What Matters More: Hiring for Experience or Attitude?

It is natural to consider a number of variables when hiring sales professionals to fill your team roster. Many of us painstakingly wade through resumes to find the candidates with the best experience. Others of us are looking for something specific in the interview. Whatever your approach, it begs the question: do you hire mostly based on skills, talent, personality or attitude?

The skill hire is one who has exhibited certain competencies or gained a level of schooling and experience. On paper – tangibly – they look good and you feel relatively confident putting them in a role where they will perform tasks similar to what they have done previously.

The personality/attitude hire is more intangible; we rely on instinct and often gamble that someone with less experience or tactical training can become – under our guidance – the long-term producer we wish them to be.

That said, what we must derive is something extrapolation and data cannot give us: How will these folks fare under the rigmarole and unique factors of the role we are eyeing them for? Someone with experience may certainly come in with polish and come out of the gates with more strength and poise. But the real X-factor is who will be the right long-term contributor?

Attitude and personality can propel an employee to new heights; beyond the parameter, perhaps, of someone without that will to win. Skill hires can be quite reliable and often safer bets, but many of them transition often and have filled numerous roles because they may lack that drive to take it to the next level no matter what.

Hiring managers often start looking for the reliable skill hires only to transition over time to the attitude acquisitions; as a manager sees the desire and drive it takes to constantly and consistently bring a contributor back to the table and plow through obstacles and hurdles, they will seek out people possessing that potential. As they realize how difficult it is to “teach an old dog new tricks” – in this case, training new skills and process to someone who is considered or considers themselves skilled (even though they have often done an adequate, average or mediocre job at multiple roles) – they gravitate toward someone more likely to acquire new experiences and skills and abide by this unique process.

Fresh attitude and approach can generate new ideas and ways of doing business, which can invigorate the workplace, break down walls and open new opportunities. Tried and true and skilled and experienced can be less of a risk, but hiring the person who is bent on being the best, working toward change and promotion and wants to challenge the norm will result in the most lucrative reward.

Go for the personality and the attitude and over the long haul, the payoff will be grand.

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Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” and sequels “The Salesman Against the World” and “A Salesman Forever” which take the unique approach of serving as sales/leadership books inside of novels showing proven sales principles designed to birth you into the top producer you were born to be. If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G

Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership. You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.

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