If a sales exec makes it anything but effortless to schedule a job interview with them,
Basically it won't work out
— Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin 🇮🇱 (@jasonlk) February 13, 2024
So I remember years ago I went to hire my first VP — ever. To make it even tougher, I’d never hired anyone for this role at all (a VP of Ops). I went to reach out to the best candidate I could find by a cold email.
I went to my ex-boss and mentor and asked him how I’d know if he was interested.
“Oh you’ll know. He’ll respond ASAP.”
Now as the years have gone by, I’ve learned that’s not 100% true when you outbound to candidates. Many of them aren’t in market, or may take 3-4 reach outs to take a meeting.
But for in-bound candidates? Or folks that have reached out to you?
At least for sales execs, never hire them if they are slow in the recruiting process. Because they’ll be just as slow with your prospects and customers. Probably, even slower.
Recruiting is sales. And if you’re a candidate, it can be selling yourself a bit. Especially if it’s a role you want, and there are multiple strong candidates. The more senior the sales role especially, the more important it is to see the candidate acting with you like they will a prospect:
- Responding quickly
- Knowing a few real things about the company
- Ideally, taking the first meeting offered
- Always being prompt and on-time
- Make you feel better and better each step of the process
Can we hold engineering candidates to this standard? Maybe not.
But sales? Yeah. You gotta always be selling.
Sales execs that can’t even sell themselves or be responsive during the interview process … well, I’ve never see them get better once they start.
Never.
And don’t just take it from me:
(anyone there image from here)
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Jason Lemkin, Khareem Sudlow
