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Hi, Jeffrey. I run a software company, and we are leaving no stone unturned to find a sales and technical support team leader that can and WILL do just this. What are the key indicators in the candidates that you short-list to find a loyal messenger of this caliber when you are recruiting for a position? – Kathryn

Despite massive testing and background-checking efforts to the contrary, hiring the right people is always subject to the human factor.

Companies make fortunes trying to pre-test and pre-qualify applicants based on a subset of technical and emotional responses so that managers can claim victory when they get the right person, and cover their butt when they make the wrong hire.

I am not in favor of this hiring strategy. I AM in favor of having a company or an agency screen people for past history of credit problems or wrongdoing. That’s imperative today, for both business and personnel safety.

All the other success factors you seek, all their strengths and quirks, all their successes and their failures, you discover by TALKING TO THEM ONE-ON-ONE.

The human factors that go into a decision-making process are the perceived ability of the job candidates to be self-starters, their perceived intelligence based on conversation, your perception of their ability to get the job done based on conversation, their past history of success, their demeanor, their willingness to work hard and get the job done no matter what, and finally, and perhaps most important, your perception of their ability to fit into your existing team or family.

NOTE WELL: No test on the planet will give you this information with any certainty. The way to find the best employee is to make a decision based on your personal evaluation of the candidates’ history, their interviews, their potential and your gut feeling.

Start with their recent past employment. If there’s a lot of grumbling – “They didn’t understand me. The boss was a jerk” – thank them and say goodbye. It’s likely they’ll feel the same about you.

In a personal interview, you can determine their intelligence, their communication skills and their personality characteristics, and expose their attitude.

Talk to them about their childhood, their likes and their dislikes. Talking about where they grew up will get to their emotions. Talking about likes and dislikes will get them to reveal their character and personality traits.

Talk to them about their last job, and the one before that. Are there repeated patterns? What were the real reasons for leaving? What did they like about the job?

Discuss their past history of success. Get them to reveal their ability to self-start. Get information about how they treated customers and how they handle sales and service situations. Ask about a lost customer and a big sale.

Ask them about the best, most memorable sale they ever made. Let them tell the story as you take notes. Look for enthusiasm and pride. And find out the whole story, not just the sale.

Talk to their past customers. References are pretty much preset. Past customers can confirm the true capability of the critical elements of relationship-building and service performance. They also can confirm ethics and the ability to deliver as promised.

“Jeffrey, this takes too much time,” you whine.

Really? If a great salesperson can add a million dollars in revenues to your company, what’s that worth?

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2008 Jeffrey H. Gitomer