The Sales Manager's Biggest Mistake

By Dr. Larry Craft

After personally interviewing literally thousands of sales managers over the past twenty years, I've concluded that there is one mistake that nearly all sales managers make...and it costs them the most time and money. It doesn't matter how intelligent you are; how long you've been a manager; or where in the world you live. Nearly every manager loves to short-cut the selection process.

Possibly, it's because you are nearly all 'Racehorses' who have high drive and impatience or it could be the 'Jack of all trades' demands to perform dozens of job duties with little or no staff support. It could be the fact that you never received adequate training on employee selection. Most likely, it's all of these factors. Excuses aside, every manager would love to know how to hire peak performing sales personnel...as long as it doesn't take a lot of time and effort.

Well, there is a way you can 'have your cake and eat it too.' There is a way you can short-cut the process and still avoid costly hiring mistakes. It's called The Three Dimensional Hiring System. Basically put, as long as you're measuring the applicant's 'Can Do,' 'Will Do,' and 'Follow-through,' you'll avoid costly hiring mistakes. And it doesn't take two hours of testing and six interviews. Your applicant will spend less than 45 minutes taking a battery of employment tests over the Internet and you'll conduct only two interviews. And the entire system can be explained in three simple steps, our three dimensions.

Measuring the 'Can Do' skills, knowledge and experience. Follow the CraftSystems' Employment Interview Guide and within 30 minutes, you'll know if your candidate has the sales skills and job experience to shorten the learning curve (and you're training). You can award your candidate up to 50 Compatibility Points based upon his or her response to each interview question. We even have an Internet sales skills survey your applicant can complete that assesses his or her basic sales skills. If you have plenty of time to train the new salesperson, this first step may not be that important to you. On the other hand, if you decide to hire an applicant who has minimal skills and experience and you don't have the time to train your new salesperson, you'll have another costly hiring mistake.

Measuring the 'Will Do' drive and motivation. Administer the 20-minute Craft Personality Questionnaire (CPQ) and the 10-minute Oxford aptitude test and know if you're hiring a highly driven order-maker ('Racehorse') or an easy-going order-taker ('Plow Horse'). Because of our 'anti-faking' technology, your candidate can even take the tests from his or her own computer at home. Your candidate can receive up to 50 Compatibility Points based upon his or her scores on the CPQ.

Measuring the 'Follow-through' persistence and work ethic. Once again, use our Employment Interview Guide to lead you through this provocative 60 minute interview that assesses your prospective salesperson's reliability and self-discipline. Just like the initial interview, you can award your candidate up to 50 Compatibility Points based upon his or her response to each interview question.

Making the Final Decision. Now, simply add up the Compatibility Points from the three dimensional hiring system (150 Total Possible Points) and make your hiring decision. Obviously, the closer to 150, the better the chance you are hiring a peak performer. Once you get under 90 points, beware. You may be hiring your next costly mistake. You might want to shift roles and become a career counselor, gently directing your candidate to another career.

Assess the Assessment! If you are a manager with 10 or more employees, business owner, or a consultant, we invite you to complete our complimentary 10-15 minute CPQ personality profile and receive its personalized reports as well as a copy of Dr. Craft's "Developing HorsePower" audio cd. All information will be kept confidential and will not be distributed without your written permission.