Sunday, August 24, 2008

Hiring a RainMaker

Keith Rosen has an insightful look at the hiring process for a top sales dog (a rainmaker).

Finding your next star player requires more than having them simply sell you on why they are a solid fit for a position on your sales team. And it goes beyond anything you'll be able to decipher or read into when evaluating their resume.

Rosen then lists 20 in-depth questions to ask any candidates, including this one:

Were you selling based on a bidding process, RFP's, etc.?

I'm going to add a couple of my own:

  • What does your Sales Plan look like?
  • Please ask me a couple of your Open ended / probing questions for prospects.
  • What does your Lead Generation Process look like?
  • Please outline your sales process.

If your company uses CRM, make sure that your salesperson does too. Also, did he have a team of folks helping him close - like a sales engineer and an admin to do paperwork and a call center to make appointments.

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