Speaking to a group of sales executives a few months ago, I posed this question to the room –“how many of you have made a bad hiring decision?” Every single person in the room raised their hand. If you’ve hired people for any length of time, you are bound to have made at least one mistake. Hiring the wrong salesperson can be even more common – especially seasoned salespeople who are skilled in selling themselves in interviews.
Given that this is the month of horror movies, we thought it would be fun to tell some sales-hiring horror tales. In this blog, I’m sharing some of the darkest scenarios my network was willing to share with me. The only thing I wish is that they could have been told under a full moon, around a blazing campfire with howling winds bristling tree branches. But honestly – making a bad hiring decision is scary enough without the audiovisual effects.
Here are some tales narrated by industry colleagues. Read on if you dare.
We once hired someone who never resigned from their prior company after accepting a sales position at ours. They covered it well for the first few months, but after several missed sales calls and team meetings, we got suspect. And what made it even worse than the fact that this person was trying to hold onto two full-time jobs, the other company was a competitor!
We had a salesperson who appeared to be one of those rock star overnight successes. She landed huge contracts with highly regarded multinational companies in record time. Our sales leader strutted her on stage touting her lightning speed hunter capabilities while pretty much shaming all of us. Turns out this person was falsifying customer contracts and ended up facing charges for federal wire fraud. Needless to say, employee engagement took a big dive during that time too.
We hired someone who had high scores on an assessment we were using at the time. On her resume, she had changed positions often, which was a red flag, but we trusted the tool. She was professional, friendly and interviewed well. Once in the role, it was clear she oversold herself. She really struggled with the fundamentals. She had shared many times that her husband was a seasoned sales professional. We’re pretty sure he took the assessment for her.
Two colleagues had the same horror story with somewhat different plot lines. They hired employees who never showed up on the first day. Turns out one was doing time in jail for a DUI when the start date came around. The other person just seemed to disappear for what would seem like an eternity – until they showed up on social media enthusiastically posting from another company.
One colleague in my network asked a great question when I was asking for these horror stories. She wondered if errors of omission could also lead to a hiring nightmare – especially when top talent is so hard to find. Thankfully they avoided it by revising their hiring criteria… During a recent recruiting process, we had a referral from an employee, but the referral didn't have a degree, which was a requirement in the job description. She campaigned for the hiring manager to at least give this woman a chance considering her stellar record of success and the high praise from an employee. We ended up hiring her and even promoting her a few years later.
If we ever are sitting around a campfire together, I’ll be glad to terrorize you with some personal horror stories of my own. Unfortunately, there are some scary ones and I’ve had my share of mistakes. The good news is the drama that goes along with a selection process doesn’t have to end horribly if we follow a thorough selection process and do our jobs well when it comes to onboarding, development, coaching, and performance management. Take the time to do your due diligence when hiring. Act swiftly as soon as you get the “spidey” sense that something is awry post-hire.
This graphic depicts Omnia’s view of selection best practices and the weight by % each factor should have on your final decision. While it pains me to hear the tale of the assessment not working out, we strongly encourage our clients to use other factors when making hiring decisions. And to the point of omission, this is a great time to re-visit your job requirements. For the sales hire committing fraud – turns out she had done that at 2 other companies prior. This might have been uncovered in reference calls or a background check.
To avoid being the star of your own horror movie, where the audience is yelling at you to avoid the dark hallway and to not open that doorway when the scary music is playing in the background, follow these steps and consider each factor of the selection criteria. It will make for a much more rewarding experience – for the people in your company who are like the viewers of a bad horror flick, for your clients, and you.
