How to hire a good and trusty sales person?

I'm in sales and marketing for an interactive agency contacting mostly corporate accounts and not small businesses. I've got a few proposals out in the past 4 months I've been with them and I got them connected with a Fortune 500 corp, too.

A question to ask a salesperson is how effective are they at getting their own leads, even if they don't have an existing client portfolio.

Certainly, they should have basic knowledge of the business.

Ask them how they would handle the sales process, how would they generate leads, and would they follow-up in order to stay in touch. A good salesperson has to have a follow-up plan.

Getting a right sales person are always a great challenge to sales leaders. I would rather recruitment someone fresh and groom from there. Otherwise when the situation requires me to look for experience ones, I look at the numbers. Candidates can lie during interview, but not numbers, look at the income they are making, look at their closing ratio and look at their productivity, it gives you a good indicator about the candidate.

I have a site that talks all about how to attract and hire top candidates. Sales is a special skill. There are two things to look at, past performance/job history and attitude.

Network with people you know. It is hard to 'headhunt' as a business but you can certainly network. The other suggestion I tell hiring managers regarding sales people is if they are making income claims make them prove it. Have them show you their w-2's from the past couple of years. It will smoke out the performers from the actors.

Good luck.

make a personality test with this at least you can minimize and calculate risk at every aspect

yes, Sales person is the most important man of the company. it generates the leads and converts them. he also known the knowledge the your product and what the clients are requirement.......

today it is very tuff to select the good and trusty sales person..

http://www.jazd.net/directory

If you're able to hire a "good" and "trusty" sales person all rolled into one then you've got a great hiree. First off, I'd make sure in the first interview at your facility you can show how you have clients that have stuck with you for years and/or offer the prospective hiree a peek at testimonial letters AND stating that each and every client uses your services based on trust. Don and jazdmarkets2 gave excellent examples on lead generation.

Ask for three non-personal, all business referrals. Define what "good" is to the hiree, what you expect from him/her, how often to meet personally to followup on projects and offer help, how much commission splits on company generated leads, etc.

If you assume good they'll assume what they're doing is good.

Owners never assume. Otherwise, it makes . . .

I think most computer sales people fail to truly appreciate the value of a consultative sales approach. So often, they take for granted that if someone is in the store, they MUST want to buy a computer.

However, by spending a little time getting to better understand your customers wants and needs, it can become very easy to establish a long-term customer.

Look for someone who has a good ear, and legitimately cares about the needs of your consumers, and you'll be sure to have made a wise decision.

Of course, it won't hurt if they also have awesome closing skills, and know how to promote the business in other ways to keep the door swinging open with new customers.