[russell]

A salesman once told me, "Any salesman, no matter how bad, can sell himself to an engineer." You really need someone you trust to evaluate the candidates. Find successful entrepreneurs in your area and have their VP of sales help. Exercise your network. Enlist your SO, neighbors. VC's might help. I'm not kidding. An ad on Craigslist will probably attract some slick scum.

More advice from the salesman. Hire a salesman driving a Mercedes. The payments will keep him motivated. I once hired a salesman driving a beater and got performance commensurate with his car.

We are supposed to be gender neutral in this world, but I think that women beat us males in people skills, and sales is very much people skills. If nothing else, run your candidate by a sharp woman.

EDIT: When I wrote this I was thinking of direct sales, which is hugely expensive. I strongly recommend against it. Been there. Done that. I found telemarketing with skilled salespeople to be much more cost effective. And I really mean skilled, well trained, and well paid. Serve yourself is the most cost effective of all.

Disclaimer: I have run sales, but I dont pretend that I was any good at it.

[joe_bleau]

I've seen more than a few salesmen that did their best work selling themselves into the job, but never live up to that initial impression. I now realize that I can't spot the fakers.

Agree on women in technical sales, as long as they're competent. Among the vendors that call on me, some of the best use women for outside sales. OTOH, the saleswomen that don't know the tech/product/business are really frustrating, more so than the clueless salesmen. (Not sure why--maybe the ones I've run across come off as especially whiny or needy?)