Sales and Sales Management Blog

August 10, 2010

Mark Twain Was Right–Numbers Lie

Filed under: hiring,management,recruiting/hiring,Sales Management,team development — Paul McCord @ 10:54 am
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I’m a numbers guy.  I break everything in sales and management down to numbers.  I know my numbers backwards and forwards, as I do those of my coaching clients.  I firmly believe that if you don’t know your numbers you can’t possibly make sound decisions about how to spend your time, where to find new business, where to invest your marketing dollars; and if you’re a sales leader, who to hire.

Even though I am a firm believer in numbers, I’ve noticed something of a distressing trend over the past couple of years—an emphasis on numbers to the point that intangibles are virtually ignored.  I see more and more books and hear more and more presentations arguing that numbers should determine every decision, that management and sales can be broken down to a numerical formula. 

I believe that is a huge mistake. 

Numbers are extremely important.  They can tell us a great deal about our company, our customers, our market, our product, and our selves.  They can point out strengths and weaknesses.  They can give us direction.  They can reveal great opportunities and help us avoid great pitfalls.

But as helpful as numbers can be, they ignore one critical factor about management and sales—we are selling to and managing human beings, not machines.  Unlike a machine, humans do things they’re not supposed to.  They don’t always act according to the numbers. 

I can think of no better example of numbers lying than the NFL draft.

Almost all football players are human (there are a few that I really do wonder about).  All the players who are considered for the NFL draft have a long history of playing the game—generally from grade school through at least a couple of years of college ball.  That history can span as many as 12 or more years.  That’s a long time, a lot of football games.

Over that span of years each player has developed habits and expectations.  Some have learned how to win; others how to lose.  Some have learned how to work within a team; others how to perform despite the team.  Some have learned their limitations; others have learned they have no limitations.

Almost all of the players who make the grade to be considered by the NFL come from winning teams.  They all are used to winning, but not all know how to win.  They all enjoy the perks of winning, but not all know the sacrifice required to be a winner.  They all expect to win, but not all are willing to pay the price to win.

They all have a set of numbers.

Those numbers become critical when they show up for the NFL Combine.  The combine is where numbers come to the forefront.  There are numbers for everything: height, weight, speed, agility, vertical jump, quickness.  The NFL has managed to quantify everything.  There are the numbers from the physical evaluations and the numbers from the mental and intelligence evaluation.  Everything is evaluated and every evaluation is put into a number.

The Combine has a tremendous influence on whether one gets drafted or not—and if they are drafted, in what round.  The difference is between tens of millions of dollars and zero dollars; between a career as a professional football player and just an ex-college football star.

Every year teams invest huge sums of money drafting players who blew out the numbers at the Combine; players that had the perfect combination of physical and mental scores, who outperformed all of their competition.  These are players who came from winning teams, who were stars in high school and college, who put fantastic numbers up at the Combine.  And who failed miserably in the NFL.  Who never started a game.  Who were out of the league within three or four years. Nevertheless, they are the ones who made tens of millions of dollars because they had good numbers.

Contrast that with the men who were drafted in a low round—or who weren’t drafted at all but were invited to someone’s training camp for a tryout—and ended up in the Hall of Fame.  These are men who came from winning college teams, who were stars in high school and college, who put up average or worse numbers at the Combine.  Indeed, these are the Combine also rans; the ones who made the early round draftees look good.

Every year the numbers lie.  Every year there are a ton of big number guys who bomb and a number of also rans who become NFL stars.

Sound familiar?  Recognize the same thing in your sales team?  If you’re like most sales leaders, you do.

What’s missing in the Combine evaluation of players?  The intangible.  How do you measure a winner?  How do you differentiate the players who play on a winning team from the player who is a winner? 

How do we recognize the intangible in a seller?  Will an assessment do it?  Can we spot it in a resume? 

We can certainly say what it isn’t. 

It isn’t personality or charisma.  We all have hired charismatic salespeople who flopped—and shy people who have become stars. 

Is it a commitment to hard work?  Nope.  We’ve all hired sellers who work hard all the way to the day we have to let them go.

Is it a sharp intellect?  Not at all.  We’ve all hired incredibly intelligent men and women who didn’t make it.

Is it a hunger for success?  I don’t think so.  Again, we’ve all hired people who desired success more than anything; yet failed.

Is it luck?  Again, no.  I know of some unbelievably “lucky” people who failed at every sales job they had.

Is it being at the right place at the right time?  Naw, it isn’t that either, as we’ve all seen two “equal” sellers go in different directions—one skyrockets while the other dies on the vine, both in the same “right place at the right time” market.

So, what is the intangible that takes the least likely to the top and leaves the shoo-in in the ditch?

I don’t know.  I do know I’m not going to find it in the numbers.

I’m still a numbers guy.  I’m still going to boil everything I can down to numbers.  I’m still going to be using numbers to help make decisions.  But I’m not going to take numbers as Gospel because I know they lie, they’re unreliable on their own. 

I’m looking for that intangible.  I know it exists because I see its reflection in too many salespeople.  If you find a way to discover its existence prior to hiring someone, please let me know.

April 16, 2010

Book Review: The Zero-Turnover Sales Force, by Doug McLeod

Filed under: Book Reviews,management,Sales Management,team development — Paul McCord @ 9:36 am
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If you are looking for a purely objective review of The Zero-Turnover Sales Force: How to Maximize Revenue by Keeping Your Sales Team Intact
by Doug McLeod (AMACOM: 2010), this probably isn’t the review for you.  Seldom does one read a book and think “wow, I could have written this” because the author’s train of thought is so close to your own.  Well, Doug McLeod is apparently my long-lost identical twin.

The Zero-Turnover Sales Force doesn’t promise zero-turnover, of course, but it lays out a strategy to radically decrease turnover in the sales force to the point that it may be effectively zero-turnover. 

