Isn’t that the truth?  Entrepreneur.com has an excellent archived article (from 2002) titled Hire and Hire that discusses hiring salespeople during a recession (no, we’re not in a recession).  The point is valid - economic downturns are the best time to upgrade and/or expand your sales team.

Pick the right talent, and your new salesperson will pay for himself or herself many times over. After all, Buckley points out, because your ability to make sales is the “engine that drives growth,” salespeople are “pay-for-themselves-type expenditures.”

That “pick the right talent” piece is not so easy, but it is the keystone of the approach.  Run a hiring process and make sure you use objective assessments.  This thinking does run against conventional wisdom, but it is an opportunity that many companies simply miss.

“If you can add to revenues, then there’s no need to cut costs,” he explains. “Companies that perform well in down markets, like outplacement firms, hire salespeople in recessions all the time.” Even if your company isn’t one of the few directly benefiting from the slowed economy, hiring new salespeople may still be a good way to boost revenues.

You can read the short article to see some of the qualifiers for this approach, but generally speaking, adding revenue through strong sales hires is the ideal way to handle an economic downturn.

If you're new here and like what you see, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Comments(0)

Even bad salespeople can appear to be strong in a face-to-face interview situation.  This reason is why sales recruiting is truly different than any other form of recruiting.  Reviewing resumes and assuming abilities is is a fool’s errand.  Yet, there are certain aspects of general recruiting that can that hinder effective sales recruiting.

The Resumes.
Yes, resumes.  I have sat through far too many discussions where hiring managers or recruiters attempted to divine incredible insight from a sheet of paper.  Granted, you can probably eliminate the retail salespeople from your B2B Sales manager process.  Sales is still a people-oriented profession so overanalyzing a document is not the most effective technique for filtering applicants.

Here is the issue - sales skills are not easily quantifiable.  They certainly cannot be determined from a resume.  They must be experienced, interviewed and questioned.

A salesperson’s most valuable tool is his or her qualifying ability.  Can they ask the tough questions?  Can they handle the rejection?  Can they drill down on fuzzy-worded responses?  This ability is the foundation of strong salespeople and it is most prominently displayed in the candidate’s questions.  This fact requires hiring managers or recruiters to have a discussion with the candidate.

The Questions.
This is a strange phenomenon - the strong candidate provides good answers in the interview but asks even better questions.  The hiring manager afterwards focuses solely on the candidate’s answers.  Obviously answers are important, but the questions are what point you towards a strong salesperson.

No, I’m not talking about standard interview questions.  I’m talking about questions that display their qualifying approach.  In your next sales interview, pay specific attention to the candidate’s questions and the order in which they ask them.  Trust me on this - you will learn more about their sales ability from that information than you will from their answers to standard interview questions.

The Recruiters.
Recruiting is a difficult undertaking.  Sales recruiting is brutal.  I know this will get flamed but I am a strong proponent of recruiters who specialize in sales only.  General recruiters who dabble in sales have a tendency to get schmoozed by slick salespeople who talk more than they sell.

I have talked to quite a few recruiters who believe that good talking equates to good selling.  It doesn’t.  This stereotype permeates sales hiring to this day.

Sales is filled with nuances that have to be identified by the recruiter and examined in the candidate.  Sales cycle, average order size, market position, selling system, competitive pressure, territory pressure…I could go on, but you get the picture.  Each position requires an understanding of these subtle points of information and what salesperson will best fit this criteria.  For this reason a sales recruiter is needed.

Comments(0)

From RecruitingTrends.com (my emphasis):

Manpower Inc. releases the results of its third annual talent shortage survey, revealing that 31% of employers globally are finding it increasingly more difficult to fill jobs. The top three candidates most in-demand are skilled manual trades, sales representatives and technicians (technical workers in the areas of production/operations, engineering and maintenance).

What would it be if they put a qualifier on finding the right salesperson?  I keep saying this - a strong salesperson is always in demand no matter what the economy is doing.

Comments(0)

BusinessWeek.com has a terrific article about executive recruiting that applies to more than just executive positions.  Sales hiring mirrors the same issues from the article.

The pull quote:

Not surprisingly, corporate bosses usually want to play a role in interviewing and assessing top candidates’ experience, qualifications, and fit with senior leadership. The problem arises when those leaders just don’t commit to the executive recruiting process. Often they fail to appreciate its urgency, the fact that candidates may be weighing other offers, or that candidate interviewing can be a process that’s unpredictable, and one that isn’t completely in their control. Even the hiring of a top-notch executive recruiter can’t guarantee there won’t be bumps along the way. Yes, your company may be doing the buying, but you can’t assume it’s a buyer’s market.

Oh, we have seen that in spades recently.  Here is exactly why this is an important point:

If candidates for top executive jobs come away from interviews feeling the company’s senior leaders aren’t really prioritizing their potential hiring, they’ll look elsewhere, especially since the most sought-after candidates usually have a handful of other career options to pursue.

We have seen this first-hand with sales candidates.  It doesn’t take much effort to get a feel for what the company’s responsiveness to a candidate.  Whether it is the correct read or not, the candidate still will draw his or her own conclusions.

This issue is critical in sales hiring.  Strong salespeople are strong qualifiers.  Once they lock in on an opportunity, they use their qualifying skills.  Companies that delay, disappear or deflect for long stretches often lose the strongest salespeople.

