There aren’t too many things more difficult than hiring well—except maybe hiring salespeople well. If there is a single rule I can share for sales managers it is this:

The better job you do of hiring, the easier will be your job of managing and leading. The poorer you do at hiring, the more difficult will be your job of managing and leading.

Sales management is inversely proportional to hiring.

Hiring Difficult, Managing Easy

Hiring is time-consuming. Interviewing is a grind. Your work is piling up. The more time you go without a salesperson, the more opportunities that slip through your grasp. You need to hire and you need to hire now.

But the more time you invest in making a good hiring decision, the easier time you will have managing and leading the individual you hired. Hiring well improves the likelihood that the salesperson will succeed—for you, for your company, and for your clients.

Hiring well now means that there are countless tasks and activities that won’t be demanding your time and attention in the future. If you thought you didn’t have enough time in the day before you hired poorly, wait until you make a bad hiring decision.

Hiring Easy, Managing Difficult

Not spending the time to hire well will make managing and leading very, very difficult.

The tasks of trying to manage and lead a poor hire are many. If you don’t invest the time to hire well, you will spend your time in the future trying to work with a failing salesperson, handling their behavioral issues, handling their attitude issues, trying to correct poor beliefs, working with human resources on performance plans, and going through all of the time-consuming (but necessary) steps to correct your hasty hiring decision.

You will be spending this time here—time you already didn’t have—instead of working with the rest of your sales team. You will spend this time with people, tasks, and activities that come at a high emotional cost.

Then there is poor hire’s ability to infect other with whatever disease they are carrying. It can cost you your culture, and it can cost your team.

Mistakes Will Be Made

You will make hiring mistakes; it comes with the territory. But the fewer you make, the better. Be thoughtful. Invest the time. Invest the energy. Hire as well as you can, and learn from your hiring mistakes.

Questions

Does it normally take more time to hire well or to spend time correcting a hiring mistake?

What are all the unpleasant tasks that consume your time when you make a bad hire?

Which is the better investment of your time, hiring well or managing out poor hires?

What are the opportunity costs that are lost through poor sales hires and the time spent replacing them?

Have I convinced you to rethink that too quick hire?

For more on increasing your sales effectiveness, subscribe to the RSS Feed for The Sales Blog and my Email Newsletter. Follow me on Twitter, connect to me on LinkedIn, or friend me on Facebook. If I can help you or your sales organization, check out my coaching and consulting firm, B2B Sales Coach & Consultancy, email me, or call me at (614) 212-4729.

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