Red Flags in Sales Hiring | Ep 40
In this episode, we dive into the biggest “red flags” to watch out for when hiring in sales and logistics. Hiring mistakes can be costly, not just financially but also in terms of team morale and productivity. We cover common warning signs, like frequent job changes, employment gaps, and negative attitudes, which can indicate deeper issues with a candidate. We also discuss what qualities to prioritize, like resilience, a strong work ethic, and cultural fit—traits that are especially important in demanding fields like logistics. By focusing on these qualities and creating a structured hiring process, we explain how leaders can build a reliable, motivated team. Tune into this episode packed with practical tips for managers and business owners looking to make smarter hiring decisions.
The Logistics & Leadership Podcast, powered by Veritas Logistics, redefines logistics and personal growth. Hosted by industry veterans and supply chain leaders Brian Hastings and Justin Maines, it shares their journey from humble beginnings to a $50 million company. Discover invaluable lessons in logistics, mental toughness, and embracing the entrepreneurial spirit. The show delves into personal and professional development, routine, and the power of betting on oneself. From inspiring stories to practical insights, this podcast is a must for aspiring entrepreneurs, logistics professionals, and anyone seeking to push limits and achieve success.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction to hiring challenges
(00:22) Adversity as a key trait
(00:38) Costs of poor hiring decisions
(02:27) The importance of a hiring profile
(03:47) Red flags: job gaps and inconsistent history
(05:22) Weighing industry experience
(06:15) Why cultural fit matters
(08:04) Key attributes: resilience, team orientation
(08:49) Avoiding the “victim mentality” hire
(09:11) Strategies for successful onboarding
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Transcript
I want someone that's gone through adversity.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:If you're in cold call sales or you know, specifically with logistics.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You better be ready to get your teeth kicked in and face some adversity because if you can do that and overcome that, sky's the limit.
Speaker A:Today we're going to talk about why attracting and retaining top talent is one of the most crucial aspects and also most overlooked aspects to growing successful logistics company.
Speaker A:Brian, you've hired a lot of people in the past 15 years.
Speaker A:Tell me about your experience.
Speaker A:What do you look for in talent?
Speaker B:Yeah, I think, you know, we look at it with, we talk to a lot of different sales managers and they get frustrated with how their team's doing and they're not meeting metrics or this person's not putting in the right effort.
Speaker B:And I think sometimes you have to look at your current team's performance and go back to the hiring side.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Like did you really hire the right person for that role?
Speaker B:I've been doing the hiring piece for a long time.
Speaker B:Going back to it.
Speaker B:There's some, definitely some good hires that I've had and there's definitely been some bad ones.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:I think that's the hard part is like admitting that you know what I swung and missed on this one and this is, you know, to chalk it up to a bad loss and you know, look for the next person to, you know, attract into the company.
Speaker B:Do you feel like whenever you hire somebody that doesn't work out?
Speaker B:I think a lot of sales managers or hell organizations, logistics companies, they don't look at the hidden costs behind that.
Speaker B:What are your thoughts on the hidden costs that are out there and like what are people missing?
Speaker A:Depending on the industry, I mean you're looking at to onboard an employee, just strictly onboard them become trained.
Speaker A:You're looking at three to $4,000 in costs, whether that's time, supplies, equipment, actual income to the employee.
Speaker A:So it might seem small but you duplicate that over and, and your costs add up and that doesn't even count for unemployment and time that goes into HR and making sure that those employees are off boarded as well.
Speaker A:But when it comes to hiring, there's a lot that goes into that and I don't think there's.
Speaker A:For some organizations there's not enough emphasis on hiring the right people.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:Because if you're doing things the right way, you should have a hiring profile for each position and use that profile, you know, tweak it here and there.
Speaker A:But let's talk about sales reps.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:If you're hiring a sales rep and you have a profile, there's a number of attributes or, you know, personality traits that you should be looking for.
Speaker A:And most sales reps check those boxes.
