BusinessWeek.com discusses recruiting strategies based on who you are trying to attract in Recruiting Today: What Are You Promising?  There are some excellent examples of different programs initiated by different companies.  However, this one jumped off the screen:

In some cases, offering young employees a unique opportunity can have special appeal. DHL, which used to hire only experienced salespeople, offered nine recent college grads a shot at sales last year (and a comprehensive training program to support the move). The company, which is expanding the program this year, says the program not only attracted nine top candidates, but the new hires generated more revenue and more shipments per sale.

Many hiring managers wouldn’t expect that result, would they?  The conventional wisdom in sales hiring is that experience is what matters most.  This is a bad assumption.  Skills, motivations and aptitudes are a much better predictor of success.

The ideal hire is usually a salesperson who has the right blend of these traits for your specific sale, has a presence about them on the phone and has some industry experience.  But I would put them in that order of priority when hiring salespeople.

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Another good article here from WSJ titled New Career, Same Employer.  The gist of the article:

Ernst & Young LLP last year named Nancy Harley director of career mobility for the Americas, a new position designed to help employees of the accounting firm move into new roles. “The longer someone stays intrigued and challenged, the longer they’re going stay with the firm,” Ms. Harley says.

Observers say employers are creating or expanding these programs to improve retention rates in a competitive job market, particularly as Baby Boomers begin to retire.

The initiatives typically include Web-based programs for evaluating employees’ career goals and suggesting relevant paths.

Interesting title - director of career mobility.  That position, or some form of it, may become quite common in the next 5 years.  Evaluating skills, talents and motivations is already a common tool used today by companies in both hiring, evaluating and promoting.

Here is an example from the article of how a large company handles this topic:

Accenture’s career-change initiative includes resources such as an online skills-assessment tool and a Web page featuring video clips of workers who have changed careers at the company. Every Accenture employee has an internal career counselor. Employees are urged to work with these counselors to develop a plan, including searching the company’s internal online job board.

I like the idea of an internal career counselor.  Obviously, Accenture is large so they have the ability to offer these resources.  However, managers can still be tuned into these topics with their employees.  This management skill will surely become more important as Gen Y increasingly becomes the largest generation in the workforce.

On a related note, I wrote an article a couple years ago that talked about Gen X and Y desiring a skills path for their personal development.  You can read it here.

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Especially when you can simply look at someone’s shoes.  This Yahoo News story has to be an April Fool’s joke:

Mindset Media, a media company that examines personality traits of different consumers, found that people who buy more than three pairs of sneakers a year are 61 percent more likely to have the qualities of a modern leader.

These qualities were defined as having ideas and vision, and a style with others that is both inclusive and decisive.

The survey of 7,500 people, using market research group Nielsen’s online panel, found multi-sneaker buyers were 50 percent more likely to be very assertive and 47 percent more likely to be spontaneous.

It gets worse better:

Hybrid car owners were found to be 78 percent more likely to be highly creative than other people and less dogmatic.

This has to be a prank.

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Lee and I recently attended certification training for one of the assessments we use and found the training to be quite good.  The part that made it memorable is the fact that we were asked to use the assessments in real-life scenarios.  That type of training sticks, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Simulation Shows What It’s Like to Be Boss:

That realistic feeling is a big reason companies such as NetApp use simulations to help train managers in complex subjects such as strategic thinking. Experts say adults absorb information better when they use it, not just hear it.

There is a quote from earlier in the article that is excellent:

“You never have perfect information; you never have enough time,” Mr. Tabloski said. “That was particularly real.”

Isn’t that true?  We see this play out with candidates right now, too.  They have other opportunities.  Strong salespeople are always in demand no matter what the economy is doing.  Some hiring managers want to ruminate about their decision to the point where they lose strong candidates (we’ve had that happen a couple times this year already).

When you are hiring, you never have perfect information on a candidate.  There is always a level of unknown factors that makes hiring so difficult.  But you can have more information than a resume and your gut feeling.

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I’ve read many sales technique articles recently that discuss how to approach a prospect.  Salespeople are expected to have a cursory knowledge of the company itself, it’s market and, to some extent, whether or not they have a solution that may be a fit for this prospective customer.  Gone are the days of cold calling a prospect and asking what it is their company does.

I think everyone can agree with that paragraph.  So why do companies still expect hiring managers to go through the added discovery of sorting out communication styles, motivations and skill sets?  Granted, most managers want to verify these items, but assessments provide a starting point that not only speeds up the process, they enhance it.

We assess candidates before the initial interview.  The first benefit here is that we actually screen out candidates that are not a strong fit for the position.  There is no need to interview them if they are completely misaligned to the position’s requirements.

Second, the assessment results provide a foundation to start the interview process.  Now that the hiring manager has some measurement of the unknown candidate to provide context immediately in the interview.  The discovery phase is shortened drastically and a focused interview can occur.

If we measure a candidate’s sales skills and find an underdeveloped area, we provide the hiring manager with specific questions to drill down during the interview.  These areas can be explored in the initial interview which allows the hiring manager to reach their decision faster with more objective data to support the decision.

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Here’s an interesting little article I stumbled across this morning from Seacoastonline.com titled Get the most out of your sales team.  The premise is simple and accurate - nonproductive salespeople are the bane of any small (or large) business.

A nonproductive sales team is among the top common dangers that cause many small businesses to fail.

