Jerry Ballard offers that he’s happy to share his thoughts on the process of hiring salespeople for his agency and communicating what works and what doesn’t work. “I’ve been hiring and training salespeople for 40 years. I get a little better at it with each mistake I make. I could write a book on my mistakes, but only a pamphlet on my successes.”

Ballard, who heads Energy Equipment, Inc., Midlothian, Virginia, explains that “We have two rep lines and 10 specialty distributor lines. To be successful with our distributor lines, our outside salespeople have to think like a manufacturers’ rep instead of an industrial supply house. This is because our buying influencers are engineers or maintenance management and we technically back up what we sell.”

Ballard adds, “Users of our products are chemical processors, pulp and paper, water and wastewater, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, semi-conductor, power and marine. Additionally, the contractors and consulting engineers who serve these markets are our clients.”

When it comes to locating, identifying and signing prospective sales staff for his agency, Ballard says that generally he’ll begin by calling people he’s friendly with in the industry including principals, customers and organizations that he’s involved with. “I’ve also tapped into Monster.com and Careerbulder.com and had some success with recruiters.”

Once candidates are identified, he says that his vetting process is fairly typical. “I’ll begin with a telephone interview that includes a list of specific questions that I’ve prepared. These are usually questions that require more than just a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer. I like to think that these are questions that aren’t easy to figure out. I find that this approach requires candidates to put their best foot forward in this initial interview.”

Once past the phone interview, candidates that have made the cut are brought in for a personal interview. “My approach with this is that it’s changed a bit over the years. While initially this took about an hour, we’ve scaled it down to about 20 minutes. Once that’s completed, we’ll do a very detailed testing that gauges their mechanical and personal inventory.”

Mechanical Skills Needed

Ballard emphasizes the need for mechanical aptitude for candidates working for his agency. “I’ve learned the hard way that if a salesperson doesn’t have a certain level of mechanical aptitude, they’re just not going to be able to assist our customers with their mechanical equipment.”

If a lack of mechanical aptitude can serve as one “red flag” that might limit a candidate’s chances of landing a sales position with Energy Equipment, Ballard also cites the twin dangers of “talking too much and avoiding answering questions.” While those are some negatives Ballard is wary of in a perspective candidate, he keeps a positive eye out for potential employees who have “…a high energy level and enthusiasm for the job. I look for a spark in their eye that can result in a very positive communication experience.”

When asked if “gut instinct” plays a role in any of his hiring decisions, Ballard notes, “I don’t believe there is a ‘good’ gut instinct. On the other hand, I do believe there’s a ‘bad’ gut instinct. I’ve hired some people whose testing went great, but I had a bad gut feel. Over the years I’ve learned to never go against a bad gut feel, and never trust a good gut feel. I’m a believer that half of what we refer to as a good gut feel is really just optimism on the part of the interviewer. They’re saying to themselves that ‘I want this person to work out.’ And, that can fool them into making a wrong hire.”

In response to being asked if after years of talking to and evaluating candidates, the hiring practice has become any easier, Ballard facetiously says, “Sure, it’s a piece of cake! Are you kidding? It’s really harder than selling. You’ve got to evaluate whether a candidate has what it takes. You can always groom someone that you’ve hired, but you can only take them so far. Whoever you choose has to show up every day with the desire to succeed and win. They have to realize that there’s a lot they’re going to have to do to get where they want to be.”

Finally, he offered some hiring advice to his fellow reps: “The best thing I could tell anyone is to be very deliberate in your hiring process. Don’t rush. Be sure to ask all your candidates the very same questions word for word. And, then carefully make your decisions.”

Not too dissimilar from Ballard’s experience when it comes to locating and hiring salespeople, is that of Craig Lindsay, CSP, CPMR. Former MANA Board member Lindsay, Pacesetter Sales & Associates, McKellar, Ontario, Canada, says that “At the beginning of our search process we may check with some of our customers and ask them to recommend salespeople they’ve worked with. In addition, to a large extent, we’ve gravitated to electronic advertising. We’ll advertise on our own website and some other locations including LinkedIn.

Narrowing the List

“When we’ve done that, we’ll get a number of responses that we turn over to someone in our office who reviews all of them to find some common denominators in the criteria that we’re looking for. That process will narrow the list down a bit to the point where we can conduct 15-20 minute phone interviews. From those interviews we narrow the list further to 7-10 candidates that we’ll interview in person.”

At that point candidates undergo a three-man interview process. According to Lindsay, “In addition to me, we’ll have the industrial and safety equipment sales managers take part in the process. Once again, we narrow the list down to two or three individuals and then have the sales manager who does the actual hiring make the final decision.” He adds that a personal profile assessment is also conducted to “ensure that we’re matching personal skills to the sales-skills criteria we’re looking for.

“After that part of the process is completed, we’ll conduct a check with people they may have worked with in the past. Typically that would be a customer. We’ll confidentially ask them:

• How was the person to work with?
• Was he of value to you?
• Did he develop any new business with you?”

Throughout the interview-evaluation process, Lindsay explains that he’s always on the lookout for attributes an individual must possess in order to be successful. “Obviously, they’ve got to have selling skills. It’s always been our belief that we can teach people about products, but being able to understand the selling process and having selling skills are something else again. They’ve got to be able to articulate the sales process and follow it to a successful result. That’s a real key factor.”

