Should HR interview salespeople?

Charlie,
Your honesty and candor are appreciated and I respect someone defending that for which they are passionate. My apologies if I seemed to dismiss the value of a skilled HR person. That was not my intent.
I agree that the sales manager should only interview qualified, likely candidates and HR should have the ability to identify them.
And btw, I often say my greatest strengths are also at times my greatest weaknesses. That is probably true for many of us.

i think it's silly to try and determine the interview team based on titles or roles. if you have an HR exec/employee who is very good at connecting the dots of your organization, has a good take on what moves the management team - and what might complement it, and who might be really good at identifying potential concerns (or qualities) that others might miss, why the hell wouldn't you involve that person? i don't care if you're an ops person, an attorney, an accounting pro, a sales manager, or an HR leader, i want you on the interview team if you can provide meaningful insight and i see you as a trusted adviser to my business. responses like "the answer to this question is a definite NO" are kind of immature. nothing in the workplace...and I mean nothing...is "definite."

Wow what a hornets nest! I have been a practicing HR professional C level executive, and consultant for over 30 years. I have interviewed thousands of candidates across a variety of disciplines and industries.
The idea that HR should be excluded from the interview process for any functional group takes me aback.
I am a big believer in interviewing and hiring "whole people". I think different interviewers look at different dimensions of candidates. As an HR pro I would rarely try to determine an individuals capabilities in their "core competencies" in any field other than my own.
Interviewing by itself is the least predictable indicator of organizational success.
I moved from HR to the C level based on my ability to create and manage interdisciplinary and cross functional teams. I always respected my colleagues technical expertise and that of my subordinates.
Early in my career I had the opportunity to work with a mentor who happened to be a sales executive with a long and distinguished career. Together we built what he referred to as "the finest sales team he ever managed in a 35 year career" with a Fortune 100 organization. He attributed that to our teamwork- we saw different things.
If your HR staff doesn't bring value to your hiring and selection process without regard to the function you are hiring for you have the wrong HR people, period.
For those of you in sales to me it is the equivalent of a sales person who can't close- they are missing a core competency....

Many variables here as stated: the level of candidate being interviewed as well as the experience level of the HR professional.

As an HR professional, I interview everyone including sales people and I will give my feedback. I do not agree with Mike's comment that "the HR and sales mindset is totally different." Huh? The HR mindset is for what's for the business and to put the best qualified candidate in the open role. Given that comment, I guess HR shouldn't interview IT pros, marketing or any other field except HR? I spend a lot of time phone screening resumes and forwarding them to hiring managers for them to decide on who they want to meet in person. The candidate is not working for me -- they'll be working for the hiring manager and I respect that.

However, a good HR person will be able to provide varied levels of insight such as: can they work with a team if that's part of the job? Can they work with difficult clients? The resume is the resume -- but what about the other soft skills that are required for sales professionals? Most sales managers want to motivate their teams on how to sell and want to know what a candidate can do for them. They may not know how to go the extra mile to find out more about the candidate.

I understand your perspective on this matter, but I think the answer should be a YES!

Contrary to your point, the recruiter/hr person should be aligned with who the hiring manager is looking for.

If I move someone forward the HM, I am sending them who they are looking for.

This additional screening process helps limit the amount of wasted time in interviews that were not screened properly to begin with.

Additionally, you need someone that is motivated enough to shadow with reps, interview current employees, etc, to help gain a better perspective of the day in the life of a sales rep.

I am willing to bet that your former HR reps didn't take the proper steps to educate themselves on the roles they were required to fill.

My answer would say that if properly trained, the HR screening interview will allow the hiring manager to focus on better interviews and more time managing their people.

Of course it depends on the quality of staff involved and that is the always the toughest part of interviewing…finding the right fit.

My first reply on FOCUS.com, hope it helps!

I think an initial interview is fine. But at some point very early in the process, I believe, the HR point person is going to want to engage a sales manager or DOS to be involved in that interview. That may be true of other functions, I don't know. I am speaking as a sales and marketing professional and seeing it from my own experience.

HR Rep/Generalist/Manager no... a resume screener/HR admin hosting an initial phone screen sure. I definitely think the right chain on interview is BizDev pros....

