I was listening to a podcast on one of my morning walks (living life in the fast lane, I know) and came across this and thought it was interesting.
Warren Buffett has 3 core things he looks for when hiring
- Intelligence: For leadership roles, he looks at general intelligence and decision-making. For individual contributor sales roles, it is looking at intelligence within their craft a.k.a. have they sold similar products to similar clients and been effective at it.
- Work Ethic: Warren looks at general work ethic. A better way to view this is by looking at energy and urgency. In the hiring process, are they responsive and fast? If not.. they are UNLIKELY to become more urgent and responsive once they are hired.
- Character: Pretty self-explanatory here. People with integrity will do right by you and your clients/customers, which leads to brand equity, positive interactions, longer-term customers, etc. A better way to get a read on this is to ask yourself… Are they more short-term or long-term focused? Do they generally play the long game? We all have short-term goals and numbers and quotas.. however, you want players that achieve those with good long-term strategies. We have all met the classic salesperson who promises the moon to get the sale… only to have it fall apart due to over-promising. No bueno.
I thought the podcast was interesting and they published a short article on it called: “Warren Buffet: The Three Things I Look for in a Person”
If you ever want to chat about sales or marketing recruiting, you know where to find us!
Sincerely, Todd Patrick Dorsey
