

Ask HN: how do you find a good salesperson? - jon_dahl

The excellent "How to hire an idiot" post (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=263599) talks about how not to hire a salesperson. But how _do_ you find good salespeople? What do you look for? Is "salesperson" a legitimate role for a software vendor, or should software companies rely more on marketing, business development, etc.?
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tjic
I'm working through the Personal MBA program that was discussed here recently.

Josh Kaufman suggested the book "45 Effective Ways For Hiring Smart", which I
thought was really great.

As I read it, I took notes in our internal wiki (I do this with all business
books I read).

The notes follow:

concept

    
    
       1. Rethink the position (does it need to be filled?)
       2. Find someone who can tell you when you're about to make a bad hire
       3. Would the process allow you yourself to be hired? 
    

pre-interview / resume screening

    
    
       1. Make phone contact
       2. Ask for a letter & resume
       3. Give an assignment
       4. Read resumes in teams
       5. Cast the widest net
       6. Use caution with big changes (is this a huge leap for the candidate?) 
    
    

interview

    
    
       1. Pre-interview interview (keep the initial interview very short)
       2. Walk around the office (to help candidate relax)
       3. Trust your gut
       4. The passionate candidate (...is great!)
       5. Ask all your questions at once
       6. Have fun (ask a few offbeat questions)
       7. Assign a mini project
       8. Seek closure (at the end say "we have five more minutes" and then pay a LOT OF ATTENTION to what is said at the end)
       9. Inappropriate Behavior (Beware it!)
      10. Strengths and weaknesses (pay attention ; each is the flip side of the other: "big picture" == "bad with details", etc.)
      11. Be the expert (ask questions in areas where you are an expert)
      12. Take notes - left side of paper: candidates answers / facts ; right side of paper: your thoughts
      13. Interview in teams
      14. Ask for a legal release
      15. Throw a few curveballs (walk candidate to his car ; get him/her out of interview mode)
      16. Ask for a return call / email "Send me a list of competitors / ideas / whatever 'on Monday'" (looking for promptness - 8am monday!)
      17. Assign a take-home project
      18. Psychological tests
      19. Use an Intuitive person to help you interview (in our case - Suz. Look at Strengths_Finder_for_various_folks
      20. Ask candidates "what will I hear about you when I check your references?" 
    

reference check

    
    
       1. Devise a phone checklist for use with references
       2. Use the Internet to research people
       3. Perform due dilligence (credit checks, etc.)
       4. Ask for a call back from references "if this is an excellent candidate"
       5. Use your network to check on candidates (LinkedIn) 
    

end stage negotiations

    
    
       1. Put problems on the table- talk to candidates about potential problems (because there WILL be problems with every candidate)
       2. Use a trial run on new candidates 
    

not for us / duh

    
    
       1. Travel with the candidate
       2. Meet the spouse
       3. Handwriting analysis
       4. Meet references in person
       5. Invest in people - (duh!)
       6. Three rules
             1. honest
             2. no addiction / crime problems
             3. good health 
       7. Ten questions
             1. has candidate sued a lot of people?
             2. does the candidate dress well?
             3. is the candidate a druggie? test?
             4. is the candidate responsive?
             5. use a model of previous good hires to hire new candidates?
             6. offer hiring awards to current employees.
             7. put all job offers in writing
             8. use search firms, etc. ?
             9. review the hiring process ; don't let it get too idea-rich 
       8. Design your own system (Duh)
       9. Pre-interview combinations

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radu_floricica
I'm looking for the same answer, but I'll share what I found out so far (the
hard way). There are two ways to pay a salesperson. First is by comission,
where you pay according to the amount sold. This is best, but it will be hard
to find somebody on this terms if you're a young startup. Second is where you
negociate a salary, and you set a target. The target need not be about sales,
it can be about appointments set (very useful), calls made, emails sent or any
other metric.

Now, the don't-be-stupid part: never _ever_ hire somebody in sales with fixed
salary without targets. Where there is a salary, there must be targets. You
can of course offer both comission and a salary, but the salary must be
dependent on some other metric then the comission.

Also a good part of the sales process is finding the best metrics. It should
be something like: for 100 phones you get 5 appointments, from which you get 2
second appointments and 0.7 contracts. Each of those steps can and should be
optimized separately, once you have the process established.

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gunderson
It depends on what you're trying to sell. Some products just need someone to
take orders. Other products require a more technical sale, and others require
more traditional sales skills and negotiating skill.

The most important thing for salespeople is incentives. If you give them an
incentive to lie, they will. If you give them an incentive to walk away from a
potential sale without making an effort, they will. If you give them an
incentive to sincerely represent your company's product and practices, they
will.

A large number of CEOs are recruited from sales. It's a motivational, high
energy world, and good salespeople make more than almost any other position in
a company.

Consider salespeople part of your product's UI. If you give the salespeople
perverse incentives, they will make customers dislike your company. The
opposite is also true.

I recommend that to find a salesperson you sign up for demos from companies
who you think would employ the kind of salesperson you'd want, and if you find
one you like, offer him/her a job.

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jmtame
I would look for good track record, and verify their references, as with any
type of position.

If I'm looking for a good developer, I want to see their past projects or
companies involved, and possibly some source code. I'll probably ask them to
write part of an app on the spot and see how they work. The best hires are the
ones who really enjoy what they do, and those people usually have interesting
side projects they can show you or talk about.

I imagine a sales person who is good at his job will be able to show you
exactly how he helped out the last several companies he worked for. He should
probably be able to "sell" you on why he's perfect for the job ;)

I probably wouldn't hire a sales guy until I have the product fully developed
and tested, have happy customers, and know there is a strong demand. I
wouldn't rely on your sales guy to push a product that isn't ready.

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matthewking
Good question, it's one that I've also been giving some thought to lately.

I've been involved in a startup before where we hired sales people, and they
were always on the verge of a sale. We ended up going through 4-5 which were
all pretty dismal.

How do you set sales targets, when you don't know much about sales and what
would be possible?

At what point do you let the sales person go, how long do you give them to
learn the ropes before they're expected to get some sales?

Obviously for a startup, especially a bootstrapped one, paying each bad sales
person a few months of basic before finding out they're useless is a serious
cash concern.

I'll be approaching that stage in a few months with my startup and it's
definitely worrying!

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dshah
We've hired several salespeople, and have been successful with it. Here are
the things I'd figure out before going too far:

1\. Do you need "transactional" selling (lots of small deals), or more
"consultative/solution" selling.

2\. How important is domain expertise for you? Do you need someone with an
existing rolodex or will you supply the leads?

3\. How much risk are you expecting the salesperson to take? How much will be
base compensation and how much will be commission driven?

4\. Are you looking for someone with demonstrated experience, or will someone
more junior work?

We've experimented with variations on all of the above to find the right
"pattern" for us (in terms of what works and what doesn't).

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gm
I think it depends in the industry. If it is a "good ol' boy network" (ie,
banking), then hire from within the industry. Your new guy will already be
"inside the club," and will be able to get right down to selling.

If you are in an industry that is more open (ie, educational software), then
focus on traditional sales skills (make friends easy, take rejection, try and
try again, etc...)

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RobertSeviour
I hope you will excuse me pitching my own product, but it's exactly relevant
to this thread.

'How to Hire a Good Technical Salesman manual' by Robert Seviour

[http://seviourbooks.com/how-to-hire-a-good-technical-
salesma...](http://seviourbooks.com/how-to-hire-a-good-technical-salesman-
manual.htm)

