Hospitality Sales & Management International


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Sales Management Training: Protect Your Company From (sales) Identity Theft in 3 Simple Steps?

Business Development Officer? Business Procurement Specialist? Did you know these types of titles for salespeople can ultimately rob your organization?

As a Sales Management Training Consultant, I often notice business cards from salespeople with titles that require some effort to decipher. As I inquire further about their role, eventually it pops out – “I’m in sales”. It makes me wonder, when did “Sales” become a five letter word that can no longer show up on one’s business card? It gets deeper…

Building high performance sales organizations is my specialty. Much of my success is a result of a startling discovery made years ago – there is no proven correlation between Personality and Sales Productivity. This discovery enabled me to lead a team that transformed a B business unit into a B business unit in 18 months for a Fortune Global 500 company. How? We recognized anyone can succeed in sales despite personality. Sales is simple if you learn how to master sales behavior intelligence and develop your salespeople accordingly. Sales is about behavior and our proven sales system is built on the 25 behaviors that is proven to impact sales productivity – Sales Identity is one of the behaviors we measure.

What is Sales Identity?

Sales Identity measures a salesperson’s pride of the sales profession. If a person views selling as noble, they are considered to have a strong Sales Identity. The opposite is true for those who view a sales position as something to be ashamed of, they are considered to have a weak Sales Identity.

Selling is noble, we all sell everyday whether we realize it or not. However, selling is often perceived negatively because of bad experiences. To some degree, society tends to cast a negative light on people in the sales profession. Due to the strength of society’s misguided views, some sales professionals feel shame and are compelled to hide their sales position and adopt deflected titles such as, “Business Development Officers” or “Procurement Specialists”. Such behavior is proven to be costly, read on…

Some people refuse to accept the notion of selling altogether, even though they are in fact trying to close a deal. A classic example…

Recently I was on a flight to a sales conference in Atlanta and I struck up a conversation with the gentleman next to me. Our idle chit chat led into a careers conversation. He shared with me how he worked for a major home improvement company in charge of the distribution centers in 4 states in the South and Southwest. After explaining my role as a Sales Management Training Consultant and how I help sales teams and salespeople. He immediately responded with “I could never be a salesperson!” We continued our conversation and he explained to me that he was preparing for a major presentation with the Executive Team of the company because he felt he needed an additional Million allocated to his budget for the following year. He went on to demonstrate to me how the organization “would ultimately benefit from the additional spend with a better Return on Investment (ROI)…”

As he was explaining this to me, I began to smile and chuckle. Initially, he probably thought I was being rude. Then I asked him “So, you are trying to convince the Executive Team to give you an additional million for your budget, correct?” “Yes.” He replied. I then added “And you can support the benefits of doing so, correct?” “Yes” he replied again. “Are you sure you’re not a salesperson?” He sat back in his chair and smiled, I could see the light bulb turn on. My point dawned on him. I eventually gave him some coaching on how to think more like a salesperson and improve his sales presentation.

Why Measure Sales Identity?

Measuring Sales Identity can ultimately save your organization a substantial amount of money long term. How?

Organizations all over the globe are challenged to hire high performance salespeople, not doing so can be costly in terms of sales results, hiring and training costs. Recent studies show, the average cost of hiring a poor performing salesperson has swelled to over 0,000/year. Think about it, how much are hiring mistakes costing you?

Research shows – salespeople with weak Sales Identity will under perform within 6 months of joining an organization and ultimately “self select” out of the sales profession within 18 – 24 months. In fact, we found people with weak Sales Identity prefer to apply for “sales” positions with deflected titles because they insinuate less sales accountability.

Unless detected, salespeople with weak Sales Identity will struggle and steal valuable resources from your organization via increased turnover, higher training costs and poor sales results. Here are 3 simple steps to protect your organization going forward:

Step 1: Remove the Identity Crisis

A surefire way to jeopardize long term sales productivity is to have your organization struggle through a sales identity crisis. If the role is a sales role – title it as such. Top performing salespeople absolutely love sales and prefer to be called – Sales Representatives. Having deflected titles attracts weaker performers who will struggle to get out of the ranks of mediocrity long term.

Step 2: Monitor Your “Motivational” Costs with Sales Reps

If you find your sales organization spending more time on motivating sales reps within the 6 – 24 month window of being hired, you may have a Sales Identity issue. Depending upon the severity, there may be hope.

Step 3: Know What You’re Hiring, Prior to Making the Offer

Hiring mistakes pertaining to sales positions can be costly! Use an assessment tool that measures the Sales Identity of your candidates prior to hire.

Hospitality Sales & Management International


Image by LunaWeb

Afton Village – AV Management Company – Residential Sales


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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.