Speaker B:I was just going to ask you, man, like what, like what are some of, like your, I don't know, pros, cons, I mean, knockout factors.
Speaker B:What are some of those for you?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, you get the resume, you meet them.
Speaker A:But there's a number of things I do look for.
Speaker A:Body language, how they're dressed.
Speaker A:Do they actually take care of themselves?
Speaker A:Yeah, they're not taking care of themselves.
Speaker A:They're probably not going to care much about the actual job.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:When looking at the resume, I'm looking for any gaps in job history.
Speaker A:If there's big gaps, where are they doing digging into those gaps and shooting holes through their story?
Speaker A:Because if they're saying like, you know, I just was trying to find my passion and I was really just wanting to find myself, is that true or are you just playing video games in your basement?
Speaker A:So digging into those and figuring out why, why those gaps, you can weed people out pretty quickly.
Speaker A:If they're a good storyteller, sure.
Speaker A:You know, they might convince you why, hey, they are good hire and what actually happened during that gap.
Speaker A:But I'm also looking for promotions.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:You know, how long do they say a specific company?
Speaker A:If they have 10 different companies on the resume and they're there for six months each.
Speaker A:A bit of a red flag right now if they have three companies and you can see that they consistently move up at each company.
Speaker A:Well, that's, that's a positive sign because they're doing something right.
Speaker A:Something about them to get promoted at each company.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Do you, I mean everybody talks about like job hopping.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So it's like, oh, they went from, you know, this place and they were there for a year in that place and they were there for a year.
Speaker B:Like, what are your thoughts on the job hopping side of if you get a resume and you see, I don't know, a person that's been in the workforce for 10 years and you might see six companies, what do you got there?
Speaker A:Yeah, a number of things.
Speaker A:Like are they staying in the same industry?
Speaker A:You know, if they are younger and they're trying to figure out what they really want to do, I might give them some leeway.
Speaker A:But if they've been in the professional world for 15 years and they're just jumping all over industries, what exactly do you want to do now?
Speaker A:If they're always in sales and they have a legit story.
Speaker A:You know, the company shut down, we got laid off, my wife got relocated and I had to move.
Speaker A:Like, those are legit real life situations.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Supporting.
Speaker A:Why they would be moving, do you think?
Speaker B:Like, I always, I always felt this, man.
Speaker B:Like anytime that I would hire a salesperson or a previous salesperson, I feel like there would be.
Speaker B:They're good at sales.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Or they might be, you know, halfway decent or they know what they're talking about.
Speaker B:They can tell a story.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So I would always find myself.
Speaker B:And these are some of the worst ones that I've.
Speaker B:Not worst ones, but it would be somebody that was.
Speaker B:In previous sales, was car sales or software sales or whatever.
Speaker B:And I'm like, oh, man, they're.
Speaker B:They're good.
Speaker B:I like them.
Speaker B:They're good energy, they're good body language.
Speaker B:They can present well.
Speaker B:And then six months into the job in freight sales, it's like, man, these.
Speaker B:These guys have no clue.
Speaker B:Yeah, right?
Speaker B:And those are.
Speaker B:Those were the biggest challenges, you know, not red flags.
Speaker B:Because I loved them.
Speaker B:I'm like, okay, like, they have sales experience.
Speaker B:I don't have to reteach them the whole cycle.
Speaker B:They get it.
Speaker B:They can talk to people, they can generate a conversation.
Speaker B:But those are ones that would always, you know, bite me in the ass because, you know, six months or eight months later down the road, they either, you know, fizzle out or they be uninterested or, you know, they wouldn't be able to close business.
Speaker B:Have you ever dealt with, like, not.
Speaker B:Not roles or.
Speaker B:But like previous industries that.
Speaker B:Where they come into or.
Speaker A:I do want sales experience, but it's not always a bad thing.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:You know, I care more about their work ethic.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Intangibles are huge, man.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Do people like them?
Speaker A:Are they a culture fit?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:It sounds so basic, but at the end of the day, you know, I know this is true for you and I and probably for most entrepreneurs, but your culture is one of the most important pieces to the success of your company.
