The mutual fund industry is a great analogy for hiring salespeople. I espouse that accolades, or past sales achievements, are some of the best indicators of the future success of sales person.
Every mutual fund in the mutual fund industry has a prospectus. Somewhere in that prospectus the mutual fund industry has a line in there that says “past performance is not an indication of future performance”.
Its a sales management tenet you should always remember.
The best mutual funds have four or five star ratings. This means the past performance is good enough to be in the top 20 percent or top 40 percent of all mutual funds.
Past performance is not an indication of future performance though…or is it?
It IS an indicator of future performance. If a sales rep you just hired was number one ranked at Barry’s Boxes then chances are when you hire them at Biogen, they will do just as well.
Why? Past performance is an indicator of future performance, that’s why.
So make sure you look for accolades and proof of stellar past performance on the resumes of your next sales hires.