Tag Archives: Competent

How Do You Hire Good Salespeople? Eight Points

Situation: A CEO struggles with finding competent sales people. Issues include both finding these people, evaluating their skills, and assuring that they fit with the culture of his company. What techniques do others employ to find good candidates? How do you hire good salespeople?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Hiring salespeople is one of the most important jobs a CEO has, yet is paid the least attention. In a small company the CEO is deeply involved in the process, while in larger companies the CEO’s role is assuring that those responsible for selection and hiring are bringing in quality individuals. In either case the important points for the CEO to oversee are as follows:
• Determine what you want the person to do. What skills do they need? How much can you pay? Is that competitive with the market?
• Advertise – use internet portals, print media and referrals. Beyond this, one of the most successful means of recruiting is to hire individuals who have proven their skills in other companies and who are known to and respected by your existing salespeople.
• Review resumes for basic qualifications and weed out all that do not meet those qualifications.
• Test potential hires. There are a number of good tests including: DISC, Meyers-Briggs and Identity Compass.
• Bring candidates in for interview. See how they react to pressure. Are they a good match for the company culture? What is their personality like? Are they comfortable with the company’s philosophy, size, reputation, products and services, and so on?
• Check references and contact their current customers to gather their impressions of the candidate’s capabilities.
• Remember that past performance does not guarantee future results – particularly if there is a significant change in what is being sold.

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How Do You Find and Train Staff for Satellite Offices? Five Points

Situation: A company plans to grow from a single site to additional distant sites. The CEO has two concerns: how to bring in the new people, and how to preserve the culture that they have developed as they build new sites. How do you find and train staff for satellite offices?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • First, how does the company currently identify customer targets?
    • Typically the company targets specific personnel within a potential client who will be decision makers or influencers on the company’s projects. Market developers then build relationships with these individuals.
  • Points of focus in selecting employees in other geographic areas.
    • What will be the office configuration? Likely 3-4 individuals, including an engineer, office manager and project manager.
    • Promote the company as the preferred place to work in the new locations. Offer signing bonuses for employees who identify and bring in new people, as well as for the new employees.
  • Does the company anticipate that maintaining company culture will be a challenge as the company expands? Yes.
    • Train new employees in the home office for one month to help them understand the culture. Immerse them in a project so that they experience the work ethic.
    • Have current personnel serve short term stints in the new offices. This will help to build consistency of service and delivery between the offices.
  • What is the best way to recover from a service challenge?
    • Occasionally we all make mistakes. Don’t miss the opportunity that “service recovery” presents to strengthen relationships with clients.
    • A competent and timely response to a problem situation can create an indelible impression on the client.
  • What else can the company do to improve its marketing?
    • Assure that there is an existing cost calculator in each remote site. This speeds response without having to wait for decisions from the main office.
    • Install a traffic plug-in on the webpage for each remote site and feature this on the site webpage. This allows current and potential customers to schedule their visits to their convenience.

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How Do You Hire the Right Person? Three Points

Situation: A CEO is in the process of hiring a new employee for a key position. The company is now writing the position description to post for candidates. What can they do to improve on past hiring experiences? How do you hire the right person?

Advice of the Forum:

  • Two of the members of the Forum have worked with a skilled consultant who taught them a system for improving employee selection. Both companies have experienced excellent results from this system.
  • Key points of this system include:
    • Screening applicants for appropriate skills and inviting for interviews those who have the right background. The interview process is a 2-day affair. Day 1 focuses principally on behavior and culture.
    • Day 1 Interviews: the focus is behavior and adaptability. This involves 2-4 hours of tightly scheduled 15-minute interviews. These are scripted with standardized questions. Several candidates are run through this process simultaneously. The objective is to create the same type of pressure that an employee normally face when the company is chasing a tight deadline. Interviewers are instructed to observe how the individuals being interviewed respond to this pressure. Those who are not right for your culture quickly screen themselves out of the process. Those who pass Day 1 are invited back for Day 2
    • Day 2 Interviews: the focus is on a skill drill down. This includes real-time tests of the key skills that are typical of the position for which the interviewees are interviewing. The objective is to assess the familiarity of the interviewees with the required skills, and to determine who reacts both competently and creatively.

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How Do You Set Expectations for an Employee? Six Suggestions

Situation: A company hired an employee one year ago. The employee is competent but slow. Even after a year on the job, other employees with similar skills and experience are able to complete the same job three times faster. What is the best way to handle this? How do you set expectations for an employee?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The most important principle governing situations like this is clarity of communications. You must clearly express your expectations, and you must assure that the employee clearly understands your expectations.
  • Assure that expectations are clearly expressed. This means what you expect in terms of performance, and firm timelines for achieving minimum requirements. You also must assure that the employee understands the consequences for failing to meet minimum requirements. The best assurance is written confirmation that the employee understands what is expected.
  • Don’t be vague or nice about your expectations, performance requirements or the consequences for failing to meet minimum requirements. This risks sending the wrong message to the employee.
  • Put the employee on a performance improvement plan to meet minimum job requirements. Monitor and document for 30-60 days and then handle according to how the employee responds.
  • If the individual can’t meet the objective, but has potential value to the company, offer the person an appropriate position at the level that the new position pays.
  • Have a second person in the room when you deliver the message. If you determine that you have to terminate the employee and the employee elects to sue, this will help your case in a judicial action.

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