How does one go from a 20, 30, 40% or more turnover rate to almost none?  And what is turnover costing you? Eliminating turnover isn’t easy, says McLeod, but it can be done IF sales management and the CEO both buy into the appropriate actions that will eliminate the primary reasons salespeople leave.  And with a simple exercise he demonstrates just how much turnover is costing you and taking away from your bottom-line.

McLeod first addresses the underlying question: why salespeople leave.  He argues it isn’t money; it isn’t a lack of advancement opportunity; it isn’t a quest for change.  It’s—well, the way McLeod puts it is “they don’t quit the job, they quit YOU.”  Salespeople quit because management isn’t giving them what they need.  In other words, turnover isn’t salesperson induced, it’s management induced.

Not exactly what most of us managers want to hear.

The issue starts, according to McLeod, during the hiring process.  Management doesn’t probe to discover what the prospective seller is really looking for in a company or a sales position.  McLeod says we have to ask questions and keep asking until we have at least some idea of what the potential employee is looking for—and if we can meet their expectations.  It’s those unfulfilled expectations that ultimately lead to turnover.

Equally necessary and as likely not to happen is probing to find out why our salespeople leave us.  Seldom does a manager ask a seller who resigns why they’re leaving.  The why they leave is just as important as the why they start.

McLeod discusses what he calls “The 12 Assassins of Sales Force Stability” which are:

Weak Recruiting
Straight Commission
Cold Calling
Unfocused Training
Sales Meetings
Fuzzy Goals and Unrealistic Expectations
Inattention to Top Sellers
Hesitation and Impatience with Young Salespeople
Disorganized Ride-Alongs
Unrest in the Trenches
Time as an Enemy
A Website That Doesn’t Sell

I’m sure that you’ll agree with some factors on the list, maybe question others, and adamantly disagree with still others.  However, before taking exception to any of the factors McLeod identifies, I’d encourage you to grab a copy of The Zero-Turnover Sales Force and listen to his arguments because he lays out a case that can be well argued and defended.  Most of us, however, will have experienced for ourselves the deadly impact of many, if not all, of these issues on salespeople.

And McLeod’s solutions?

The solutions to most of the issues are contained within the issue themselves.  Unfocused training demands an analysis of the training the manager and company provide and revamping it to make sure it is both focused on real needs and is consistent with sales process of the company.  Disorganized ride-alongs require the manager carefully plan each ride-along and utilize the time wisely.  Cold calling demands that the company find more effective and productive ways for the sales team to find and connect with quality prospects.

With each issue McLeod identifies the solution—change training from unfocused to focused—and gives specific action steps to take to make sure you’ve not only eliminated the problem but have turned it into a company positive.

You’ll never reach zero-turnover.  But you can radically reduce your turnover by recognizing where the real turnover issue lies—with the management team—and constructively and positively addressing and eliminating the management created issues.  McLeod shows you how to get on track to putting a ton of money back on your bottom-line.

The Zero-Turnover Sales Force: How to Maximize Revenue by Keeping Your Sales Team Intact

July 31, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Establish a Recruiting Program to Bring on Top Sales Talent,” by Paul McCord

Filed under: hiring,recruiting/hiring,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:53 am
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Although an easy way to recruit, employing contract and in-house recruiters is generally a poor way for companies to attract top sales talent.  Furthermore, studies indicate that within 12 months of the hire, 60% of all new hires are considered unsatisfactory (all hires, not just those who were introduced by recruiters).  This doesn’t mean the underperforming employees leave the company—it simply means that position is now filled by an unsatisfactory employee.

Recruiters have an extremely tough job that hinders their ability to recruit the best of the best.  A typical contract recruiter must: 

  • spend hours locating a vacancy to fill
  • negotiate their compensation for filling the position
  • work with the hiring company to understand the stated and implied qualifications for the position
  • possibly post the position on various job boards
  • possibly create and place advertising in various media
  • spend countless hours on the phone searching for someone, anyone with at least the minimum qualifications that meet the position’s requirements who would seriously consider moving companies
  • talk to numerous unqualified, overqualified, under-qualified, or not-interested people he/she has called or who have called them
  • present the candidate or candidates to the hiring company
  • after finding one or more candidates the company may have an interest in, coordinate interviews, follow-ups, offers, and negotiations
  • prepare the new employee for their first day on the job
  • follow up with the company and candidate to make sure both parties are happy
  • and the list goes on

Moreover, usually not a dime of compensation until the job is filled, with the ever present risk of no compensation at all if they cannot find a suitable candidate.  The in-house recruiter’s tasks, though slightly less time consuming, are very similar to an outside recruiters. 

Based on the above, is it any wonder that the recruiter’s primary emphasis is to get someone with at least the minimum qualifications to fill that seat as quickly as possible?  Their livelihood depends on their ability to quickly locate a warm, at least minimally qualified person to meet the hiring company’s needs.  Simply put, top talent isn’t a priority—it is a seldom realized luxury.

Since most recruiters are recruiting for positions they have never personally performed or managed, they must rely on the hiring manager or HR’s stated minimum qualifications exclusively, even though all positions have implied qualifications also.  Many recruiters are unfamiliar with the major players in the industry they are recruiting for, who the top talent for the position is, what expectations a top person in the industry would have of a new position, et cetera.—even if they claim to specialize in that industry.  Many in-house recruiters suffer from the same limitations. 

Of course, there are recruiters who are the exception, and they are worth their weight in gold.

You don’t need a recruiter, you need a recruiting program
Recruiting top talent doesn’t happen overnight and doesn’t come easily—even for the top companies.  Unless you are willing to offer a phenomenal package, recruiting the top sales talent requires building relationships that lead to bringing the individual into your company.  Sometimes, when the employment gods are particularly kind, this process can be almost immediate.  More often, the process requires time, patience and effort.  That is generally where the recruiter—outside and in-house–fail. 

