"Hiring good people is hard. Hiring great people is brutally hard. "
~ Jack Welch, Newsweek, April 4th, 2005 Issue

Jack is right. Hiring is one of if not the most difficult tasks managers face. Various reasons contribute to this

- Lack of training
- Lack of time
- Poor process
- Ineffective interview questions, and many, many others.

Also, economic conditions affect the quality of candidate; tight job markets mean there are less qualified candidates available, while our current economic cycle offers many respectable individuals for fewer opportunities.

Statistics show that new sales hires have a 50% chance of succeeding in the position. Senior executives have an average tenure of 18 months in a new role.

So how do managers cope with everything going against their making a successful hire? One word: Preparation. Managers need to make the time to objectively evaluate the best candidate based on the needs of the job. By objective, I mean an unbiased identification of the key traits, skills, experience, behaviors, tasks and ambitions to succeed in the role.

Some bullets that successful sales people use to generate business that may translate into effective hiring strategies:
With a little forethought, planning and objective information, hiring managers can take a few samples from a sales person's playbook and make more effective, unbiased choices.

Managers will either invest in the beginning of the hiring process (High ROI) or will be forced to spend time in a downward spiral of interviewing, hiring, training, and firing when they hire a low performer (Low ROI).