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Sales Recruiting: How to Hire More Top Sales Performers - Part 2
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Another key reason why companies suffer from 80/20 performance is their processes for hiring, training and managing salespeople rely almost entirely upon SUBJECTIVE information. Think about it:
* What are resumes? They are an individual's subjective portrayal of their capabilities and experiences.
* What occurs during an interview? Interviewees attempt to package their responses to questions in a manner that will make the best impression. Meanwhile, interviewers are forming personal opinions about candidates' qualifications for the position.
I'm not suggesting that subjective information is useless. Subjective information is a valid and valuable component of any "people decision". However, if decisions based solely upon subjective information produce an undesirable result 80 percent of the time, doesn't it make sense to consider making a change?
One way to introduce OBJECTIVE information into sales recruiting and management is through specialized sales assessment tests. I'm not referring to personality or behavioral tests like Myers-Briggs or DISC. Those types of tools are useful for learning how to communicate more effectively with someone. However, I have not found them to be useful for predicting whether someone will succeed in sales.
The specialized sales assessment tests that I'm referring to identify an individual's strengths or weaknesses in the following areas:
* How rapidly does the individual learn new information? This talent is of particular importance if your company has a broad portfolio of products and services and you want your salespeople to sell the entire portfolio.
* How precisely and effectively does the individual communicate, both verbally and in writing? If your salespeople author a lot of proposals and/or e-mails, the quality of their writing will definitely impact their sales performance!
* How strong is the individual's talent for asking insightful questions, picking out important pieces of information from the answers, and using this information to construct additional questions? This talent is critical for effective sales opportunity qualification.
* How strong is the individual's talent for learning how to manage effective return on investment (ROI) conversations with prospects and customers? This talent is critical for increasing close rates by creating a context for price discussions.
* How energetic is the individual? How easy will it be for them to consistently maintain the level of productive activity required to achieve their sales targets?
* How effective is the individual at convincing prospects and customers to "get off the dime" and take action?
* How sociable is the individual? Do they enjoy interacting with others? Do they build rapport with strangers quickly?
* Can the individual successfully direct his or her own activities, or does the individual require frequent input and direction from a sales manager to stay on track?
* How will the individual respond when things don't go their way? Will they start to whine and complain, or will they be able to "shake it off" and maintain a consistent level of productivity?
* How strong is the individual's desire to be liked? Will they be able to maintain a "win-win" focus, or will they give away the store?
* How competitive is the individual? How confident are they in their ability to compete successfully?
* How emotionally tough is the individual? How do they respond to rejection?
* How dogged and determined is the individual in pursuing opportunities and overcoming roadblocks that arise during the sales process?
* Will the individual follow through on their commitments?
* How success oriented and outcome focused is the individual? Are they able to stay focused on the desired end result, or do they let themselves get bogged down in details along the way?
* Does the individual actually enjoy the activities involved in selling? If they don't, chances are they won't perform very well for very long.
Specialized sales assessment tests can also help existing salespeople that are struggling
How? First, they can be used to determine whether these individuals should be in sales. If an individual doesn't have the talents required for success in your company's sales job, there may be other roles in your organization where their talents and interests can be applied to mutual benefit. If there aren't any such positions available, the kindest thing you can do is let them go. Why? Because it is NO fun to struggle in a job that is a poor fit!
Second, specialized sales assessment tests can help identify each salesperson's unique training needs. Here is an example:
Two salespeople, Beth and Bill, work for the same company. Beth is weak in Sales Drive, which makes her reluctant to ask for orders. Bill is weak in Emotional Toughness, which makes him sensitive to rejection and limits his prospecting effectiveness. If Beth and Bill go through the same sales skills training course, how much improvement in sales performance should their company expect to see?
The answer is little or none. Why? Because Beth and Bill have completely different training needs that will NOT be addressed by basic sales skills training.
Beth would benefit the most from attending an assertiveness training class. She also needs coaching to help her recognize that failing to ask for orders denies her customers valuable solutions to costly business problems.
Bill needs to learn to not take rejection personally. He could also benefit from training that teaches positive thinking and other motivational techniques.
Unfortunately, unless each salesperson's unique training needs are identified, and targeted training is supplied to address those specific needs, there isn't much reason to expect the individual's sales performance to improve.
Conclusion
Many "80/20" performance disparities result from an over-reliance on subjective information when making salesperson hiring and management decisions. The proposed solution is to add objective information (gathered via specialized sales assessment tests) to "people decision" processes. This one change can help companies increase the proportion of top performers on their sales teams and improve the performance of existing sales team members.
©2005-2008 Alan Rigg
About the Author
Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Sales Team Performance: A Step-By-Step Guide to Building and Managing Top-Performing Sales Teams, and the companion book, How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: A Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving Top Sales Performance. His company, MySalesTest.com, provides specialized sales assessment tests that help business owners, executives, and managers avoid hiring mistakes and consistently hire more top sales performers. For more information and a FREE special report that will increase the effectiveness of your sales recruiting efforts, visit http://www.mysalestest.com.