Because of the tremendous pressure on their time, recruiters don’t have the luxury of developing long-term relationships with top candidates.  Most everyone has received the phone call from outside and company recruiters recruiting for a position.  They inquire as to whether you would be interested.  No.  Do you know anyone who might be?  No.  You never hear from that particular recruiter again or if you do, it’s months or years later when the recruiter has another opening and they run across your name again.

Though the common practice, this method of recruiting is terribly inefficient.  The candidates the recruiter generates are the people who are ready to move today, and the likelihood that top prospects are looking to move today is extremely small. 

Companies need a recruiting program in place to capture those top prospects when they are ready to make the move—and who knows when that will be?  And when they are ready to move, will they call?  Without a consistent, effective recruiting program, the answer to the last question is—probably not.  And many companies erroneously believe that their reputation, visibility, or size will be sufficient to attract the top talent they need.  Not true. 

What a recruiting program will do
Implementing a consistent, well defined and executed recruiting program will:

  • put your company in a position to attract top talent when that talent is ripe
  • will place your company at the top of the candidate’s mind when the candidate determines the time is right to make a move
  • and may help the candidate make a positive move toward your company before he/she may otherwise have decided to change companies

A well-constructed recruiting program is a positioning and branding program for prospective employees.  Just as with a company’s or a product’s positioning and branding, a recruiting program creates in the target:

  • an awareness of your company
  • an awareness of your company’s interest in them
  • a positive image of your company as a potential employer
  • and the program moves the candidate to think about the possibility of putting themselves in a better position by making the move to your company (however the candidate would define “better position”).

Over a period of time, you can populate your sales team with the top talent that every company seeks but few can capture.  It requires time, patience, commitment and a well-designed program.

Elements of a recruiting program
A well-constructed recruiting program contains six elements.  There is, of course, considerable detail to each element that must be customized to your company, but all programs must contain:

 

     1.  Hiring Manager buy-in
          A recruiting program depends on each hiring manager playing his or her part.  The success of the program for each team is centered on that hiring manager. 

          That manager knows exactly what they are looking for in a seller.  Consequently, there isn’t anyone more capable to recruit the position.  In any recruiting program the most difficult part is obtaining buy-in to the program from all hiring managers.  Typically, since managers will immediately recognize the initial time element required to establish the program, there will be managers whose participation is less than ideal until they begin to see the results of the program.

      2.   Identification of top talent
         Identifying talent requires serious thought and research.  Does the company want to hire top 5 or 10% producers for every sales position or is the company looking to bring in just one or two top sellers for each branch or region? 

        Once those positions have been identified, everyone, especially the position’s direct manager of course, should be fully aware of the crucial nature of the position, and the position’s importance and the reason it is considered to be of such importance should be in written format—that which is written becomes more real than that which is only verbalized. 

         After identifying the crucial prositions, the identification of the talent becomes the focus.  Both currently known and unknown talent must be identified. Known talent—easy, the company already knows who they are.  Unknown talent requires considerable research and some of the best, most cost effective talent is often not the most obvious.

      3.  Initial contact
           A crucial step in the process is the initial approach to the prospective employee.  Whether a previously known or unknown prospect, there are a number of considerations that must be taken into account prior to the initial contact.  Gathering as much information about the individual as possible and their current position will aid greatly in making initial contact.  Contact can be made through any number of channels—e-mail, the postal service, phone, meeting at an industry function, et cetera.  However, the initial contact will set the tone for further developing the relationship; and for those prospects unfamiliar with the company, the initial contact will often establish their lasting impression of the company—good or bad.

    4.  Developing the relationship
         The program must have a consistent, reliable, and positive follow-up system to stay in contact with and deepen the relationship with the prospect.  Making an initial positive impression with a prospect that makes a move 18 months from now won’t help if he or she doesn’t remember the company because there wasn’t a follow-up program. 

           It is not uncommon for managers to run across prospects they had contacted only once or twice in the past only to find that the prospect has changed companies and had forgotten about the manager’s company after a few months without being contacted again after the initial introduction. 

             To be effective and workable, the follow-up program must be customized for each hiring manager’s style, personality, and work habits.  A single, rigid, dictated follow-up system that is not flexible from manager to manager guarantees failure since every manager functions differently and what may work well for one manager, may not work well for another.  That manager who is forced to work a system he/she is not comfortable with or that cannot be modified to fit their personality will ultimately refuse to participate.  If done correctly, once the initial talent identification and contact has been made, the time commitment to manage that individual’s follow-up program is generally minimal.

     5.  Discover and feed the prospects wants and current dissatisfactions
          Once initial positive contact has been made, the goal is to discover the prospect’s wants–and what the prospect is dissatisfied with in their current position.  By discovering the prospect’s areas of dissatisfaction and prying on those areas—assuming the recruiting company can rectify the issues, while at the same time discovering and feeding the prospect’s needs, which in most instances will not be money but rather working conditions, recognition, status, a few inexpensive perks, or other easily met needs, the hiring manager can gently prod a prospect into moving companies much sooner than the prospect would have moved on their own.

     6.  When the prospect is ready to move
           One never knows when their top prospects might be ready to make a change.  At times the prospect will have little warning themselves.  Everyone knows top people who were squeezed out in a merger, who finally got fed up with whatever situation was at their old employer and decided to finally leave on the spur of the moment, or who made a quick change for any number of other reasons.  More than likely, a hiring manager would not have known the change was coming until after the candidate had made the decision, but with a properly working recruiting program, the hiring manager will often know even before the prospect realizes it that the prospect is about to make a change. 

At times, a prospect the company has developed a relationship with will move specifically because of courting.  Usually, however, other reasons trigger the move—the company just happens to be in the right place at the right time because they made it their goal to do so.  More often than not, once a prospect the company has been building a relationship with decides to move, the hiring and negotiation process moves quickly.  Unlike other hiring arrangements, both parties know one another and have a reasonable idea of what to expect.  This, however, will not eliminate the need for both parties to further evaluate one another.  It simply makes the process go much quicker.  Having developed a broad outline of an offer letter for each position that can be quickly customized for any particular candidate will also expedite the process.  Though the details may be slightly different from one candidate to another, the offers will generally be similar. 

