How To Hire A Salesperson Successfully & What To Do If It Doesn't Work Out

Based on your trainer’s
top selling book.
How To Hire A Salesperson Successfully
And What To Do
If It Doesn’t Work Out.

About Your Trainer
• Keith Wymer, MA European
Marketing Management
• Serial entrepreneur - has started
up, bought and sold 9 businesses
• Has hired at least 1000 field sales
and telesales staff
• Sales Director in multi-national companies
Keith Wymer – Serial Entrepreneur

• Owners of small & medium sized
businesses
• Sales Managers & Directors
• HR Professionals & Recruiters
Who This Course Is For
Has hired over 1000 salespeople.

Why Take This Course?
• Minimise the risk of wasting time and money,
and incurring the disruption of getting it
wrong.
• You’re about to take a gamble and the aim
of this course is to tilt the odds in your
favour.
• Learn from your trainer’s mistakes so you can
avoid making the same ones.
A high risk undertaking.

What We’re Going To Cover
Part 1 - Planning For A Successful Hire.
Part 2 – Planning The Mechanics & Processes.
Part 3 – Salary, Commission & Job Specs.
Part 4 - Where To Find Candidates & Dealing With Agencies.
Part 5 - The First Round Of Interviews.
Part 6 - The Second Round Of Interviews.
Part 7 - From Job Offer To Induction.
Part 8 - What To Do If It Doesn’t Work Out.
Eight high value subjects.

Please Be Careful!
I’m not a lawyer, so please check your proposed actions with your
employment advisors to make sure they’re legal in your country.
Search Google under “employment advice” for an insurance company
that will advise and indemnify you against HR claims.
They can save you from making costly mistakes, wasting time and
experiencing a lot of heartache.
Make sure your actions are legal.

Please Be Kind Enough To Review This Course
• Reviews from people like yourself are the only feedback I
have to help me develop and improve my courses and
feedback is gratefully received.
Please leave a review at the end of the course.

PART ONE –
Planning For A Successful Hire

Part 1 - Planning For A Successful Hire
• A common reason for failure – the boss hasn’t defined in sufficient
detail want he/she wants the new hire to do and achieve.
• Plan ahead to minimise miscommunication.
• Re-invent the wheel – it keeps changing shape!
• Don’t just create a wish list: “I want my new salesperson to pick up
the phone, talk to prospects, go out and pitch and bring home the
orders.” This is just a flimsy framework. Plan ahead for effective communication.

• Plan for success in minute detail:
“I expect my new salesperson to cold call 6 decision makers per day
and set one appointment.
I also expect them to set another appointment every day from other
leads.
Then I expect them to bring home orders for £70K per month on
average although this will vary according to the seasonality of the
business and as a result, their targets.” Be specific, right from the start.

• A proper plan is particularly important if you’re hiring an
experienced salesperson because if you don’t tell them otherwise,
they’ll just do what they did in their last job. And who says they
were doing the right things there?
• For real success in hiring, you can go further than this. If they’re
cold calling, specify how many diallings, decision maker contacts
etc they should achieve per day. With other leads, how many
contacts/meetings/sales? Set the year’s sales target in advance.
• What do you want them to sell? Are there certain parts of your
product range they should concentrate on? What should their average
order value be and how quickly should they start to bring in sales after
starting with you? What should they do if they unearth an opportunity
that falls outside of your business plan?
Plan in minute detail.

• Who do you want the salesperson to sell to? Who is the typical
decision-maker and what kind of organisation/sector are they in?
Specify the job title for each vertical sector.
For example: “We want our salesperson to sell industrial bleach to
facilities managers and general managers in laboratories, offices and
factories within a 50 mile radius of our office.”
Excellent! We’ve defined the new hire’s target market not just for
them but also for us, so everybody is on the same page.
Define your target market clearly.

• This will also help to steer the new hire from going down blind alleys as
in: “I know I can get an order from my old contact, Jim Jones,” who just
happens to require an awkward product configuration and who
operates in a location that creates a logistical nightmare of margin-
reducing proportions.
Avoid blind alleys!

