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Tips for Hiring: Looking for New Salespeople?

By Barbara Wold, Retail & Consumer Tips, 11/14/2006

Be sure to look in the following four places for potential salespeople:

Customers -- both current and past
Look for sales qualities in the people you sell to. Positive: They know what your customers want and need, and they are familiar with your products and the competitors' products. Negative: They may refer some of your customers to the competition for certain merchandise.
Suppliers
Look hard at your vendors. Positive: They know the industry and they are familiar with your company. Negatives: They know their products, but they may not know yours. They'll need some training.
Current employees
When looking within your own organization, don't limit your search to "professional" people. Look in the warehouse, too. Positive: They know your company. They have a better sense of what can and can't be done, in terms of fulfilling a customer's needs. Negative: People often take "lower level" jobs so they won't have to sell. Selling requires a different mindset, and they might not be able to develop it.
Competitors
Go after people who consistently beat your people in sales. Positive: They know the industry, they know your company and are familiar with your competitors. Negative: It may be hard for your staff to accept "the enemy" as a colleague.

About Barbara Wold

Barbara Wold is a street-smart, down-to-earth business speaker, presenting topics from sales and marketing to customer service and tourism. She is an international speaker who has "WOWED" over 400,000 people from all 50 of the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, Canada, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, India and the United Arab Emirates.

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