What happens if your company is not ready to hire when the prospect is ready to move?
You still win.  One typical objection from companies considering developing a recruiting program is that they might not be ready or in a position to hire when a prospect is ready to move.  The simple answer is that they have had the opportunity to decide IF they want to pursue the prospect.  It puts you in control of the situation rather than relying on the slim possibility that a top talent will be available when you are ready. 

Developing a recruiting program can, over time, re-create your entire company.  Of course, you won’t be able to replace your recruiter overnight—creating a recruiting program and generating the highest quality candidates who are interested in making the move takes time and commitment.  Nevertheless, in time, not only will you have eliminated the tremendous recruiting costs to attract average or slightly above average talent, you will populate your team with the talent and production that most companies only dream of.  Increased productivity, increased sales, reduced operating and personnel costs, and increased corporate options—all without the tremendous cost and waste associated with outside and in-house recruiters.  All of those saved dollars find their way to where they really belong–to your bottom-line. 

July 30, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Top 10 Steps to Recruit Strong Salespeople,” by Dave Kurlan

Filed under: hiring,recruiting/hiring,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:11 am
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Top 10 Steps to Recruit Strong Salespeople
by Dave Kurlan

If you’re tired of hiring salespeople who take too long to achieve mediocrity and more often fail to achieve anything noteworthy, some best practices may be in order.

The following 10 Steps are the key to developing a process that yields consistency when hiring strong salespeople.  It takes 1-2 days to show clients how to apply these steps to their businesses so please understand that this article simply identifies the steps. 

1) Always Recruit – the worst time to hire a salesperson is when you need one. You’ll be less likely to wait for the right salesperson and more likely to hire the first person who can cover the territory.

2) Ignore the Job Description – provide a job description to the salesperson you just hired, don’t use it to do the hiring.  Instead, identify the challenges your salesperson must be able to overcome. To identify challenges, think about the market upon which your salespeople will call – things like size of company, title of the decision maker, number of competitors, pricing compared to your competitor, average size of your account, length of the sales cycle, etc.  These are crucial for filling your talent pool with the right candidates.

3) The Killer Ad – this should not be a description of the job, company or the opportunity. Instead you should describe the candidate you wish to hire by describing the experiences, from Practice #2 above, in which the candidate has already succeeded.

4) Sourcing – While the big job sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com are proven sources of candidates, you’ll get more of the right candidates if you learn how to use their sites.  The field in which you type the job title should always contain the words that candidates will use to search for available jobs. Make sure “sales” is in that phrase.  You should also consider using salesladder.com, the source of the best sales candidates on the net, as well as Craig’s List, a surprising source of quality candidates.  Here are some more tips:

  • Have patience – you must still wait for the right candidate. Not hiring is always better than making another mistake.
  • The frequency of your reposts – the life of an internet posting is 3 days. You must repost at least weekly.
  • The target cities for your positions – if you’re looking for someone in the Midwest, post it as Chicago this week, Detroit next week, St. Louis the following week, etc.
  • The headline for your ad – It must have ‘sales’ in the title but beyond that, change it each time you repost it so that it doesn’t look like candidates are seeing the same opportunity each week.
  • The industry classification for your opportunity – select sales one week and your actual industry the next.
  • Get referrals from your salespeople, vendors, customers and friends – but make sure these candidates go through the same process as those who apply online.
  • Hire a recruiter to locate candidates – but make them go through the same process too.
  • Make sure your ad describes the candidate’s necessary experiences and not the job, opportunity and company.
  • Make sure there is nothing in your ad that can disinterest a candidate.

5) Automation – use the Rules Wizard in Microsoft Outlook to create automation that will identify incoming resumes, place them in the proper Outlook folder, and reply with an automated message that explains your hiring process and instructs your candidates to take an assessment.

6) Filtering – Most entrepreneurs make a huge mistake when they make decisions as to whether they should include or reject candidates based on their resumes.  Resumes contain very little information that will help you predict whether or not a candidate will succeed in your particular sales position. The best way to filter out the candidates that won’t succeed and identify the pool of candidates that will succeed is to assess them early in the process. The most accurate, sales specific assessment is Objective Management Group’s Express Screen which does the dirty work for you. It predicts, with 95% accuracy, whether the candidate will succeed selling your specific product or service to your decision makers in your market against your competition with your unique challenges. For more on this you can request a copy of my Sales Recruiting White Paper, The Modern Science of Salesperson Selection.

7) Phone Screen – have a very brief, 3-minute, conversation with only those candidates that are deemed hirable by the assessment.  Purpose of the call is to determine whether they have the experience you specified in your posting, and to make sure they sound like someone you would want representing your company.

8) Face to Face Interview – the primary purpose of the interview is to challenge your candidate and watch how they respond. You should poke holes in every claim they make in their resume to make sure they own what they claim.

9) Final Interview – This is where you get to sell the opportunity to the candidates you want to hire.

10) 90 Day On Boarding – a 90 Day, structured orientation where you teach them, train them, educate them, coach them and prepare them for what it takes to succeed in your business. More detailed information on the on the 90 Day Ramp-Up Plan can be found by Clicking here.

 

Dave Kurlan is the best-selling author of Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball.  He is the CEO of Objective Management Group and Kurlan & Associates.  He hosts the weekly Meet the Sales Experts Radio Show and writes the popular business Blog, Understanding the Sales Force.

