How You Can Recruit Sales Super Stars - Part 3 - The Recruitment Process

Briefly the steps you must take to get a real sales superstar are as follows:
Design your job advert to scare off people who aren't superstar material
Do an initial brief phone interview to burn through the chancers
Invite them to a non-standard interview
Ask them to complete a skills assessment (at the right time in the interview)
Check their CV and ask questions on it at the end of the interview
Phone their references
Try them on probation (hire or fire quick, depending on outcome)
Superstar Sales Recruitment ProcessThe whole process is all about finding the person with the right psychological profile.That is, the a sales super star.Bear in mind as you go through the process that not every great salesman has high-rankings in all the attributes of a star salesman. Hence step 7 in the process - the hire or fire decision.Three vital steps from the recruitment process are advert design, the phone interview and the non-standard interview.Job Advert DesignAttract the sales superstar by indicating the top level of income they could expect.Don't specify the income an average salesman makes.Design the advert so that it's clear you'll know whether the interviewee is who you're looking for.Don't limit potential candidates to your industry sector. A true super star will learn your target market quickly. However, you mustprovide training so that they can learn faster.The Phone InterviewUse the phone interview to put them under pressure - can they handle it?Can they handle rejection? Or do they simply go away?Typically a phone interview will allow you to burn through 80% to 85% of everyone who applies leaving you with a more manageable set of potential sales super stars to interview.Non-standard InterviewThis interview is in three parts. building rapport, skills assessment and CV review.You can see from the number of parts to the interview that it takes longer to do than most normal interviews - but results in a better breed of salesman in your company.


It also quickly finds out whether the person is a sales super star, or not.As I've noted in elsewhere, empathy and ego need to be in the right balance to create a sales super star.We can find that out by using a psychological profile based interview. This type of interview allows us to explore how the interviewee was regarded during childhood, the sort of things they enjoyed and how they were shaped by their experiences.As a by-product this part of the interview creates deep rapport so that you can ask very deep questions and expect to get truthful answers, or make the candidate very uncomfortable if they're lying.Once you've established the deep rapport get the candidate to assess their own skill levels on the key attributes of the super star salesman.Finally you review the salesman's CV and ask probing questions which usually result in truthful answers because they're still in deep rapport with you.Move quickly to recruit when you're interviewing superstars as once they start looking they'll be snapped up.Also be prepared for them to leave one day because superstars are also entrepreneurs too. And they'll want to work for themselves in due course.How Can You Tell Your Salesman Isn't For YouOne word of warning you may find your super star salesman doesn't bring in the business for you.It could be they weren't interested in your business at all and were using you as a stop gap. Or they discover they don't really like your sector.Don't hang about find out as early as possible. You'll notice little or no activity and/or no sales, or they'll complain - often. Obviously your particular sales cycle depends on your industry so you'll know how soon a good salesman should be getting sales. If you don't ask around. If they don't fit for whatever reason let them know and let them go.Keeping on salesmen who aren't interested does nobody any good - least of all your bottom line.