This week’s trait focuses on an important sales manager trait.  The aptitude to lead others works in concert with many other traits and motivations, but the natural ability to lead can be identified and measured through our assessments.

Leading Others
The ability to organize and motivate salespeople to get things accomplished where everyone feels a sense of order and direction. Effective leadership depends on a fine mixture of capacities that must match the environment in which the sales manager is asked to perform. Regardless of that mixture, every leader must be able to gain the trust of others and be able to solve problems among/for the group.

A sales manager with strength in this trait will effectively combine such capacities as empathetic ability, problem solving ability, self-esteem, role confidence and motivating others into a cohesive approach to guide them towards a mutual goal.

A weakness in this area is most likely indicative of a lack of empathetic and problem-solving abilities.

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I’m working through another week consisting of one phone screen after another. There are few things that are more revealing than spending time on the phone with sales candidates.

One topic I enjoy hearing is a candidate who clearly has experience building a territory from nothing to a significant revenue level. This ability is highly valuable and it doesn’t take long to discover if the candidate has truly done it or not. The candidates who have done it have detailed accounts of successes and failures in growing the revenue. Drill down a level or two on their responses and you will hear either past-tense experiences or theoretical strategies. Listen for the experiences.

The only thing better than growing a territory from nothing is a sales candidate who turned around an underperforming territory. Typically these salespeople have had to overcome forces working against their success (bad reputation, upset customers, ignored prospects and so forth). I focus on the obstacles they have overcome and how permanent their recent success is. Did they close one big deal or have they built it up through many smaller successes? Either way will work, it is just good to know how they did it.

Listen for these specific details next time you phone screen a sales candidate.

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I have a weakness for this topic so I was pleased to read today’s ERE.net article titled Results-Focused Interviews.

Remember, these are all questions that people submitted to the website as their best questions to use in an interview.

I am not making these up:

1. “If a spaceship were to land outside this office and you were asked to get in, would you? Why?” (Is an acceptable answer, “Because they had a ray gun?”)
2. “Am I a good interviewer? Why or why not?” (Well, if you have to ask me, maybe we ought to switch chairs.)
3. “If you were a part of a car, which part would you be and why?” (Gee, I was all prepared for the tree question. Lemme think.)
4. “What do you enjoy most about your current/last position? What did you enjoy least?” (Boy, I never saw that second question coming!)
5. “If you had the opportunity to participate in a circus performance, which role would be yours?” (Well, I wouldn’t be the clown because clearly, that role is taken.)
6. “What makes you difficult to work with?” (Is the correct answer, “Stupid questions that are not job-related?”)

In all my years of interviewing and being interviewed, I have never heard question #2.  Absolutely brutal in an entertaining way.

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Anyone who has managed salespeople knows how difficult a task that can be.  We see it often in companies where clouded communication occurs daily.  I think  most of you could name numerous situations throughout your career where management communication simply broke down or worse, did not even occur.

SellingPower.com’s article – There€™s No Communication Around Here! – dives right into this topic.  Clear communication covers many transgressions.  We’ve posted about this topic numerous times since it is so important.  In case you had doubts:

The latest Watson Wyatt Communication ROI Study found that companies with effective communication practices have a 19 percent higher market premium and a 57 percent higher shareholder return over five years than companies with ineffective practices. That€™s because ineffective communication practices lead to conflicting internal goals, blindness to what other divisions are doing, turf wars, low morale, and more, says Dianna Booher, CEO of Booher Consultants and author of The Voice of Authority: 10 Communication Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know (McGraw-Hill, 2007).

I’m not sure what determines “effective” vs. “ineffective” communication in this study, but the principle seems valid.  There are 3 wise tips within this short article.  Here is a shortened version of each one:

1. Are you correct?
Do you communicate with truthfulness every time? If not €“ if you spin the truth to make things sound rosier than they are, or omit information, or outright lie €“ then you destroy your credibility and your reps€™ trust in you…

2. Are you complete?
Managers withhold information for many reasons, but the number one reason is because they believe it gives them power. On the contrary, managers who withhold information are usually resented and regarded with mistrust…

3. Are you clear?
People generally assume their communications are clear and that any misunderstanding is the fault of the listener. In fact, misunderstandings are usually the fault of the speaker or writer. That€™s because the three main culprits in confusing communication are lack of specificity, excessive jargon or wordiness, and burying the key message…

To quote Billy Joel, “It’s a matter of trust.”  Some of the best managers we have assessed have not possessed the greatest sales management skills.  However, they have been strong communicators with their team (obviously amongst other traits).  Conversely, we have also seen managers with strong skill sets but poor communication abilities – and they are rarely as effective as the former managers.

Focus on clear communication and your team will be far more cohesive and based on the aforementioned survey, more successful.  Please contact us if you want to understand your team members’ preferred communication style.

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SellingPower.com offers up an interesting article in their CRM newsletter – Is CRM Really Improving Sales Productivity? The short answer is no for a handful of reasons. One item resonated with me:

Mike Bosworth, author of the bestseller CustomerCentric Selling (Wiley, 2005) argues that the sales process must be adapted to customer buying processes prior to being automated. But that€™s not what€™s happening. Instead, when sales managers see sales productivity dropping, they€™re likely to turn to CRM in an attempt to make their existing, traditional process more efficient. That€™s like stepping on the accelerator when you€™re heading for a cliff.

