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Hiring Super Sales People and Sales Managers

Hiring successful sales people and sales managers requires a scientific process, not a resume and interview ritual.  You’ve probably been fooled many times from a great impression at the interview, and then the person didn’t cut it.  S/he either quit, got fired or worse yet, s/he is still with you under producing.  Well these mistakes can be avoided, along with all the lost customers and associated expenses for training, salary, etc., by using my recruiting process.

 

The Science of Sales Person Selection

 

There are certain elements present and/or absent and/or mixed in proportions that determine selling and sales management success.  (See the White Paper described at the end of this article).  So in order to hire super sales people companies must:  Measure the amounts of each element; determine what mixes and what doesn’t; decide what can be changed or improved in the time allotted to change it; analyze findings; Interview candidates that tested positive and make your selection. 

 

This science is 96% accurate for selecting successful sales people for any industry.  That’s better than 9 super sales people for every 10 you choose.  Selling success means the person is an over-achiever and/or a top producer on your selling team.    Think of all the sales people you’ve hired and determine how many of them stayed with you and turned out to be top producers.

 

Selling Success Is Not a Personality Score

 

These elements are not to be confused with personality traits that are described and measured using a variety of personality tests – Meyers Briggs, DISC, etc.  These tests (although valuable for certain things) describe behavioral traits, but do not indicate (1) if a person can sell, (2) if a person wants to sell, (3) if a person has the skills to sell, and (4) if a person can sell for your company.  Now if you’re a CEO or sales manager in-need of someone to fill a selling void or generate needed sales, you’d like to know your selection has 1, 2, 3 and 4 and can hit the road running.

 

The Selling Success Elements

 

There are 4 critical strengths required for selling success – desire, commitment, outlook and accountability.  Commitment and desire are mandatory.  Outlook can be changed and accountability is manageable.

 

There are 5 weaknesses that everyone has.  The amounts and combination of these weaknesses will determine the overall effectiveness of the person.  That is; if someone is really flush with desire, commitment, outlook and accountability, but is encumbered with some or all of the weaknesses, his or her selling effectiveness will diminish proportionally.  The weaknesses relate to money sensitivity, need for approval, self image, personal buying traits, and emotional involvement.

 

Next are selling skills and a selling process that are more comprehensive than showing-up, presenting and expecting a purchase.  These include, getting to the right people, effective interviewing, fitting solutions to defined problems better than alternatives, securing commitment, managing accounts, prospecting, networking, territory development, and so on.

 

All of these strengths, weaknesses and skills can be measured either (1) in an interview by someone savvy questioning and listening for the elements – not many people are competent at doing this, or (2) from a test that gathers information, compiles it, gauges it and validates it regarding these strengths, weaknesses and skills.

 

Selling for Your Company

 

Obviously the person has to be able to sell, but whether or not someone can sell for your company will center on elements defining your type of sale – simple vs. complex; big ticket vs. small; titles the person has to connect to; highly competitive vs. specialty, etc.

 

Finally your type of management must be compared to the style that the person works best with – micro vs. macro management; coaching vs. left alone to survive; tolerant vs. nothing but results.  There are more, and all need to be compared – candidate to company.

 

What to Do to Assure Success

 

Although measuring the elements sounds like a lot of work, the task can be relatively simple.  Devise a test that measures these elements or use proven, existing ones.  Now if you get caught up in the cost of testing, just ask yourself what a failed sales person costs?  And if you get caught-up in the predictability, look to the longevity and satisfied users.

 

Unfortunately, measuring the elements is not all that’s required.  You will need to have a recruiting step.  That is, writing an ad that draws the right type of person and searching the various companies, websites, and other venues where your right person will be hanging around. 

 

This leads us to determining what the right person should look like.  What experiences, salary levels, and successes s/he should have.  Finally, your interviewing process must be set-up to see if chemistries match and to explore red flags indicated by the elements test.

