Are you building an organization that can sell?

Are you building an organization that can sell? Do you have a systematic process for talent acquisition and hiring? Or do you hire the best person you can find when you have an opening that needs filled?

Organizations that have systemized their hiring process have put steps in place that help them narrow the field, leading to a successful final selection when hiring a new employee.

Recruiting: Successful companies are always recruiting; they do not wait until there is an opening that needs filled.

What you accomplish during recruiting has a direct long-term impact on the success of your sales team, so don't be reactive. Be proactive and plan ahead.

Funny how it's always your “A Player” top producer(s) who move on to new, better opportunities. The “B” and “C” players tend to get comfortable for longer. So identify ahead of time the strengths and weaknesses of the team, and the behaviors of the high achievers. Prepare a job profile that represents the required tasks and the necessary functions to complete each task.

Interviewing: Team Player or Lone Wolf? It's important to think about what kind of person you need when filling a position in an existing department, replacing a previous team member or expanding the team.

Do not disregard the make up of the team when hiring. It's just as important as the job performance factors and the characteristics of an individual winner. How are they going to fit in? What sort of screening mechanisms do you have in place to help with the first hiring decision, including whom not to hire? How is the field of candidates narrowed down to the final few good candidates, and how are your interview steps, from telephone screening to final interviews, building a profile of each candidate?

Assessments: What tools are we using to help gather information about the candidates? Assessments help us gather information relevant to the specific job under consideration and will supplement what we learn in the interview process. Plus, they help narrow the field more objectively. We learn strengths/weaknesses, personality characteristics, general skills and attitudes and specific skills.

There are many assessment tools available. Just make sure that the tool you are using conforms with the guidelines laid out by the Equal Opportunities Employment Commission.

Decision making: We started the decision process in step 1, when we created the job profile. And at each point in the hiring process we have continued to make decisions about who moves forward in our hiring process and who does not. We decided who fit with the team and who did not, and we decided who has certain required skills and attributes that indicate likelihood of success. Now we are at a point where we have to evaluate the remaining candidates and decide whom to hire. Each candidate can be matched to the original job profile, determining how closely skills and experience match.

Assessments will help determine how closely applicants match certain characteristics and behaviors that are demonstrated by other top performers.

Often, the “best” fit is not a “perfect” fit, but with a consistent approach and a robust hiring process we can minimize the likelihood of making a bad hiring decision. Hiring someone who turns out to be a bad fit costs money to train, loses you ground in the marketplace, holds the door open for your competition and must eventually be replaced.

By Jamie Kane | contributing columnist

Jamie Kane is a Lakewood Ranch resident and the owner of Sandler Training in Sarasota. Sandler Training offers sales, management, and leadership training, coaching and consulting. Contact Kane at [email protected].