One reason your gut is often wrong is because we tend to hire people that are ”likeable.”    And people buy from people they like, right?

Wrong!  It takes more than “likability” to be effective in sales.

Safari Solutions recommends the SalesScore Evaluation method which is a two-step approach to hiring sales pros.  First, determine if a candidate “can” sell by utilizing assessments.  Assessments provide objective data, which is a more reliable predictor than “going with your gut.”  Then determine if they “will” sell through a comprehensive interview evaluation.

Don’t you want to know before you hire a sales rep if they “can” and “will” sell?  The cost of a bad sales hire (compensation, training, and lost opportunity costs) far exceeds the cost of doing your due diligence upfront.

Businesses tend to retract during recessions. Then once the recovery begins, they expand. Unfortunately, many businesses fail to expand soon enough and thus are unable to take advantage of the upswing to its fullest potential.

Companies that wait too long FAIL on two counts:

1) More progressive companies (Leaders) have already cherry picked top talent. So, if you are following the pack, the cost to hire will increase. Not only will you pay higher salaries, you will also spend more in recruiting costs to find top talent.

2) The length of time it takes to hire successfully will also increase for companies that delay hiring. This could jeopardize your companies ability to have the right people in place when business starts to roll in the door again.

As we continue our economic recovery, the greatest risk you may have is missing out on potential sales opportunities. Not having enough bandwidth to close sales leads is one possible scenario that could prove quite painful. Another scenario is not having adequate support to deliver your goods/services.

Missing out on sales opportunities and tarnishing your customer service reputation are two areas that can be easily controlled with progressive planning.

Invest and expand your team before your competition out foxes you. If you are too cautious and wait until you see everyone else hiring, you are too late.

Be a Pack Leader, not a Follower!

Don’t mistake “management” with “leadership.”   Management skills can be taught.  Leadership comes from within. 

Leadership is a gift that comes naturally if one has a passion for what they are doing.   Unfortunately, even if you love what you do, you may not be demonstrating leadership.  Have ever asked yourself, “why can’t my team do what I ask them to do?” Or, “why do I have to have all the answers?  If so, then perhaps your “leadership” is not coming through.

Since I’m in the hiring business, I have to ask, “how does leadership affect hiring in your company?”

In my eleven years of helping business owners hire employees, I have found that most entrepreneurs want to hire people who can hit the road running without providing any training or mentoring.  That doesn’t sound like “leadership” to me.  And, what impression does that give a prospective new employee?  True leaders will invest in top talent.  And top talent will only work with true leaders.  

Reaching a level of true leadership is challenging.   Not many achieve it.

If you feel like your leadership needs a positive lift, I’d highly recommend that you read the book, The Radical Leap, by Farber.  It provides an interesting perspective on leadership that might help you get out of a “management” mode and into a “leadership” mode that clearly demonstrates your passion for your business to those who work for you.

Back in the day without the Internet and Social Media, companies often hired employees from their network. Friends, families and other people that you trusted were the lucky hired candidates! Yet, even in the dark ages, these lucky candidates were not always the “best” candidates. They were just the most accessible.

Today, business owners and hiring managers are turning to Social Media to expand their network. We are now connected to more people. But just like the old days, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the people in your social media network are the best candidates.

The only way you know if you are hiring the best candidate for your company is to:
1) Define the role clearly.
2) Source candidates based on this criteria.
3) Conduct your due diligence, even if you know them well.
4) Determine if the candidate “can” and “will” do the job.

Social media tools are just that . . . a tool. Use them to expand your sourcing strategy. But, don’t think a candidate is the best candidate just because he/she knows was easy to find and knows 200 of your colleagues on LinkedIn or Facebook.

Have you ever heard the following?

My sales reps can’t sell.  They don’t prospect for new business. They can’t close.  They don’t seem motivated to earn more money. 

When I hear these comments from business owners, I ask 3 simple questions. 

1) Do you have the right sales people?

2) Do you provide the right sales training?

3) Do you have the right sales management?

It takes all three components synergistically working together to have a successful sales process. This 3 legged sales approach is right people, right training, and right management. Just like a 3 legged stool, one weak leg will create wobbly results.

