(This blog is one of a series of articles on the topic of Sales Hiring for Starters. Go to our blog for more or visit https://talentmakers.in/2016/09/20/how-to-hire-your-sales-team-is-gut-feel-enough/)

What makes a good sales person?

If we knew the answer to that question we would be billionaires many times over.

There are lots of possible answers, so many, in fact, that it can be quite overwhelming…….

So what do you choose, where do you start?

• Fact: If you look for everything you will get everyone.

So the trick is to choose just three factors that will drive YOUR business.

• Fact: Everyone has their own opinion about what makes a good sales person.

Use an established model and make it your own – your very own Predictive Success Model, designed to drive YOUR business

• Fact: Unstructured selection is like the ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ game: pure chance.

Use a structured interview and solid proven psychometrics based on your predictive success model. (refer to our blog “Is Gut Feel enough?”

You will first need to decide on the knowledge, experience, qualifications, and any specialised technical knowledge that you need.

That’s the relatively easy part. The difficult part is the behavior and skills requirement.

 To get you started, we use the generic success model developed by Psytech International as a starting point.  It combines assessment of both Culture Fit AND Process Steps Competence.

And we know it’s easy to measure.

Follow these steps to make it your own.

 Prioritising Culture Fit – How important is each of these dimensions in the Sales role you are hiring for? Rate each dimension in order of priority. (Score 1 for the highest priority)

You can allocate the same priority number for all dimensions if you want, but remember “If you look for everything you will get everyone”.

Prioritising Process Steps Competence – How important is each of these process steps in the Sales role you are hiring for? Rate each step in order of priority. (Score 1 for the highest priority)

You can allocate the same priority number for all steps if you want, but remember “If you look for everything you will get everyone”.

Now you should have a clear list of three priority Culture Fit dimensions AND three priority Process Steps.

Now you know what you are looking for.

How to measure?

Combine these:

• The Culture Fit Psychometric assessment from Psytech International can provide you with numerical data on multiple candidates in hours. Get a sample here http://www.psytech.com/Content/SampleReports/EN/Sol%20Sales%20Selection.pdf

• A structured Interview will gather evidence of behavior demonstrated in the recent past. (For more information on how to make structured interviews contact us or go to our blog)

 Combine these scores with your Technical Interview (Knowledge test), Background check, references, any skills based assessments you can arrange, (and yes, if you must, your gut feel!) – and you will have an extensive, role based objective set of high quality data on which to make a decision.

For more information or help, visit any of the links below.

 (This blog is one of a series of articles on the topic of Sales Hiring for Starters. Go to our blog for more or visit https://talentmakers.in/2016/09/20/how-to-hire-your-sales-team-is-gut-feel-enough/)

Happy Hiring!

Val Gray, September 2016

Val owns Talent Makers, a boutique assessment consulting company www.talentmakers.in

Talent Makers are assessment experts and approved suppliers of psychometric Tools, Training and Consulting from Psytech International www.psytech.com

Val is registered with the BPS since 1995 reg. no 120965 http://ptc.bps.org.uk/register-qualifications-test-use-rqtu