July 29, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Hiring Top Sales Talent,” by Niall Devitt

Filed under: hiring,recruiting/hiring,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:30 am
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 Hiring Top Sales Talent
by Niall Devitt

When we talk about hiring top salespeople, we should start by reminding ourselves of the old adages:

  • The 80/20 rule, 80% of your sales comes from 20% of your sales staff.
  • Only 5% of salespeople are likely to ever become A Players.

The Challenge

Hiring the right sales talent is without doubt one of the most difficult challenges facing sales departments today. In fact, the track record of a great many businesses is very poor. High staff turnover combined with big recruitment costs, often weight heavily on already underperforming sales functions within organisations.

Get it right and the ROI can be significant, get it wrong and the costs can be just as great. It’s an entirely risky business – which takes me to my first point.

Minimise the Risk

The first objective around hiring top sales talent is always about minimising the risk to the business.

You need to start by asking yourself questions like, how does our track record compare? Do we need help when it comes to hiring? And if so, what type of help do we require?

Help comes in various guises. You can hire a head-hunter to steal from the competition. You can hire a specialist recruiter or you can hire a consultant to advise and oversee the hiring process.

The Job Spec

The second place that many businesses can go wrong is in creating the actual job spec (description).

What requirements will you need this person to have? What qualifications will they require? What experience levels will they need and what type of experience will they need? Will the role require a new business developer or is more about account management? If it’s mixed, what is the mix?

Remember, the role should shout out off the paper to the right candidate.

HR

In many businesses, the HR department creates this description. With respect to HR people, they are often not well positioned to undertake the task.

In such cases, it is of vital importance that a member of the sales department signs off. I have seen job specs created by HR departments which in no way accurately describe the role.

It’s often a very good idea to run this spec past some of the more senior members of the sales team, to see if they feel it adequately describes their responsibilities.

Preparation

The next part of the process starts when you start to receive the CVs. Firstly eliminate those that don’t meet the criteria, and take some time to go through those that do. This is about preparing well for the interview stage.

Highlight points of interest and create questions that will encourage the candidates to prove what’s contained within their CV – these can form your probing questions when interviewing.

Keep an open mind, don’t be too ruthless in your culling at this stage, sometimes people who have little experience of preparing and writing CVs – won’t appear as great on paper as they will in person.

Lead questions

If you have gotten up to here right, the people attending the interviews should have the right basic ingredients to do the role. The challenge now is in deciding who the very best fit for the role.

It’s always a good idea to have a list of lead questions that will you will ask every candidate, and a scoring system – which prioritises necessary characteristics and experiences.

This scoring system should be weighted in favour of the skills that are most relevant.

The first interview

During the interview you will need to candidate to talk you through their sales process and sales returns to date.

How much was new business from new customers and how much was existing business from existing accounts? What level did they target within the organisation? And what was the typical sales cycle length?  Make sure to ask for specific examples of situations and sales to back these up.

Stay away from “what if” questions, these invariably illicit favourable responses but demonstrate very little by way of evidence.

Scoring

After each interview, score each candidate – basing your scores of what has been demonstrated rather than interpretation or rapport.

While of course rapport is important in selling, too many interviewers use it exclusively. We tend to like people who are like ourselves. While this may work for our friendships – it will not be so dependable when it comes to hiring.  

The second interview

When short listing suitable candidates for a second round of interviews, the tendency can be to go for similar people – this is rarely a good idea. It’s better to shortlist candidates that have different rather than the same strengths.

How will they fit in?

The danger here is that the interviewer uses the second interview to just firm up, on their original impression – rather than treating it as an interview in its own right.

I would always advise clients to use the second interview to evaluate the candidate’s suitability in terms of the organisation and the people. How well would this person fit in with the existing team and people? Are they bringing something extra, or are there potential areas where there could to be problems? 

Why do they want to work here?

This interview is also a better place to find out, why they are leaving their current role and what attracts them to your organisation.

Remember, there should always be a synergy in the answers to these two important questions.

Scoring round 2

Before they leave, voice any concerns you may have giving them an opportunity to respond. Again score each candidate immediately after they leave.

The result

You are now in a position to add up the scores, from both interviews and you should be left with a clear winner.

It’s not easy but make sure to learn from your mistakes.

Recruiting the best sales talent is rarely easy. 

It’s about minimizing the risk to the organisation, while trying to find the person who will deliver the most reward. When it comes to hiring salespeople, there are no guarantees and mistakes will be made -no one gets right all the time.

However, it is in not learning from these mistakes, that companies really conspire to make the task much more difficult than it needs to be.

If a salesperson doesn’t work out, be sure to investigate fully, take responsibility and ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated.

Niall Devitt is the founder of Beyond the Boardroom, a leading Irish business development consultancy. Niall’s experience spans both B2B and B2C, where he has delivered training programmes and recruited for the IT, Construction, Medical, Utilities, FMCG and Financial sectors. Niall brings success to companies and individuals by assisting them to maximise potential through identifying, resolving and overcoming performance issues.

 

July 28, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Secrets of a Highly Motivated and Productive Sales Team,” by Dr. Drew Stevens

Filed under: hiring,recruiting/hiring,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:06 am
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Secrets of a Highly Motivated and Productive Sales Team
Drew Stevens PhD

One of the largest challenges of any sales manager is a motivated team. Managers typically inherit employees causing challenges between the different work philosophies. Managers seek alternatives to the morale and productivity challenges only to find little assistance. Research suggests differently especially in present economic tumult. After five years of exhaustive research, we at Stevens Consulting Group provide some methods to these challenges.

It all begins with hiring
Many organizations apply foolish thought to hiring. In fact, research with over 500 sales managers illustrates that over 91% wait until budgets widen before hiring. Hiring is not meant to be a reactive practice but rather proactive. Managers must be concerned with fees and time in lost productivity when someone is terminated. Typical estimates illustrate that once termination occurs 16 weeks or more linger before another employee is hired and it costs the organization four times the previous employee’s salary. Is the downtime and revenue loss worth it?

