Finding and keeping experienced or well-trained employees is a challenge as the economy gradually improves, and it is not uncommon to hear business owners and senior executives complain there just aren’t enough “major league players” in the sales job market. The difficulty is all the really great salespeople are taken care of by their companies and are doing well.
There are business owners who believe so strongly in their own business that they think the best salespeople in the market are willing to drop their current gig and run off into the sunset with them. That just isn’t going to happen. So what happens next? They settle for sales candidates who show a modicum of promise and who they think will be teachable. The result can be a revolving door of failures. These companies never seem to maintain a motivated, high performing sales team.
There is a science, an art and a psychology to recruiting and keeping great salespeople. The science and psychology come in using assessment tests and designing the right interview questions. The art is in the creative ways you make the position and your firm attractive. Creating strong, results-based incentives combine the science, art and psychology of hiring and keeping great salespeople.
Asking the Right Questions
There is a common frustration among business owners concerning the productivity of their salespeople. After hiring people they thought were right for the position, they become disappointed in the actual sales results after months or even years on the job. The person who seemed brilliant in the interview just isn’t the same one who shows up to work day after day.
There are several key questions a business owner or sales manager must ask to determine whether a sales candidate will ultimately succeed:
• Will this candidate be diligent in prospecting?
• Will they overcome objections or lower the price?
• Will his/her pipeline be inflated or real?
• What is the real cost of hiring the wrong person?
Finding the answers to these questions in the hiring process can come from interview questions, by looking at past results, by using assessment tools or even by role playing sales scenarios during the interview. Thorough preparation of exactly which questions to ask, as determined by the unique position, is essential before beginning the search.
A competency assessment can help to screen out people who may interview well, but will prove to be a poor choice for a professional sales position. It can also identify candidates most likely to be top performers. This can significantly reduce the time and expense of recruiting, advertising, reviewing resumes and interviewing.
Finding the Right Person
It takes a certain type of person to succeed in sales, and here is a good rule of thumb: “Hire what you cannot train.” If you find that you hired the wrong type of person for a sales position, there’s usually no fixing it. All the training in the world won’t correct a lack of values, culture and personality traits that make for an effective salesperson. Starting off with sales candidates who are the right fit for the position is a priority of the highest order.
It’s easy to fall in love with a great interviewing sales candidate who may indeed be a fine individual. In other words, the business owner may immediately hit it off or strike an emotional connection with a potential recruit, but here’s where a fair and objective process needs to come in. One objective method for determining the success potential of sales candidates has an easy to remember acronym, S-E-A-R-C-H:
Skills – Communication, rapport building, technical, computer/CRM, prospecting, listening
Experience – Resume, education, work history, leadership, travel
Attitude – Positive, high energy, takes responsibility, action oriented, friendly.
Results – Specific, finishes tasks, career progress, awards, top 10 percent
Cognitive abilities – IQ, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), creative, judgment, common sense
Habits – Prospecting, organized, punctual, self-discipline.
Again, finding out whether the candidate can perform well regarding the S-E-A-R-C-H criteria can come from interview questions such as asking for examples of previous experiences and results and by using assessment tools and role playing. Applying S-E-A-R-C-H to design the right interview questions will help you verify your candidates’ real skill sets and validate your hiring choices when used properly.
Inspect What You Expect
As a business owner or sales manager, you need to “inspect what you expect” from your salespeople. Do this early, starting with the screening phase and throughout the interview process. Providing ongoing training for your team and holding them accountable helps keep them professionally educated, motivated and on track.
Let’s take a closer look at the notion of “inspect what you expect” and holding sales candidates accountable. Every manager knows that hitting sales numbers is the ultimate measure of sales success, but success is the result of much effort prior to the end result. Top performing companies know their sales key performance indicators or metrics such as the number of calls made per day, the number of appointments completed, proposals sent or referrals received.
Someone who has always been given leads to follow up will likely struggle if they need to make 75 outbound cold calls in a new position. Likewise, someone who has been closing large enterprise deals may have trouble suddenly selling smaller, more transactional business. The style of management and the level of daily involvement in tracking activities and goals varies tremendously from one company to the next, so finding candidates who can handle the level of supervision (or lack thereof) can be important to insure long-term success.
As difficult as it may be to find qualified sales candidates, they are certainly out there. Successful business executives take the time and go through the processes described when building their salesforces. In NH’s competitive job market, this is what it takes to lead the field with sales teams that work.
Kevin Hallenbeck is the principal of Sandler Training in Manchester, working with salespeople and their organizations to increase sales effectiveness. For more information, visit www.bestsalespeople.com or call 603-232-1520.
Current Issue - May 2024