How to recruit good sales people

Co-founded in 2005 by esteemed CEO Aaron Levie, Box, the $2.8 billion Californian-based cloud content management and file sharing company, is one of the world’s most successful and fastest-growing SaaS businesses.

Backed by a who’s who of top tier venture capital investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Salesforce, its origins were considerably less glitzy.

Levie and co-founder Dylan Smith came up with the idea of “a place where users could pay to store files in the cloud” as a college business project in 2004.

The pair took time out of their junior year to build and launch Box, operating out of Smith’s parent’s house before moving to Berkley, California, and securing angel investment from Texas billionaire Mark Cuban after sending him a cold email.

Growth has been brisk despite stiff competition, and Box – with 41 million users and 80,000 businesses – is aiming to hit >$1 billion revenue within three years.

Fuelling that growth is an enviable and accomplished B2B sales operation; Box is renowned for attracting, assessing, and hiring the best sales people for its offices around the globe, including: London, Munich, Paris, Amsterdam and Stockholm.

To learn how they do it, and gain a deeper insight into the landscape of sales recruitment and how it differs, if at all, to other industries, we turned to Michael Kenway, Box’s brilliant and super-experienced (having previously worked at Microsoft, Hydrogen Group, and SThree) EMEA Recruitment Manager, to shed some light on hiring top sales people.

Snapshot of Michael Kenway's, Box's EMEA Recruitment Manager, LinkedIn profile.
Snapshot of Michael Kenway’s, Box’s EMEA Recruitment Manager, LinkedIn profile.

How many hires do you make in a typical month/year?

Around seven or eight a month.

What happens if you miss your hiring target?

The first question we’d ask is why? Missed targets will show up in management reports. From this, a review would take place and actions would be put in place to address the issue.

Sales is critical at any organisation, but for a company working to win market share within a relatively new market segment, like Box, what’s the cost of getting the wrong recruit?

Sales is critical in any organisation but, for Box, it’s hugely significant. The biggest obstacle for us achieving growth is hiring the right talent.

We can’t grow at the pace we need without getting that right, because bringing in the wrong people means we won’t hit our quota, which in turn impacts revenue. So, recruitment is a key strategic focus to ensure Box hits the corporate growth target we are after.

In the past, when you’ve made mistakes, have you been able to identify where you may have slipped up during the recruitment process?

We have a debrief with the Hiring Manager if possible. Simply because recruitment and Hiring Managers can have short-term memories on these things sometimes.

Some of the problems can come up again and again across different departments, so by having a clear debrief and documenting issues, we can help avoid the same mistakes being made again. Being able to reference previous mistakes can give us clearer guidance for future recruits.

Do you feel that you’re always getting better as a recruiter?

I’ve been in-house now for three years, and before that in a recruitment agency for seven years. I’ve always tried to keep up-to-date with best practice and take inspiration from others.

We’ve got around 50 people in recruitment worldwide at Box, which gives me access to great learnings. And being in central London there are so many networking groups, events and other opportunities to learn best practice.

There are huge resources online and I learn a lot from businesses that are comparable to Box: start-ups, particularly tech start-ups, where there is huge innovation in approaches to recruitment. I also look at other industries as there are always ways to adapt learnings from outside our world.

Recruitment has changed significantly over the last seven or eight years. In the past, you had to go out and find candidates. Now finding people isn’t so hard. The question becomes more about digging out the best talent and then how you manage them through the process to ensure you get the best candidates into your business. That’s the most important part now.

Is it harder to find and recruit good IT and/or SaaS sales people in the UK, relative to the US or other territories that Box operates in?

The UK is probably the most competitive of the markets we operate in for sales recruitment, particularly in London. Other markets are a bit less saturated. I also think some people have a perception of Box, from a couple of years ago, as just ‘storing files in the cloud’. So, the challenge can be more about updating the story telling aspect.

For other territories, Box is still quite new to them so they don’t have so many preconceptions. The focus there is more about informing potential candidates. So, I wouldn’t say it’s harder to find the right people, just that a different approach is needed.

How do you go about finding good sales people – any secret sources you’d care to share?!

Referrals are a huge channel – everyone will tell you that it’s the main source for candidates and this will only increase. However, we are focused on not becoming too reliant on one source and so we make a real effort to have a multi-channel approach.

LinkedIn, in-depth market mapping, building our social media strategy and talent finding events are all a big part of what we do, as well as using one or two strong recruitment agencies. The key is not to rely on one channel and to be more innovative in how you use those channels.

Another key part of our approach is understanding the motivators of potential candidates to ensure we’re targeting them at the right time. A big trigger for sales candidates is the end of the fiscal year. They’ve hit their numbers, are taking stock and planning what their next year will look like and part of that can include thinking about making a move. We always see the best response to any marketing we might do for sales candidates at the start of the fiscal year.

Do you hire sales people for aptitude or attitude?

