How to Hire A-Players: Finding the Top People for Your Team - Even If You Don't Have a Recruiting Department

Chapter 2. Would You Know an A-Player if You Met One? Defining Your A-Player Profile

I have a terrific client who owns an award-winning kitchen and bath design firm. When Bill and I started working together, he had recently created the position of showroom sales manager—and promptly hired then fired three people for the role. What was the problem?

When Bill hired these people, he was looking for a "hunter" who would prospect for new business. We created an A-Player Profile for the position and realized that this skill was much less important than the ability to close sales and manage kitchen remodelingjobs. None of the three employees who were hired (and subsequently fired) had any projectmanagement skills or experience. They could prospect for new business, but they couldn'tcomplete quality projects. As a result, they did a poor job for their clients and failed to generate strong referrals. While they had sales skills, they did not have the right skills for this sales position. In other words, Bill had intentionally hired people who could not do the job!

You can't consistently hit a goal if you don't see it clearly. Bill is an example of a successful person who fell into a common trap. He couldn't hire great people because he had not taken the time to define what it meant to do the job very well. He needed to identify an A-Player Profile for the key roles in his company. For this showroom sales manager position, the A-Player Profile was someone who could convert walk-in prospects ...