One of the most common questions I get from staffing managers is whether it’s better to hire experienced or green sales people. Leveraging my years of experience, I can confidently answer that I really don’t know. I have come to this conclusion because I have seen both profiles succeed and fail. In the end, it seems experience level is a poor predictor of performance. This assertion is supported by a study conducted by American Psychologists Frank Schmidt and John Hunter, who discovered that basing hiring decision on experience level had only slightly better results than a coin flip or hand writing analysis. Neither of which is terribly effective.

I’m not saying that experience should not be considered, far from it, the level of experience an employee has should play an important role. However in screening candidates, experience should be balanced by those difficult to define qualities that drive the focus and perseverance of most successful sales people.

In their book “Never Hire a Bad Sales Person”, Dr. Christopher Corner and Richard Abraham leverage years of data to capture personality characteristics that are consistent with top producers. The compilation of these characteristics is what they refer to as Drive. Drive is that persistent motivation focused on winning and according to the authors is the most critical criteria for hiring performers. There are three things the authors argue make up drive: the need for achievement, the desire to compete, and eternal optimism that they will succeed.

The Need for Achievement: Great sales people must achieve and have a natural discipline and focus in order to reach their goals. This discipline and focus is not always easy to recognize, and oftentimes sales people seem anything but disciplined. After all, how many sales people really know how to use a CRM and are effective at ensuring the information is complete? But it’s important to keep in mind the sales person’s discipline is focused on achievement, and they see data entry as a formality taking away time they need to be successful.

The Desire to Compete: Good sales people believe in winning and are constantly comparing themselves to their competition. This competitiveness can manifest itself as a bull in a china shop, bringing with it unique management challenges. A good sales manager can help focus that energy in a positive way while at the same time understanding that destructive behavior needs to be addressed aggressively to keep the culture from becoming dysfunctional.

Optimism: They believe they will win regardless of the rejections and failures they experience – success is just around the corner. This type of optimism is a rare gift and when combined with the previous characteristics gives the sales person the emotional runway to overcome failure. This optimism is also strengthened by the fact that they do not take defeat personally. When they fail they do not beat themselves up, but instead move onto the next opportunity with the same optimism they pursued the previous opportunity.

If your hiring process doesn’t take into account these characteristics, then I would recommend challenging it. While this may not guarantee that you will “Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again”, it will allow you the flexibility to hire both junior and senior sales people with more to go on than what’s written on their resume.