 

This is the recruiting process and now I invite you to learn more about it.

Secrets to Effective Sales Management

Company’s used to as a matter of course promote the best sales person to the position of sales manager/ coach purely on the basis of their own results and not on their ability to coach and mentor their peers, thankfully this practise in most cases has ceased.

Below I have listed some of the criteria I believe to be important if you are to become a successful sales coach, these are the methods I have used personally very successfully over a number of years

CREDIBILITY

It is important that a sales coach has credibility with those he or she is mentoring.

That means they need to have walked the walk before they can talk the talk. They must have a successful sale background not necessarily have been the best but certainly in the top 10 % of achievers. This may sound contradictory to my previous statement, there is a lot more to being a successful sales coach than being a successful sales person, but you must have a score on the board before you can convince others to follow you.

Of course having a successful sales background is only the start, there are other disciplines required ensure success.

AVAILABILITY
Being available to your team is important, that is being on site when they return from their days selling, having your mobile phone  on and accepting calls regardless if it means after hours contact, being prepared to listen and act if needed, offer counselling and support as required.

I found that by setting aside 20 minutes each day to my team allowed them an opportunity to discuss any concerns they had, knowing they had my undivided attention during that timeframe. I would switch my mobile off and close my office door and it became “our personal” time. Client accounts, potential sales, progress to targets, even personal problems could be discussed knowing that confidentiality was guaranteed.

I found this process a great way to gain the confidence of my staff and even today I have people who still contact me seek advice. I must say it makes me feel worthwhile knowing I am still making a contribution.

MONITORING PERFORMANCE

When setting goals and targets too many organisations forget to monitor progress towards these goals.

In business I always abided by the principal that if you set a task then you must check progress towards it and act where appropriate. Remember “WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS DONE”

I acknowledged good performance and counselled where performance was poor. At all times my people knew exactly what my expectations where both from a results and work ethic point of view.I always held regular sales meetings where results were discussed and again good performances acknowledged.

Charts and graphs can also be useful tools when monitoring performance.

SALES MEETINGS
Regular sales meetings are important as they allow a cross flow of information from the sales manager and representatives.They must be inclusive with everyone being encouraged to contribute.An agenda must be set as this will formalise the meeting. Minutes should be taken with action points and timeframes for reporting noted. Copies of the minutes must be circulated to the attendees for they action.

I always found that by encouraging the sales representative to report on their week’s activities a healthy competitive spirit would evolve and results would improve

As a manager it is very important never to “put some one down’’ as it may inhibit ongoing discussion by intimidating the other attendees. If there was a disruptive influence within the meeting I would adjourn and have a quite word to the person concerned that normally worked.Sales meeting should always end on a positive note.

I introduced role plays into my meetings with myself as the representative and a nominated person as the customer. I invited people to put forward their most difficult objections whish I would endeavour to overcome. These role play session are followed by a question and answer session.

FIELD COACHING
Going out in the field with your sales people again build the team spirit and shows the sales person you are prepared to work at the coal face with them. Building their confidence in you as a person who can help them achieve their goals is another upside to field coaching.

You must plan your day well, understanding who is selling and whose observing. Always debrief after each customer visitation.

DELEGATION
Always be prepared to delegate where appropriate as it can be a great training tool. Ensure the task you set is understood and have a timeline in place to complete the task. Make sure you are available to assist if asked but don’t interfere.

GOOD SALES MANAGEMENT IS ABOUT LEADERSHIP.

BE LEADER NOT A MANAGER, PEOPLE MUST RESPECT YOU .

IF OFFERED A CHOICE BETWEEN BEING LIKED OR RESPECTED THERE IS ONLY ONE CHOICE…

RESPECT EVERY TIME.

Some Sales Managers are Idiots!

Yes, I said it, some sales managers are idiots.

I know, I work with field sales professionals all the time and deal with the problems that sales managers cause.

