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I'm in my first 90 day in a sales manager role a job I've done well in the past. My intended team of five was understaffed when I got here and just lost the best salesman on my 8th day of work. Are there any good ideas on additional ways to spread the field when you don't trust the interviewing skills of those around you?

It may also be worth mentioning that the owner said one reason he hired me is that I said I look for reasons to Not Hire an applicant. He know they have a weakness here and although I intend to get them up to speed on MT I'm reluctant to let them experiment with the people I'll be hiring.

(PS. - If any of you have the same problem and are in the New York area I'm happy to lend a hand with your process)

drenn18's picture
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Brian,

I have no sales experience, but I didn't see any answers to your question so I thought I'd give you a thought. I'm making some major guesses about your environment, though. Overall I read your problem as "you need to hire people quickly but effectively, and the team is not effective at interviewing currently". Assuming that's your problem:

The first two things that came to mind were the podcasts on "leader's intent" and "simple interviewer training". You said "the owner" hired you, so I'm assuming it's a small company. If this is the case, and the company is still owned by the founder, he or she might still be promoting the initial vision of the company--is your business model completely developed (see: Lean Launchpad method)? If no, the founder should not be "out of the way" yet. This is still a "startup", and the founder should be involved in, as Mark says, "the most important decision a manager makes" (interviewing). The first few hires you make, ideally, will be future managers and VPs so I also would go slow, unless you're so new a company that cash is desperately low and you're about to go under. There are so many factors, so sorry if I'm way off-base. Again, I just wanted you to get at least 1 reply!

Best luck,

David

MBA candidate, Purdue University

VPfreedude's picture

If I understand correctly, you and the owner are concerned about improving the hiring process. A suggestion to spread yourself around would be to have your staff do round one of interviews them anyone who passes round 1 interviews with you. This would put your stamp on all future hires and allow for some consistency in the process.