• Building a plan before hiring allows you to remember who is the boss
and helps you resist the tendency for your new hire to sell you the
idea of going into waters you’re unfamiliar with. It’s OK to disappoint
your salesperson and it’s easier if you know the rules yourself.
• But show your leadership and decision-making skills without
confrontation and without undermining your new hire’s confidence. If
you’ve planned properly, from day one you can say: “We want you to
sell industrial bleach to facilities managers and general managers in
laboratories, offices and factories within a 50 mile radius of our office
and no-one else.”
• If it turns out you got your target market wrong, that’s your fault, not
the salesperson’s, but it’s up to you to make those decisions and
change them if you’re wrong.
It’s up to you to make the decisions. Stick to your plan.
At the end of this lecture, please visit the Resources Tab to find the exercises for this part of the course.

Part 1 – Now It’s Your Turn!
Now please visit the Resources Tab to find the
exercises for this part of the course.

PART TWO –
Planning The Mechanics/Processes

Part 2 – Who Will Generate The Sales Leads?
• What is a lead? Establish what you consider a lead to be so there is no
confusion. Define your terms.
• Who will generate the sales leads?
• Now decide whether you want your salesperson to generate their own
leads.
• This is a specialist marketing (not sales) function and not everyone can
do it. Ideally your salesperson should follow up leads, not generate
them. A marketing rather than a sales activity.

• If you expect your salesperson to do their own lead generation, be
aware that this is very time consuming and it won’t look like the
salesperson is delivering value.
• You’ll see them prospecting but not selling and you may lose
confidence in them. If they have to generate their own leads, it is
most difficult during their first three months (trial period?) and
you won’t see much return on your investment.
• It is not unusual for the boss to evaluate the first three months
and feel disappointed, leading to the departure of the new hire.
Lead generation is time consuming.

• You’re better off getting someone else to generate leads at lower cost
and 100% dedication to the task.
• But if they have to do it themselves, be aware that different methods
of lead generation require different personality types. Not all will work
for your salesperson. Be especially aware of the difficulty of cold calling.
• It is for you to lay out how much time and budget the salesperson should
spend on each lead generation method. If you don’t set this out from
the beginning, the salesperson is likely to concentrate on the methods
they find either easiest or most enjoyable and your budget is at risk of
running away. Determine how you’ll allocate your time and money budgets.

Part 2 – New Business, Relationships Or Both?
• When your new hire wins a new client, are they required to manage
the relationship going forward or will they hand over the new client to
someone else to manage while they go off to find more new clients?
• My advice would be to split new business sales apart from relationship
management. Looking after clients strangles the amount of time and
energy your salesperson can give to new business acquisition.
• If you let a new business salesperson manage accounts, you are not
maximising your investment in that person. You’re better off managing
clients yourself.
• Don’t ask your new hire to manage existing clients because they’ll end
up only doing that. It’s a much easier job than winning new business
but won’t deliver exponential growth.
Human nature means they’ll choose the easiest tasks first.

Part 2 – What Will You Measure/Rules?
• What is the purpose of their activities? Should they close sales by
phone or face to face, do demos, take technical specs? Be clear about
what they are supposed to be doing once in the role.
• Set production targets such as how many appointments per day,
how many tenders per month etc.
• Is any part of your approach scripted? Many salespeople jib at
scripting, so get this out right from the beginning.
Set production targets.

• What is your minimum order and product mix?
• How will they find out about out of stocks while on the road?
• How much authority do they have to offer discounts?
• How should names appear on business cards?
• Their mobile or yours?
• What sales aids will you make available to them and will you
expect them to stick to them (ie PowerPoint presentations)?
• If out on the road, how often should they check in with the office?
Rules and communication standards.

• What is the dress code in your organisation? Should men wear ties?
Should women?
• How do you want them to communicate? Phone? Email? Letters?
• And do you want someone refined or a little more street?
• What are considered inappropriate behaviours?
Define behaviours.

Part 2 – What A Salesperson Looks & Acts Like
• A salesperson may not necessarily need the gift of the gab. It’s
probably better if they don’t.
• Low responders are fine.
• Listening skills are more important.
• Has the ability to deliver customer-centred, benefits laden responses.
• They should be persuasive in an assertive rather than aggressive way.
• These traits are all quite subtle but if you interview six salespeople,
you’ll soon be able to spot what works and what doesn’t.
Listening, benefits, assertiveness.

