I got a lot of response from a prior post you can find here on the danger of hiring seasoned vets.

As you can imagine, most of that email was from seasoned vets.

So I’m going to stand by my initial post yet deliver some caveats to that:

What Is the Track Record?

1. If a sales veteran has a track record of learning and adapting their skill set to the current reality, that’s beautiful.

In other words, the 55-year-old person who comes to the VP of sales for a job and you look at his LinkedIn profile and it is fully filled out with a video and a well-written bio – and has meaningful endorsements and they have joined groups that will help them grow their skills, awesome! Give him a shot.

Contributing Content To The Cause

2. Secondly, if the seasoned vet has her own blog she contributes to on a frequent basis and has a portfolio of some of her work on it along with links to her Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, then you might have something. Sales vets who seize the power of the new technology are willing to adapt it for her use – get her on the phone. Give her a shot.

Did They Do Research?

3. If you decide to interview a seasoned vet and they come to the interview having explored your website, full of questions about your market and model, and have a vibe that they take care of themselves both physically and emotionally, let ‘er rip!

On the other hand, if they use the standard wisecracks, are disheveled in their appearance and don’t bring paper with them to the interview, or ask no questions about your goals and your visions and your objectives and your problems, end the interview quickly. They’re not changing. They may tell you what you want to hear, but let your instincts guide you.

Once again, I am not against seasoned vets. I am against people who show up who haven’t learned a new thing in the last 10 years – and who expect to be successful in a job that requires all the skills they aren’t good at.

Politically incorrect? Of course it is. But it’s true.