3 People You Have to Hire The team you build will keep your company's engine running.
By Taylor Kovar
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Staffing can be a nightmare. For companies big and small, onboarding is an expensive timesuck that's fraught with anxiety over how it will all work out. All that time spent describing the open position and searching for a qualified candidate that fits the mold only leads to more strife.
Fortunately, there's a cheat code.
The latest hiring trends are worth knowing, but they aren't specific to your success or your business. When you get the right blend of personalities on your squad, you might just be able to ditch the job posting sites forever.
1. The creative
This doesn't have to be someone who watercolors on their lunch break or shows up to work in costume, though there's nothing wrong with a little liveliness in the office. More importantly, your creative hire is someone who thinks outside the binary language of your industry.
Good ideas don't push the envelope. Even great ideas can't change the playing field. With every company in your field looking for a competitive edge, it's the new ideas that will set you apart.
Creativity comes in all forms, from grand concepts to little tweaks in processes. With someone on your team who views things through a slightly different lens, you can spur innovation and progress inside your enterprise. You never know when change is needed or what those shifts will be — that's why an extraordinary thinker is a necessity for a successful team.
Related: 14 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
2. The analyst
Casinos across the nation have one thing in common: They all win more than they lose. If they lost more than they won, they wouldn't exist.
How does the house always come out ahead? By relying on a competitive edge created through cold, hard analytics. Meanwhile, the competition — in this case, the gambler — is driven by the thrill of winning free money. In a battle between data and adrenaline, data wins in the long run.
Lofty goals and big dreams might be the launching pad for your business, but at some point you need a person who can look at the numbers and tell you what's really going on. A lot of hard decisions can be boiled down to a 51/49 split, and that razor-thin edge might make all the difference.
An analytical mind can also help provide the framework in which more creative types can work. Knowing your company's spending plan down to the cent will draw a clear line with how much risk you can afford to take.
Some people find numbers and math tedious, if not confounding. Others see the data as an intricate puzzle or an exciting challenge. Having a brain like that on your team works to everyone's benefit.
3. The seller
Sales is an art form that might elude even the most creative member of your team. The mechanics of a good sales strategy go well beyond cold calling. Maybe you were trained in script-based selling, but what your business really needs is someone with a talent for consultative and coordinated partner selling.
Whatever the method, someone in your inner circle has to have the ability to bring customers and clients through your door. Even if you cut your entrepreneurial teeth by shattering monthly records as a junior sales associate, once you run your own business you won't have time for all the outreach and follow-ups.
You don't need the traditional, slick salesman who can sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman wearing white gloves. That approach might fall outside your comfort zone and isn't right for every company. Instead, you want someone who believes in what you're doing and can make other people feel the same way. The ability to simply connect with consumers has as much influence as any other approach. Find a hiree with that skillset, pay them what they're worth and don't ever let them go.
Related: The Lucky 7 Steps to Channel Sales Success
Bases covered
If you start your company with a list of positions and then hire based on position-appropriate resumés, you aren't necessarily creating the staff you need. Experience, while important, is based on someone else's past. You're hiring for your business's future.
A better approach starts with a team that's got balance and purpose. Get that creative consultant with ideas that make you think. Find an analyst who can change all your projection models with the shifting of a decimal. Seek out the salesperson who wants to make the public see the greatness of your operation. When you put ability ahead of responsibilities, you truly set yourself up for success.