PART THREE –
Salary, Commission & Job Spec

Part 3 - Salary & Commission Structure
• Offer a competitive salary and commission structure to attract
worthwhile candidates.
• Find out what this should be by researching basic salary and
commission in comparable jobs, on the web.
• Don’t ask a recruitment agency because they’ll give you
a high figure as they’ll make higher commission on it.
• Set salary level at 5% below the top of the range but with better
commission in order to attract hungry people. If my salespeople are earning, I’m earning.

Part 3 - Salary & Commission Structure
• If you’re new to hiring salespeople, you may be wondering why you
should pay them commission at all. Experience shows that a certain
type of person is attracted to the idea of being paid commission and
they tend to make better salespeople than others.
• Tier your commission levels to stretch them. For example, 2.5% on
everything up to target increasing to 3% on everything once they
exceed target plus accelerator bonuses for performance way over
target. Offer other bonuses for exceptional performance.
• If you’re managing more than one salesperson, additionally set a
group target so they might help each other and not steal each other’s
leads.
Why pay commission at all?

Part 3 – Writing A Job Spec
• This pulls together the main points of what you have already
planned.
• You can use it to remind yourself of what you’re trying to achieve;
to brief agencies; to explain our needs to candidates.
• Make sure you’re specific about the job title so everyone knows
where they stand, ie sales rep, sales exec, sales manager etc. Don’t
lie about their status because it causes problems later.
• Specify title, location, salary, OTE, car, benefits etc. Also hours,
holidays, what the person will be required to do, the tasks involved, the
person spec, qualifications etc.
An important briefing document.

Part 3 - Example Of Very Basic Job Spec
The company:
We are a small, family-owned business operating as XXXX in
Central London. We provide XXXXXX in all areas related to
occupational health. Ours is the oldest and best-known brand in
the field.
The role:
The role for which we are recruiting is critical to maintaining our
breathtaking sales success. We need a talented individual with
great communication skills, to follow up and convert enquiries
from large organisations in London with the aim of selling XXXX.
We see this as a totally new business sales role, with no ongoing
customer relationship management. It is a face-to-face selling
role.
The person:
We seek an open-minded individual who is willing to learn from
us how to approach the corporate market. A hardworking
person with a positive attitude will quickly learn to be successful
and will be welcomed as a member of our 15-person company.
The hours: 09:00–17:30 Monday to Friday.
Support:
The new team member will receive one day’s formal sales
training followed by a considerable number of hours of on-the-
job coaching during the first month.
Targets:
The successful new joiner will be targeted on the number of
sales won from new customers.
Salary: £00,000.00 pa plus commission. OTE £00K.
Leave some “wriggle” room.
There’s a template to help you write a job spec along with other exercises on the Resources Tab.

Please Leave A Review!
• I hope you’re enjoying the course and picking up lots of tips to use
back at work.
• Please don’t forget to leave a review at the end of the course. It
helps me improve both the content and the delivery – thanks!
Course reviews help me improve content and delivery.

PART FOUR –
Finding Candidates/Using Agencies

Part 4 - Where To Find Candidates
• Start off with LinkedIn, Total, Monster, Reed, Indeed etc unless your
agency will do this for you (see later).
• Don’t bother with newspapers as they’re expensive and not usually
where people look and they tend to attract the candidates the
agencies reject.
• Avoid hiring friends or family of existing employees because if it
doesn’t work out you can easily demotivate or embarrass that
person. It’s more trouble than its worth.
Finding candidates.

Part 4 - Where To Find Candidates
• Ask your customers if they can recommend someone from whom
they buy(but be careful they’re not recommending a soft touch).
• Few people can resist the flattery of being headhunted. Call your
rivals’ sales departments as a potential client and see if there’s
anyone good enough.
• Get their name and get a colleague to call them back a few days
later, pretending to be a headhunter.
External sources.

