CASE STUDY
Should I Hire this
Salesperson?
Just because a salesperson has experience doesn't
necessarily mean he is right for your company.
By Tom Crouser
hould I hire this salesperson?" That was the question the
printing company owner put to me, but the answer wasn't so
simple. Oh, the candidate tested well and seemed otherwise
qualifed, but the real question was, "Should this owner hire
this salesperson?" Well, someone ought to hire them, but I
don't know if this owner should. I covered details on supervising
salespeople in my last article and all that applies in this case. What's
new about this situation is how the owner came to this hiring question in the frst place. Let me explain.
S
To summarize the last article, owners
who have little knowledge about selling usually don't have good experiences
hiring people to do what they don't or
won't do. There is a lot to supervising
a salesperson including having product
knowledge, creating a "sales funnel,"
and knowing how to convert suspects to
prospects for starters.
Now, in this case, I not only didn't
know that, I didn't know if the owner
had the capacity, desire, and/or temperament to supervise and support a
salesperson (there are tests for some of
that). Nor did I know if the organization
could support one—in everything from
estimating to meeting customer expectations—and finally I didn't know if the
offer the owner wanted to extend would
be profitable. It seemed so, but I didn't
know for sure.
What was I left with?
And this is where the real story lies.
How did the owner come to the point
of this decision in the first place? The
story is all too familiar. In this case, the
salesperson was moving to the owner's
area from another city. He sold printing
there which was similar to the printing
that would be sold here, so the owner
thought, "Why not? He's been selling for
five years, so why wouldn't he be a good
fit for me"
Drawing Comparisons
Finding a salesperson isn't just about
waiting for someone to walk in the door
looking for a job. My friend said, "I have
needed a salesperson for years, but have
never found the right one." Well, assuming this is high on the owner's to do
list, how much time has been spent on
recruiting in the last six months? In this
case, and in many others, the answer was
none or little.
The applicant tested well, but even
that didn't tell if they were the one for
this owner, even if the owner had all the
required abilities. Why not? We weren't
comparing against anyone else. On the
plus side, we could say the applicant
had the capacity to learn (he was smart
enough) and had the basic temperament
to do well. But, compared to what?
42
Hiring is about choosing
between alternatives. Is
this the best person for
the job? Who knows
unless we compare
among alternatives?
QUICK PRINTING / September 2013
© iStockphoto/Thinkstock
"
I further note that his metropolitan
area is home to more than a million
people. Surely to goodness, this owner
could find at least one acceptable candidate among all those people.
Hiring is about choosing between
alternatives. Is this the best person for
the job? Who knows unless we compare
among alternatives? A better candidate
could be right down the street. Most
importantly, if we really need a salesperson, then we should be spending our
time finding one. We shouldn't wait
until one pops in the door. And that's
why I'm concerned about whether this
salesperson would be a good fit for this
printer. ◗◗
Tom Crouser is chairman of CPrint International, teacher of business courses at
CPrint University, and principal of Crouser & Associates, Inc., 235 Dutch Road,
Charleston, WV 25302, (MyPRINTResource.com/10004688), 304-965-7100.
Contact him at 304-541-3714 or tom@
crouser.com. Connect on Facebook and
LinkedIn and follow his tweets at www.
twitter.com/tomcrouser.
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