No. The interview process is a time to build rapport, and learn the candidates strengths and weaknesses, as well as how they are behaviorally wired. This information can be valuable to their supervisor in training, motivating, communicating and holding them accountable. The HR person will have little use for it and will not be able to effectively convey it to those who do.

Yes...they should...Q is what stage ...definitely not as first interface....but after immediate Line Managers interactions...with the profile....HR can add value to the process..based on his/her analysis of Attrition in that business (vintage wise , reason of exit wise etc)...and of course the fitment to the nature of team and business (e.g. aggressive , consultative)...all the above opinions are personal based on the industry where i belong too and the processes which we put into practice...

Wow Charlie, Kind of immature? How professional...

I have worked for and now run major businesses. Every time HR has gotten involved with hiring sales people, it has been a complete train wreck.

"Wow" was my response too, Mike! Charlie, first, and perhaps I am wrong, I thought this forum was to share opinions based on our knowledge, expertise and experiences. This offers different perspectives and insights to be considered by the inquirer. My definitive answer, and I imagine, Mike's, meant no offense. No need to get emotional about it.
Secondly, I have nothing against HR people. There are definitely benefits to having a great HR team. My experience in hiring, and what I now teach, is to use behavioral assessments to identify the candidates strengths, weaknesses, and behavioral styles such as communication, detail orientation etc. The process itself can build a great rapport with the candidate and gives an in-depth understanding of that person. This can be used not only to assist in hiring decisions, but for future managing, motivating and simply communicating. A good rapport from the start as well as the insights gained can serve the employee - manager relationship on a daily basis. So why miss that opportunity by having someone else build the rapport and gain such knowledge that doesn't quite transfer on paper?

Immature and now ignorant? How opinionated. I am neither of those. Sorry Charlie.

I have an opinion on this topic and so do you. Let's just agree to disagree.

HR people do not make good sales people and good sales people do not make good HR people.

I have to say, I have worked with some outstanding HR people, who don't "go" with their gut and therefore some of the best sales people out there never get hired by that company.

You have to understand that the sales department is like no other. Sales is chaos. That department is not structured like the other departments in the company.

Sales managers are way better equipped to hire sales people.

There's A Salesman In Every HR Professional ...There's a salesman in all of us.
This was blog posted by @lisarosendahl http://bit.ly/opzpaa I don't necessarily agree that HR can truly make the hiring decision related to the interviewing of a sales rep however HR is and should be considered a trust adviser as stated by our friend Charlie. I do think HR can add value and insight to any interview that someone closely related to the need the organization is trying to fill cant... hence my previous answer, have HR conduct the initial early on screen

Peggy, I agree that HR has valuable input and should be part of the process. They also need to build rapport so I agree that an initial screening or brief interview should be done by HR. Then I think they should turn over the candidates to the sales manager for the decision making interview once they've got the HR stamp approval.

i'm sure your intentions are good. but i perceive your "definitive" responses as a move (maybe subconsciously) to summarily dismiss the value a good HR person might bring to the interview process. i would be just as silly (and immature and ignorant) to suggest, "the answer to this question is a definite YES." it really has very little to do with the function or role the prospective interviewer holds and more about what the prospective interviewer regularly contributes to the business....how respected, how insightful, how integral they are to it. being in HR doesn't preclude you from being any of those things. i suppose my emotion (and yes, I am an emotional defendant of (good) HR's value to an organization) should be directed toward Caty for asking the question in the first place and not to those experts who have taken the time to provide their opinions. thank you for engaging with me...i am not known for my restraint...both my strongest and weakest suit.

Cheri wrote:
"My experience in hiring, and what I now teach, is to use behavioral assessments to identify the candidates strengths, weaknesses, and behavioral styles such as communication, detail orientation etc."

Cheri - we have used those assessments as well (e.g. Hogan tests). Sometimes they can be a good predictor of success but just as often they aren't. I see Charlie's point, in that a "good" HR team can help narrow the field if they have a good understanding of the skill sets, key behaviors, etc. that will make them a good fit for the job AND the organization. But at some point, I agree that sales needs to be engaged in the process. I wouldn't want to pull successful sales management resources off task to interview unless I had identified and narrowed down to a smaller pool of candidates (via an initial interview process), those individuals who have the highest statistical probability to be top producers.

