If you look at the toughest hire for SME’s, 90% would say it’s hiring salespeople. Depending upon what source you look at the mis-hire rate is between 70 and 85%. HBR and the Sales Executive council research indicates that only about 37% of B2B salespeople create true economic value for their companies.

The reason for this is that sales and marketing is the only discipline that doesn’t focus on the system first. Sales especially focuses on behavior, and that’s why results are so varied.

For years, businesses could get away with this. Demand was growing, money was cheap and resources weren’t overly restricted. While those conditions are certainly no longer true, the complexity of decisions and layoffs have fundamentally changed how customers buy. Some of those trends are listed in the blog post I sent you.

Today, it takes more than a salesperson to make consistent sales – and actually, the salesperson is the last piece of the puzzle. Until the other items are in place there is no predictability in the hiring process.

You’re email asking about the two options is symptomatic of looking to tactics before you look at the system. If the system were clear, so would the tactics. Also (and please don’t take this the wrong way), I’ve watched from afar as you’ve been recruiting and I’ve looked at your website and it’s very similar to the pattern I’m attempting to refer to here.

So, to sum it up, yes you’re looking for salespeople and I’m talking about the system. The reason you (and the vast, vast, vast majority of SME execs) have so much struggle with the sale hiring process isn’t because of you, or even because of the people you hire – it’s underlying cause is a flawed system. Fix the system and hiring will become much more predictable.