Being Organized

Then there’s the attribute of having organizational skills. “In our role as independent manufacturers’ reps, this is a hard one. You’ve got to keep in mind that at any one time you’ve got 10 different bosses, and it’s your role to keep them all happy. It’s critical that you keep all things flowing smoothly — all the time.”

He adds that it’s a given that a prospective salesperson has a track record in the market, know who the customers are and what they need. “They’ve also got to be honest and have a sense of integrity.”

Just as his fellow reps at other agencies, Lindsay has his share of “red flags” that can appear during the evaluation process. “Obviously red flags are the opposite of what we’re looking for in terms of attributes. In addition, if we see that someone has a practice of jumping around from job to job, that’s not a good sign. If the individual has had five jobs in the last seven years, that lets us believe they don’t really get along with people. They’ve also got to be able to exhibit a work ethic. That’s something that can be difficult to measure, however, in that just about everyone says they work hard. But you can tell a lot about someone if they’re just nine-to-fivers. If that’s the way they are, it’s going to be tough for them to be successful.”

In conclusion and in agreement with Energy Equipment’s Jerry Ballard, Lindsay notes that finding the right person for your agency “is a very difficult process. Even with three or four people in our company taking part in the process it’s difficult and many times deficiencies in the process will appear that we never anticipated. We constantly keep in mind that fact that this is an art, not a science — that’s what makes it so difficult.”

Instant Gratification

Just as his other rep peers interviewed in this article, when faced with the task of re-staffing his sales force, Joe Competello, Viking Representatives, Newark, New Jersey, follows a path of networking with others and accessing online employment sites. Viking Representatives has been serving the construction industry in the Northeast for more than 35 years.

He makes the point, however, that it’s getting more difficult all the time to find the right fit for your agency. “I think part of that is the attitude of people when they’re just graduating from college. So many of them believe that what we have is an antiquated business model. On top of that they want to immediately run right to the top and become president of an agency. They want that instant gratification.”

As most reps will admit, “In this business it takes time to build up your clientele. Nothing is going to happen overnight.”

Competello recalls that what he describes as his most successful recruiting venture occurred as the result of a lunch with a customer in New York City. “We were talking through the niceties of our families asking how each other’s children were doing when the customer told me his son was just graduating from college. I told him to send him right over. That was 15 years ago. I hired him right away and today he’s in a senior position in our agency.”

In describing what he looks for in a sales candidate, Competello explains, “I’m always looking for someone who is affable and someone who can endear himself to others. There’s an art and a business to selling and while I can give a new hire some tips in those areas, it’s really up to them to be able to build relationships with customers. I can always teach them about product, but it’s up to them to get along with others.”

If affability is an attribute that he looks for in prospects, Competello adds, “If someone is overly timid and has difficulty answering my questions with more than one word, chances are they’re not going to be a successful hire.”

Choosing Sub-Reps

Since he opened his agency doors 25 years ago, Dan Walsh, National Technology Sales Engine (NTSE), Chicago, Illinois, explains that he takes a bit of a different approach from other agencies when it comes to staffing his sales force.

According to Walsh, “I’m a one-man agency hiring sub-reps, but even following that approach I have to make sure I choose the right people for me and more so for the principals that I represent. What I do is to approach established salespeople that already have a track record and have established themselves as sales professionals.”

Having said that, however, he continues that his criteria for choosing those sub-reps are probably the same that other agencies use when choosing full-time agency employees. “What I’m looking for are people who want to make a life-change. They already know the territory, the products that customers need and they have the needed relationships in the field. They’re at a point in their careers where they (or their spouse/family) might be unhappy with what they’re currently doing or they want to make a life change (least but still important — perhaps — more money) working with me (not for me).”

He adds that what will make a candidate attractive is “…if they’re self-starters, honest, have a sense of integrity, and know a lot of people (customers, competitors and non-competitive industry folks/potential collaborators or partners) in their territory. Conversely, someone who blows a lot of smoke at you during an interview or sales call, or makes an attempt at speaking beyond their level of expertise are real red flags. My principals are close partners tied-at-the-hip, so to say, or we don’t represent them. The principal is trusting in my judgment — my reputation is totally at stake with every hire.”

Experience, achieved through seasoning in the field, is the important variable that Walsh is looking for in making hires. “I’ve found that people who are 50 or older have the experience and contacts that I’m looking for. If they’re younger and less experienced, they’re obviously going to have less selling success. I need people capable of becoming their own CEO-of-One, because I put them in business for themselves. Part time, full time, second job or semi-retirement, that’s their business decision to make. More so, it’s their life-choice decision to make.”

Since Walsh’s agency is a one-man firm he insists on contracts with everyone he signs as a sub-rep. “My experience is that the people I work with love having contracts. That’s really their guarantee for getting paid for what they do — and getting residual income for years to come where applicable. In addition, contracts spell out exactly what each side in the agreement is to do. All the rights, duties and expectations for all — ‘Three Musketeers’ style.’”

Unrelated to MANA and the above subject matter, Walsh also owns a beginner-salespeople rep firm (low technology), and a buy-hold-sell commercial real estate group. NTSE’s industry focus is primarily cutting-edge large enterprise software/hardware and consulting services to Fortune 500, Global 2000, government and military clientele.

Prior and during his career with NTSE, he worked for Tandy Corp., Zenith Data Systems, Groupe Bull (Honeywell), Oracle, Capgemini Ernst & Young, Accenture Partners, IBM Partners, SAP Partners and others.

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