Ask HN: How to hire sales people

5 points by pantsd 17 years ago | 5 comments

I'm working on a project targeted towards SMB mostly, although it could go the enterprise route. How do you go about hiring sales people? Craigslist?

russell 17 years ago |

A salesman once told me, "Any salesman, no matter how bad, can sell himself to an engineer." You really need someone you trust to evaluate the candidates. Find successful entrepreneurs in your area and have their VP of sales help. Exercise your network. Enlist your SO, neighbors. VC's might help. I'm not kidding. An ad on Craigslist will probably attract some slick scum.

More advice from the salesman. Hire a salesman driving a Mercedes. The payments will keep him motivated. I once hired a salesman driving a beater and got performance commensurate with his car.

We are supposed to be gender neutral in this world, but I think that women beat us males in people skills, and sales is very much people skills. If nothing else, run your candidate by a sharp woman.

EDIT: When I wrote this I was thinking of direct sales, which is hugely expensive. I strongly recommend against it. Been there. Done that. I found telemarketing with skilled salespeople to be much more cost effective. And I really mean skilled, well trained, and well paid. Serve yourself is the most cost effective of all.

Disclaimer: I have run sales, but I dont pretend that I was any good at it.

joe_bleau 17 years ago | |

I've seen more than a few salesmen that did their best work selling themselves into the job, but never live up to that initial impression. I now realize that I can't spot the fakers.

Agree on women in technical sales, as long as they're competent. Among the vendors that call on me, some of the best use women for outside sales. OTOH, the saleswomen that don't know the tech/product/business are really frustrating, more so than the clueless salesmen. (Not sure why--maybe the ones I've run across come off as especially whiny or needy?)

mburnett 17 years ago |

Summary: Tricky sales people can sell the fact they are good at a lot of things. How do you figure out what type of people they really are? By tracking the energy that interviewees have around their responses and digging deeper, people will inevitably reveal the behaviors and principles they live by day-to-day.

----

When trying to hire someone you may find that you are looking for a particular type of person (maybe someone who works well in teams or, instead, is more of a performer on their own). To learn more about the way the person is (I mean they way really are, not just what they sell about themselves) try these steps:

1. Ask them questions that might reveal one of the characteristics (Are you better at working on teams or by yourself?)

2. They will usually answer “both” and try to sell you on it

3. Ask them to recall some productive/highlighting/significant experiences in working alone

4. Then ask the same for working in teams

This obviously doesn't cover the whole process, but can be a helpful technique.

5. Feel a sense of energy coming from each response

6. Ask the base question again (“Teams or alone?”) and see which they give more weight to.

7. Assess how strong you can confirm a conclusion of which they truly prefer

tocomment 17 years ago |

That's a great question. I'd love to hear some answers.

I'd also like to know how to decide between hiring sales people and selling a product online (self serve), or can both be done simultaineously?

A product we're considering could really be sold either way.

russell 17 years ago | |

As I said here, I recommend online sales. Sales and marketing can eat 50% of your revenues, and it is very hard for engineers to pick good salespeople.