Everyone is trying to get ahead of the game, especially when it comes to hiring and being hired. Candidates out there are willing to outright lie or exaggerate achievements and skills on their resumes just to get an interview and then hopefully hired into a sales role. The thing is, being in sales is difficult, and studies show that only 55% of sales hires meet their quota, and that an annual sales team’s turnover rate is 40%.

These numbers show that the wrong salespeople are being hired and that they’re actually not qualified for such a demanding role. Not only is it difficult to hire a good salesperson, but sales is an incredibly important job and the driving force of any company – after all, if you don’t make sales, then you don’t make profits, and you’re company won’t see any success.

Here are some tips to ensure that you are hiring the right salesperson for your company.

Create a Candidate Profile

Every recruitment effort should start with a candidate profile. This is where you come up with the main skills and qualities that you would like to see in your new recruit. That way, when you eventually meet your candidates, you will be able to compare them to the profile you’ve come up with. If a candidate isn’t meeting with your expectations, then they might just be a pretender.

Focus on a Candidate’s History of Results

A lot of times you can tell the good candidates from the bad just from what they write on their resume and cover letter. A contender will focus on the times throughout their career that they’ve created actual results – or rather, success stories. A pretender, on the other hand, will be more vague by focusing on their skills, traits, and talents, and use that to show what they could bring to the table, rather than what they have done in the past and could do again in the future.

Make Sure to Pre-Screen Candidates

Talking to a candidate one-on-one is a great way to separate the contenders from the pretenders, even if it’s just over the phone. A resume or cover letter is something that a candidate has taken time to craft, but if you talk to them over the phone they won’t be able to take the time to make up an answer.

Get Some Expert Advice

Sometimes it can be difficult to hire the right person unless you have years of experience and training doing so. When you let the sales recruitment agency do the work you’re guaranteed to save time, money, and the hassle of hiring the wrong person.

Hiring the wrong person is a headache that no one wants, that’s why it’s better to let professionals do the recruiting for you – they’ll make sure that you get the right person for the job.

Hopefully, these tips will help you hire better and separate the contenders from the pretenders.