Part 4 - Dealing With Recruitment Agencies
• Should you use a recruitment agency?
• Definitely. This is where people look for jobs. Fish where the fish are.
• Agencies usually charge from 10% to 30% of the starting salary and the
more senior or specialised the role, the more you should expect to pay.
• Don’t accept a rebate system where you get part of your money back
on a sliding scale if the person leaves in the first 12 weeks. By the time
you decide they’re no good, there’ll be no money left in the pot and
you’ll have to find another (large) recruitment fee.
• Instead, ask for a deal where you get a free replacement if the person
doesn’t work out within 3 months. You’ll have wasted a lot of time but
at least you won’t have wasted your money.
Should you use a recruitment agency?

PART FIVE –
The First Round Of Interviews

Part 5 – Your Interview & Selection Process
• First step, determine when you want the new person to start and work
backwards from there.
• Recruitment will take up a lot of the time you need to run the business.
Think about 3 things:
- How much time it will take to complete the recruitment process
- How much notice they’ll have to give
- When and how long it will take to induct the new hire
• The total interview process will probably take you a minimum of 6
weeks and probably longer.
• Tip – think about 6-12 weeks total elapsed time for a successful hire.
Calculating recruitment timescales.

Part 5 – Preparing For First Interviews
• Beware - real life and business sometimes get in the way and it can be
a surprise when the first interviewee turns up!
• Don’t learn your interview technique on the job – prepare! Otherwise
you’re wasting an opportunity to get the best out of each candidate.
A poor interview on your part can leave a great candidate as an also-
ran, robbing you of talent and reducing the pool of talent available to
you.
• Read each CV carefully and highlight the listed achievements, eg
”Successfully increased sales by 120% in 2 years.” This is great but your
job is to find out two things:
How was this achieved? What were the processes and actions that
were implemented to achieve this result? What kinds of numbers are
we talking about? After all, 120% growth on £1000 isn’t very
impressive.
Poor interviews waste good candidates.

Part 5 – Preparing For First Interviews
• When examining CVs, act like a detective and write a question next
to everything that stands out. Challenge yourself – why do you want
to know? Also write down (so you don’t forget), the question of why
they want to leave their current job.
• The CVs are your first step in deciding whether to invest a great deal
of time, money and energy on one of the most important people in
your business. Use the CV reading process wisely. You’re about to
take a gamble and the purpose of your planning is to tilt the odds in
your favour.
Using the CV.

Part 5 – Holding First Interviews
• While the candidate may be nervous, did you realise it’s OK for you to
be nervous too? You’re taking a big step!
• Open the interview by doing all the social niceties and then take
about 4 to 6 minutes to talk about the organisation and the job. At
this stage, it’s enough. Any longer and you’ll bore the candidate and/or
obviate the need for them to ask any questions. After all, they should
have received the job description from the agency and also researched
your web site.
• Next, ease the candidate into the questions you have written on their
CV. Your goal is to get the candidate talking so you can listen and
evaluate them.
• Take a sneaky look to make sure they are turned out the way you would
expect – your customers will!
You’re allowed to be nervous too.

• I like to get an idea of the “inner person” by asking questions such as
“What will be your next big purchase?” “What will your retirement look
like?” This gives me a pointer as to how money motivated they are and
whether they have dreams, goals and aspirations.
• I’m always suspicious of salespeople who claim they are not motivated by
money because it suggests their comfort zone is too easily achieved and
they won’t stretch themselves for you.
• I like to hire people who have large mortgages, school fees or even some
kind of a secret they don’t want to share with you but which indicates
they need to earn as much commission as possible.
• I often find new arrivals to the country are very ambitious and have a
desperate need to earn commission to pay high rents and send some
money home. Sometimes it’s worth trading slightly lower language ability
for this.
Identifying motivation.

• Another useful line of questioning is to quiz their knowledge of sales
technique.
• I always ask what are the steps of the sales process in their
current role to learn whether they have a structured
approach to selling as I believe this is a cornerstone of sales
success.
• I follow this up by asking about specific elements of sales skills,
such as asking them to explain the difference between
features and benefits or examples of open closed questions
used in their current role.
• If they get the answers wrong, it’s not a deal breaker but you do have
to wonder how they can be successful salespeople if they haven’t
internalised the basic techniques. It also gives me an idea of how
much sales training I will have to provide if they are hired. It’s a
question of identifying how fully formed they are.
First interview questions.

