Our sourcing, screening and interviewing activities for our customers leads us into some comical discussions. Sales candidates are entertaining, coy and often cocky. Some times their responses are downright baffling. This news is not groundbreaking to anyone who has hired salespeople in the past.

We’ve added a category for “Anecdotes” that will encompass some of the funnier moments from our experiences. Hopefully these posts will add a little levity to The Hire Sense.

My question: Why are you looking for a new position at this time?

Candidate’s response: My driver’s license is suspended at this time which was required of my previous position. Do I need to drive for this position?

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In this article from the Minneapolis StarTribune.com, the author discusses the growing demand for salespeople in the medical industry. One quote in particular jumps out:

Medical salespeople often tell me it is rewarding to sell things that help people.

I bring this topic up because it is of interest in that we have measured this reward in the medical and health insurance industries. There is a statistical significance among these salespeople to be rewarded by a higher Sense of Mission (purpose).

The article continues:

Medical salespeople are experienced, persistent and smart, do their homework and have an understanding of the audience they are selling to.

I would agree with all these statements, depending on the position, except the experience statement. Hiring based solely on experience is a slippery slope. If experience was the single most common trait of a successful salesperson, companies would adjust their hiring approach to land the oldest, most experienced salespeople from their industry.

So why isn’t this the most common approach? Because the chances of this approach being reliably predictable for hiring sales superstars is only slightly better than winning the PowerBall. Hyperbole perhaps, but you get my point.

We always state hire first on sales ability (skills, aptitudes, motivations, rewards, style) before experience. If you properly profile your sale, you can find salespeople who have been successful selling in a similar sales cycle/process. At that point, you can teach them your “STUFF.” The technical information about your product or service can be learned. Remember, at some point every member of the team had to learn about your stuff. A good salesperson can do the same. It is far more difficult to teach a person how to sell your wares than it is to teach them the technical aspects of it.

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This article from ABC News’ career correspondent is an interesting read. She visited a women’s prison to talk to the inmates about finding a job once they are released. I must admit, I was debating whether or not to read the article, but it does provide a different perspective.

I choked on my coffee when I read this sentence:

I’ve hired people because I got the immediate sense that they were kind, good, decent souls. And I’ve rejected others with awesome resumes because their demeanors were too harsh.

Please, don’t do that. Your gut is a valuable tool in hiring, but it is not objective. A better approach is to use a process that delays the introduction of gut-level decision making as long as possible. Phone screens and online assessments are the best first-pass options when hiring external candidates.

I am not certain of the author’s approach in the aforementioned hires - perhaps she did use a process and was simply making a quick point for her article. However, the vast majority of customers that we work initially contacted us because they used a form of gut-level hiring that led to poor candidates getting on their payroll. Hence our sensitivity to that ill-advised approach.

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Two links that relate directly to each other. First, a Forbes.com article titled Addicted to Work. Interesting point:

“Perfectionism overrides efficiency,” Robinson says. “A workaholic will spend unnecessary time on a project, often going over it again and again before passing it on.”

The article gets fairly intense about the outcroppings of a workaholic. One particular Selling Style is particularly susceptible to becoming a workaholic - it is the High C. The very strengths in their style also make them susceptible to extremism in their work role.

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We have a bit of an impromptu theme this week starting with our article released Monday. Generations X and Y are popular topics these days. I have been catching up to some older articles and came across this one from allbusiness.com which is the title of this post.

Overall, it is a strong article with good tactical suggestions for managers. Some seem simplistic - be clear from the outset, be a mentor and teach them business standards. Yet, I can immediately think of 5 examples where sales managers did not perform such rudimentary tasks. Maybe these items are topical fodder for management articles nowadays?

Two points really jumped out from this article and merit a mention:

Give them free rein to multitask. Keep in mind that your young staffers can multitask unlike any generation before them. This means that they can send e-mails, talk on the phone, and compose memos at the same time €” and enjoy themselves in the process.

Absolutely on target with that bullet point. It is almost unnerving to watch the efficiency with which the younger generations can juggle electronics. Progressive managers know how to leverage this multitasking skill. One caveat - keep a close eye on their attention to detail. If the Gen X and Yers push it too far and too fast, quality is the first casualty.

Strive for work-life balance. Young employees fill their lives with many activities €” sports leagues, social groups, classes, time spent with friends. They work hard, but they are generally not workaholics. Home, family, and friends are often their first priorities.

Second arrow in the bullseye. I have sat through interviews where you could see the Gen X candidate skillfully sizing up the work level of the position. It wasn’t that he was trying to avoid a 40 hour work week, he was trying to sort out if the company was masking a position that truly required a 60 hour work week.

These new, youthful generations have already started changing the workplace in dramatic fashion. Again, progressive managers (including older Gen X managers) will need to adjust accordingly as Generations X and Y become the majority population in the labor force.

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We’ve just been informed we have been chosen as the featured blog for this week at the Small Business Blog Directory. Thank you for the honor and welcome to the readers who have found their way to our blog. I hope you enjoy our first-hand accounts of sales hiring today.

