“Set objectives for attracting and retaining the best people, including goals for performance standards and employee attitudes and skills.” — Peter Drucker
One of the trends I’m seeing now is that top producers —A players — are staying with their current employers longer. That means that the available hiring pool is made up of more salespeople who are performing at a lower level. Fortunately, there are several steps managers can take to ensure they’re hiring better quality sales candidates:
1. Have a system in place to objectively determine whether candidates possess sales talent.
2. Increase the number of interviews you conduct. In the past, managers might have interviewed 10 people for an opening. Now, it may take 50 interviews to find the right sales talent.
3. Look for sales talent on a continuous basis vs. hiring sporadically