• Next, ask them what questions they have for you. If they haven’t
prepared any, don’t hire them. They didn’t do enough preparation for
the interview so they are unlikely to do enough in your sales role.
• If they succeed in dominating you during the interview, don’t hire them
as you won’t be able to manage them in real life and they’ll make your
life a misery.
• Ask what other jobs they are looking at. If they’re looking at non-sales
jobs, don’t hire them as this suggests they’re contemplating an easier
life than you can give them.
Reasons for rejecting candidates.

• If they’ve been shortlisted or received an offer from another employer,
you’ll also know how quickly you’ll have to move if you think they’re
right for you.
• But don’t ask how your job stacks up or whether they’d be tempted to
hang on to hear whether they’ve got your job. In this situation, they’re
obliged to say yes, even if they have no intention of waiting for you.
• Whether or not you intend to invite them for a second interview, tell
them they will be required to make a presentation at the next occasion.
• If you definitely want to see them, tell them what the presentation will
be about. If not, tell them the agency will tell them.
Checking how quickly you’ll need to act.

• Two final points about your own behaviour during the first round of
interviews:
1. Be aware that you are more likely to remember the first and last
candidates you see.
2. You’re likely to get bored asking the same questions in each
interview and as a result will forget the middle interviewees.
• For these reasons, concentrate hard on the middle candidates, make lots
of notes and make your decisions about hiring them quickly so you don’t
have to remember them if they’re not part of your plans. This leaves you
more brain space to concentrate on those you think are worthy.
Equal energy for all candidates.

Please Leave A Review!
• I hope you’re enjoying the course and picking up lots of tips to use
back at work.
• Please don’t forget to leave a review at the end of the course. It
helps me improve both the content and the delivery – thanks!
Reviews help me improve content and delivery.

PART SIX –
The Second Round Of Interviews

Part 6 – Between First & Second Interviews
• Review your notes and write down more questions for the second
interview.
• Check out the candidates you liked on Google, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, You Tube etc to make sure there’s nothing in their everyday
lives that you don’t approve of. But give them the chance to explain to
the agency.
• Determine what you will be looking for in the candidates’
presentations and how you will evaluate them. Using social media in recruitment decisions.

Part 6 – Between First & Second Interviews
• It is more difficult to prepare for second interviews because you
already have so much information on the candidates. Even so, structure
it again so you can make meaningful comparisons.
• Ask them to bring a presentation on a business related topic using any
media they’re comfortable with.
• Don’t ask them to sell you a pen unless it’s relevant. This is a serious
investment you’re making.
• I want to see how much trouble they have gone to in preparing for the
second interview.
Second interviews are harder to run.

Part 6 – Holding Second Interviews
• I usually open the interview by asking what questions they have since
last time. This loosens them up a bit. If they don’t have any at this stage
they may not be hungry enough for the role.
• Next, I ask them to give their presentation. This is because they’ll be
nervous and want to get it out of the way and also because it gives me
plenty to ask them about.
• I am not usually impressed if they haven’t brought any prepared
material with them.
Second interview presentation.

• During the presentation I am looking to see how closely they have
understood the brief, the quality of their research and any clues as to
how hungry they are.
• I also want to see how they sell themselves when they’re nervous and
under pressure. Nerves are not a negative but I want to see how they
handle themselves.
• Additionally, I want to see that there is a structure to their
presentation. Nerves are not a negative.

• Following the questioning around the presentation, I often return to
the CV and ask what former employers would say about them.
• Next I ask a number of job-related questions (see next slide).
• I follow these questions by asking what training and handholding they
think they would require in the first 3 months on the job. I want to test
their confidence.
• If I’m impressed, and especially if there are two closely matched
candidates, I might get them to complete an online psychometric test.
These are not entirely reliable but they can help you in a competitive
situation.
Psychometric testing can help a bit.

Interview Questions.
“Talk me through the full process you use in a typical sales meeting.”
“Have you ever had a situation where a prospect wouldn’t let you stick to
your usual routine? What happened? What did you do?”
“What’s the biggest deal you’ve ever done? What did it feel like?”
“How much value have you sold this year?”
“Last time we met, you said money wasn’t your main motivation. What is?
How do you measure it?”
Model interview questions (a).