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A few years ago we were working with a large corporation that was having a difficult time finding strong salespeople. In fact, they were quite lousy at it and had assembled a weak team overall. This project was quite extensive in that we had to assess their current team of over 30 salespeople, 5 managers and 3 VPs. After that, we modified our hiring process to work with their existing HR department’s process.

After many meetings, we were off and running on the sourcing side. We identified the strong candidates and went to schedule interviews with the hiring managers. Anyone who has hired strong salespeople before knows that you do not have an endless time frame to move them through your process. If you know they are strong, it is guaranteed that another company has figured this out too.

Our problem was that we had a difficult time getting a workable schedule from any of the hiring managers. They had few openings in their busy schedules and were not going out of their way to make themselves available.

We finally sat down with all of the managers and VP’s after struggling to get the first few candidates through in a timely manner. One of the managers said something I will never forget. She stated in front of everyone, “I am having a hard time with the interviewing because it is not a top priority. You hired me to increase sales in my division through my team. I do what I can to get through the resumes and assessments to schedule an interview, but it can only be a part-time activity at best.”

This was a manager where we had served up the candidates and were conducting the interviews along with them. Still, she was having a difficult time fitting the interview activity into her schedule. Surely some of that was fluff, but she did keep a fairly hectic schedule with her team trying to hit an aggressive sales goal.

When you spend your day sourcing, screening, assessing and interviewing candidates, you forget that other people are not primarily focused on these activities. Sales managers are responsible for increasing revenue through their team. Hiring is not an everyday, or even every week, activity for most of them. It is a task to be completed in the margins of their day.

I read a poignant comment from a head football coach in the paper today. The reporter asked him about the status of a player who is holding out. The coach said, “I cannot worry about who isn’t here. I have to focus my time on the players who are in camp and working out.” Sales managers have to take a similar approach which explains the thrust of our business. We do the work of weeding out the weak and sourcing the strongest candidates so that the sales manager can focus their time on their current team.

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but according to CareerJournal.com, it appears that the classic business lunch is making a strong comeback. As the article states, it may become even more popular if the IRS moves the deduction from 50% up to 80%. Check expense reports for fine wine and fancy meals!

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The pronounced generation gap in today’s workplace is a topic we consistently encounter in our selection and assessment business. We released an article, Hiring Adjustments for Generations X and Y, earlier this week in response to this gap. Now monster.com has a great article that goes to the experiential source of the younger generations’ uniqueness.

The younger generation, particularly Generation Y (born 1977 to 1989), thrives in a fast-paced technological world. . . Their constant exposure to technology has even caused some to speculate that their brains have developed differently. The familiarity of so many different technological media has enabled them to process a huge amount of information in a short amount of time . . . In some circumstances, these individuals may never have learned effective face-to-face interpersonal communication skills, due to the fact that so much of their social interaction has been over instant/text messaging, cell phones and email.

This ability to handle information has benefits as well as drawbacks. I remember people lamenting the format of USA Today when it first came out. Quick read stories and colorful charts cut against the old graphically-challenged black and white newsprint of established newspapers. That shift was a precursor to the generational change that has occurred.

…one of the primary findings was that the employer-employee relationship has become more project-based, as opposed to the traditional chain-of-command structure.

The relationship change is quite evident in the many interviews we conduct during the year. As mentioned in our article, the younger generation has a more horizontal view of the organizational chart.

This paragraph towards the end of the article cuts to the quick of the issue and helps to explain our focus on understanding candidate and employee communication styles:

Effective communication is imperative as businesses shift to this new fast-paced paradigm. Striking a balance with both generations can be difficult. Younger generations are geared to working in a fast-paced environment and getting information on a whim. Short, abrupt communication may occur and leave out important details that others may need to know in order to provide adequate responses. Older generations may overinform, causing confusion or extra work in sifting out pertinent information.

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The phone screen is making a comeback, as well it should. We talk extensively about the sequence in which a strong sales hiring process occurs. Step 3 is the phone screen which comes before the in-person interview. The main thrust of this approach is to neuralize the candidate’s advantages while placing them in a sales prospecting scenario.

What is one strength that is almost universal in all salespeople? Rapport-building. Granted, there are some who lack even this ability but the vast majority of salespeople have some skills in this area. Unfortunately, even the bad salespeople can have enough of this ability to make themselves appear stronger than they are in the interview. A salesperson with little selling ability (i.e. prospecting, qualifying, closing) but strong rapport-building skills is your basic schmoozer. They are all hat and no cattle.

The schmoozer’s best move is to land an in-person interview with the hiring manager. This meeting allows them a chance to size up the manager while using their excellent in-person skills. As socially gifted as they are, this skill does not automatically lead to success in selling.

The phone screen is a terrific neutralizer. The schmoozer still has tools to use on the call, but they are greatly reduced. The phone screen is a difficult call for a highly skilled salesperson but it truly handcuffs the schmoozer.

Some important aspects of a well-crafted phone screen:

• Use pressure that matches the pressure found on a typical prospecting call
• Observe their style, articulation, warmth and poise
• Rapport and bonding (still an important aspect of selling)
• Ask questions that reveal their selling process
• Use vague statements or questions to see if they qualify for clarity

There are many facets to a successful phone screen that we wrote about in a newsletter from last year. Try adding a structured phone screen to your next sales hiring process and see how strong a qualifier it is.

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