The Hiring Process
Our client has recently experienced “you can’t account for crazy when you hire”. As hiring managers, we have all experienced this.
- Resume looks good
- Interview was professional
- References are clean
- Punctual & engaged first week
- The personal issues begin to unravel and turn into an HR nightmare within 90-180 days
It’s truly unfortunate as you had very high hopes. Even worst is the detriment that their personal life may have had on servicing your clients.
This is my client’s story – this personal meltdown had an enormous effect on 1 enterprise account, 25 sales staff’s opinion on hiring best practices, and 90 days of wasted productivity in a territory. At first, you only blame yourself – how did I not see this coming, how must we alter our hiring/monitoring process?
I’m not sure you can ever AVOID crazy, but I do believe you can put out a fire long before the office burns down. Here are ideas I believe will help mitigate a sales reps ability to go “rogue” within your business.
1. Listen to Employees
It turns out that can sniff out a rogue slacker long before managers can. Managers are running from meeting-to-meeting and reviewing information from a tactical/strategic point-of-view. Your sales team is in the trenches, and definitely notices who has paused too long when rowing the boat. It’s important to get feedback from your employees. Our client realized only after the fact that the other employees knew Day 1 that craziness was evident. Management reacted too late.
2. Set up a Profit Sharing Program
Profit sharing is a simple concept, if one person stops rowing the boat, the sales team will either help mentor/train a failing teammate, or ask for their removal quickly. The ladder will trigger you to begin reviewing your rogue employees’ activity. Profit sharing encourages maximizing the potential of the team. Sometimes “eat what you kill” comp plans have managers focus on the stars and neglect the laggards. Many times the rogue/crazy employee is hidden at the bottom.
3. Optimize Your CRM & Record Calls
This sounds simple, but vital to catching the virus before it spreads. Your activity reports will be very objective, and shows who works and who doesn’t. To move a step forward past fake activity (which our client had encountered), recording phone calls to understand if your company is being well represented.
4. Create Greater Accountability to Prove Activity
This correlates with the activity, but we’ve all seen lack of notes in the CRM before. Then when you ask the sales rep about the account, they can somehow spout a story about where the deal is. Prove it. Attach emails into the CRM, show proposals, and give me detail on their BANT qualification.
