The Ideal Salesperson

[Cole]

This is a good topic, When hiring a new salesperson, what skills do you want him or her to have before you hire?

[grumpy]

The answer depends...

If you are a startup you want someone with alot of experience so you don't have to train them.

If you are an established company then I can argue that someone who is very personable and knows your product and can be trained to sell your way would be the best salesperson. Perhaps someone with knowledge of your product and knowledge in sales, but certianly not knowledge of selling your product.

When hiring a salesperson, make them sell you. Turn the interview into a sales presentation with you being the customer. Also never hire them on the spot. Tell them you will call them back, then file their resume and wait for THEM TO CALL YOU! If they don't call you, they ain't worth a dime.

[Mike Finley]

Well, basically they have to be able to sell, if they can they have to have a proven, verifiable track record. If they are newer then they just need the ability to learn and not be effected adversely by rejection.

Most importantly they have to have the ability to represent your company properly. I can't think of anything worse on a sales manager than having to put out fires constantly because you have a salesperson that is out doing his own thing, making promises that can't be kept in price, quality or even worse time frames that production can't meet in order to make a sale. These types of guys don't realize that one of the most powerful words you can use in a sale is "no." to a customer, instead they are the guys who say, yes, yes, yes in order to make the sale and let everybody else clean up the mess they are creating.

I have known managers that thought they could handle this type of person, but it never works out. Production gets pissed because the buck stops with them, they have to work harder or juggle other jobs to constantly meet the 'rush' jobs that this one salespersons jobs always seem to be. Other salespeople get pissed off when they see somebody else continuously doing what they aren't allowed to do and getting away with it, and even worse the perception that the manager lets them get away with it. The manager loves the numbers this guy puts out compared to his other sales people, but he overlooks the opportunity costs. This all comes back around to those high maintenance sales people I want nothing to do with.