Conventional Wisdom = The best talkers make the best salespeople.

If I could rewrite that to make it accurate, I would state it like this:  The best questioners make the best salespeople.

Yes, I know that is oversimplifying things, but it is an attempt at rewriting conventional wisdom.  The key takeaway is that the person asking the questions is in control of the conversation even though they are not doing the majority of the talking.  This is a fundamental principle in sales that often gets ignored, overlooked or worse.

In that light comes an excellent article from the weekly Salesopedia newsletter:

Initially you need to ask questions to uncover whether the potential client has any problems that you can solve. Once you know a potential client has a problem you can solve, it is very tempting to start talking about how you can solve it for them. If you leap in at this point with your solution, chances are they won’t become your client. You now need to ask more questions.

Now you need to ask questions so they will explain to you (and themselves) what the impact would be both personally and professionally if they don’t get their problem solved. Often you will find that your potential client has not really thought through the impact of not solving their problem. They will appreciate that you care enough to ask.

It’s still not time to jump in with your solution and to tell them you have the answer. Resist the temptation. You still need to keep asking questions.

Now you need to ask what difference it would make to them (from both a professional and personal perspective) if they solved this problem. What do they see as the benefits? This is the point at which they will start to sell themselves. They know the impact of not solving the problem, and now they (not you) are telling themselves the benefits of solving it. Your questions have done the selling and they will now be very receptive to hearing how you can help. Now is the time to talk about your solution.

That is sound advice for any salesperson.  Too often, salespeople get caught in “vulture” moves where they attempt to pounce on a close.  Questions are the backbone of qualifying.  A strong salesperson will qualify until he or she has the entire amount of information needed to move a prospect to the next phase in the process.  At that point it becomes clear that qualified deals close themselves.

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I came across a sales resume this morning that listed this title for the person’s current sales position:

Bid Writer

Every siren at Select Metrix simultaneously went off on that one.  If you are in sales and this is your title, change it on your resume.  This title reads of someone who simply responds to Request For Proposals (RFP).  Yet, this salesperson describes himself as a “High Performance Salesperson.”

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I’m no slave to fashion so this CareerJournal article - Aspire to Become a CEO? You Have to Dress the Part - struck me as being quite superficial when it comes to hiring.  The thought that attire could eliminate a candidate seems trivial.

The deep analysis from the article:

“People don’t understand the messages that their clothes send,” says Ms. Waldt, a recruiter with CTPartners. Women sometimes don’t realize how often a tight shirt or a low neckline comes across as seductive. People who meet them are likely to assume the sexual innuendo is intentional. It’s harder for men to goof, but they do — for instance, by being sloppy with untucked or wrinkled shirts or wearing beeping sports watches to staid business events. Sagging socks, dangling earrings and obvious designer logos all send messages that register with the people on the other side of the table.

I truly don’t like this line of thinking in that it strikes me as being focused on the wrong items.  We had one customer who flew in a candidate from halfway across the country.  His plane was delayed by hours, he missed a connecting flight and got in late for the day.  They company took him straight from the airport into multiple interviews.  The guy was obviously a bit run down from the difficult day and he hadn’t eaten or had a chance to freshen up.

He didn’t receive any consideration beyond the initial interview.  One of the main reasons given to us was the fact that he did not have his cufflinks buttoned and his tie was a bit loose during the interviews.

Yeah, we were flummoxed by that one.

On the other hand, I have seen good candidates show up looking like an unmade bed.  The site of this guy was a crushing blow.  I knew that interview was over before it started.

In the end, I suspect there is a happy medium here somewhere.

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Spell check.  Seriously.  There are few things worse than misspellings in an employment ad.  The image an error creates is difficult to measure, but I am certain it has a sizeable impact.

I came across the worst place for a misspelling…the title of the ad:

Sales Carreer Opportunity

I have squiggly red lines and windows popping open in my blog software trying to correct that word.  Yet someone at the hiring company did not catch this obvious error.

The reason this error is so egregious is because the title is often the only description of the position that the jobseekers will see.  It has to be correct (and intriguing enough to get them to click on it, but that is a post for another day).  This type of error simply cannot happen.  Spell check, multiple proofreaders and a final review before posting are the necessary steps to avoid these elementary mistakes.

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I read many things across the web including certain columnists from Sports Illustrated.  Peter King writes an insider’s view to professional football that I find fascinating.  Plus, the guy is a coffee (actually lattes) addict like myself so I always appreciate his weekly coffee tips.

