Hiring sales people can be challenging. It is worth your time to make an extra effort in finding the right candidate. Your company can end up spending between eight and nine times the person?s salary if you hire the wrong person. Only about 10% of sales people in America will have a positive return on investment. Nearly 40% of sales people do not make their quota and a full 22% cannot be trained at all. You may wonder if anyone really knows how to hire sales people.

How to Hire Sales People:

1. Look at how they present themselves. Your sales force should be confident but not arrogant.You need them to be likable and trustworthy but not slick and conniving. They should appear professional and friendly. If they use bad language or grammar, they may not be the right person to represent you. Remember, your business will be judged by who you employ to represent you and whatever damage they do will be hard to repair. They should also be able ot deal with unfriendly customers.
2. Avoid yes and no questions. Ask open ended questions that require more of an explanation. Ask about how they handled circumstances similar to what they will have to deal with if you hire then to sell your products. You can try some simulations and give hypothetical situations to job candidates and see how they respond. Develop a list of questions that you ask all your candidates so you have a uniform way to measure how they perform. Different types of sales jobs require different kids of sales people.
3. Think about how they sell themselves. How good at they at making you like them? If a person cannot sell themselves, how can they sell your products or services? If you cannot connect with the candidate, they may not be the right person for your company. After all, a job interview is really all about a candidate selling their experience and personality. If they cannot shine during an interview, for which they should have spent some time preparing, when can they shine?
4. Experience is not everything. A positive demeanor is more valuable in sales than experience. When thinking about how to sire sales people, it is important to remember that there are some products that really do sell themselves and others that require a little more work. You may meet some candidates who have never sold anything but are great at dealing with people. Others may have a track record but did not really have to do any kind of real sales.
5. Learn about them from the questions they ask. You can tell how much a candidate prepared for their interview with you by how many questions they ask you. If they do not have any, the chances are that they did not do a lot in the way of research and that might indicate their level of interest in working for you.

Your sales team represents your company. You need to know how to hire sales people so that you can make sure you are putting your best foot forward with every sales call they make.