If your business is like most, finding the right people for your sales team is among your most critical and difficult staffing challenges. Not only are your sales people on the front line of your business, toe to toe with your customers, they are also have tremendous impact on your top and bottom lines. When very small businesses make the wrong sales hire, it can have a devastating impact.

In our experience, despite your best intentions, there is a good chance your sales hire won't work out, and since sales cycles can be very long, you may not know that things are not working out for six months or more. For this reason, we recommend you don't hire sales people until you can afford the financial hit if you make a mistake.

However, there will come a time that you need to hire sales people. Be prepared for it to be a tricky, time-consuming process. There are no guarantees in the hiring process, but you can put the odds in your favor by using these ten steps to interviewing success:

1. Be sure you have defined the sales position and written a formal job description. Clearly identify the basic duties and key outcomes of the position. For instance, will the position involve cold calling? Is there a quota? How are commissions calculated? Be prepared to identify the right candidate. If you are replacing a current salesperson, talk to the person who will be vacating the position for additional feedback.

2. Set standard interview questions. Prepare and administer a standardized list of questions for each applicant with the objective of measuring the candidates' ability to perform the duties defined in the job description. If you ask each person the same questions, the obvious hire may begin to stand out based on his or her answers.

3. Prepare yourself before each interview. Be completely familiar with each applicant before the interview. Prepare additional questions to probe the applicant's experience. For instance, if a candidate was a salesperson with the same company for the last 10 years, you might want to ask why they are changing positions.

4. Be ready to sell your company. Great sales people have a variety job opportunities to choose from; a good salesperson can slip through your fingers. Be ready to answer their questions AND convince them why they want to work for you.

5. Center on performance. Your goal during the interview process is to identify which candidate can do the best. Concentrate on determining the ability to perform rather than how well you get along.

6. Unmask your applicant. Each person in the interview process will walk into your office with a mask on. Your job is to unveil their real work personality, as a job in sales will require constant interaction with customers. Do they even truly like working with people? Ask an applicant to describe in detail a stressful event. It's not unusual to see a salesperson "crack." Consider using a behavioral assessment validated for the exact job title.

7. Find out how the applicant handles problems. People interviewing are on their best behavior, but you also need to assess how the applicant responds to bumps in the road. Use situational questions such as, “Tell me about the last time you really goofed up. How did you fix it?”

8. Find out if your salesperson handles loss sales. Again, situational questions based on past performance are best. For instance, ask, “Can you describe what happened the last time you lost a client?" Ask them what they did in that situation, and get specific.

9. Go with your gut. Often times, the right candidate will be obvious right away. They’ve performed in the past, and they are naturally friendly, smart, and personable. They don’t have to think a long time about the answer to logical questions, and when presented with truly difficult problems, they've handled them gracefully in the past. Trust your gut, and start checking references.

10. If no one is quite right, don't hire anyone. It's always less costly to start over than to make a bad hire. It's time consuming to go through the process again, but if you act is haste, you will repent in leisure.

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