Interview Questions.
“What emotions do you think your current boss would
experience if you handed in your notice?”
“How many of your past clients would welcome a call from you
if you were in a new job? How many would want to see you for
a presentation?”
“What is the most frustrating thing that has ever happened to
you related to a sale and why? What did you do about it?”
“Have you ever rescued a lost sale? How did you do it?”
“Have you ever worked in a start-up situation before? If yes,
what were the best and worst things about it?”
Model interview questions (b).

PART SEVEN –
From Job Offer To Induction

Part 7 – From Job Offer To Induction
• Once you’ve decided who you want to hire, you can make
them an offer conditional on references.
• References are not always useful nowadays so try to speak to
the past employer rather than using just a questionnaire. It’s
what the employer doesn’t say that counts. Plan for your phone
call and phrase your questions so some sort of an answer has to
be given, ie “Would you rehire them?” “What was their most
recurrent training need?”
• Get your employment advisors to write a legally up-to-date offer
letter and contract of employment. It is the law that you have to give
them a contract of employment.
• The same applies to the organisation’s employee handbook giving
information on disciplinary procedures, car policies etc.
References.

• Keep your options open by offering a 3-month probationary period.
• You’ll know in 3 months whether you’ve hired the right person for the
job even if your sales cycle is longer than that.
• During the probation, make the notice period 1 week from either
side so you don’t waste any agency rebate or replacement value.
Probation and notice periods.

• Some people say that if you’re in any doubt, you can extend the
probation period but I don’t recommend this. If you’re uncertain at 3
months, it’s an indication that your confidence in the person is not
high and you should let them go.
• An important point to note is that the job will have evolved within 3
months and you will have an idea of how the person is performing in
that context, ie from prospector to closer.
The job will have evolved.

• Induction – now your hard work begins!
• On day one, don’t forget to get them to sign for any assets they receive
for use in the job such as laptops and even the company car. This makes
it easier to get them back if they don’t make the grade.
• Your expensive new hire will need a lot of support during the first few
weeks and it is important that you role model the attitudes, behaviours
and use of systems that you expect from them.
Induction is time intensive.

Most salespeople are eager to impress early on and will often make
suggestions such as:
“Wouldn’t it be better to do it this way? It worked well at my last
place.”
This is your first opportunity to manage the salesperson so your response
should be:
“Let’s start off this way to give us a base to work from, then we can adapt
it as we get to know more.”
That way you avoid damaging the new hire’s motivation and leave the door
open for future improvements.
Most salespeople are eager to impress.

• Put together a detailed training schedule covering skills, knowledge,
behaviours and attitudes with milestones for their fulfilment (see next
slides for examples).
• Product training, while important, tends to be a bit boring and will
quickly be forgotten.
For this reason just concentrate on your top ten selling items for
product training.
They can pick up the rest of the product knowledge as and when they
need to.
Product training can be boring.

Part 7 – Example Of Training Schedule
15 Aug 16 Aug 17 Aug 18 Aug 19 Aug 22 Aug 23 Aug 24 Aug 25 Aug
Hour 1 Meet the team.
History of the
company
Adam presents
our products
to Keith
Revision Retuning
lead gen
skills
Participate
in sales
meeting
Admin
after
meetings
Participate
in sales
meeting
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting
Hour 2 Demo CRM Answering the
phone
Viva voce How to use
CRM
Admin
after meet
Lead
meeting
Admin
after meet
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting
Hour 3 Web
investigation of
competitors
Sales process Retuning Follow-up
calls
Participate
in sales
meeting
Lead
meeting
Participate
in sales
meeting
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting
Hour 4 Web
investigation of
competitors
Observe sales
meetings
Observe
sales
meetings
Observe
sales
meetings
How to
deal with
corporates
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting
Hour 5 Presentation of
what we sell
Pricing Using script
to follow up
leads
Phone
work
Impact on
jobs
market
Observe
sales
meetings
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting
Hour 6 Research into
our marketplace
Features,
differentiators,
benefits
Observe
sales
meetings
Observe
sales
meetings
Participate
in sales
meeting
Observe
sales
meetings
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting
Hour 7 Research into
our products
Our finance
schemes
Investigation
of market
Observe
sales
meetings
Participate
in sales
meeting
Observe
sales
meetings
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting
Lead
meeting

