Am attending a distributor meeting and an attendee asked a speaker “where do you find sales staff other than through networking?” (yes, some people are looking to grow their business.)
The question came from a lighting / electrical distributor. The follow-up question was “with so many people looking, what questions should I ask to improve my interviewing to improve my odds of making a good hire?”
What sources / recruiters do you use? What is your hiring process or some key questions you ask?”
6 Comments
We have used PI(Predictive Index) in the past and have gotten away from it in the last few years.
That gave use one of the best way to make a judgment in an unbiased way.
In today’s market, we need to dust it off and start using again.
Here’s a novel concept. How about growing your own salespeople? Responsibility for he dearth of sales talent in the industry rests squarely on the shoulders of most of the distributors. We steal talent from one another and bid that talent up to the point that often the only people making money in the business are the salespeople. Why would someone want to run a branch or invest capital when they can have most of the upside with none of the downside as a salesperson. Distributors behave like idiots in the way they run their businesses in many ways and the “free agency” of the sales force has created overpaid players who have disproportionate participation in the profits and no participation in the losses. Stupid is as stupid does.
Bravo to Anonymous 2 and the “novel concept”. As a manufacturer, I have wondered this for years. Kinda like MLB – the only qualified managers are those that have been fired a time or two as a former manager. God forbid someone would actually try a rookie in that position…
I agree with Anonymous #2 about growing your own, if you can afford it.
With really good talent currently in the market place, we are prone to use something like PI. At least that gives us a glimpse of how PI says they stack up. It’s a good starting point. But it is no substitute for good judgment.
Grow your own; if you have time for the fruits of that labor to blossom, it’s a great idea, but you’d need a really good retention program or you’ll find yourself becoming the training company for your local competitors. Finding people is difficult, no profile testing or college recruitment strategy can be the sole answer. When you lose a $3M salesguy, you don’t have the time to attract a college grad to cover that hole, and few distributors (or manufacturers) create a bench of talent. sorry to say, but it’s reality; you size your company to maximize profits and when you lose someone, you need to replace them quickly. Our success rate in replacing distributor people is over 95% retention over 3 years; it’s an investment that pays dividends.
The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. I think that’s also the definition of insanity. If you’re hiring a sales rep and you have the choice between a rookie and someone who’s built a brand name in your territory, who’s taking your business and has a few million dollars of business that you don’t? Most will go with the latter. I’ve used just about every sales, aptitude, intelligence and personality test out there and no test is going to sniff out what your gut can tell you. I’ve been recruiting for electrical distributors exclusively for over 10 years and frankly…nothing has changed when it comes to recruiting sales people. By the time I’m involved, the only people that a client wants to see is the one they can ‘plug and play’ they’ll pay a premium for that person in hopes they can get that person to drag their business across the street, the ‘win of landing a big hitter is intoxicating. More often than not that big hitter will use your big offer to get a bigger offer to stay put…and the cycle continues. I absolutely agree, and I’ve interviewed thousands of distributor sales guys and the big name, big dollar guys are rarely worth the investment because of the web of issues that keep them where they are; product line, pricing, an inside person they can’t leave behind, etc, etc…the real gold in this industry is guy (or gal) who’s waiting for that person to retire, leave, move away…coddle your big dogs but groom your puppies. I’ve placed hundreds of sales people in electrical distribution, I know the difference between a good ‘en and a good talker. If you’re having trouble attracting talent, call me…I’m happy to help!
Prudence Thompson
The first choice in recruiting for the electrical distributor
Director of Recruiting Egret Consulting Group
847-307-7126 direct 847-373-0386 cell
http://www.linkedin.com/in/electricaldistributorrecruiter
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