candidates and avoid desperate hiring.
The interactive podbook below contains videos, audio, articles, summaries, transcripts, and YouTube shorts from this podcast episode.
Full Episode Article:
Title: “Unlocking Success: Strategies to Avoid Costly Hiring Mistakes”
Byline: By sales leadership and coaching experts Colleen Stanley and Steven Rosen
Introduction
In the Sales Leadership Awakening podcast, Steven Rosen and Colleen Stanley discuss the cost of making a bad hire in sales leadership. They highlight the financial implications of hiring the wrong person and the importance of applying best practices in sales to the hiring process. This article will delve into the key insights from the podcast and explore the themes of ideal hiring profiles, non-negotiables, and the importance of a systematic hiring process.
Ideal Hiring Profiles: Beyond Hard Skills
One of the biggest mistakes sales leaders make when hiring is focusing solely on hard skills, such as past job experience and industry knowledge. While these are essential factors to consider, they often overlook the soft skills crucial for success in sales. They emphasize developing an ideal hiring profile that considers hard and soft skills.
Sales leaders can ask specific questions during the interview to assess soft skills. For example, asking candidates about a time they helped a team member achieve a goal without recognition or credit can reveal their ability to collaborate and be team players. Additionally, inquiring about their experience working with other internal departments to close a deal can shed light on their relationship-building skills.
Non-Negotiables: Setting Red Lines
Another common hiring mistake is failing to establish non-negotiables during the hiring process. Non-negotiables are the red lines that define what is essential for a candidate to be fit for the team. By clearly defining these non-negotiables, sales leaders can avoid overlooking red flags and make more informed decisions.
Colleen highlights the importance of identifying non-coachable traits and victim mentalities as non-negotiables. Hiring a salesperson who is resistant to coaching or has a victim mentality can lead to long-term issues and hinder the team’s success. By establishing non-negotiables, sales leaders can quickly identify candidates who do not meet the required criteria and avoid wasting time on further interviews.
The Systematic Hiring Process: A Playbook for Success
Sales leaders need a systematic hiring process to ensure better hiring decisions. As sales teams have playbooks to guide their activities, sales leaders should have a hiring playbook that aligns with the ideal hiring profile. This playbook should include standardized questions for each candidate, ensuring consistency and fairness in the evaluation process.
Steven emphasizes the importance of following a defined process and making detailed notes during interviews. This helps sales leaders remember each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses and make more objective decisions. Additionally, incorporating psychometric assessments into the hiring process can provide an additional layer of objectivity and help identify candidates with suitable sales DNA.
Conclusion
Making a bad hire can have significant financial and operational consequences for a company. To avoid these costly mistakes, sales leaders must go beyond hard skills and consider the soft skills and values that align with their team and organization. By establishing non-negotiables and following a systematic hiring process, sales leaders can make more informed decisions and build a high-performing sales team.
The Sales Leadership Awakening podcast offers valuable perspectives on the consequences of hiring mistakes and presents actionable tactics to enhance the recruitment process. Implementing these insights and embracing a methodical hiring methodology can help sales leaders mitigate the potential risks associated with poor hires and assemble a top-performing team of sales experts.
