As a retail manager, would you ever hire someone you wouldn’t want to have anything to do with socially? If your answer is “no,” your sales team may be lacking in killer instincts. Cultivating a high-performing sales team starts with hiring—and many retail experts say likability ranks too high on the hierarchy of qualities that make up a superstar sales associate. Assembling a team for reasons other than high performance—including previous experience and general amiability—is a common mistake in retailing, says Peter Smith, author of the hiring how-to book Hiring Squirrels: 12 Essential Interview Questions to Uncover Great Retail Sales Talent. “And the idea that a manager can flip a switch and turn that team into a high-performing unit is simply not realistic,” he says. “The interview process needs to be one of the first things to change if you want to develop