Nick Powills: Everyone Is At Their Best During The Sales Process

I’ve thought a lot about the hiring process at our company. I have asked myself and our team: What could we have done better? Business coaches and consultants all have opinions: Could have personality tested more; could have reference-checked better; or, in our case specifically, could have been more communicative of the role or defined the responsibilities more clearly.

Truth is, there are a ton of things we could have done differently.

But, we also don’t want to live in the past. We want to learn from our hiring mistakes and try to get better as we continue to grow as a business – this is a big responsibility we have to our clients. We're constantly chasing excellence, both in our culture and for the brands we work with. At the end of the day, excellence in hiring, culture and people ends up having the greatest impact on a business.

One thing that we have recognized in the hiring process (and no, this isn’t rocket science) is that people are at their best during the sales process. The résumés look great, the candidates can do anything – everything, yes everything, sounds amazing.

You can certainly cut the cards and try to find the gaps, but when everyone is presenting the best version of themselves, it’s sometimes hard to see their worst. This goes for recruiting, hiring and sales – all three are affected by acting jobs on both sides.

I think about this as it relates to franchise sales, too. Franchise prospects that make it all the way through the sales funnel to a discovery day are there on their best behavior. They want you to see them as people who will follow the system and be great validators. Franchisors, like us as employers, get this wrong a third of the time. Sure, there are things they could do differently, but finding the gaps is difficult, especially when there is a fat check being waved at a brand.

The bottom line is that hiring is freakin’ hard. Yes, we have to take responsibility for being strict about who we think will work best – and make sure we are over communicating our expectations so that we are in line from day one. But, if we are going to grow as a business, we are going to have to say no to those who appear super qualified as soon as one of the gaps start to show.

Do I think we can get better at reading between the lines of someone’s best and their truth? Marginally. But, can we stay true to our core foundational expectations of what we are looking for in great culture-adds? That, we can do.