Finding the right people and creating a dynamic team

One of the hardest things when coming to a new office as a sales manager is to find the right sales people. I've been at this office for a few months, trying to build up a new team of approx. ten sales people. I've had about 100 interviews, and had around fifteen of them in for a trial period. Right now the team consist of three people i feel i really want to work with (what i would like to call key people), and that i also believe will bring the team good results. I also have a handful of people in that i haven't really decided about, but i can't say that I'm overwhelmed.

In an interview i want to know that the person applying for the job is competitive and willing to work hard to make good money (our sellers can make a really good buck at this company, so the motivation should not be a problem). An interview is like any sales meeting, the person should sell them self to me and the company - but it's scary to see how many people that fail just that! I mean, if you want to work in sales, the least you should be able to do is to sell me why you should have the position.

We all know that sales people often are a little bit "special". They are usually money-driven and competitive, and normally they are not the best team players. This makes it a real challenge (sales people usually likes challenges too by the way...) to build a good team, but of course nothing that stops me.

One of my favorite things is to employ young money hungry people with no real experience in sales, and then form them the way i want. People with a lot of experience are often convinced that they know it all and have a hard time listening to my advices and coaching, but of course there are exceptions.

Right now we're in a new period of interviews, the next week my schedule is fully booked with meetings with both fresh young people and older experienced sellers. I really look forward to it, and i hope to find some of my future key people next week.

"Understanding success is simple. So, why do some people succeed while others don't? The reason is that they all understand the fundamentals of success;

- You are either100% dedicated or nothing."

-Unknown