How to Hire Salespeople that Have Leadership Qualities

Young business woman presenting his ideas on whiteboard to colleagues

If you run a company, then your employees are your most valuable asset. You need to make sure you are bringing the best people on board that you can afford. That way, they will lead your team and find new ways to make your company more valuable in the marketplace. This takes the right approach. Use the tips below to ensure you get the best:

Do Your Background Work
Making sure you have the right employee with the leadership qualities you want starts with background probe. You can never know exactly if someone is telling the truth or not. They could say anything when they are interviewing for the position.

When you conduct a background check, be sure to look for criminal activity. Also, verify their references. You want to ensure they aren’t making anything up with regards to where they have worked before. This will help you screen them from the beginning to look for leadership qualities and other aspects that may be helpful to you.

Verifying references is something that people tend to skip over because it does lead to more work. But being able to hear from someone about how good of a worker a potential candidate is may end up saving you more time in the long run. Of course everyone puts their best references forward, so being able to ask the right questions and sort through the fluff is very important. Questions like “tell me what it is like to work with the job candidate?” and “how well did the candidate get along with their coworkers?” are great to get a feeler about the potential employee.

Look at Their Resume
A resume is a great presentation of what someone can accomplish. You will want to look at their entire resume. Look for areas where they were being a leader. This could have meant a management position. However, this is not always the case.

Sometimes, great leaders come from regular positions. They might have been in sales but they put up the best numbers in their department. Perhaps they were great at motivating others to perform at a higher level. This is why digging deeper on their resume will help you uncover their true strengths.

In addition, learn to read between the lines. Sometimes, certain goals or quotas that they met are not as impressive as it sounds. You need to understand what they are really saying so that you don’t get seduced by buzzwords.

Watch Their Social Media
In today’s world, you can’t get away from social media. Everyone’s life is online. If your employees have a social media account that you can access, then do it. It will give you insight into what they put out there in the world.

There is nothing wrong with having a personal life. However, these are people who will be putting their face out there for your company. They should have profiles that are professional and not filled with questionable content. Who they are behind a screen can tell a lot about their character and who they will be as an employee. Doing a quick check online can save a lot of headache in the end.

Keep an Eye on Them in the Beginning
The onboarding process is essential to keep your eye on carefully. How they handle training is crucial. If they are asking great questions and showing that they are proactive, then this is a bonus. However, if they can’t be bothered to learn the basic materials, then that says something about their ability to lead in the future as a member of your company.

Give Them More Responsibility
When you have brought them on board, the hiring process is not over yet. You are still looking for ways they can lead. Try giving them special assignments. See how they react. If they produce great results, then they could be showing a lot of promise early on.

Conduct Reviews
Regular performance reviews are a must. However, this is even more true for someone who might be a leader in your company. Look for the ways they communicate with others. If they are liked in the company, then that is the first step.

In today’s world, a great employee is priceless. They can make all the difference between how much your company profits or declines. You don’t want to jump the gun on an employee that is not a great fit. So use the tips above. They will help you evaluate and hire the right leaders that can help your entire team perform at their best.

This is a Guest Post by Craig Middleton.

Craig has worked as a Business Consultant, Real Estate Agent , and HR businesses for most of his professional career. He graduated at UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing.