Curious what you would do.

[smabe123]

Originally Posted by swils8610

Hiring the wrong person can be disastrous. I once interviewed a service manager. The interview went well. I had two other colleagues interview him as well. We have a bit of a philosophy. 3 interviews with 3 different people. All agreed he was the perfect candidate. Once he started...the worst 90 days of service we ever had. Couldn’t even put a pencil to how much that mistake cost us. He knew how to ace an interview though.


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I do the same thing. 3 interviews in total, with the last one being me. All 3 of us have completely different personalities and different ways we manage, so it generally works out well...but man, have we struck out a few times!!!

[RW16610]

You're doing the right thing here, Seth Under the aforementioned circumstances you pointed out, it was the only option. This can be extremely challenging sometimes but I trust you'll find the right person soon enough

[Schmed]

I hardly post here, but this post struck a chord with me....

I've been in sales my whole life and have been hiring salespeople for the last few years. I've made a few bad decisions, and the pain of a bad hire lasts a long time.

One thing I've learned, is if the candidate starts to annoy me during the interview process, it's sure to only get worse after they are hired. I've passed on a few, and wish I had passed on a few more.

You also mentioned how he asked about the phone / tablet / etc. instead of just saying "happy to be on board". Sounds a little self-centered, which makes for a horrible salesperson! I bet you feel relieved after making your decision to pass....

[tuffness9999]

I'm a small business owner myself and also am involved in sales. I have to frequently send correspondence with clients and while I have a pretty decent grasp of the English language, I still proofread all emails multiple times and even have someone else look at it once in a while.

The thought of someone from my sales team sending emails riddled with grammatical and spelling errors would kill me inside. Your sales rep is the face of your company. You worked hard to build up a successful reputation and all it will take is one bad year of this guy to totally trash it.

Listen to your gut and wait for someone better to come around. Just because a person is "well polished" doesn't mean jack if he doesn't care enough about his image to proofread an email or at the very least run it through spell check (which is pretty much automatic these days). Hell, most email clients will even notify you if you have fragmented or run-on sentences.

If you are already worrying about how to fire a person before his first day on the job, then it's really a bad sign.

Good luck.

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[FTX I]

Sorry I'm late to this great thread, Seth. I think you did the right thing. English is not my first language (first is portuguese) and I double check my posts here where I can use a relaxed communication, so you can imagine how much I worry about my my professional messages. It's totally unacceptable to write a sloppy email to your boss right before your first day. That would be fatal for me and I'd not hire the guy if I was in your shoes.

Like you I ran my own business for 15 years until I sold my share to my partners and found a better way for me, and albeit being small we had around 100 employees working directly with private schools (clients), so a proper use of our language was mandatory in every aspect. However, even if it was a different work environment I'd make sure my staff knew how important a proper use of language is. No way I'd hire a sales guy that left me that first impression. No way.

[SPARTAN2161]

You are making the right decision. Your employees represent you and your brand.

[Art 1]

Listen to your fathers advice, whatever it was.

I had several good sales types years back when I wanted to grow. You will find it very interesting dealing with them as employees, they are different. Some can be quite arrogant and think they know more than you do.

[ironjim]

Go with your gut !

[utc66]

Interesting thread. What exactly are you selling that is so niche that makes it so hard to find a good salesperson?

[SMD]

Sorry if this has been covered as I have not read the full thread. But most recruiters will find another candidate if the first one doesn't work out.

As for whether you should hire this person -- no. Its hard to get rid of people these days.

[Chewbacca]

I'd hire the rep and add an addendum to the agreement stating it's only 10% in 90 days and the balance after 12mo.

Since it's sales, you can fire for any reason practically anyway and you may be able to coach the candidate and nurture them.

Many people are only good at three things. Emails may not be one but it's not a death knell. The tone and manner of the email may be a result of being off work for a long time and wanting to see how you'd also react. You never know.

Some of my best hires weren't my best interviews.

Could be a rock star.

[Laszlo]

I'm late to this thread, but nonetheless, I would have done exactly the same thing and passed big time on this guy.