Best practices of those gaining positive results hire on a proactive basis. Proactively entails constantly being alert. Seek out vendors, competitors, suppliers and even customers.  Managers and employees must always seek out those that complete the organizational enigma.

Look for Talent not bodies
Hire for skill – Talent is innate. Organizations hire for personality and behavior first. Skill is not interchangeable, behavior is. I recall a five star hotel that sought my advice on creating the ultimate VIP experience; two levels of staff that were employed to simply “raise the bar”. After several hours of observation and shopping the customer it was easy to depict that “VIP” staff repaired flaws left by VIP housekeepers. If the hotel hired the right skill then there would be little need to have redundant services.

Organizations hire many selling professionals because they are gregarious or polite. The only consideration is whether they can hunt, farm and close business. Too much emphasis is placed in behavior, this can be altered, and talent is something staff is born with.

Get on board with OnBoarding
Onboarding is the process that includes all paperwork, accommodations, assimilation and acceleration of an individual employee to the work force of an organization. Onboarding enables an employee speed and velocity at the initial outset of the job assignment. The process requires a coordinated organizational effort to guide and mentor new and existing employees to huge gains in productivity. Research illustrates that 69% of organizations with a structured program have a higher success factor of maintaining employees beyond three years.

Onboarding plans must include:

  • A clear sense of purpose describing why orienting the new employee is important for the company and the worker.
  • An assessment of the environment (including any negative aspects of the job)
  • Identification of the ‘critical few objectives’ that the new employee must master quickly if he or she is to succeed.
  • Identification and assignment of a mentor

The process of onboarding creates a more cohesive and blended staff. Based on seven years of field research with over 3500 employees, it is found that those that understand their company, their products/services and the competition, were more productive and happier in the workplace. The results of this issue not only create a more productive work team but also one that is retained beyond three years. Managers that retain their employees longer are more apt to be more productive, have less internal strain and create better team synergy.

Skill Based Workshops for Staff Retention
Of the 120 billion dollars per year invested in human capital development only a small percentage focuses on sales training. It is incomprehensible that every organizations number one asset is selling- yet so little time is allocated. There are three prevalent sales training issues;

1)    Sales Managers typically state a lack of time for training, yet nothing is more imperative than an investment in human capital. A great example was when a sales manager from a Fortune 1000 firm called me to conduct training for his team of 45 but was only willing to invest three hours.

2)    Sales Managers typically hold short-term event based training. Development is a process not an event! Beliefs, habits and values will not alter in seven-hour program. Another manager told me that product training is more prevalent than professional training.

3)    No accountability. A travesty of development is the lack of accountability following a development program.

Selling similar to medical and legal is a profession. It needs to be taken seriously and invested as such. Employees leave organization for not only poor managers but also the belief they are not assets. When managers enable investments back to selling professionals hiring and staff retention are eased.

The Golden Rule – Communicate
Sales Managers and their people must communicate. A recent sample illustrates a decline in sales meetings and one on one communication. Individuals thrive on feedback to understand their relationship with organizational goals. The inability to confront subordinates has seriously undermined productivity in the workplace. Some of the excuses equate to time however, the truthful culprit is distaste for conflict.

Social scientists and sales management experts (such as myself) have studied management theory and performance and the belief is that consistent feedback is necessary for determining an employee’s contribution relative to the required outputs and measurements of the job function. In order to measure effectiveness researchers believe monthly appraisals are a good metric for productivity. These help to:

  1. To encourage high levels of employee motivation and performance
  2. To provide accurate information to be used in managerial decision making

In addition, they are relatively easy to do and require little effort. Feedback and appraisals do not require tiresome paperwork. An informal yet crucial conversation helps to strengthen wonderful points while limiting the flaws. Staff always will do better when they are offered kudos.

Finally…it’s all about you!
Employee turnover costs organizations billions of dollars in lost revenues and operational dollars. Research from just a few years ago reveals the tremendous impact sales managers have on their employee’s level of commitment. It is imperative to note that individuals do not leave companies – they leave poor managers.

Poor management-employee relationships contribute to negative morale. As recent as 2006 the Gallup Organization estimated there were 32 million actively disengaged employees costing the American economy up to $350 billion per year in lost productivity. Stop the bleeding by remaining close and engage your employees with conversation, feedback and relationship. Collaboration begins when manager acknowledge and have knowledge of their staff.

Much is dependent on the desire to change; methods chosen and consistent follow through. However, if you do nothing, you get nothing- staff and morale might decease. Take the time, seek remedies, and keep morale high. Doing so, lowers attrition, improves productivity, increases profitability and most importantly- reduces stress.

 

© 2009. Drew J. Stevens Ph.D. All rights reserved.

 
Drew Stevens PhD is a leading authority on Sales and Sales Leadership. He is he bestselling author of Split Second Selling and the forthcoming Ultimate Business Bible – Success Strategies for Business. He entertains audiences worldwide with his engaging and interactive workshops and seminars. In addition, Dr. Drew is the author or Sales Fitness the Top Ten Featured Blog and Podcast. Download the podcast now, available only on iTunes, and visit the blog at Sales Gravy.com  Get the crucial guidance you need to thrive during this economic slump with Drew’s new released audio program “Thriving During Turbulent Times only available on www.salesgravy.com . Dr. Drew delivers solutions and strategies to navigate though difficult economic terrain.

July 27, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Beware of Hiring Your Competitor’s Sales People,” by Lee Salz

Filed under: hiring,recruiting/hiring,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 4:12 am
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Beware of Hiring Your Competitor’s Sales People
By Lee B. Salz

Life would be grand if we could sprinkle a few seeds in the ground, fertilize, add water…and a great sales person would sprout. This is truly a pipedream, but one often pursued by small business owners and sales management executives in their quest to find great sales talent. Rather than grow their own, they attempt to steal the crops from their competitors. Why not, their competitor is much better at growing a sales organization than they are. They will grab some magic from their competitor’s land and they too can enjoy great success.

