{"id":6505,"date":"2017-04-11T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T14:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/?p=2618"},"modified":"2023-10-05T11:51:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T17:51:21","slug":"10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Questions to Ask Sales People If They Leave Companies before 18 Months"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>It is always a red flag when sales people leave jobs before 18 months.\u00a0 I would say the first 6-9 months are really about the individual learning about the company, the products, and seeing if they are a good cultural fit.\u00a0 The next 9 months are really about performance.\u00a0 Either you get it and do well in your job, or companies feel like there is a need for a change. Would you agree?<\/p>\n

It is true most of the time.\u00a0 Not all the time.<\/p>\n

I talk to people all of the time who have had short tenures at jobs.\u00a0 I have heard it all.\u00a0 I know that sometimes it isn\u2019t the individual\u2019s fault for making a job change.\u00a0 After all, things do happen.\u00a0 I also know that somewhere in your career you are going to have a failed venture.\u00a0 Sometimes, it takes a failed venture to prepare you for your next role.\u00a0 Trust me, I understand.<\/p>\n

What is bothersome is when sales people consistently have short tenures.\u00a0 When I see 18 months at one job, 9 months at the next and then 1 year at your latest job, I begin to question is it you or is it the company you are working for that is causing the job changes.<\/p>\n

When an economy is in a recession, it is common to see \u201clayoffs\u201d or \u201cdownsizing\u201d, but in a thriving economy, companies begin to get concerned.\u00a0 I don\u2019t blame them.\u00a0 As you get older, your career can either progress or regress if you are in a sales role.\u00a0 If it begins to regress, you have a long uphill battle to climb because the high paying jobs you want will not be available to you.<\/p>\n

I know there are risk takers.\u00a0 I, for one, am a huge risk taker.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mind pushing all of my cards in to see if I can win.\u00a0 If you want to hit the bulls eye , sometimes you have to do something that others will not.\u00a0 Working for start-ups is a risk.\u00a0 In 2017, you are seeing an abundance of start- up roles.\u00a0 I would say if you join a start-up, make sure you have done your research.<\/p>\n

You need to know how much money the company is making and how much VC money they have coming in. \u00a0Be sure you understand the leadership and the product that they are selling before taking a role with a start-up.\u00a0 Understanding the vision is essential when you roll the dice.<\/p>\n

