Every hiring manager has encountered that one sales candidate who was confident, charming and surely a perfect fit for the position during the interview, only later to turn out to be a poor performer on the job. Predicting how a candidate will perform once hired, based only on a simple in-person interview is no easy task, even for the most experienced hiring managers. After all, as they say in the entertainment world, “Every actor can give one great performance.” The same is true for an interview. So how can we increase our chances of hiring a salesperson who will perform

By now, you know that we would never recommend hiring anyone as a salesperson that did not have a high level of Drive, as verified by a sales aptitude test and a behavioral interview. These objective assessment tools that accurately assess the Drive within a candidate are necessary because unfortunately, it is easy to fake Drive over the short term. Evaluating a person’s attitude and personality can reveal what kind of salesperson someone might potentially be. However, stereotyping based on a first impression of someone can often produce inaccurate results.

We cannot tell you how many times we have spoken to business owners and managers who hire star athletes or other big men on campus who would seem to have everything it takes to sell, only to have them wilt under the pressure of professional sales.  The managers cannot understand why a star middle linebacker or the president of a fraternity cannot muster the same skill sets to deliver as a salesperson.  Here is the problem.