Hire A Sales Superstar

OK, you need to hire a new sales rep.

Maybe, the one you just let go couldn’t cut it…

Or maybe your company is going through an expansion and you have to hire an entire sales force at once…

Or perhaps your best rep just got promoted (congratulations by the way – even though it does kinda suck for you) and you have to hire quick…

So what do you do?

In our next series of blog posts, we’ll be going through some of the essential steps required to hire top salespeople. In this first series, we touch on screening sales candidates prior to the interview phase.

When you’re under pressure, the tendency is to do a “one and done” interview and hire. These are the “one interview – one offer” kind of sales hires. If you go this route, you’ll regret this later…trust me, Ive done it and it’s the worst thing you can do.

What you need is a strategy to screen resumes, determine which ones you want to either phone screen or interview, then interview, then hire.

You’ve go a lot to do…but you’re busy trying to get sales going in the right direction.

Well for the next few posts, we will be gong through this entire process step-by-step so you make the right decision, minimize the chances of making the wrong decisions, and hire the next sales superstar for your team.

So let’s get into the first step in the entire process of interviewing: resume screening.

Step 1: Examine your hiring criteria

The first real step is to identify what your hiring criteria really is.

Like many companies, you most likely have a job posting somewhere on your company’s website for all to view to the world. It may go a little something like this:

Currently, we seek a Sales Executive in our East Bay, California territory.
As part of our highly visible sales team, Sales Executives target and secure profitable new business to build relationships as aligned with regional and national marketing strategies. You will provide overall support and expertise to new accounts to ensure the highest level of quality service and provide customer education on ABC Corporation’s processes and procedures.

A Bachelors degree in Business, Marketing or the Life Sciences

• 5 years successful front line sales experience including strong “closing” skills
• Knowledge of the healthcare industry and the general economics of business
• Ability to develop and sustain strong customer relationships
• Strong business planning and organizational skills
• Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills
• Solid PC skills including knowledge of Microsoft software
• A valid driver’s license

Well there you go, all you need to do is find all that and you’re on your way to hiring a sales superstar!

Hardly. I’m guessing that this is not the exact candidate you’re looking for….

The problem is that with most postings looking like this, there is really nothing in the posting that will help you to screen out the resumes you don’t want and help you bring in the ones you do want. Nor does it give you any indication of the types of talents that you are actually looking for.

However, at this point, its okay because all you want to do is just have the bare minimum requirements of the job laid out.

Remember, this isn’t the core characteristics you are looking for…we get into that later. All you want to write down is the job description and the bare minimum qualifications you need to hire.

Write out the complete job description. For example, put in writing the following:

• The leg work that must be done prior to making a sales call
• What kind of sale is it: transactional vs. consultative
• How you expect existing customers to be serviced
• What essential personality traits are required
• How you expect records to be maintained
• How many calls should be made in a week
• Talents needed to be successful in the role
• Determine if industry experience is essential
• How many years of experience is absolutely required
• Education level

Think through the entire sales process and detail how you want it to be done, what tools will be used, and your expectations for their results.

This exercise should include not only what you want sales reps or account managers to do, but how you want them to approach it. Think about the style of selling you want them to use.

The profile and ad you create may change over time – that’s okay because its sole purpose is to screen out and attract in, at a very rudimentary level, the candidates that could be most well-suited for the job. All it really is a first step in a lengthy process.

With all the work you have to do…you’re gonna need to get some help sifting through the bad resumes so you can focus on the good ones.

And to save you TONS of time, we’ll give you a big clue how to get someone else besides you to do this for you – so you can stay focused on other things, like sales…in our next post.

In the meantime, get writing.

To learn even more about sales training, get our free ebook.

Do you have your own hiring criteria? Please leave a comment after this post.

When you were interviewing for your current job, you probably prepped yourself for days, making sure you did all your research on the position, spoke to the few people who know the job well, maybe got a little background information on your boss-to-be.

On the day of the interview you woke up that morning, you might have rehearsed your answers to some of the potential interview questions while you were in the shower.

