We all know that turnover is expensive, and that it’s a hassle to start over with interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and so forth. But the real costs of hiring the wrong salesperson are higher than you probably think.
When you hire the wrong salesperson, they:
• Lose business that they should win
• Discount prices when they don’t have to
• Fail to recognize and pursue the best opportunities
• Overuse company resources (like demos, presentations, and support) to close sales
• Take longer to close orders because they don’t know how to move an opportunity through, or out of, the sales process
• Chase opportunities that aren’t real
The costs just keep adding up over time and can take years to overcome. Ironically, you’re often better off if they wind up leaving sooner rather than later, despite the expense and inconvenience of finding someone new.
How do you avoid landing in this situation in the first place?
For starters, it’s important to understand that salespeople and sales jobs are not all the same—far from it.
You wouldn’t hire a civil engineer to design a microchip, and you wouldn’t hire an electrical engineer to design a bridge. But people commonly (and mistakenly) assume that sales is sales. This is a costly misconception. So get clear on precisely what type of salesperson you need.
Second, the context of a sales job is also crucially important and frequently underestimated.
Consider a salesperson from a big company with lots of resources, a strong reputation and a history of success. If that person has never had to create new business, they will struggle to do so in a small, under-resourced, and relatively unknown company—even if the two companies produce similar products and/or are competitors in their market.
Similarly, a salesperson from a small company may chafe when dealing with the bureaucracy, rules, and slower decision-making involved in working for a larger company.
One of the secrets to hiring the right salespeople the first time around is to consider context and prioritize it in your hiring criteria. Mismatched context is one of the main reasons salespeople underperform and leave—or, even worse, underperform and stick around.
A person who has done a job similar to your job, in a similar context, and with similar resources and support, is much more likely to be able to do your job, do it well, and do it longer.