Part 7 – Example Of Milestones
Milestone Achieve By Ask
Answer phone successfully 16/08 Keith
Score 68% in viva voce 18/08 Trainer
Win first appointment 19/08 Steve
Participate in sales meeting 19/08 Keith
Use PowerPoint presentation in meet 23/08 Sarah
Use pricing spreadsheet in meeting 24/08 Naomi
Lead meeting 01/09 Keith
Win first sale 05/09 Keith

• For the first few weeks, never let your new hire handle a phone call or
go out on an appointment unless you’re with them. You need to start
off by role modelling these. At this stage, they’re just observers.
• Over a planned period of time, you can let them take over some of the
actions so that you become more of a double act.
• After a few weeks, the salesperson can take over all the sales duties
with you observing until you’re happy that they can proceed
unsupervised.
From double act to going solo.

• Once the 3 months’ probation has been passed, put them on a
formal, short sales training course to take them back to basics.
• This is because their style will now be a mixture of yours and
theirs and their behaviours which will be confusing to customers
and prospects. A short course will straighten them out.
• In any case, three months is the point at which most
salespeople start to confuse features and benefits, lose the
edge in listening skills and revert to using closed rather than open
questions, so if you’re going to keep them, make the investment.
Formal sales training after 3 months.

PART EIGHT –
What To Do If It Doesn’t Work Out

Part 8 – What To Do When It Doesn’t Work Out
• It is usually after the first month (sometimes earlier) that the shine
starts to rub off. You’ll get the feeling that their heart isn’t really in it or
they’re reinventing the wheel or there’s some other issue that makes
you feel uneasy.
• Often it’s nothing quantifiable, just a nagging feeling that maybe this
won’t work out as you’d hoped.
• At this point it is vital to avoid a gulf opening between you. You must
communicate and express what you’re feeling. If your discussion
identifies a gap in the salesperson’s skill set you can address this and
put it right.
• If the problem is attitudinal or psychological, at least your discussion
alerts the salesperson to the fact that you’re not happy and they can
attempt to demonstrate different attitudes or behaviours.
That unquantifiable nagging feeling.

• If your salesperson still isn’t performing at the level you expect in 3
months in either a business or personal context, cut your losses and fire
them.
• Most people try to avoid this by saying things like: “it’s still early days;”
“I’ll give them another month and then decide.” Act before your agency
replacement deal runs out or you’ll still be thinking these things in 4, 5 or
6 months. By that time you’ve wasted loads of leads and pushed back the
window of opportunity for finding a replacement.
• The secret is to stick to your 3 month window and act swiftly. Getting rid
of a bad hire gets worse the longer you leave it.
Don’t make excuses to yourself.

In terms of how you actually terminate
someone:
• Be decisive – don’t let your nerves get to you
• Be swift
• Be early
• Don’t negotiate
Being decisive is vital.

• Allow them as much dignity as possible and be prepared to
deal with an emotional situation – tissues and hugs.
• For yourself, focus on the relief you’ll feel immediately after
the termination.
• Afterwards, congratulate yourself on your strength and
professionalism.
• Celebrate your action and look forward to hiring someone
even better next time.
An emotional moment for both of you.

• I’m really sorry but this hasn’t worked out for me and I have
to let you go.
• I don’t think you’ve been happy with us and I’m going to let
you go.
• We’ll pay you till the end of your notice period plus any
commissions, accrued leave etc.
• I’ll give you as much assistance as I am able to help you find
another job.
Termination vocabulary.

• Your percentage likelihood of making a successful
hire are exponentially increased by this course.
• If you do get it wrong celebrate the fact that
you’ve put it right.
• Happy hiring!
Celebrate!

Thanks For Joining Me!
• I hope you got lots of real life value out of my course.
• Please leave a review – it helps me keep improving.
• If you liked this course, please check out another of my
video courses – “Sales Lead Generation For People Who
Hate Cold Calling.”
• Thanks. Bye! Thanks for joining me!

How To Hire A Salesperson Successfully & What To Do If It Doesn't Work Out

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