At the core of this 3 legged sales approach is hiring the right people. Hire the right people, then strengthen sales training and management for sales success.

Wrong!  It takes more than “likability” to be effective in sales.   When evaluating sales candidates, one quick and effective way to evaluate successful traits and competencies without being biased by likability is through assessments.  Assessments give objective data, which is a more reliable predictor than “going with your gut.”  Utilize assessments to evaluate the following competencies to gauge someone’s likelihood of sales success.

• Ambition & Drive
• Problem Solving
• Process Orientation
• Relationship Effectiveness
• Control & Close

Safari Solutions recommends and utilizes the Devine Inventory Assessment to evaluate sales candidates.  This assessment provides a quantitative score for each of the above competencies that are essential to success for sales professionals. 

Trusting your gut is not a strategy for hiring sales professionals, unless you want to waste valuable time, money and resources on people who can not sell.  Why wait 6 months to know if a person can or can not close a deal?  Wouldn’t you rather know before you hire the person?

You’ve probably heard the mantra, “Hire for Attitude, Train for Skills.” Of course, if it was that simple, it would be easy for business owners to hire employees.  What this mantra is really prescribing is that soft skills are absolutely essential.

Warren Buffet identifies 3 key criteria for success:

1) Intelligence (Critical thinking skills & Emotional intelligence)

2) High Energy (Initiative, Attitude)

3) High Integrity (Work Ethics)

Intelligence is more than just being book smart.  In my opinion, one of the most important success criteria is “critical thinking skills.”  The second is “communication skills.”

There is actually a trend within corporate America to hire more Liberal Arts majors and less MBAs.  Why?  Because liberal arts schools teach their students to think.

Communication skills are also very important.  This includes verbal, written, and even more important, the ability to understand other people’s behavior, motivators and communications styles.

If you can “think” and ”communicate” effectively . . . you are extremely valuable to your employer.   Add a great outlook on life (attitude) and you can essentially write your own ticket in this world!

Jack Welch says, “. . . hiring people is brutally hard.  New managers are lucky to get it right half the time. And even executives with decades of experience will tell you that they make the right calls 75% of the time at best.”

Are you satisfied with 50/50 odds, similar to flipping a coin?  What steps do you take to improve your odds that your next sales person is above average?  What would you need to do to reach beyond ”average?”  Are you satisfied with “average” or do you really want a sales superstar!

Four simple steps to hire technology sales talent:

1)  Systematize your sourcing strategy.  Move towards a ”proactive” solution rather than a “reactive” solution.

2)  Define success factors.  Be razor sharp on what you want your sales person to do and set clear benchmark goals.

3)  Assess sales candidates.  Use an assessment that identifies if the candidate is “capable” of doing the job.  The assessment should not only identify behavioral style, but also equates these behaviors to relevant competencies to the sales role.  (Recommendation: Devine Inventory.)

4) Evaluate sales candidates.  Use a well-defined behavioral interview process that clearly identifies the candidates “willingness” to do the job based on the job parameters.

Making a bad sales hire is the technology world, can be a costly mistake.  Wouldn’t you rather know before you hire a technology sales professional that they can or can not sell, rather than 6 months later when your time, money and energy have been depleted?

When hiring a sales professional in the technology arena, there are only two essential criteria for evaluating a sales candidate.

1) Can they sell?

AND

2) Will they sell?

I suggest the following strategies to get the answers you need to hire IT sales talent.

First, use a proven sales assessment tool to evaluate a candidate’s natural behavioral style and match the results to the competencies necessary for sales success in your industry and your sales culture. If a candidate’s profile does not match, do not hire. They probably can’t or won’t change. If the risk is high, walk away.

Next, evaluate their willingness to sell through a comprehensive behavioral based interview process. Sales people sell, and that is exactly what they are doing in an interview. They are selling themselves. Without expertise to dig deep below the surface answers provided by many sales candidates, you will be fooled most of the time.

Smooth talkers do not always equate into great sales people. If you are sensing a smoke screen, move on to other candidates, no matter how “likeable” he or she may be.