Top 5 Recruitment Mistakes

Picking sales and marketing people is more difficult than picking any other candidates.  With that in mind here are the Top 5 mistakes made in their recruitment:

 

1. Job description too broad (essentially combing two or more specific roles into the one) or too vague (e.g. make and log telephone calls with a minimum of X potential customers per week).

 

2. Not asking the practical questions (e.g. We are beginning a marketing drive in the UK in May, if you had responsibility for it what specifically would you do ensure its success?  What would be your focus in week 1 of the job? Etc.

 

3. Not asking sufficiently detailed questions about previous roles, activities and achievements and then following up on references.

 

4. The getting off to a good start (the first month or two are a golden period, if it is not successful and the candidate is not managed properly in this period, it is very difficult to change things later on).

 

5.  Failing to ensure the candidate is a hard worker, with an action-bias and practical bent.  As somebody once said ' I would rather have a body without a suit, than a suit without a body'.