Question: Has your Sales Organisation formally defined a list of checks to be done on all candidates to ensure claims on education, job history, earnings and references are legitimate – and are those checks effective in revealing individuals who have lied about, or embellished details on their CVs?
The reality
According to our research at ThinkSales Global, only 62.47% of Sales Organisations have formally defined a list of checks to be done on all candidates to ensure claims on education, job history, earnings and references are legitimate.
In addition, 55.89% of companies rate their confidence as Outstanding that their current reference and background checks are effective in revealing individuals who have lied about, or embellished details on their CVs.
The ‘misrepresentation of skills and earnings’ problem
Most CVs contain minor inaccuracies: Dates slightly out of alignment, achievements a little inflated, and reasons for leaving past employers blurred.
However, there is an alarmingly high number of gross misrepresentations too, including fake doctorates, concocted job histories and blatant lies.
Consider these stats*:
- 53 % of resumes and job applications contain falsifications
- 40 % have inflated salary claims
- 12% of job seekers have criminal records, of which 38% are repeat offenders, with some job applicants having up to 20 convictions
- In South Africa, 10% of matric certificates are forged
- 46 % of employment, education and/or credential reference checks revealed discrepancies between what the applicant provided and what the source reported.
Are you employing the best of the best, or have people who have grossly misrepresented themselves ended up in your organisation?
Making sales is reliant on placing the right person in the right position – not simply choosing the best candidate of the current interview crop. Rather go back to market than make a poor hire – you’ll save time and money in the long run.
*References: ADP, The Society of Human Resource Managers and Kirsten Halcrow, the managing director of EMPS
Why you should care
Hire the best people for your organisation
When you check potential sales executive candidates, areas you should pay careful attention to include:
- Credentials and qualification fraud, which is unfortunately more prevalent than you’d think.
- Bad debt. Why would this adversely affect the business? If a sales exec is getting constant calls about bad debts, how focused are they on the job at hand? And will they discount quickly to secure a deal?
- Criminal record screening. One in ten people who walk through your door for an interview have a criminal record.
Sales leader’s toolkit
Areas you should pay careful attention to include:
- Salary slips and proof of commission and paid earnings. Commission is a clear indicator of whether the candidate consistently hits target and is therefore something they’d want to hide if they don’t.
- Track record and references. Candidates tend to give you the best references, people who they know will speak highly of them. If you can, find some additional references not on their list.
- Assess the health of your sales organisation
Following a list of checks to be done on all candidates to ensure claims on education, job history, earnings and references are legitimate and ensuring the list is effective are two of 322 measures of a world-class Sales Organisation.
ThinkSales Global is a specialist revenue engineering consultancy.
We assist our clients to deliver market-defying results through strategic and tactical intentions within a Sales Organisation Maturity Model that addresses the five key pillars of high-performing Sales Organsations, namely:
- Competitive Strategy
- Customer Engagement
- Sales Talent
- Sales Management
- Sales Enablement
How does your Sales Organisation stack up? Find out by taking the ThinkSales 5 Pillar Strategic Sales Assessment™.
This first-of-its-kind 360-degree gap analysis report enables your Sales Leadership team to assess its strengths and detect weaknesses and impediments to revenue growth across the five pillars.
Click here for more information on the ThinkSales 5 Pillar Strategic Sales Assessment™.
