Partner Article

5 tips for hiring your next sales professional

Catherine McLean is the founder of McLean Ross; a leading utility recruitment company who are sponsoring the ’Sales Professional of the Year’ award at this year’s TECLA’S.

I get asked a lot about what I look for when recruiting sales professionals in the energy and utility industry. I have mentioned five tips below that I look for and would advise other companies to consider when hiring your next Sales Professional.

This is not an exhaustive list but a quick guide.

Track record – is the candidate able to demonstrate with numbers, percentages, etc. with plenty of examples, their track record of success?

Progression – how long has the candidate been in their current role/company? Having a jumpy CV in sales is always a very good indicator of sales performance. It’s very important when looking at a salesperson’s career history that they show longevity within roles. If they have had several roles within a short period of time it would be virtually impossible for them to have achieved sales targets within each of these organisations.

Loyalty – how willing is the candidate to discuss the details of their current and previous employers? It’s great to give examples and provide track record information individually but ultimately they should respect the confidentiality of businesses they have worked in, you as the potential new employer would expect the same courtesy.

Sense of humour – there is a lot of rejection in sales, how easily can the candidate cope with these rejections? Are they able to have a sense of humour about these ups and downs whilst staying professional?

Driven – how driven is the salesperson? They have to want to be successful for themselves first, only then will they be able to be successful for the company they are representing.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Catherine McLean .