{"id":243,"date":"2006-08-18T08:59:39","date_gmt":"2006-08-18T13:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/?p=243"},"modified":"2006-08-18T08:59:09","modified_gmt":"2006-08-18T13:59:09","slug":"a-hiring-riddle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/08\/a-hiring-riddle\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hiring Riddle"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><font color=\"#800080\">Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.<\/font><font color=\"#800080\">      -Albert Einstein<\/p>\n<p><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here is a riddle we constantly encounter yet have difficulty solving. Let&#8217;s say you are the sales manager for a somewhat complex product sale and you have an underperforming salesperson. The salesperson is well below quota, has an ethereal forecast and is not making enough prospect connects to turn it around. What do you do as a sales manager?<\/p>\n<p>My solution &#8211; pull them from their territory for 1 week of intense product training. I&#8217;m talking <em>deep training<\/em> down to the part production, software coding, product assembly nether regions of operations. If you can pump enough product information into their brain, high-margin sales revenue will certainly follow . . . quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Right? Are you with me?<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully you see this approach as insanity. It is. Yet, many companies apply this logic when hiring a salesperson. Exact industry experience becomes the weighted predictor of success in their position. To make matters worse, over-valued industry experience is deduced from a resume that has almost certainly been embellished. This trap is the main cause of poor sales hiring.<\/p>\n<p>The number 1 predictor of successful selling is sales skills <em>not<\/em> industry experience. Every company that we encounter has resident experts for their product or service. I guarantee it will take more time, effort and resources to teach a salesperson how to sell than it will ever take to teach them about your product or service. Some sales candidates only sale will be to land on your payroll.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t succumb to the experience trap when hiring. Look for abilities that are needed in your particular sale. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Process_Main.html\" target=\"_blank\">Objectively assess<\/a> candidates. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Contact_Us_Main.html\" target=\"_blank\">Contact us<\/a> if you need assistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein Here is a riddle we constantly encounter yet have difficulty solving. Let&#8217;s say you are the sales manager for a somewhat complex product sale and you have an underperforming salesperson. The salesperson is well below quota, has an ethereal forecast and is not making enough prospect connects to turn it around. What do you do as a sales manager? My solution &#8211; pull them from their territory for 1 week of intense product training. I&#8217;m talking deep training down to the part production, software coding, product assembly nether regions of operations. If you can pump&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/08\/a-hiring-riddle\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,16,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiring","category-hiring-salespeople","category-sourcing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-3V","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":762,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/03\/sales-skills-trump-all-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":243,"position":0},"title":"Sales Skills Trump All Others","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"There is something about industry experience that is seductive to many hiring managers. The allure of a salesperson who has been \"in the industry\" for some time is almost irresistible. The same infatuation seems to exist with salespeople once they are on the payroll. The salesperson's ability to understand the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":747,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/03\/hire-fast-fire-fast\/","url_meta":{"origin":243,"position":1},"title":"Hire Fast, Fire Fast","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"From Dick Costolo's Ask the Wizard blog: Briefly, the \"No False Positives\" school of hiring says that bad hires are worse than no hire because bad employees infect the company with all sorts of issues. Better to march on with nobody filling an important slot than to bring in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1591,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/definition-of-insanity-ats-and-sales-hiring\/","url_meta":{"origin":243,"position":2},"title":"Definition Of Insanity-ATS And Sales Hiring","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"May 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"According to Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.\u00a0 According to a recent post on Recruiting Trends and a 2007 survey from DDI & Monster regarding corporate hiring systems: Less than 50% stated that they were satisfied with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1938,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/03\/companies-get-it-wrong-too\/","url_meta":{"origin":243,"position":3},"title":"Companies Get It Wrong Too","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I was recollecting about a job I took in which I felt I did everything right.\u00a0 It is doubtful I did, but it is my recollection so bear with me.\u00a0 I qualified the opportunity, the sale, the expectations and the ramp time.\u00a0 All of the responses were a good fit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1365,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/01\/observational-management\/","url_meta":{"origin":243,"position":4},"title":"Observational Management","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I kid you not, this approach comes from a manager of a small company that recently hired a new salesperson.\u00a0 The salesperson traveled to the company for a couple days of training before his official start date.\u00a0 He did this on his own dime so he could accelerate his ramp-up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Onramping&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Onramping","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/onramping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2432,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2010\/10\/skills-pay-the-bills\/","url_meta":{"origin":243,"position":5},"title":"Skills Pay The Bills","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I am slowly coming to the realization that many (most?) sales hiring managers are drawn to hiring experience like a moth is drawn to light.\u00a0 I am seeing it play out again at one of our assessment customers.\u00a0 The allure is to hire a salesperson with industry experience before properly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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