When did the competition begin building a better sales organization than your company? Before you harvest their crop, consider these five myths when hiring your competitor’s sales people.

“Hiring from the competitor means the sales person will hit the ground running with no training.” Some of the attraction to the competitors’ sales people is sheer laziness. Hire a sales person from the competitor today…instant revenue tomorrow. No need to train them, they already know everything. Needless to say, this is flawed thinking. Sales people always need training and development regardless of who their former employer was.

That said, every once in a while, lightning will strike and you will hire a rainmaker. More often than not, this approach is a recipe for a making a bad hire. A thought…What sales people do you really think are available from the competition? Rarely is it the top performers. It’s the bottom 20% that, truth be told, the company is glad to see leave.

“Our industry is so complex that we must hire a sales person from within it.” How can this be true? No one ever came out of the womb mastering your industry…not even you. You were taught it and so was everyone else. If you truly feel that industry experience is the top requirement, be prepared for another major challenge…scalability. There are only so many people in your industry and very few that you will consider hiring. At some point, your talent pool will run dry.

Sales people need to have a certain level of knowledge to effectively sell in an industry. Determine what they need to know to be effective and develop training tools to quickly get them up to speed. Identify resources in your company that can help them with their questions. Test their knowledge assimilation along the way to make sure they are getting it.

“They’re going to bring a book of business with them.” Before you buy that argument, consider these three points. First, despite what they tell you, it is extremely difficult to move clients. The pain of change is not one that is easily resolved with clients. It is rare to find a sales person with that strong of an influence to overcome that issue.

Second, the sales person doesn’t own those clients, their employer does. While non-competes don’t usually hold up in court, client list protection does. And, you can be at risk in the mess. Do you really need that headache?

Third, don’t think for a minute that the sales person you hire today will one day retire with your firm. They will leave your employ some day. Imagine your sales person attempting to take your clients with them when they go. It doesn’t feel overly ethical, does it? And, it’s a flawed reason to hire a sales person.

“We’re a little firm and we could really use a sales person that comes from one of our large competitors.” This statement is true if, and only if, your company and the large competitor are identical twins. A synergistic match between your company and the candidate is needed to put together a long-lasting sales marriage. There are a number of nuances that affect this synergy.

The flaw with this statement is that it assumes a complete sales culture match. Every sales organization is different, even within the same industry. The large competitor may have a ton of sales support for prospecting and presentations, while in your company the entire burden is on the sales person. The sales person at the competitor may enjoy great name recognition in the marketplace while you do not. Thus, a different skill set is needed to get in the door with prospects. The list goes on and on. The key is develop a profile of your ideal sales candidate with the required and desired attributes and interview accordingly.

“Since they have been in the industry, they are passionate about it and passion sells.” Absolutely true! Passion sells, but it’s an incorrect assumption that these sales people arrive with passion. Sales people who bounce from company to company in an industry become “vanilla.”

Years ago, I had a sales person on my team who had sold for three of our competitors prior to joining our company. I participated in a ride-along sales call with her and the meeting was interesting to say the least. She could have had any of her former employer’s business cards in her hand, or ours for that matter, and everything she said was accurate. There was no passion. It was all vanilla information that failed to arouse any excitement in the prospect.

Sales hiring is daunting for companies of all sizes. The key is to have a profile of your ideal sales candidate and interview the prospects against it. This will help you find the right sales talent for your team whether they worked for your competitor or not. Need help interviewing sales candidates? Send me an email for my 28 favorite interview questions for sales candidates.

 

Lee B. Salz is a sales management guru who helps companies identify and hire the right sales people, on-board them effectively and efficiently, and align their sales activity with the objectives of the business using his sales architecture® methodology. He is the President of Sales Architects, the C.E.O. of Business Expert Webinars and author of the award-winning, widely-acclaimed book “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager.” Lee is also a columnist for Sales and Marketing Management Magazine and SalesforceXP Magazine. He is a passionate, dynamic speaker and a business consultant. Lee can be reached at lsalz@SalesArchitecture.com or 763.416.4321.

February 27, 2008

Guest Article: “5 Keys to Hiring the Right Sales Manager,” by Lee Salz

Filed under: sales,Sales Management,selling,Uncategorized — Paul McCord @ 6:52 am
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5 Keys to Hiring the Right Sales Manager
by: Lee B. Salz

There are few decisions more critical for a company than the hiring of the leadership of their sales organization. Yet, few know how to do it well. Many err and “promote” their best seller to a sales management position. Why this is called a promotion is beyond me. The job of the sales manager is vastly different than that of a sales person, so why is this considered employment elevation? Often times, sales managers earn less than the top sales people. Promotion?

Some sales people make the transition successfully, but many struggle with the change. Sometimes, it is a mismatch of the person to the role. However, more frequently, the struggle is caused by the lack of recognition by the company that this is not a promotion, but rather a move into a completely new job. How do you handle an employee in a new job? You train, mentor, and monitor their performance! Look, most people don’t come out of the womb with the skills required to be an effective manager. Thus, it is a key responsibility of the company to recognize that when moving their top sales person into that role they need to own the development of that individual. A congratulatory handshake and smile just won’t get it done.

Many companies look for their sales management candidates from outside their organization. This approach also has its challenges. Whether you promote from within or hire from outside, consider these five points to make sure you find the right person for the role.

Selling versus Managing. If you consider the broad spectrum of responsibilities from selling business directly to managing a team, what percentage of the time do you expect this person to be focused on personal selling versus managing? As mentioned above, the skill set required for those two responsibilities is vastly different. It is also difficult to find professionals that have equal strength in both skill sets. Often times, there will be a trade-off. If there is a sacrifice to be made, it makes the best sense to select someone who has their primary strength in the more predominant part of the responsibility.