Look at the really smart companies whose sales managers are always successful, they do it right, IBM, P&G, Xerox. We all bought their books and training programs, but few of us actually implemented what they taught us.

I guess the companies simply expected the sales force to improve without good sales management! Sales training does not relieve a company of management responsibility.

Two things that sales management does wrong continually are no goal setting and the wrong skills training.

First, establish goals and then a reward system based on those goals. That sounds simple, but most companies don’t do it. They say “we need to increase the number of new customers this year. So go out and get more customers.” That’s it, no reward system for achievement, no consequences for failure. And, that is not really a goal!!

Remember, a goal is “a detailed objective to be achieved by a specific point in time.” More customers this year is not a goal, it is a dream, wish, hope or something, but not a goal.

Second, this one really confuses me. Companies will spend literally thousands of dollars each year or two on sales skills training, but won’t spend 0 per sales person on a Prospecting Kit. Yet prospecting is the only skill that will get a sales person into a situation where they can actually use their selling skills!!!

So that tells me and the sales team that the sales manager is not really serious about getting new customers. Also, most sales people are really customer service people, they make very few presentations, so they can save the money on that skills training.

If you want to step away from the crowd set up actual goals and a reward system for their achievement. Train your folks in the skills necessary to achieve the goals, and then sit back and watch your business grow. That’s the way the big guys do it.

Sell Well and Often,

Bill

Bill@BlitzCall.com

© Copyright 2008 WJ Truax

Sales Managers Must be Good Coaches

If you’re not satisfied with your sales status look to the coach of your team – your sales managers. Here’s a way to check how good they are.

1. Does your sales manager know where his/her sales will come from by account, by product / service for 2008? Or is it about, “Here is my number. Let get out there and sell, sell, sell.” Ask each one to explain where the sales for 2008 will come from.

2. Does your sales manager know how to motivate each of his sales people? Yes, money is key, but money goes to the family. Money is about survival. But what really get the sales person going. See if your sales manager can answer this question about his sales people.

3. Does you sales manager coach and mentor. Coaching is telling his people what to do, i.e. get to the ultimate decision maker. Mentoring is showing them how to do it, i.e. show how to use your main contact to network you to the ultimate decision maker.

This requires discussing sales call plans and pursuit strategies. Then making sales calls together – not for the sales manager to sell, but to observe, give feedback and lay-out a behavior modification plan. How often does you manager do this with each sales person.

4. Does you sales manager turn-over and recruit effectively and timely. In other words does he purge the bottom 10% each year and constantly seek new recruits. Most managers are reactive. When someone leaves, they then seek a replacement. Unfortunately, because of 1-3 above, the better people (maybe not the best) leave and then the manager starts recruiting. This leaves you with the poorer performers and the new hire becomes what ever was available.

Like a college football coach, your sales manager must be good at recruiting good talent and then showing this raw talent what to do and how to do it. Don’t ever get sucked into the “experienced sales person”. Experience only means someone has been doing it before. It says nothing about how good one is, especially selling your products and services. That’s where the coaching and mentoring becomes critical. As in football and all sports, coaching and practice is critical and ongoing.

5. Finally does your sales manager hold your sales people accountable? That is when a forecasted sale isn’t made, is there a discussion that holds the sales person’s feet to the fire? Are there consequences as well as rewards? As my old football coach use to say, “I don’t want excuses, I want results or else you don’t start.”

Now it’s your call. Is the person responsible for the most important element of your business – sales – capable and doing what it takes to get you where you want to be? Or do you need to step up and take actions of training your managers or hiring new ones – and then training them. If professionals like Tiger Woods and every other athlete needs coaching, your sales managers do as well.

5 Keys to Hiring the Right Sales Manager

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 do not 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 will not 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 corporate 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 does not 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 vision of the leadership team.

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 have 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 do not 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. If you would like my white paper titled, Are There Criminals On Your Sales Team?, send me an email.

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.