The Pitfalls of Hiring Sales People Based on Experience

The Pitfalls of Hiring Sales People Based on Experience:

There is one major problem with focusing sales hiring on experience – a very large percentage of sales people are not successful at selling.

The common response from employers is that they hire successful sales people, but our stats on sales hiring prove that generally companies are not actually that successful at hiring sales people who can sell. For instance, an in-depth study by Caliper several years ago found that 50% of sales people were not actually suited to be sales people and that 80% of sales people are not in sales roles they were suited to perform. Furthermore, annual surveys show that the percentage of sales reps reaching annual targets hovers in the range of 50-60%. If Peak had “success” rates like this we would be out of business!

Simply focusing on people who have been successful is not enough because all sales roles and situations are different. In order to achieve higher rates of success than the average company, a sales hiring process must focus on finding and evaluating the unique set of sales competencies and traits that are necessary to perform in a particular role. Knowing what sales traits to look for and how to assess them takes a level of skill and practice that most companies couldn’t possibly have unless they were hiring on a full time basis, however companies that employ more structure in their sales hiring process usually experience better hiring success. It’s that simple.

To your success!