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We are a small company with 25 employees. We are now hiring our first Sales director and she has a 3 months trial period. Which factores on top of the most ordinary sales measures do you recommend we look out for? Any short term KPI's it makes sense to evaluate the new hire on? Any advice will be a great help.

scm2423's picture

It might be just me but I am uncomfortable with labeling this as a three month trial period.  Bringing someone new into your organization can cause a lot of stress both on that person and to others in the organization.  With a trial period are you actually going to sit down in three months and make a decision about keeping the new sales director? If that is the case I question why you would bring that person into the organization in the first place.  Is the trial period an easy way to recover from what might not be a good fit?  Would your time and effort be better spent ensuring that this is the right person for the position and for the organization before you make an offer? 

I am trying not to be too critical but I think the real focus should be on making sure this is the right person and that you are doing everything you can to support them. 

Here’s another way to think of it and its to the extreme, but it illustrates the point.  Would you tell your new wife, we are doing this for three months and then decide if it’s working out?

mkirk's picture
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Hey there,

I'm not sure what field you guys are in but 3 months is not long. I hope you're excited about your new hire and thinking about developing her and how she can take you to the next level, because if you're still in the 'looking for reasons to say No' mindset then maybe you said Yes too soon.

That said, I would look for behaviours that will deliver value, albeit probably not in 3 months. Depending on what she is selling and what stage you guys are already at, you should hopefully have identified a list of behaviours you need your new hire to engage in. If you haven't got much of a pipeline of prospects, then you want to see her out and about prospecting and promoting and generally getting her face (and your product) airtime in the right places. If you hired her for her Rolodex (showing my age there!) and industry knowledge, then you want to see her working it. If you've already got a solid pipeline then maybe you want to see her working on your conversion rate, your processes and maybe some first evidence of her planning for future growth. 

Mostly, you want to see evidence of integrity, enthusiasm and energy. The rest you can help her with but if she doesn't bring those three in the first three months, she probably never will. Give her every chance to be your best-ever hire and good luck.