Today, we heard the most honest words ever spoken by a business owner. “To tell you the truth I stink at hiring.”
Today I was conducting a phone interview with a candidate for this business owner’s National Sales position and I’ve never been so glad we offer the SmartHire Solution™. This business owner would have felt awful interviewing this candidate. Primarily because the interviewee was a nice guy and he was very eager to please. He was willing to “do whatever it takes to get the job done.” He had a lot of sales experience, but mostly following up on phone leads, that were handed to him. While he would be an awesome support person to a national sales producer and could grow into the position, he just did not have the makeup to step into creating the relationships this entrepreneur’s business needs.
In this case, it’s great we are handling the hiring process because we have the ability and tools to be more objective. This candidate authentically has ALL the right answers about why he gravitates to sales…because he loves to serve people and help people and finds people interesting. This entrepreneur would have completely gotten caught up in “liking” the guy and his authenticity about people but unfortunately the candidate just isn’t qualified to step into this position. The entrepreneur doesn’t have the need for a support position and doesn’t have the training structure/support process to grow someone into this roll. He needs someone who can get in there, understand the business model and then hit the ground running on his way to producing.
This is such a common problem we see when business owner’s hire. They get seduced by the paper resume, then the personality or by something in their skill set or experience that stands out, without carefully evaluating if this person truly fits the role they are hiring for that supports the goals of their company. The devastating part is they end up with a nice person in a bad fit situation that the entrepreneur tends to tolerate because they don’t want to go through the awful hiring process again and/or cannot even think of the emotional vortex of the firing process. It can work very well to have a qualified company handle your hiring process. If you do prefer to handle your own hiring, make sure you are crystal clear on EXACTLY what role you are hiring for, what standards you are operating by and stick to guns until you find it. You only have so much of your budget available for salaries so you have to make sure you are filling all the necessary roles your company needs. Someone may be a great person, but not a fit for the role you are hiring for. They might be a great quarterback, but if you don’t need a quarterback they aren’t a good fit for your company.