So, if you are a company and looking to hire sales talent, how do you decipher which candidate is better than the other?\u00a0\u00a0 Despite common theory, not all sales people who have less than 18 months tenure are bad sales people.\u00a0 Here are some questions to determine what kind of sales person you are really getting.\u00a0 Hiring the wrong person can be detrimental to your company and cost you a lot of time and energy.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You worked for\u00a0company XYZ.\u00a0 Tell me what attracted you work at this company?<\/strong>\u00a0 –\u00a0 This question will allow you to determine how well the candidate evaluated their previous company before joining.\u00a0 Was he\/she desperate for a job or did they make an educated risk and it didn\u2019t work out?<\/li>\n
  2. Tell me about the leadership at XYZ Company.<\/strong> This can tell you how they interacted with the leadership at\u00a0the company before leaving.\u00a0 If you find the candidate is constantly badmouthing their former employers, the problem may not be the employers, but the candidate!<\/li>\n
  3. Why did you leave?<\/strong> Okay this seems simple enough, but you will be amazed at the answers I get.\u00a0 It could be company funding.\u00a0 It could be the product.\u00a0 It could be the quotas.\u00a0 It could be the territory.\u00a0 You need to understand what kind of individual you are getting.\u00a0 Ask them point blank.\"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. What is the biggest deal you sold?<\/strong> This will cut through the crap.\u00a0 If they haven\u2019t sold anything, don\u2019t hire them.\u00a0 If they badmouth the employer, the leadership, the product and a bad territory, then cut your meeting short.\u00a0 Your time is valuable and you don\u2019t need to waste any more of your time.<\/li>\n
  5. Did You Hit President\u2019s Club? <\/strong>There are some great sales people who have overachieved quota and done some great things in 18 months. \u00a0You shouldn\u2019t discount them, but proceed with caution.\u00a0 You may be that next employer that gets a short-term hire.\u00a0 Like I said earlier, it takes time, money, and energy to on-board people.<\/li>\n
  6. What would you have done differently at XYZ Company? <\/strong>This will tell you if they blame other people for their mistakes or own their own mistakes.\u00a0 If they can tell you something they have learned and not made the same mistake over and over, it is worth listening to what they have to say.<\/li>\n
  7. What are you looking for in your next company? <\/strong>So often companies are so busy talking, they forget to listen.\u00a0 Does your company offer what they are looking for in a role?\u00a0 If you are talking to an account manager and you are asking them to hunt new business, then you may get an employee that only lasts 18 months.<\/li>\n
  8. What attracts you to this company? <\/strong>If they are talking to you about a role, you need to understand in their own words why they think this is the right role for them.\u00a0 After asking them this question, you may realize that they are an ideal candidate OR they don\u2019t know anything about what you do and really shouldn\u2019t be considered for your role.<\/li>\n
  9. Are you a risk taker? <\/strong>So, put it back on them.\u00a0 If they say \u201cno\u201d, then they haven\u2019t been successful.\u00a0 They were \u201claid off\u201d or \u201cdownsized\u201d for performance.\u00a0 You don\u2019t want anything to do with them.\u00a0 Move on.\u00a0 If they say \u201cyes\u201d, then ask why they are risk takers.\u00a0 Get to know who you are hiring.<\/li>\n
  10. What questions do you have for me?\u00a0 <\/strong>What kind of research have they done on YOU?\u00a0 YOUR COMPANY?\u00a0 C\u2019mon, they should do their due diligence and have some educated, well thought out questions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In conclusion, since unemployment is low and the pool of available candidates has shrunk it is important to view every candidate.\u00a0 You should even evaluate candidates with short tenure.\u00a0 Move forward with caution and ask the right questions and you can build your dream team.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It is always a red flag when sales people leave jobs before 18 months.\u00a0 I would say the first 6-9 months are really about the individual learning about the company, the products, and seeing if they are a good cultural fit.\u00a0 The next 9 months are really about performance.\u00a0 Either you get it and do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[655,283,656,657,635,288,289,127],"yoast_head":"\n10 Questions to Ask Sales People If They Leave Companies before 18 Months - Bulls Eye Recruiting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 Questions to Ask Sales People If They Leave Companies before 18 Months - Bulls Eye Recruiting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is always a red flag when sales people leave jobs before 18 months.\u00a0 I would say the first 6-9 months are really about the individual learning about the company, the products, and seeing if they are a good cultural fit.\u00a0 The next 9 months are really about performance.\u00a0 Either you get it and do […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bulls Eye Recruiting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-11T14:00:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-05T17:51:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Will Thomson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Will Thomson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"10 Questions to Ask Sales People If They Leave Companies before 18 Months - Bulls Eye Recruiting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"10 Questions to Ask Sales People If They Leave Companies before 18 Months - Bulls Eye Recruiting","og_description":"It is always a red flag when sales people leave jobs before 18 months.\u00a0 I would say the first 6-9 months are really about the individual learning about the company, the products, and seeing if they are a good cultural fit.\u00a0 The next 9 months are really about performance.\u00a0 Either you get it and do […]","og_url":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/","og_site_name":"Bulls Eye Recruiting","article_published_time":"2017-04-11T14:00:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-10-05T17:51:21+00:00","author":"Will Thomson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Will Thomson","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/"},"author":{"name":"Will Thomson","@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/#\/schema\/person\/c1b42101242632975e9205019cfbcd83"},"headline":"10 Questions to Ask Sales People If They Leave Companies before 18 Months","datePublished":"2017-04-11T14:00:20+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-05T17:51:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/"},"wordCount":1079,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","keywords":["18 months","Hiring","Layoff","President's Club","Quota","Sales","Sales Recruiting","Will Thomson"],"articleSection":["Bulls Eye Recruiting Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/","url":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/","name":"10 Questions to Ask Sales People If They Leave Companies before 18 Months - Bulls Eye Recruiting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2017-04-11T14:00:20+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-05T17:51:21+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/10-questions-to-ask-sales-people-if-they-leave-companies-before-18-months-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10 Questions to Ask Sales People If They Leave Companies before 18 Months"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/","name":"Bulls Eye Recruiting","description":"Change ME NOW!!!","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/#organization","name":"Bulls Eye Recruiting","url":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Bulls-Eye-Recruiting-LOGO-v2blue.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Bulls-Eye-Recruiting-LOGO-v2blue.png","width":1401,"height":668,"caption":"Bulls Eye Recruiting"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/#\/schema\/person\/c1b42101242632975e9205019cfbcd83","name":"Will Thomson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79e67aec310b63ffda898f0e63adaae0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79e67aec310b63ffda898f0e63adaae0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Will Thomson"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net"],"url":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/author\/will\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7275,"href":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6505\/revisions\/7275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}