This quote from his article last week caught my attention:

But I will say one thing about the firing: It’s always dangerous when you start polling players and people in the building about the job the head coach is doing. If you’ve got a conviction about the coach, act on your conviction, and the beliefs of your closest associates, like president Dick Cass and GM Ozzie Newsome. Wide-net polling … not a good idea. Too many agendas can influence the only one that’s important, which is winning.

Now imagine it written this way:

But I will say one thing about hiring: It’s always dangerous when you start polling salespeople and people in the building about the job the sales candidate could do. If you’ve got a conviction about the candidate, act on your conviction, and the beliefs of your closest associates, like the owner and the expert sales recruiter. Wide-net polling … not a good idea. Too many agendas can influence the only one that’s important, which is selling.

How true is that?  We have seen it first-hand in one of our accounts where the manager is greatly concerned with what his operations people say about a salesperson.  I am still stunned.  This leader is trying to build a consensus among a department that has never been in sales nor hired salespeople…ever.

The agenda that is in play is the fact that the company has been rather stagnant for a few years so the operations people have settled into a comfortable groove.  The manufacturing area is running at somewhere between 50-75% of capacity.  I believe the thought of a strong salesperson closing new business is the hidden agenda.  The operations people will have to crank up their productivity to keep up with the increased workload.

Leadership requires making decisions with conviction.  If they are wrong, own up to them.  If they are right, smile and move on to the next topic.

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This sounds almost comical, but I have seen it first-hand.  BusinessWeek.com’s article - Is Praising Employees Counterproductive? - discusses the topic of praising employees for their good work.  The gist of the article:

After the meeting, James asked Tom, “What were you going to say at the meeting, and why did you stop?” Tom answered: “I was going to praise Penny on her marketing plan, but I’ve already praised her twice this week. I don’t want to go overboard.”

There is a fear—an irrational one, in my experience—among certain managers of praising employees too much. It’s as though they believe that one “attaboy” or “attagirl” too many can spoil a good employee.

I worked for a manager who took this approach.  I always felt his motivation was different - he didn’t want to praise me (or any other salesperson) because he thought we would use that praise to demand a higher salary.  Instead of praise, he would say good, ok, fine…those types of things.  He was always more thorough in his criticism.  The net result of his style was to feel like you were being criticized far more for your mistakes than praised for your successes.  The net effect was demoralizing.

If you praise an employee, s/he’ll expect more money.

This argument is easily countered if, when an employee asks about a possible uptick in pay, you share with him or her the financial drivers for your business. If you praise an employee and her response is “Thanks for the praise, now can I have a salary increase?” you can show her how the firm’s operating expenses and its revenues tie together—and most important, let her know the specific results that would make bigger salaries possible. Those might include an increase in sales, a reduction in costs, or both. The more specific you can be, the more your employee will understand where the dollars in her paycheck come from, and what she can do to influence her earning power.

May I also suggest that if you are praising an employee frequently, maybe they are deserving of a raise?  Voluminous opportunities to praise an employee are usually indicative of a strong employee.  That outcome wasn’t my intention in my previous position.  The fact that the manager had this thought pattern made me think he was a fairly shallow manager.

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ManageSmarter.com offers up an interesting article titled Do You Have the Right Talent?  First off, I love the fact that they advocating the pursuit of talent - that is the key to a successful sales hire (read:  not experience).  Second, the author strikes a chord that resonates with us:  There is no one-size-fits-all salesperson.  The right approach is to look at a salesperson’s abilities and see how well they fit into your sales model.  This approach is talent/skill-based, not experience-based.

Here is an excellent example of this principle in action (emphasis mine):

A client of ours is a partner in a construction company specializing in commercial ventilation systems. They have a good reputation and they bid on, and win, many commercial installation jobs.

A few years ago this company took on a new “product.” They felt that annual maintenance contracts for commercial building ventilation systems (not unlike an annual maintenance contract for a home furnace or central air conditioning) would be a relevant addition to their offerings. And they were right. But from a “need” point of view, these two sales jobs are completely different.

When the salesperson tries to illustrate why her company is the best choice for the construction side of the business, the need is known. That is, we already know that there is a building project going on. Without having to ask, we know there is the need for a ventilation system. The prospect does not have to use my client’s company necessarily, but they do have to have a ventilation system. The need has already been established before the sale even begins. But this is not true for the maintenance side of the business. Although there may be tremendous value to purchasing a maintenance contract, it is not essential. The need must first be created.

