This seemed like a good Friday topic from Working Wounded:

List of the Week

Look who’s talking €¦ What TV shows are most talked about at work.

• “American Idol,” 44 percent
• “Grey’s Anatomy,” 28 percent
• None, 21 percent
• “CSI,” 11 percent
• “House,” 9 percent

From: Spherion

I particularly enjoyed “None.”

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I spoke to a sales candidate this week who took a couple days to get back to me after completing a phone interview last week. Her comments were almost unbelievable. The one that caught me most off guard was a statement that the General Manager of the company “clearly didn’t know a thing about sales.” This statement was not true, but even if it was, that is not something to blurt out in a follow-up discussion.

She was a strong candidate who screened well, assessed well for fit to the position (with one anomaly) and phone interviewed well. In the end, she was not the right salesperson for the role.

This candidate was doing a good job of masking her true colors before she unraveled. As disappointing as that fact is, running a timely process allowed us to flush her out before getting to a face-to-face interview or worse, an offer. One key point for hiring salespeople is to have many contacts (phone discussions and emails) before getting to the inperson interview.

Without a process to maximize interactions, sales candidates can fake their way onto your payroll. Don’t let me do this to you. Run a timely process (don’t stretch it out) and use numerous contacts with the strong candidates.

Oh and that anomaly was this – she had stronger self-esteem than empathy. That assessment result is always one that needs to be explored. Salespeople with that result value themselves and their own needs far more than any one else’s. In the worst-case scenarios, they act like this candidate did.

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Top five traits you gotta have to sell!

The top five traits of a successful salesperson!

Discover the 5 key behaviors of sales superstars!

You have probably seen these amazing statements across the web.  Isn’t it interesting how “5″ seems to be the magic number for sales traits, behaviors or attitudes?  I say that is hogwash.

There are two main reasons why hiring strong salespeople is more than just these marketing-laden headlines.

The Ideal Sale.
Processes that focus on the salesperson without understanding the sale are flawed.  The issue is simple – how company A goes to market (value proposition, market share, key competencies, etc.) is not the same as company B.  In fact, no two companies are the same.

Most companies have some past experience hiring a “star” salesperson who was successful at one of their competitors.  However, once they signed on to the new company, they were a flop.

Attempting to provide a superstar salesperson for all positions is pointless.  The focus here needs to be on the position’s requirements.  What does an ideal sale look like?  Understanding these criteria will be the definitive blueprint for finding a sales superstar whose skills match the criteria.

The Ideal Mix.
People are comprised of an almost infinite level of variables.  Attempting to reduce these variables to 5 specific items is a fool’s errand.  Granted, certain traits are important to success, but these traits do not exist within a vacuum.  They are interrelated to other factors.

An example is hiring a salesperson who has the ability to handle rejection.  This trait is most important in successful selling.  Yet, their method for handling rejection may be to castigate all prospects.  Although the salesperson appears bulletproof when it comes to rejection, the means by which they accomplish this feat will derail most of their sales efforts.

Salespeople need to be assessed in many areas to paint as accurate a picture as possible.  Looking at only 5 traits, using red-yellow-green rankings and/or making gut-level hiring decisions leaves far to many variables hidden.  The better process is to understand the salesperson’s mix of skills, aptitudes, motivations and style.  That information can then be compared against the aforementioned ideal sale.

Identifying and hiring strong salespeople is difficult work that requires an accurate, objective, repeatable process.  I would recommend ignoring the hyperbole that surrounds “magic 5″ statements.

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