Aptitude is multi-dimensional, but I think if a candidate has got the attitude that suits the business but the role but doesn’t tick 100% of the boxes for the aptitude, it isn’t always a killer as they can be trained to fill the gaps.

But, if a candidate doesn’t have the right attitude it will impact cultural fit, drive and personal/professional growth which isn’t something you can easily address. So, attitude comes first for us.

What does your interview process look like at Box, and why have you structured it the way you have?

Our process is consistent across all our territories. It starts with a recruiter-screening call to whittle down candidates for the next stage. Then, they have two telephone interviews with the Hiring Manager and key team members which helps both sides understand if it feels right before they invest too much time in the process. Shortlisted candidates will then face a panel interview on site, where they will meet a range of people from their potential future team and beyond. They’ll also be asked to prepare a presentation. If they are successful, references are checked and an offer is made.

This approach is similar to a lot of Silicon Valley businesses. It’s all about putting the candidate in a position where they meet a lot of people to see how the candidate interacts and collaborates within the business to help ensure cultural fit.

Sales people are notoriously good at selling themselves during an interview. How do you ensure you’re not just seeing a “performance” and get a real read on their talent?

A number of areas are tested. The interview itself will contain a few competency-based questions. Then they’ll be asked to do a presentation.

Google did some research to understand the most unbiased way to assess talent, which they found to be via a work sample for the job they will be expected to do.

So we ask potential candidates to do a sales pitch presentation to the C-Suite and the most senior members of the sales team. After that, we dig into their previous numbers to understand the deals they’ve closed and take up references. A good mix of these helps us get to beyond the ‘sales pitch’.

When recruiting sales people, how important is speed to you during the recruitment process?

Hugely important. There’s nothing worse than going through the hiring process and finding you’ve missed a great candidate just because you didn’t move through the process fast enough.

Does your recruitment process differ with sales candidates than candidates for other departments?

I guess the main difference is that we need to find candidates with the right kind of drive. They have the opportunity to earn a lot through commissions and accelerators. We delve meticulously into their previous deals and use the work sample presentation to drive that out.

Do you have a set of ‘go to’ interview questions you always rely on?

We do to an extent. We have a range of questions designed for different needs across the stages of the process. We have questions to screen qualifications and cultural fit and key skills needed for the role. We also use a candidate’s work sample presentation by looking for content that demonstrates knowledge and key competencies.

Do you ask any specific questions to determine a sales person’s suitability?

It very much depends on the role. We don’t have a fixed list of questions but if there are niche key competencies needed, we will ask specific questions to help understand if the candidate will fit in with the culture here or not.

What key attributes, specifically, are you looking for in sales people, and how do you go about identifying them during an interview or recruitment process?

Yes, we test for three things. One is technical ability. The second is cultural fit and if they link to our values. The third is to find out if they have a ‘learner’ mind set.

We have a range of different sales roles covering field, inside sales, and regeneration. All of these are very different, but the key attributes that are required across all of these is the candidate’s ability to deliver success, seen through their career trajectory, and their ability to close complex deals.

But, the differentiator is unearthing if they have the deep-rooted drive that isn’t just about money. They need to be a natural evangelist of products. To truly believe in what they are selling and to invest totally in the sales methodology by showing they can handle in-depth tech sales and have two-way conversations where they offer customers insights and establish the value for them, before focusing on the ROI and drive through the decision process.

Do you have any recruitment horror stories you’d care to share?

In a previous agency role, I was due to interview a potential candidate. On talking to them they said they also had a friend who would be interested in a role with this company. They then asked if we could we meet at his office – which I thought a little strange.

When I arrived, it turned out he’d booked a meeting room and I was faced with five of his friends, who he’d set up to be interviewed – they would have taken at least two hours each.

After interviewing one, I tried to work out my nearest escape route, but at the very same time the General Manager became aware I was on-site, so I immediately got snuck out of the back door by the initial candidate!

Have you ever asked someone to “sell me this pen…”?

Ha ha, no. Too many people know the ‘answer’ to that one now anyway.

Do you use psychometric tests to identify good sales people?

Not at the moment, but I definitely think that the ability to identify diversity of thought, experience, and personalities and the data you get from them are really useful. Food for thought for the future.

You have office in the US, London, Munich, Paris, Amsterdam and Stockholm. Do you employ a different recruitment strategy for each country?

Our strategy is quite consistent across all territories. However, we do need to modify around local culture or market size. So, for example, in Norway if we called to speak to someone after 5pm we know we they wouldn’t return the call until the next day, whereas in London there’s a culture of longer working hours so it’s less of a taboo.

Additionally, our strategy is unique to each region when it comes to finding the right cultural fit. In London, we have an office of 80-90 people so, although it’s important for the candidate to meet a range of people, it would never be important for them to meet everyone. In offices where the team is less than 15 people, a stronger focus is placed on the fit, as the wrong candidate could disrupt a team very easily.

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Originally published 8th February 2018