We’ve run into some “unique” problems in handling offers with sales candidate. Strong salespeople all share one significant ability – qualifying. This ability, when used in the negotiation process, leads to a desire for real clarity when it comes to an offer.
We lost a strong candidate last week due to a lack of informational clarity within our customer’s offer. There are many variables to this specific situation, but one thing that came out was that the offer was too vague. The critical piece of information that was poorly defined was the expectations for the position. No quota, no targets and no defined levels.
This is a new sales position within an expanding company so it is difficult to pin down exact numbers. Yet, the refusal of the President to articulate the expectations sent a red flag to the candidate.
Don’t underestimate the significance of a position’s sales expectations. The strongest sales candidates plug that information into the commission plan to sort out what they will make within the plan. Most salespeople have a target number they hope to earn and will work the plan backwards to sort out how many sales they have to close to earn that target money.
Our customer, despite our pleas, did not want to explain this critical information and it cost him a strong candidate.