We interviewed a candidate yesterday for an outside sales position who comes with a different background to our client’s company. The purpose of the interview was to further discuss his abilities before putting him in front of our customer. We were pleasantly surprised that his sales skills and history are even stronger than we first expected.

Here’s why – he took over a territory in a complex, technical sale in which his employer had a bad reputation. The reputation was deserved. The task for this salesperson was daunting…and he succeeded in turning the territory around.

Overcoming a bad reputation in the marketplace is more difficult than new business development with a clean, or even unknown, reputation. We have seen this first-hand with one of our national accounts that completely alienated a market in Texas. They are working to reestablish themselves, but the wounds are too fresh. The salespeople have yet to get traction with that market so they are focused on other markets for now.

I’ve personally sold in both situations within the same industry and I can attest to the difficulty of overcoming a bad reputation. The customers were dogmatic and skeptical at every turn. And, of course, I stepped in it a few times since my employer did not share all of the history in the account. That was nice.

The main points I learned in these situations:

1. Time – it takes time for the emotions to calm down. It takes time to attempt to work your way back in to the market. Expecting a quick fix, fast turnaround only exasperates the problem. Cordial perseverance is the best approach.
2. Humility – it is tough sledding and the sales rep best not be cocky. I ate a lot of humble pie while rebuilding a bad territory that I inherited, but it worked.
3. Sacrifice – some accounts will be lost for good. I wasted much of my time trying to secure a previous customer that was too far gone. There has to be some tough decisions made about which accounts to pursue and which to put on a “drip” list. As a sales rep, this was a tough meeting to have with my sales manager (“Why can’t you get them back?”).

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Today we wrap up our year-long Sales Traits Series with the final installment. This week’s trait is one that provides us insight into a candidate’s soft skills when relating to a prospect or customer.

Sensitivity To Others
The ability to be sensitive and aware of the feelings of others, but not to allow this awareness to interfere with objective decision making.

A salesperson with strength in this trait will respond to the concerns of others even if they do not relate to the situation at hand.

A weakness in this area is indicative of an inability to identify and relate with others on a personal level. Such a person has a difficult time empathizing with the needs and concerns of those with whom they deal.

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We incorporate assessments into our hiring process and we sell assessments directly to companies. As you might guess, we are strong proponents of assessing candidates. Today’s ERE article presents an excellent explanation of what constitutes a “good” assessment.

It is a long article but definitely an interesting read. One topic we often discuss with prospective customers is benchmarking their top salespeople. We don’t do it. We benchmark the sale in that we define the parameters of a typical and ideal sale. This information leads to the job skills needed to succeed in the position.

Dr. Williams provides a clear description of the pitfalls of benchmarking top producers:

How does one define high-producer? By results or by actions that lead to results? It makes a big difference. Individuals in the high-producer group could have used different skills to get there. Some might be good politicians. Some might be very smart. Some might be taking credit for others’ work.

What about the confusion between correlation and causation? Just because ice-cream sales and shark attacks are correlated does not mean that one causes the other. Almost anything can be correlated, but not everything is causal. If you sort through enough garbage, you are likely to find correlations between cookie wrappers and hotdogs. So what? Your goal is to find a correlation between hotdogs and hotdog buns.

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From the Career News newsletter (sorry, no link-my emphasis):

And a growing number of employees have concluded that the best way to move up is to move around. According to international-employment-matchmaker Randstad’s latest World of Work Survey, more than half of today’s employed are searching the Internet for a better situation; yet most profess to be happy in their current jobs, despite a 41-to-60-hour work week.

A just-released study by the Conference Board confirms that almost three-quarters of job-seekers are pounding virtual pavement. They’re scanning Internet job boards like Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com and networking with friends, acquaintances and friends of acquaintances on sites like Facebook and its business-networking predecessor LinkedIn.

Most job hunters simply scout employer offerings on job sites, but significant percentages also post resumes and register for e-mail alerts of openings. And these aren’t necessarily unhappy campers, insists Harris Interactive, which conducted the Randstad study. “This year, we see the highest workforce morale in three years, mirrored by impressions of improved productivity and less pessimism about the state of the job market,” writes Harris Senior Vice President Deanna Wert. “These workers are looking to cash in on their skills,” adds Wert, “and are more likely to switch jobs than at any time in the past five years.”

Retention will be one of the most important sales management topics of 2008.

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When recruiting sales talent, we often get caught in the middle on one important topic. Timing. Sourcing a strong candidate who is looking to move at the right moment is a complex undertaking. Few salespeople will cash in their current job for blue-sky possibilities which is how most opportunities appear at the outset. As we approach Thanksgiving here in the States, the timing window shrinks.