Speaker B:Heck, yeah.
Speaker A:If you have someone that's going to disrupt your culture and cause a rift amongst your other employees, it's not going to work.
Speaker A:It's not worth it.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter how successful that person is.
Speaker A:If no one likes them and no one wants to work with them, you got to cut them loose.
Speaker A:It's not going to work.
Speaker A:So what I do like more than anything, I would say is the work ethic piece.
Speaker A:Are they competitive?
Speaker A:Have they been part of a team?
Speaker A:Are they willing to invest in the actual mission of the company or are they solely caring about themselves and their own success?
Speaker A:Which not always a bad thing?
Speaker B:Not a bad.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I was just going to say if.
Speaker A:It'S going to be disruptive, it's a different story.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think, I mean, I think with a lot of people that we've seen before that have had success.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I think you look at those type of people and you know, what works, what doesn't.
Speaker B:I know for me, anytime that I'd have a, a server or a bartender or.
Speaker B:Yeah, I talked about, you know, somebody that has previous sales experience being a bad thing.
Speaker B:There can be, you know, a good thing where they go in, they.
Speaker B:This is a story that I love.
Speaker B:And to me it's like the prime candidate.
Speaker B:But they go into a company, we'll call it a window manufacturer.
Speaker B:They go out and they sell a ton of windows for two, three years in a row.
Speaker B:Then the company says, oh man, this, this sales reps making a lot of money now they're restructuring that person's comp plan.
Speaker B:And then they come to us like, hey man, I want uncapped commission.
Speaker B:God, I love that.
Speaker B:Like, ok, I'm getting capped now.
Speaker B:I'm coming to this organization like okay, yeah, please sign here.
Speaker B:Right to me.
Speaker B:That's my approach.
Speaker B:I love that side of it.
Speaker B:So pros that I always look for servers, bartenders, played sports in the past, previous sales position where they got capped at some commission.
Speaker B:What are some other things that you like, man?
Speaker A:Yeah, I'll give you a few.
Speaker A:I want someone that's gone through adversity.
Speaker A:If you're in cold, call sales or specifically with logistics.
Speaker A:Yeah, you better be ready to get your teeth kicked in and face some adversity.
Speaker A:Because if you can do that and overcome that, sky's the limit.
Speaker A:I'm going to look at the references.
Speaker A:If I have someone that comes in and they're just bashing their boss or their co workers or the company just set me up for failure.
Speaker B:It's excuse, never their fault, man.
Speaker B:Victim mentality.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker A:Excuse after excuse.
Speaker A:It's a no go for me.
Speaker A:I want someone who says, listen, here's why I left, here's my references, Give them a call.
Speaker A:And I call, check the references and they're like, man, I wish that's one that got away.
Speaker A:Yeah, we love the guy.
Speaker A:Yada yada yada, like that's a huge plus for me.
Speaker A:You know I mentioned this already, but history of promotion, someone that's like never settling does not accept mediocrity.
Speaker A:They're willing to put in the work to continue moving up or that's career, you know, career wise, financially, personal development, whatever it may be.
Speaker A:Someone that wants more and hungry for more.
Speaker A:Those are the type of people that.
Speaker B:Want now, you know, we know what to look for and, you know, we're telling the viewers and the listeners, you know, what to look for when hiring a good salesperson.
Speaker B:We're going to go into more of the offer letter, more of the onboarding process.
Speaker B:You know, how to retain this talent or this people that you've spent multiple interviews with, multiple, you know, multiple hours trying to bring them into your company.
Speaker B:We're now going to explain how do we keep them there.
Speaker B:How do we have an onboarding process that's going to make them feel like they're in the right place?
Speaker A:Every carrier thought we were screwing them over.
Speaker A:Every shipper just was like, oh, God, I recognize that number.
Speaker A:And we worked when we were there to overcome that reputation, and they did a good job with that.
Speaker A:But you don't want that to be part of your reputation, where it's like, Veritas can take advantage of.
