Hiring salespeople is different from most other roles.

Good salespeople have to be able to build rapport with clients, ask the right questions and listen well. To ensure you hire the best candidate for your business you need to be well-prepared.

• Start with a clear job description: Defining what success looks like will help guide your interview process and provide more clarity around the role itself. In addition, this can also be a good way to differentiate between candidates who are applying for positions within your company versus those who might not be a great match.

• Make sure the candidates understand why they're being interviewed: Every candidate you invite to interview needs to know why you invited them. No one wants to waste their time going through an entire interview process without knowing what type of position you have in mind for them.

The best salespeople are often star performers in other jobs as well.

You can't just hire someone because they have experience in sales. If you're looking for someone with a proven track record of closing deals and exceeding quotas, ask your candidates what else they've done that's similar to the job you're offering.

You'll want to find out how many deals they closed and what type of work they did. Was it mostly cold calling or selling face-to-face? Did they often work with the same clients or were they constantly getting new ones?

An important factor, however, to keep in mind is the company culture you want to orient to. If the candidate has a big personality, it could be a plus in terms of the confidence and charisma needed for selling. But if you want to create a more collaborative sales team, you may want to question that star performer about their ability to work well with others.

You won't always find the best salesperson in your own industry.

It may be that there aren't any suitable candidates with a background in your particular field, or it could be that the person you're looking for isn’t even working in sales at all.

But if someone has shown themselves to have potential as a salesperson, they’re likely to have certain traits and abilities that will make them successful regardless of their job title or industry focus.

For example, a project manager who has worked on technical implementations in the past will be able to communicate new ideas effectively and understands what the pain points of certain projects are. And if that person has a commercial mindset, it'll be easy to build the bridge towards pitching your products or services to the client.

Your best salespeople don't have to be extroverts.

There are several personality traits that are key for sales success, such as the ability to sell yourself and your ideas, and being able to think on your feet.

The best salespeople aren't always the most extroverted. In fact, great salespeople often enjoy their alone time and have a long list of hobbies that they pursue outside of work hours. This doesn't mean that they don't know how to make friends and charm customers. It does mean that you might want to think twice before hiring someone who can't motivate themselves without external validation from others around them.

It's important for sales managers and hiring managers alike to recognize these differences in personality types.

You don't always have to hire candidates with the most experience.

While experience is important, you can teach experience. If you're looking for someone who will be a great employee and fit in well on your team, look for people who are eager to learn and have the right attitude. Your best bet is hiring someone who will be a good team player.

Look at how eager they are to learn new things and how willing they are to adapt their skillset to work on the job. Be wary of candidates who say “I've done this before”. Definitely dig deeper with this type of candidates as it might mean they're not open-minded enough to take on a new challenge.

Keep the following tips in mind when you're searching for new sales team members.

• Hire salespeople who are eager to learn.

• Hire salespeople who are good listeners.

• Hire salespeople who are willing to work smart.

• Hire salespeople that are passionate about your product or service.

• Hire a track record of success for your product, service or similar business model.

Conclusion

As we've seen, there are a lot of things to consider when looking for new sales team members. Remember that the most important thing is to find people who are right for your company culture and values.

Get that right, and you'll be able to build a strong sales team that really plays well together!