He’s right – there is no reason to automate a “traditional” process if it is not adapted to modern-day realities. I have personally seen this approach fail at previous employers (full disclosure – I spent a couple years selling CRM software back in the ’90s). Adding a CRM system to a sales department without a clear selling system (approach) institutionalizes existing problems. I particularly enjoyed this description of the changes in today’s market (emphasis mine):

The report explains that because of the availability of information on the Internet, the buying process often starts long before the sales process, as prospects access product facts, pricing, reviews, existing customer feedback, etc., without ever talking to a salesperson. When sales reps are eventually brought into the process, buyers are now expecting the reps to bring much more to the table than just a rehash of product knowledge, features, and benefits. Instead, they expect the reps to have done the homework on their needs and be able to describe how the product/service offering will meet and exceed their expectations.

Any selling system that does not adjust for this tremendous shift in the modern marketplace is woefully inefficient.

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Today marks The Hire Sense’s first anniversary so without much pomp and circumstance, let’s get a proper perspective:

Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event.

-Oscar Wilde

We may have to use that quote every year on this date! Thanks to all of our readers and to the acquaintances we have made through this expanding channel.

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I’m working through many phone screens today and came across a respondent who displayed one of the hallmarks of a schmoozer. A question I often like to lead with is some variation of this:

“Give me an overview of your skills and how they would fit into this position based on the ad that you read.”

A simple question that assumes they are familiar with the ad. Yet, you would be surprised how often the candidate does not have the ad in front of them or how little they remember from the ad. Some respondents are wise enough to state they don’t have the ad in front of them so could I clarify the question a bit. Many simply try to talk through it in broad, unrelated strokes.

One respondent today simply started talking about his skills which didn’t even approach the traits we listed in our ad. This behavior is often indicative of a schmoozer salesperson or sales manager. This guy’s resume looked good and his initial contact on the phone was excellent. However, once I started peeling away some of the veneer, it became obvious that he was not the right candidate for this position.

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CareerBuilder.com’s article Today’s Hardest-to-Fill Jobs lists the top 10 hardest-to-fill jobs.  First, a little background:

According to a recent survey by recruitment firm Manpower Inc., the answer is no. The survey says 41 percent of U.S. employers are struggling to find qualified job candidates because of a lack of available talent.

And then the top 10 positions:

1. Sales Representative
2. Teacher
3. Mechanic
4. Technician
5. Management/Executive
6. Truck Driver
7. Driver/Delivery
8. Accountant
9. Laborer
10. Machine Operator

Yes, sales rep is the most difficult position to hire.  There are always sales candidates available, but it is far more difficult to identify the right salesperson.  We can help.

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We’ve been talking about the talent shortage topic for some time and it is only going to become more prominent over the next decade.  The Christian Science Monitor offers this story – ‘Age friendly’ workplaces on the rise – that defines a growing strategy – making your company culture more “age friendly.”  Here’s why that approach is so important:

Already, 10,000 baby boomers are turning 50 every day, a trend the US Census Bureau says will continue for the next decade. As the age for collecting full Social Security benefits climbs to 67, and as some pensions become less secure, more people will need to keep working. But many employers are still eager to see them leave in their 50s.

Clearly companies are going to have to develop strategies for tapping into the baby boomer generation for filling hiring needs in the near future until Gen Y fully enters the market.

Noting that he has observed many people’s careers at this (older) stage, he says, “They really start feeling the pressure to be pushed aside to let younger people rise within the corporation. With our youth-oriented society, lots of times we focus on a person’s activity level rather than their thought process, which you tend to get with the more mature employee.”

That is an excellent point – a common focus is the perceived slower activity level of older workers.  But their experience in a myriad of situations makes them highly valuable and should be the focus of your hiring process with this generation.

The article does not delve into detail about what constitutes an age-friendly environment other than simply hiring older workers.  Since hiring is a two-way street, there is one excellent suggestion for older workers to assist in the hiring process:

Mature workers have responsibilities, too, Holmes says. “We can’t just point fingers at the employers. If we don’t keep up with technology and the skills demanded by employers, they’re not going to hire us. If we’re currently employed, we need to seek training and develop opportunities so we can keep up with the changing world of work. If we’re not employed, go to a community college.”

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This is fascinating – CNNMoney.com has a short slide show presentation in their article 5 Dream jobs of the future.  They are:

Disease Mapper

Robot Programmer

Information Engineer

Radiosurgeon

Second Life Lawyer

Yes, that last one is correct.  Here is part of the description:

Count Stevan Lieberman among the virtual world’s earning elite. Instead of trying to practice purely virtual law–which few if any lawyers have turned into real money–Lieberman has taken a hybrid approach, using Second Life as a meet-and-greet area for new clients, who then take their real-world legal needs offline. And since he took in $7,000 in fees in the first two weeks after hanging up his virtual shingle, he’s optimistic: “I fully expect to keep getting more business this way.”

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