20 Things to Think About Before Hiring Salespeople

Page Overview:

At Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment, we understand that hiring exceptional sales talent begins long before the job ad goes live. This page outlines 20 essential considerations for employers, ranging from clarifying goals, such as "What do you expect the new hire to deliver in their first year?" and costs, to designing their onboarding, training, and retention plans. It also highlights the realities of sales recruitment, from understanding realistic revenue expectations and compensation structures to avoiding common pitfalls, such as mistaking smooth talk for genuine performance and the risks associated with hiring mismatched "big hitters." Use this checklist to hire smarter, faster, and with confidence.

1. Before recruiting, have a recruitment plan and ensure you can answer the following questions: 
   • What do you expect your new recruit to achieve in the first year?
   • How much will they cost in the first year?
   • What will their first month of employment look like? i.e. training, induction, shadowing successful staff, being shadowed in initial meetings, etc.
   • How will I train, coach and measure them?
   • What skills, qualities and experience will they need to have?
   • What are the 'must haves', 'like to haves'?
   • What will their style and approach be like?
   • Why will they want to join our business?
   • Why will they love working for you as a boss?
   • What will retain them in your business for the long term?
2. Salespeople are expensive. Remember, a field salesperson will receive a basic salary, commission, NICs on total earnings, car lease, fuel for a specified number of miles, expenses, and any benefits you offer. How many deals will they need to earn the GP to cover this?
3. It is really unlikely that your new recruit will walk into your business with an order book – this is totally unrealistic in most circumstances.
4. Having the proposed new sales staff member suggest their own key performance indicators (KPIs) at a second interview is a great way to set realistic targets. Get them to walk you through a typical week/month – new client meetings, quotes out, conversion ratios, etc. Based on their previous experience.
5. A £12K basic and £100K OTE is unlikely to enable you to recruit a quality sales applicant. Most salespeople aim to cover their cost of living with their basic salary, and the OTE pays for the nice things in life – holidays, a new conservatory, etc. A stressed-out salesperson wondering how they will feed their family this month is not an effective one.
6. It is unlikely that a 'big hitter' in a large organisation will hit the same revenue levels if they join a small organisation.
7. It's better to hire the top salesperson from a small business into a large business than to hire the top salesperson from a large business into a small business. However, suppose the top salesperson from a small business is used to doing everything in the 'sales process'. In that case, they will probably need coaching on compliance, structure and working with support departments.
8. Sometimes, a 'big hitter' in a large organisation will struggle in a small organisation, as they may not have access to the same brand, support departments, and resources. Sales staff who have never worked in a large business may not have done large elements of your 'sales process' before (as they probably had support teams there to make the appointments, write the proposals, etc).
9. Warning – bad salespeople can often make really, really, REALLY good interviewees. Have a solid recruitment process.
10. However, salespeople can also often be surprisingly bad at 'selling themselves'.  It's just not 'British' to consider yourself to be brilliant!
11. It is rare to see a CV from someone who hasn't met their sales target (and if they state in their CV that they didn't meet their target, then they're probably very good).
12. Salespeople probably need to be loved more than the staff of any other department – they love to be recognised.
13. Cars are important to a field salesperson. You may feel it's petty, but having an unsafe and uncomfortable vehicle could prompt your new recruit to head for the exit door pretty quickly.
14. Most salespeople like gadgets. Therefore, having a decent spec laptop and the ability to access the CRM system from the latest Smartphone is important to them.
15. Salespeople, perhaps more than any other staff, need to be continuously measured and given constant feedback.  They love to be loved...
16. Salespeople tend to leave businesses where they are not regularly reviewed and given consistent feedback.
17. Salespeople are highly incentive-driven – give them constant targets and rewards. Often, it's not the prize that drives them; it's the simple fact that they achieved what you asked them to do.
18. Many salespeople are overtly confident but inwardly cautious. In my experience, many can be quite 'needy' and require regular reassurance that they are brilliant!
19. Despite being more goal-oriented than most staff, it is pretty common to interview salespeople who do not plan their careers and futures. Work with them on long-term goal setting to retain them.
20. As Neil Rackham, of SPIN selling fame, stated, 'Good salespeople leave bad sales managers, not bad companies.'