{"id":56110,"date":"2019-10-02T07:34:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T12:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/?p=56110"},"modified":"2019-10-02T07:34:04","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T12:34:04","slug":"gathering-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2019\/10\/gathering-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"Gathering > Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"boldgrid-section\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-12 col-xs-12 col-sm-12\">\n<h4 class=\"\">This statement is going to sound blunt, but gathering information is always more important than giving information in a selling process. &nbsp;This truth may sound counterintuitive to the stereotypical sales process. &nbsp;However, it is crucial to understand this approach.<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\">The stereotypical thought is that good talkers make good salespeople. &nbsp;I hear this conventional wisdom every week when dealing with sourcing sales candidates. &nbsp;It is a well-established belief and it is completely wrong. &nbsp;Strong salespeople are more closely related to adroit investigators -they ask good questions, pursue the right topics, and drill down on ambiguous responses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The ability to understand this approach is to first realize who is running a qualifying conversation. &nbsp;Is it the person talking or the person asking the questions who is controlling the conversation? &nbsp;If you answered the person asking the questions then you are correct.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The person asking the questions is controlling the topics, choosing the depth of the topic discussion, and gathering the information needed to determine if they have a real prospect or not. &nbsp;The only way to accomplish these tasks is to allow the potential prospect to share information. &nbsp;Now granted, prospects are not always eager to share all information and, dare I say it, some prospects (all?) don&#8217;t always tell the truth. &nbsp;The prospects use stalls, objections, misdirection, commissions, etc. to refrain from telling the salesperson all of the details needed to qualify the opportunity. &nbsp;The prospects&#8217; approach is the reason you must find skilled salespeople to handle qualifying potentially deceptive prospects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The conventional wisdom in sales hiring is to find &#8220;good talkers.&#8221; &nbsp;I cannot count how many times I have been told that a referred sales candidate would do well in a sales role because they are loquacious in speech. &nbsp;A good conversationalist maybe, a word salad bloviator no. &nbsp;The first trait to locate in a sales candidate is their questioning ability tied to their listening ability. &nbsp;You can see these traits in action if you spend 30 min. on a phone screen with them. &nbsp;You will see their conversational ability in person and, more importantly, you will observe how they question and control a conversation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">You can follow up your findings regarding a potentially strong sales candidate with an in-depth assessment. &nbsp;The assessment will tell you how they prefer to communicate, what drives their decision-making and what natural abilities they have for accurate listening. &nbsp;This approach, in concert with an effective phone screen, will help you find stronger, skilled salespeople.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><a class=\"btn btn-pill btn-color-5 btn-glow\" style=\"color: #ffffff;\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/assessing\/\">Gather More Today<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This statement is going to sound blunt, but gathering information is always more important than giving information in a selling process. &nbsp;This truth may sound counterintuitive to the stereotypical sales process. &nbsp;However, it is crucial to understand this approach. The stereotypical thought is that good talkers make good salespeople. &nbsp;I hear this conventional wisdom every week when dealing with sourcing sales candidates. &nbsp;It is a well-established belief and it is completely wrong. &nbsp;Strong salespeople are more closely related to adroit investigators -they ask good questions, pursue the right topics, and drill down on ambiguous responses. The ability to understand this approach is to first realize who is running a qualifying&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2019\/10\/gathering-giving\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[257,142],"class_list":["post-56110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sales-techniques","category-sourcing","tag-hiring-sales","tag-sales-technique"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-eB0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1729,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/09\/stereotypical-features-and-benefits\/","url_meta":{"origin":56110,"position":0},"title":"Stereotypical Features And Benefits","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I am not fan of features and benefits selling.\u00a0 I don't even think that approach belongs in a retail sales environment.\u00a0 The better approach is to qualify the prospect for need - What are they looking for?\u00a0 What is it they need to have\/do?\u00a0 What is their time frame?\u00a0 You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Techniques&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2354,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2010\/06\/social-skills-vs-sales-skills\/","url_meta":{"origin":56110,"position":1},"title":"Social Skills vs. Sales Skills","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"If you\u2019re talking you\u2019re not selling.\u00a0 That is an old axiom I learned early in my sales career and it is always true.\u00a0 Talking does not equal selling. Unfortunately, people not experienced in sales hiring often have the opposite view.\u00a0 Their stereotypical belief is that the best salespeople are 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":1911,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/02\/hiring-a-system\/","url_meta":{"origin":56110,"position":2},"title":"Hiring A System","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If you have noticed a decrease in hiring topics of late there is a reason why\u2026few companies are hiring.\u00a0 We have seen it affect our business too.\u00a0 We had an early glimpse of it last year around Q2 as our assessment business started to decline gradually.\u00a0 That is a painful\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Economy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1393,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/01\/topgrading-the-sales-force\/","url_meta":{"origin":56110,"position":3},"title":"Topgrading The Sales Force","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"That is an excellent turn of phrase from Dave Kurlan's recent blog post.\u00a0 He provides an excellent explanation of how hiring processes regress to the stereotypical approach that leads to \"safe\" hires that don't produce sales.\u00a0 I know Kurlan is accurate because we see this regression occur first hand. Companies\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":166,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/07\/are-your-salespeople-doing-these-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":56110,"position":4},"title":"Are Your Salespeople Doing These Things?","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Lists . . . we love 'em. Here is a good one from justsell.com. 17 things a salesperson should continually be doing during the selling process. I'll repost them all here with my emphasis: positively expectant enthusiastic asking questions listening qualifying the opportunity (for both parties) discovering hot buttons (what's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Techniques&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59750,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2020\/01\/orientation-vs-onboarding-vs-onramping\/","url_meta":{"origin":56110,"position":5},"title":"Orientation vs. Onboarding vs. Onramping","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the keys to successful sales leadership is getting newly-hired salespeople up-to-speed quickly.\u00a0 The time it takes to move them from wide-eyed new hire to qualifying ninja is critical to any company.\u00a0 High-performing salespeople are the lifeblood of any company. The way I see it, companies employ one of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Leadership&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Leadership","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/leadership\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Onramp.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Onramp.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Onramp.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Listening.png?fit=560%2C315","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56110","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=56110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56591,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56110\/revisions\/56591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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