If the decision is made that the position has equal responsibility for selling and managing or the dominant responsibility is selling, it may make sense for an internal hire. This allows the company to develop a new manager. However, the plan falls down if the company is not committed to a development plan.
 
Creating versus Executing. Another consideration is what your expectations of the sales manager are relative to developing the company’s sales architecture® (the framework of the sales organization). In some companies, there is a plan already in place and the job of the sales manager is to ensure the plan is executed as written. In essence, the job is to motivate the troops and coach them to make sure revenue targets are achieved. This is usually the case for mid-level sales managers.

In other situations, the primary job is to establish the overall direction of the sales organization, formulate the compensation plan that supports that direction, and execute the plan. Needless to say, this is a very different profile than the sales manager described above.
 
Title versus Responsibility. Check any job board and you will find a plethora of titles referring to sales management. However, there is not a direct correlation between title and responsibilities. This can create a disconnect with the new manager and with clients if those two are not synchronized. If you are going to give someone the title of “Vice President,” there is an inherent expectation that this is a high-responsibility, high-authority position. When clients hear that title, they believe that this person is a senior-level person in the company and can make decisions. Thus, this can create client frustration if the responsibility and authority are not consistent with the title.

At the other end of the spectrum, calling this person a “sales manager” creates a more junior-level perception. There is nothing wrong with the term, but it is important that you recognize the created perception. Again, this can cause issues with both the person in the role and clients if the responsibilities don’t match the title. Some very good sales management candidates will elect not to apply to your company because they believe it is a junior-level role.
 
Interviewing. Probably the toughest role for which to interview is the sales manager. For one, they are experienced in interviewing. They know the desired answers. They know the sales lingo and buzz words. How do you get past the fluff and get your real answers? One way is to develop a list of benchmark questions that candidates are asked. This allows for comparison of answers among the candidate pool. (Send me an email and I will send you my favorite 20 questions.) It is important that the questions not follow a sequence so that the candidate cannot build off their prior answers. Be sure to document the responses to each so you can review them later. You will be amazed by what comes out of this step of the process.

Another important consideration when interviewing these candidates is with whom they will need to have a healthy business relationship to be successful in their role. For example, there is an inherent strife between sales and operations. However, the company will fail if the leaders of those two areas are not able to work together in a productive manner. Consider the various department leaders with whom this person will interact and engage them in the process. This also helps the new manager assimilate into the organization once they are onboard.
 
The Ultimate Screening Tool. The most effective tool that I have found in screening sales management candidates is the request for the submission of a written business plan. When the candidate has satisfactorily completed all of the other steps of the pre-offer process, the request is made for a one-page business plan that shows how they would approach the job. I mention the one-page scope three times in the conversation so my expectations are clear. The candidate is asked by when they can submit the document. It is important that the submission date be asked of the candidate, not the other way around as you will see in a moment.

The benefits of this step are numerous. For one, it shows if the candidate can communicate in written form. Writing is a lost art in business, but a critical one for someone in a leadership role.

Another benefit is that it shows if the candidate understands what the role entails. A number of hours have been spent with the candidate by this point. If they are near the finish line, they should have a clear vision of the expectations.

Another is to see if there is a synergy in the approach to the role. It is best to see before the marriage is performed if their approach is aligned with the leadership’s vision.

Still another is the ability to see if this person can meet a self-imposed deadline. I asked when he could have the plan to me. He provided me with a date and time. If it is late, the candidate is no longer considered for employment. End of story.

Finally, in this role, I am the client. I’ve asked for a one-page plan, not an epic. Do they follow directions? Or do they ignore what the client desires and do whatever they want. While I don’t eliminate candidates solely for this, I refer to this in a follow-up session with the candidate.

One final point that is critical when hiring is to background screen. Resume fraud is at an all-time high! Candidates lie about employment history, salary history, and their education experience, not to mention criminal history. Find a reputable firm to do this work for you.

Finding the right person for your sales management role is difficult. It is also expensive. These five keys will help mitigate the risk and create a happy, healthy sales marriage between you and your new employee.
 

Lee B. Salz is President of Sales Dodo, LLC and author of “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager.” He specializes in helping companies and their sales organizations adapt and thrive in the ever-changing world of business. Lee is available for keynote speaking, business consulting, and sales training. He can be reached via email at lsalz@salesdodo.com, his website at www.salesdodo.com

Paul McCord of Sales and Sales Management Blog can be reached at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com

December 31, 2007

Recommended Reading: TKO Management; TKO Selling; and TKO Hiring by Dave Anderson

Filed under: Book Recommendations,recruiting/hiring,Sales Management,Sales Resources — Paul McCord @ 8:32 am
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Dave Anderson has just released a series of 3 great little books:

TKO Management: Ten Knock Out Strategies for Becoming the Manager Your People Deserve

TKO Sales!:  Ten Knock Out Strategies for Selling More of Anything

TKO Hiring!:  Ten Knock Out Strategies for Recruiting, Interviewing, and Hiring Great People

I was privileged to be one of the people Dave asked to read and evaluate his manuscripts before production and I was amazed at how much real world, actionable information he packed into each one of these small volumes.

Although each book is small (about 150 pages), they each pack a punch.  Dave doesn’t waste any time nor space getting to the meat of each subject.  Each chapter has real world examples of the problem the chapter addresses and then moves on to present quick, effective, workable solutions.  Although the solutions are easy to apply, they aren’t fluff.  They are tried and proven solutions to some vexing sales, management and hiring issues.

Each chapter ends with a series of questions to help guide you through the application process—and to make you feel guilty if you haven’t applied the solution. 

It’s hard not to apply Dave’s wisdom because he makes it so easy to do with step-by-step directions. 

The old adage that good things come in small packages isn’t always true, but this is certainly one instance where it is.  If you’re looking for a guide to help you manage better, hire better people, or sell more, pick up a copy of the appropriate TKO book. 

You can find the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million or any fine bookseller.

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