I have. I failed at it every time when I hired a person specifically for sales. However, when I hired someone for another position and migrated that person into a sales position, we found mutual success.

Jim Berkowitz’s CRM blog cites an article from Selling Power. His post is a good intro to the lengthier article and excellent for those of you desiring to get the Cliff Notes of a blog post.

http://www.crmmastery.com/weblog/2006/06/13.html#a573