When being responsible for sales management, one crucial task is the identification and selection of potentially successful sales employees. The importance of the recruitment process results from the assumption, that a substantial part of what characterizes high-performers lies in his or her given aptitude. In this vein, Richard McFarland, Professor at ESSEC Business School in Paris, started his lecture last Friday by saying “You can’t teach smart”. In addition, he emphasized the risk of hiring the wrong salesperson by stating that costs of an employee’s bad sales performance could make up to two annual salaries – depending on how much it has taken to detect it at all.
