Studies show that a bad hiring decision can cost an employer between $100,000 and $200,000 when you take into consideration salary, time and energy invested, and lost opportunities. Hiring successful sales employees is especially critical to the success of a business. While every company may have its own unique process of selling, hiring the right people to do the selling is essential, says Steve Fretzin, president of the search firm team discovery.

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“Without a successful sales staff, it makes it very difficult to grow a business,” Fretzin points out. “As the employer, there are several simple yet critical steps you can take to ensure you’re hiring the best prospects.” He offers these five effective sales management techniques:

1. Have a plan. Like anything in business, the best results are typically achieved with a formal written plan. In hiring a new salesperson, start with a written job description that clearly outlines the responsibilities, behaviors, and expectations for the new sales hire.

2. Include assessments in the process. Many people hire strictly on their gut, falling in love with a quick salesperson that seemingly has all the right answers. Unfortunately, these salespeople may be good at talking, but may fall far short after being offered the position. On-the-job behavior, sales skills, and motives play a huge role in a salesperson’s success or failure.

3. Develop a process for hiring that saves you time. Many business owners and managers hire people differently every time. Do they come in one, two, three times? How many people do they meet with? What order does all of this happen? Not having a structured process to weed out potential bad hires creates a huge time waste for the people doing the interviewing.

4. Use the same interview questions every time. While it is much easier to walk into an interview and say, “Tell me about yourself,” this may not be the best strategy. By creating a list of solid, open-ended questions to use with each and every candidate, you put yourself in a much better position to interview and accurately compare.

5. Develop a behavioral employment agreement. Many salespeople fail because their employer has not set up clear written expectations prior to entering into a contract. In addition, expectations often aren’t adequately reviewed and mutually agreed upon in writing by both parties. A behavioral employment agreement allows the employer to regularly review goals with the new salesperson and hold him or her accountable for meeting them.

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