Darryl, I agree the behaviorals don't always predict success and some are better than others. I have found, however, that whenever I've hired someone who wasn't a behavioral match for the job, it shows up along the way. I also believe behavior is just one piece of the puzzle when considering a candidate. The candidates experience/knowledge, an in-depth interview and a thorough reference check should all be considered before making a final decision.
I agree HR can help find the right candidates to be considered and their insight into who may be a match can be invaluable as well.

Why wouldnt HR interview Sales People?
If you have a HR function that is plugged into the business and holds a truely strategic role, then they should definately be interviewing sales people.
If they are just the party planning and a form pushing department, then it is probably safer that they do not.

This has proved to be quite contentious so here's my take on it. As an HR person I have often found that Sales people really dislike being interviewed by HR - and love being interviewed by a Sales professional.

In the past I have done joint interviews with the Sales professional and it is fascinating to see how the interviewee responds to this.

A good Sales person will have to deal with objections and doubtful prospects so if they handle the presence of an HR person badly (ignoring them, only focusing on the Sales person present) it suggests to me that they are not that great at Sales.

So my recommendation is to try some joint interviewing and then both HR and Sales can learn from each other afterwards.

There are so many possible ways to answer this question based upon
-the needs of the business
-the size of the business
-the point of hiring (new team, replacement sales, new product launch, expansion)
-the skill sets and training/tools HR uses to interview
-the hiring process based on all of the above

The skills needed for consultative selling vs hunter/farmer positions and management match needs to be customized for the best success possible to hire a good fit for the opening.
It has been mentioned to hire the "whole person". This is important to get as much info as possible becuase people can interview very different than how they perform. This can be especially true in sales. I work with tools to learn
a) what the success on the job in a particular company and its environment requires from top performers
b) how to look for that in candidates for predictablility in success
c) how they match up to those needs before the interview
If HR does not have this information, and is not savvy in different sales types they could pass up people based on the interview and pass on those that seem "high energy" or " like good sales people" in person using their biases that may or may not be appropriate for the business (Managers can do this too, not just HR)
The key is finding out what specifically the job calls for and that the hiring team is well versed in this, including soft and hard skills needed for job success and seeing how the person matches beyond the resume.

Too many people are hired because they have a good sales resume, are liked, but are acutally wrong for the job regardless of if it is HR or someone else interviewing.

Get detailed, indepth, whole-person clarity on what is needed that the whole hiring team uses and success will be greater from HR on through the hiring process.

Sales is technical to a certain extent so the argument holds true for interviewing technical experts, would you want HR to interview for a Air-con technician? You would need your air-con expert/Manager in the room. For me and it does depend on size of the organization, level of the job being interviewed for eg. exec, salesman, manager. This would require a different approach of who is in the room.

The big question is who owns the supply of interviewing skills?

Your Sales exec, who may not want HR be in the room may be the worst interviewer ever. HR is the support function in any organization, and carry definite skills to provide this support.

I do believe that the "whole person" approach shall be adopted. There is no harm in having HR present in any interview.

HR may argue that all technical departments carry the responsibility of the people they employ. This is again dependent on the organizational culture. However, this is another topic on it's own.

1. Sales people in any organization are the first ones with whom customers interact and form an opinion. This opinion is candid and creates impact on subsequent interaction and decision making.

2. Selling is an art and a science. Art is an inborn talent to a great extent. However, science is aquired through formal training. Both of these elements enhance with experience.

One thing that doesn't change is the person's attitude, body-language, communication skills and accumen. These parameters may be judged by the HR personnal during the interview. It is must for the organization and the sales department.

Other things that are aptitude based may be left for the sales head to understand and decide.

Hey All,

Everyone has their opinions on this topic. That's cool. Personally I have only worked for one company in which HR interviewed sales reps. The outcome was bad. The HR person gave their feedback to the next interviewer and now the next interviewer is biased one way or the other. Not a good system. I don't know if all companies work this way, but this one did. Every other company I worked for, I interviewed with the Sales Manager and sometimes the Owner or President. Personally, I think that works out better. If you are in sales, you have a gut instinct about potential sales reps, that I don't believe most (no HR people here) HR personnel would pick up on. Sales is the life blood of the company and the right candidates need to be chosen.

The answer to this question is a definite NO. The HR and sales mindsets are totally different. A sales candidate needs to be interviewed by the Sales Manager and no more than two other executives. For other helpful business articles visit http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Mike_Bova