Ask HN: How do you hire Sales people?

I'm a tech recruiter and I partnered early on with a small company and placed their entire development team. They desperately needed sales guy and eventually found a recruiter that has placed their entire sales team. Most small companies (who can afford it) partner with a good recruiter.

I could you refer you his way if you are interested.

Obligatory facetious answer: "with a great deal of trepidation"

Your best options are:

* Hire sales reps who come with a personal reference from someone whose opinion you value.

* Find a recruiter who specializes in hiring sales reps and be prepared to pay up to 25% of the sales rep's total compensation as recruiting fee.

But for the love of God, do not hire sales reps without having an experienced sales manager on your recruiting team. Most people cannot judge a good sales rep from an interview. But a good sales manager can ask the difficult questions and help you make the right choice. As anyone will tell you, building sales teams is neither easy nor cheap.

No great answers for you. Have worked with enterprise sales people in several different contexts. The most successful ones have each been unique. I have seen a start-up burn through its VC funded runway much faster than necessary by investing IMHO too heavily in sales people who still didn't close enough deals. Now in truth it might just be that the product to market fit just wasn't compelling enough.

In other settings it was apparent to me that 1/3 to 1/2 the sales force was a net negative for the company. The problem is getting those people cycled out to make way to try another person. And, here is another thing it often takes 6 months to even a year to figure out who is good and who needs to be let go.

Good luck!

These guys are working on this problem: https://interviewed.com/

Haven't tried it personally but the founders are very clever.

What do you sell?

Externally: Is there any vendor you've worked with that gives nice, satisfying answers, and ensures these are delivered? Poach them.

Internally: Is there anyone that's been in tech long enough to get the feeling they want to do 'business' more than development? Get them coached by the above.

Two people is enough to be a great sales team, for a company anywhere from 20-2000 people, as long as they understand each other and the product.

Be worried about a sales person who brings quick deals, especially if in locations or fields you're unfamiliar with. Could be very likely they have a 'friend on the inside' of deals they've brokered, but these deals are mainly contracts of understanding and are yet to have revenue attached.

For engineers it is tough to hire a position that is not something you can easily ask quantitative questions. Instead with sales you need to mix a few things together to hire the right person.

1. Figure out who the primary person or type of person they will be selling to. e.g. are they selling to C level execs or engineers?

2. Are you selling enterprise software that requires a lot of hand holding? Or are you selling simple deals?

3. What is your deal flow like, do you have solid leads but need closers, or do you need lead generators?

I mention these because I would recruit different types of people depending on the answers to at least these. In general too, if someone makes you feel uncomfortable when you are talking to them rather on the phone or in person, your customers will also feel uncomfortable. I don't care how good their resume is, if you have any feeling of uneasy or being uncomfortable then you don't hire. You are hiring a people person who's job it is to make people feel at ease and open their wallets, they should be able to make you comfortable and interact with you.

I always make them sell me their last software or product. And then I make them flip the script and sell me the competitor to their prior product. This helps me see if they see all sides of the products they are selling and how well researched they are. Then I will give them my product/software pitch and then tell them to sell me on it. They should be able to put a good effort to sell you your software without having a huge background in it, even if it is complex. I also ask them to tell me the holes they see where competitors could attack my product offering.

If you want more ideas, you can shoot me an email or respond here with more details and I'll give you at least my experience and some more specific ideas.

Also lead generating sales staff is different then closers. You can of course get someone that can do both, but it is a hard job to do both efficiently for a growing business.

> need some suggestion on where to begin.

Go back to LinkedIn and start using the advanced search feature. Keyword in on individuals you see with promising sales profiles.

Build a list of 10-30 people, in your space. Reach out to these people 1:1, you must have a live conversation with them (in-person preferably) network with them, make a friend, seek their advice, share what you are working on and ask for a referral!

That is where you will find your sales people. You won't find them with a job board post. They must be hunted & wooed. Done right this process will take several weeks and require dozens of conversations.

It's exhausting, and deeply satisfying once you've pulsed the market and know you've found the right people.