Comments(2)

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.

Comments(0)

Here’s what we often see from hiring managers or recruiters that focus on a wide variety of positions.  They tend to look for qualifications in their sourcing activities.  Obviously, this approach is warranted and required when sourcing for positions like accountants, medical personnel, IT, engineers and so forth.

But what about sales?  What qualifications determine sales success?  A college degree?  5, 7 or 10 years tenure?  Industry experience?

The difficulty in sales is that there are so few, if any, verifiable qualifications that properly filter applicants out.  The better approach is to list the skills that the sale requires.  Notice I didn’t write “position?”  The typical sale is what needs to drive the skills for the position.  This is why our initial task, before sourcing candidates, is to profile the sale.

I can’t stress this enough, job descriptions typically won’t define the skills needed for a strong sales hire.  They work for other positions, but sales is vastly different.  I think this is where general recruiters get into difficulty.  I’ll go further and say even experienced sales managers get in trouble here.  Many of our customers tell us that they have tried to hire salespeople themselves without any tools or processes and it was just a crap shoot.  All - all - of them have more than one sales hiring nightmare story.

Here is the crux of the problem when it comes to determining what is needed to hire the right salesperson - bachelor’s degrees and time in the industry do not predict success in sales.  “Ability to develop territory,” “strong hunter” and “service existing accounts” are not going to cut it.

You need to understand the sale.  There is a difference in skill sets needed if it takes 5 contacts to close 1 deal versus 55 contacts to close 1 deal.  There is a difference in skills needed to close a 1 year sales cycle versus a 1 week sales cycle.  This information provides the qualifications to determine sales success.

For instance, if the typical sale requires 75 calls (to suspects) that filter down to 1 sale and the average sales cycle is 2 weeks, you have to source candidates that have the ability to build rapport quickly, qualify efficiently and handle rejection easily.

Understanding the critical aspects of a typical sale is the starting point for a successful sales hire.

Comments(1)

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.

Comments(0)

That isn’t my commentary, it is from the author of the Inc.com blog Sold!.  His reasoning:

And there are some very good reasons why I believe woman are better suited for selling. Among them:

o In their personal lives and in business they tend to create relationships better.
o They tend to sell based on personal input and business input rather than just business.
o They listen.
o They don’t have a sales history that they are tied to, so “new” works for them.
o In many areas, women who are good in sales are still enough of a rarity to create a buzz.

Ok, it pays to be provocative when blogging so I give him credit.  You could start a spirited discussion about this topic, but I still think it is off target.  The key for hiring effective salespeople is to run a hiring process and objectively assess the candidates.

This approach means that gender is not a determining factor.  Skills, motivations, aptitudes, abilities and experience become the data used in the decision.  However, I do have to agree with the author’s final bullet point listed above.

Comments(0)

We’ve been on this topic a bit lately, but it is mission-critical to successful selling.  Asking questions…asking the right questions is tantamount to qualifying prospects.  Most sales managers know this, yet we often see them displaying selective amnesia when it comes to interviewing sales candidates.

Case in point:  Lee often observes sales managers who are underwhelmed with a candidate because the candidate didn’t “wow” them.  That’s understandable, but many times the manager isn’t wowed because the candidate is qualifying the opportunity instead of spewing feature/benefits.  It is at this point that Lee has to mention the different questions that the candidate asked in their responses and the information that candidate gathered in the interview.  What ends up happening is that the sales manager is answering questions and doesn’t pay as much attention to the question pattern of the candidate.

After the manager recounts the questions, they tend to be impressed with the candidate’s subtle ability.  Clearly there is more to it than just asking questions. Candidates need to be able to use the information they gather in an effective manner otherwise it is all for naught.  Yet, success starts with their questioning ability.

ManageSmarter.com offers a strong article titled Three Mistakes Every Sales Rep Makes Every Day.  From Mistake #2:

Prospects and clients share one commonality across all industries: they have a problem (or they wouldn’t be talking to you) and they are looking for help (a solution to that problem). The key to identifying a prospect’s “pain” is questions, questions and more questions. Going into a sales call/presentation, a customer/prospect expects the “pitch”—they expect that you will try and sell them on your product/service. What most don’t expect—and what separates the No.1 rep from the No. 10—is that you have a vested interest in not only their company’s success, but also their personal success. Prospects and clients love to talk about their company and its successes/struggles; you just have to open the door.

Perfect.  The personal success point is an important distinction within the paragraph.

Comments(0)

From Human Resource Executive Online’s Uncertain Economy, Uneven Hiring (emphasis mine):

Richard Fanelli, president of Fanelli McClain Design Studios, a commercial interior planning and design firm located in Fairfax, Va., says that his company is not hiring right now, but they’re scouting.

“We have to have the workload to support new hires,” he says. “But if I were to find the right person, I might hire them and then market harder to justify the hire.”

That is an interesting turn of phrase, isn’t it?  “Scouting” is an excellent verb to use in this context.  This is a practice we preach, but most companies don’t scout consistently.  This lack of consistency leads to a mad scramble after a salesperson walks in on a Friday afternoon and resigns.

Today’s high productivity, fast-paced market may make these scouting activities difficult for a sales manager to accomplish while growing revenue.  That is where a company like ours can stand in the gap and provide scouting reports on available candidates.

Comments(0)