Sales hiring Is too important to leave to intuition

I have already discussed the reasons why sales recruitment is the most difficult in other posts. Whether it's for SDRs, account managers, VP Sales or CROs. Let's explore this critical topic (critical because your sales team brings in the revenue of your organisation…).

What's your reference system

If I ask you to draw me a map of the world, without being too specific of course, what map will you draw? I bet you will put Europe in the centre, the Americas on the left and Asia on the right. Correct? Why? Because that's what you grew up seeing. You have that experience of seeing that world map. So it's normal.

Now let's ask the same question to an American. What kind of world map do you think they will draw? Something completely different. Correct? And if we ask a Chinese person? Yet another world map!

Well, when it comes to recruiting salespeople, it's exactly the same thing. You will recruit based on YOUR experience. And how many salespeople have you recruited and evaluated? 10? 100? 500? Even if you have a lot of experience and have recruited a large number, say 1,000 or 2,000, your frame of reference is minimal. This introduces errors.

The decision biases

So your frame of reference is limited, that's normal. But the problem doesn't stop there. The problem is that it's also biased. Because if you're reading this article, I'm putting you in the category of humans :) . And even though Descartes said "Cogito Ergo Sum" and we live in a society that has taught us that we are rational, humans are anything but rational. We are emotional beings. And so we are biased. And these biases affect our decisions. There are many biases that affect your recruitment decisions, here are a few:

Affinity bias: We unconsciously prefer people who are similar to us, who have the same interests, the same background, etc. Someone who is radically different could well be as effective as us, or even more so.

Conformity bias: When the opinions of others influence us. We are social animals, so the opinions of others are important. If a consensus seems to be forming, you are likely to agree, even if you have doubts. There is also the bystander bias, which I have documented here.

Anchoring bias: We are influenced by information gathered very early on in the process. We make decisions quickly and anchor them to the information gathered early on. Same university? A competitor? Then we seek out information to validate that decision (see below).

Beauty bias: Beauty bias refers to physical appearance. Many of us place too much importance on a candidate's appearance. We unconsciously think that they are truly up to the task. However, the old adage about not judging a book by its cover is true. Do not judge candidates on their appearance.

Order bias: Order bias relates to the order in which you interview people. Research shows that recruiters are likely to remember the candidates they interviewed first and last. And managers are more likely to forget the candidates interviewed in the middle of the interview.

CV as the solution?

Sadly, the CV isn't predictive of the performance of a sales person. 30 years of study show that the correlation between CV as a mean of recruitment and performance is 18%.

In other words, if you use a CV to choose whether or not you want to interview someone, you are better off tossing a coin. A 50% chance is better than a 18% chance.

The solution?

The solution is therefore to start your recruitment processes, whether for a VP Sales, Head of, AE or SDR, with a scientific and predictive approach that removes human bias and is in line with your unique context with sales dedicated assessments. And whose data is based on the assessment of millions of salespeople, not just the few dozen or hundred from one's experience. It should be based solely on the assessment of key sales skills, not an approach such as DISC communication style, etc. And, last but not least, it should be based on your specific context, not a "one size fits all" approach.

For example, is prospecting required? Who should the salesperson contact? What resistance will they encounter? Is your sales process a one-touch or a lengthy process? Etc...

Below is an example of a candidate analysis for sales team management. For more information, please contact me or download an example via this link.

Is that it?

That would be too simple, dear reader... No, an assessment is a recommendation to speak to this candidate or not. Not to hire them. By assessing early on:

1- You avoid your biases

2- You are data driven. Rather than being "gut feel" driven. I see too many organisations that have KPIs everywhere, but when it comes to recruitment? No robust data. Why recruit people to manage them by measurement (among other things) without putting measurement in place from the outset?

3- You avoid losing a raw talent that you would have rejected based on their CV (one of our client hired someone who would never have made the cut based on his CV but who is now performing very well!).

If you have not given up on the idea of changing the way you recruit your salespeople, contact us for a frank and direct conversation.