Maybe you made extra sure that you got a nice haircut was just so and wore your best suit and even shined those beat up Bostonians.

The point is this, when you interviewed, you made every possible attempt to represent yourself in the best possible way.

In short, that day, unless you were sick, you presented yourself in the best possible way you knew how. It was the best that you had.

By the same token, when a sales manager is interviewing sales candidates, think about this: what the sales manager sees in front of him is the absolute best that you’ll ever see of them.

If they don’t blow you away in the interview and sell you on them, chances are slim that they will sell any sales prospect they are presenting your product to.

In the interview you have with them, you’re observing them at their very best. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Don’t convince yourself that maybe they’ll do a better job when they’re out in the field, because they won’t.

If anything, they’ll be worse in their daily sales calls than they were in the interview. Just like you dolled yourself up as best as you could for your current job interview, they did the same thing when they interviewed with you. Everything else will be a steep drop off.

You may tell yourself, that some people just don’t interview well right?

No! Not salespeople. If a sales rep cannot sell you or your sales manager in an interview on their best day, they cannot sell effectively when they’re not at their best. And let’s not kid ourselves, there are plenty of days that a sales rep doesn’t have it all working in your favor.

So don’t settle. Don’t make excuses. If the interview candidate is anything less than stellar…then keep looking you and your sales manager can do a heck of alot better.

To learn more about sales training, get our free ebook.

Tell us what you think. Should you hire a sales interview candidate that just has a bad day interviewing?

The best, high-performing sales managers are a different breed.

They notice stuff.

They notice what their salespeople are good at…as well as what they’re not so good at. They then leverage the stuff they are good at to coax even greater performance out of their salespeople. They largely minimize the weaknesses.

The average sales managers sees those same weaknesses and thinks that he can fix them. He spends all his time doing just that.

That’s why he’s an average sales manager.

Let’s show an example…

Here we have two top performing salespeople, both having achieved the highest sales awards in their companies:

Jane

Jane has has an incredible talent for building rapport, easily weaving pleasant conversation with the true sales pitch. Her manner is easygoing and laid-back, but hides a profound inner drive.

She’s completely in control of the situation at all times and asks many layered questions of the prospect to uncover their needs. Instead of being “all business”, she talks about jewelry, kids and other non-business activities; easily mixing in rapport building with selling through out the process.

She doesn’t take herself too seriously, taking time for some self-deprecating asides, but constantly driving towards the sale. She uses no real reference pieces, instead relies on her easy, trustworthy manner to build credibility. When it comes to the end, she doesn’t really “close” per se as much as she just assumes they will be moving on to the next step.

Tom

In contrast, “Tom” is incredibly persistent, although a little bit awkward in his approach, people respect him due to his aggressiveness and “never taking no” mentality.

When he is in a sales call, he’s all business, no rapport building whatsoever, but asks few precisely worded questions to uncover his client’s needs.

When he hears objections, he aggressively asks the reasons behind the objections. He then pulls out reference materials to overcome the objections and validate his claims. At the end of the sale, he asks “alternate close questions”, awaits responses before proceeding and aggressively pushes for the next step, and is very successful in doing so.

In our little hypothetical scenario, let’s say Tom and Jane report to your sales managers. Would they look at the above scenarios and think: “If I could just get Jane to use more reference materials and ask more hard close questions and Tom to just lighten up and build some more rapport, both of them would be even better!”

In both cases, the sales manager would be falling into the most common, yet well-meaning trap that average sales managers make.  They would be trying to perfect them both.

I have news for you…they’ll never do it.

Instead, get your sales managers to get more out of your salespeople by harnessing their strengths and minimizing their weaknesses.

Not only is it a far easier (and more fun) way to mange…but its a far more effective one too.

This may come as a shock to you…but some people are not 100% truthful on their resumes….

Well, yes it has been known to happen on occasion, but there have been times when people (and not just sales people) take a little creative license when writing their resumes.

