Most Presidents and CEOs know long before they admit it. About 60 to 90 days after a new salesperson starts, something doesn't feel right. The excuses begin. Activity isn't turning into opportunities. The pipeline isn't developing. You start wondering if you made another bad hire. I've had countless conversations with business owners who admitted they had that gut feeling but waited months before acting on it. They seemed to be waiting because they hoped things would chan

Almost every sales manager starts the same way: They were once a salesperson. In many companies, the path to leadership seems obvious. The top producer performs well, earns trust, and eventually gets promoted into management. After all, if someone knows how to sell, they should be able to teach others how to sell too. Unfortunately, that’s not always how it works. I’ve seen companies unintentionally lose their best salesperson and gain an ineffective manager at the same time.

When I talk to Founders and CEOs about sales hiring, most of them haven’t made a bad sales hire just once. For many of them, it’s twice. Some have gone through three or more salespeople who couldn’t perform, generate new business, or sell the way the Founder did. What’s interesting is that most of these leaders believed they had a solid hiring process. They tell me: “The candidate interviewed really well.” “I had a great gut feeling about them.” “They came from a competitor w