With Q4 one third of the way complete, most salespeople have a good idea of how their quarter is going to finish up in terms of revenue and, more importantly, commission. On top of that, they probably have family time, holiday travel and time off already planned out on their schedule. Changing jobs now may interfere with some of those plans. These factors make the timing of a successful hire more difficult during the holiday season.

And there is another issue – how fast the hiring manager moves. Most hiring processes occur in the margins of the day. The sales manager is focused on growing revenue and hitting/exceeding targets. He or she does not necessarily place the highest priority on candidate hiring tasks. Often these activities are moved to non-sales times (outside of the 8 to 5 window), or they get pushed back. And let’s not forget that the hiring manager probably has the pressure of meeting their year-end revenue goals along with a busy holiday season.

So here we sit in the middle attempting to connect these two parties. The connection becomes more difficult when you include business travel, next-year planning/budget meetings and the ever-present customer surprises. It becomes a daunting task to move information at this point. Schedules, references, offers…all of these tasks become more difficult during the upcoming holiday window.

In terms of my sales manager days, I always found December to be a great time to onramp new salespeople heading into the new year. In order to accomplish this goal, I had to prioritize the time to work the hiring process. If you are hiring during Q4, I strongly encourage you to prioritize the hiring process during this time.

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This story is from Forbes.com – Seven Deadly Interview Sins:

David Hoffman (CEO) recalls taking a candidate out for dinner for the final interview. The candidate impressed the hiring committee throughout several rounds of interviews and he was their choice to become a senior consultant…This informal meeting was the final hurdle.

The candidate drank so much scotch that Hoffman had to call an ambulance and the candidate was taken by stretcher to the hospital where he was treated for alcohol poisoning. “You think I’m embellishing but I’m not,” says Hoffman.

I shouldn’t laugh but I keep thinking of the CEO having to call an ambulance at the restaurant.

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Corporate culture is an intriguing topic and one that is difficult to define. Lee and I both used to work for a company that attempted to measure, ascertain, define corporate culture through a homemade tool. It didn’t work, but the topic was still interesting.

I personally believe that culture is experienced directly from your manager. I worked in a company where my dictatorial manager created a department that was far different than other departments within sales.

In light of that theory, I give you this quick post from Inc.com Stan O’Neal Failed the First Rule of Leadership. The pull quote:

Beth and the other interns were given a strict set of rules governing how they should behave in the presence of the new CEO. If they saw him walking down the hall, they were to stay out of the way and not speak to him. If they were waiting for an elevator and the door opened and they saw him inside, they were not to get on. If they were already in the elevator and he got on, they were to step to the rear and keep their mouths shut.

Now that is a culture I would not want to experience firsthand.

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The latest update to Cover Letters From Hell is out and it is quite entertaining. The cover letter errors will make you laugh along with the snarky commentary from Killian’s people.

One of my personal favorites this time (Killian’s comments in italics):

“i am a freeelance writer and have worked with a magazine for almost three years before. i came across ur advertisement in [name of magazine]. if you wish i can send you my cv along with some sample writings.”

“To seek career in a dynamic & well Organization which offer Good oppertunities & challenging revelant exposure, self enchancement & growth…”

While we have no idea what this means, we’re pretty sure “self-enchancement” is illegal in at least twelve states, even in the privacy of your own oppertunity.

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I was on a sales conference call with one of our national customers this morning. The sales manager went around the horn asking each salesperson what contract/documentation they use when closing a new customer.

The company is lacking a structured contract. I know, scary. But the salty old sales guy in the group who has had success over the years had a great reply.

Sales manager: “Jim, you’ve been doing this a while. What do you use for a contract?”

Jim the sales guy: “A handshake and a smile.”

Good thing I had my phone muted.

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Here’s a mindbender for you – we have a customer who has a relatively new salesperson and a new sales manager. The salesperson has sold more than the 5 other new salespeople hired within a few months of him (mostly before him). The sales manager has not met the salesperson in person yet, but has voiced some concern about him.

The concern – this salesperson does not have industry experience (we sourced him from a completely different industry that has a similar sale). The industry they sell in is, well, to be blunt, rather not complex. Again, this salesperson is off to the best start of the group, but the sales manager has doubts about him.

This mindset is revealing of the worst type of bias any sales manager can have. The belief that industry experience trumps ability is 180 degrees out of phase. Unfortunately, we see it often in our sales hiring business. However, I must confess that I have never seen it as the salesperson is excelling in the role.

That is a first for me.

And hopefully the last.

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