Selling Style is one area we assess in our process.  Some people refer to it as personality which I don’t believe is particularly accurate.  Nonetheless, style is an important assessment for managing the salesperson but too many hiring managers assume certain skills based on a candidate’s style.

When we refer to “gut-level decisions,” often those decisions are made based upon a candidate’s style.  That method leads to hiring mistakes.

One of our newer customers offered an interesting take on this style issue yesterday after a couple of candidate interviews.  The candidates were markedly different in their styles, but their aptitudes, skills and motivations were relatively similar.

Our customer’s comment:  “I’m surprised the candidates are so different.  I would have thought you would pursue similar profiles.”

Lee walked him through our graphic on this page and explained the greater importance of selecting salespeople based off the deeper-seated data and, more importantly, which specific abilities are needed for the position.  This approach is what differentiates repeatable, successful sales hiring as opposed to best guesses.

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Posted By Derrick Moe | Assessing, Hiring Salespeople | |