It is of course very common to have related product lines like this—it’s just good business. But in this example, the two sale types are very different for the salespeople, and certain things must be structured accordingly. This is why you have heard me say that you may well have several different sale types in one company—requiring different talents—and why many of you have had experiences where your salespeople just don’t do well with certain products or services that you feel are such “natural companions” to your core products.

The fact that the need has already been established is a subtle, but powerful differentiation in the sale.  This principle is true when hiring salespeople that have worked for a market leader in your industry.  The similarity is that the salesperson’s company has name recognition and market capitalization.  This market strength makes prospecting much easier.

Now imagine a smaller competitor hires a salesperson from the larger company.  The smaller company thinks they have scored a coup.  Yet, they find after a few months that this new salesperson is not getting appointments and, consequently, not closing new deals.  The skill set required at the smaller company is different than the larger, market-leading company. 

This hiring error occurs often in companies that believe they must hire salespeople from their industry.  Big, big mistake.  Yet, this conventional wisdom is ingrained in many hiring managers.  Talent and skill should be the first measuring stick for any sales hire.

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A good reminder from the JustSell.com newsletter:

Top 3 activities that can hobble a sales day…

1. Talking with people who can’t move the sales process along
2. Unnecessary research activities
   What’s too much? There’s really no definitive answer. It’s particular to your sales world. Many people start to get a gut feel for when they should move on. The key is to act on it and make the call (rather than making sure every little thing is known before the call – fine line, of course). You might be surprised what you can learn by asking a straightforward question of the person who answers the phone or responds to an email.
3. “Crafting” or “drafting” a script, email, or letter
   Needs to be done, but almost never during the money hours – and those who’ve worked the preparedness checklist should already have completed the basics of most standard written communications needed.

Always remember…

A real sales day is made of contact with people.

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BusinessWeek.com offers up the Best Corporate Practices 2008 which is a fascinating slide show if you have time to view it.  This is from the opening of the article:

In fact, much of the gap between the best and worst management practices can be described by that word: trust. At one point as a corporate human resources leader during the dot-com boom, our company switchboard was bombarded with calls from recruiters, seeking to pull away our sharpest technical talent. Our hardworking phone operators did their best to deter search consultants looking to make contact with talent by any means possible, but it wasn’t always easy.

…

We said to our phone operators, “Let the calls through.” We said to our technical folks, “Talk to these guys. Write down everything they say. Learn as much as you can about the jobs they’re recruiting for, the projects our competitors are working on, and the salaries they’re paying. Fill out this form every time you pick a recruiter’s brain, hand us the form, and we’ll pay you $50.” Presto—some of our folks made a bunch of money in a short time, we learned boatloads about the hiring activity around town, and most important, we enrolled our employees in helping the company meet its goals.

Clever.  You know, recruiting is often a cat-and-mouse endeavor that involves multiple moves on multiple levels.  My father likes to say that some people play checkers and others play chess.  This company’s defensive approach was a smart tactic during the tech boom of the late ’90s.

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I mentioned a certain manager last week in a post and his desire to be an “observational manager” of a new sales hire instead of a hands-on manager.  The problem is compounding itself this week as he contemplates firing the salesperson who started 1 week ago today.

These are the headaches we have to deal with in the sales hiring arena.  The new salesperson has already had one face-to-face meeting with a small prospect he located and is on the trail of 5 other companies…IN THE FIRST WEEK.  He has even accomplished this using his own computer, cell phone and resources.  He has also been afforded only 1 or 2 phone calls from the manager during this week.  That’s it.  The manager is too busy with a new operations hire while the salesperson is home office-based in another state.

So my analogy for this entire fiasco is this - The salesperson is the player on the football field attempting to score touchdowns to win the game.

The sales manager is supposed to be the coach on the sidelines calling the plays and providing the game plan that leads to victory.  He provides guidance, but he is not actually on the field executing the plays.

However, in this instance, the sales manager is acting like a sports writer sitting in the press box watching the football game down on the field.  He is critiquing the player on the field while offering nothing to assist him, like coaching.  His critique is harsh, anecdotal and detached.

Could there be a worse position than this?

The real issue here is that the manager has not taken ownership of his hire.  I have to confess, this is a first for me.  I have never seen a manager make a hiring decision and then purposely undermine it by staying detached from their managerial responsibilities.

Truth is always stranger than fiction.

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