Analyzed studies reveal that a large percentage of small businesses are unsuccessful because of underperforming sales people who bring in, at a minimum, 50 percent less revenue than top performers, according to researcher Dr. John Sullivan, professor of Economics at San Francisco State University.

…

Studies indicate that a common reason for poor performance in the sales department is a lack of focus and poor time management. It’s vital for struggling small businesses to get their sales team on the right track.

Those first 3 months of a new salesperson’s employment is the most critical time period in their employment.  The pattens for their employment are set during this time - expectations, rules, focus, communication…I could keep going, but you get the point.

My thought is that many small business owners are pulled in many directions and therefore cannot dedicate the needed time for their new salesperson.  Knowing this fact leads the owners to hire salespeople from their industry.  Their thought process is that an industry salesperson will require less training, if any at all.  This approach is what leads to recycling mediocrity within salespeople.

Sales success may be measured simply by results. Managers may have the opportunity to observe their staff in action and identify areas that way. However, sales assessment tools can also be a valuable way to determine what additional training may be needed to boost the success of your sales team.

These tools provide a balanced view of strengths and need-to-improve areas. They take the emotional piece of performance review out of the picture and provide the sales person with a very comprehensive evaluation, along with materials to chart out an improvement plan.

“Objectivity” is the keyword.  We use our assessments to measure a salesperson’s strength areas and weaknesses.  The key is to neutralize the weaknesses and develop the strengths.  Many times managers attempt to turn weaknesses into strength which usually ends up frustrating all parties involved in the training.

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Personality assessments, or “communication style” as I prefer, are highly valuable in the hiring process for one important aspect - communication.  How many office conflicts have you seen where poor communication was adding oxygen to the fire?  We see it in almost every office conflict.

One way to diffuse these situations is to assess candidates before they join your team.  Doing so allows the manager to know the preferred communication style of the new employee.  This knowledge can also predict potential conflict areas between two employees before any conflict develops.

However, there are still companies out there who harbor concerns about assessments.  One common concern is mentioned in this BusinessWeek.com article - Personality and the Perfect Job:

Isn’t there a danger that employers who use personality tests as part of the employment process stereotype individuals?

Enlightened employers consider personality as only one facet of the selection process. Finding the right “fit” between the job and the person should be a win-win proposition and should be a matter of discussion for any professional interview process.

Some of the personality traits to consider: Do you prefer a structured environment, or is a variety of tasks more important? Do you thrive in crisis situations or value consistent processes? Would you rather work primarily by yourself, or as a member of a team? Are you a big-picture thinker, or do you excel in making sure all the details of a job are completed? Knowing both your own preferences and the requirements of a prospective job can help you (and the employer) make a choice that will give good prospects for ongoing success.

The key point in there is to know what the job requires.  My concern with personality assessments is not that they stereotype individuals but rather that hiring managers think there is only 1 personality that can succeed in the position.  This reason is why I prefer to use the term “style” instead.  Personality is really more about style and how someone will approach people, problems, data, etc.  It is not indicative of skills, aptitudes and motivations.

This distinction must be made when hiring.  In the end, assessing solely for style is still better than not assessing at all.

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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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This article ranks 50 metros in terms of relative ”stress” and I was glad to see my metro did not make the top 10. We did, however, miss the “Top 10 Least Stressful” metros (by one place). Distressing, to say the least. Those of us who live in the Twin Cities love to brag on our quality of life, even more so than our weather. We love being in the top 10 of any silly survey.

It made me think about the stress of working in sales. The constant pressure to perform. The uncertainty of the deal. The hidden power centers and arcane purchasing rules. The shifty clients and the wayward economy. Off-shore competition. Crabby sales managers (OK, that was a dig, but I am entitled having lived on both sides of that aisle).

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

When you’re interviewing for that next sales person, you better find out how they handle stress or you might simply be adding to your own. Does the candidate shut down? Blame others? Avoid confrontation (and thereby avoid closing the tough deal)? Or do they readily accept the conditions of the job and figure out ways to succeed without exploding?

Now, you say to yourself, if this is such a key attribute, how do I evaluate that candidate? Ask them during the final interview?

Better to address it with a careful assessment, up front. Our friends at Select Metrix capture a lot of key information during their online assessment of sales candidates, including skills, motivations and rewards. Plus, they use their unique approach as another proving ground, each conversation or contact with the candidate carefully crafted to place that salesperson into facsimiles of real-life sales situations. The candidate is evaluated not only by their answers to the assessment questions, but also in how they respond to the challenges, topic shifts and intentional obstacles that the Select Metrix interviewer throws at them. It’s like this – they try to intentionally stress them out to see how they handle it!

Here’s the analogy that pops into my head – an NFL quarterback who can’t handle crowd noise won’t succeed, despite all the basic skills and athletic ability. So too, a sales professional needs to be able to handle the stress of our highly competitive and fast-paced world of commerce.

Assess the stress and stay out of the scary forest.

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One of the most important aptitudes in sales is a proper results orientation.  The key word is “results.”  Oftentimes we encounter sales managers who place their focus on activity orientation instead of results.

An example would be a salesperson who has a furiousness to their work…almost like their hair is on fire.  But no significant deals seem to close despite their frantic pace.

I used to work for a sales manager who would describe those salespeople as a horse-drawn wagon.  There would always be a cloud of dust around them, but at the end of the day, the wagon hadn’t moved.

Salespeople who lack a strong results orientation are often like that wagon.  Activity is important to success, but results are the actual goal.  This ability to drive for results can be measured in both your existing salespeople and potential sales candidates.

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