The big untruths, you can probably pick out:

“…was instrumental in the signing of the SALT II Treaty…”

“…single-handedly responsible for wiping out hunger in the countries of Botswana, Niger and…”

“…won seven CEO Circles in six years…”

The less obvious ones are take a bit more work for you to uncover. In our continuing series on how to screen a sales resume, we delve into three tips on how to do that here:

1. Do they list their jobs by year only or by year and date?

If they list past positions by year only, they may be trying to hide something. Perhaps there was a period of unemployment they are trying to fudge over by giving years of employment only and not months. Another indicator is that if they just list years of employment and no date, then they may just be plain lazy – an indication of lack attention to detail and follow up – both important attributes to possess for ultimate sales success.

2. Are the job descriptions specific or vague?

The more specifics the better, in this case. Also, the more specifically described the accomplishment, the more likelihood that it’s true. It’s far easier to fudge a vague non-specific achievement, but a specific one is harder (and more risky) to fudge, because it can be easily checked in a background check or asked about by an interviewer.

3. If they have accolades, do they use “power words” to describe those accolades?

Sales is a combination of action and results. You definitely need someone who takes action to be working for you – especially someone who proactively creates opportunities on their own, without you have to “motivate” them to do so.

Words like “achieved”, “won”, “accomplished”, “catapulted”, “exceeded” and “generated” are action-oriented “power words”. They bespeak confidence and striving, both important traits that all high performing sales representatives possess.

However, “passive words” like “managed”, “responsible for” or “completed” are far more submissive.

You want a resume filled with “actions words” to say the least…

However, if you have a lot of accolades, but they’re all stated in passive, non-power words, then you have a disconnect. This would lead to skepticism on whether or not those accolades are 100% accurate.

Action-oriented achievers talk and write in power words, non-achievers typically talk and write in “passive words”.

If the resume still looks good, but you have questions, then that candidate may be worth a live interview just to get the specifics answered in a face-to-face interview.

To learn more about sales management, get our free video on the sidebar of this post or by clicking here.

Are you doing the same thing when it comes to screening sales resumes? Post a comment below.

Like many kids, my Dad used to tell me stories before he tucked me to bed. After running through the gamut of Big Bad Wolf, Goldilocks and the three Bears and Three Billy Goats Gruff, he used to tell me another tall tale. He’d say that when I grow up, I could be anything I wanted to be if I just worked hard enough. He said. “Anyone can become the President if they wanted it really bad and worked hard for it.”

I believed him…that is until I became a sales manager…

No offense to Dad, but the problem with the story is that it’s simply not true!

It’s romantic, hopeful, and optimistic, but it can’t be any more true than Santa Claus riding down the chimney on Christmas Eve.

Do you honestly believe that everyone is born with the exact same potential?

People are born unique, and that’s the beauty of it. We have our own strengths and weaknesses. We have different levels of potential. Some people are cut out to be doctors. Some are raised to become the President of the United States. Some are born salesmen and saleswomen.

A great salesperson is always learning new skills and knowledge on the job. But skills alone won’t drive a salesperson to excellence. To succeed in this line of work, there’s got to be another factor involved. There has to be talent.

Talent is an inherent pattern of thought and behavior, meaning it’s in the blood. On the other hand skills are learned abilities which can be taught from one person to another person.

Simply put,

Talent = “Nature”

Skill = “Nurture”

How does this apply to your work as a sales manager? Simple. Hire talented SALESpeople.

An applicant may submit a 15-page resume with a Pulitzer Prize-winning cover letter. This person is skilled enough to give someone who’s been in the business almost twice longer than him a run for his money. But even so, no killer resume can fool a competent sales manager who has an eye for scouting real talent. Remember, you can teach them new skills, but you can’t teach them new talent. Take this to heart when hiring new people into your sales team.

The skills can come from you, but the talent must come from them.

Hire talented applicants if you want your salespeople to grow and become successful in this business. If you think someone from your team doesn’t have that special something to become a great salesperson, then be a man and tell them, and maybe offer some advice, as the officer in charge of their performance, on possible career change options. In fact mediocre sales managers are the only ones who think they could change people – and their talents – at their core.

What ideas about hiring talented salespeople into your team do you have? I’d love to hear them out. Leave a comment after this post.