Assessing, Select Metrix

How To Fix Employee Conflicts

January 22, 2019May 16, 2019Derrick MoeNo Comments

If you have been in leadership for any length of time, you have had to deal with employee conflicts amongst your team. Some of the issues are trivial, others substantial, but what do you do to fix these problems? The source of most conflict in the workplace flows from one specific area – Motivations. We assess motivations as part of our tools in helping companies hire and evaluate talent. Motivations are an interesting aspect of our psyches. They are deeply seated and have the power to drive behaviors, decision-making, and more. The difficulty of motivations is that they are difficult to determine from simply interacting with someone. Maybe if you… Read More

How To Pace Your Coworkers

November 27, 2018May 16, 2019Derrick MoeNo Comments

The DISC assessment provides volumes of invaluable information for dealing with others. One key aspect is understanding the pace of others as it can create tension in any office…or sales situation. There are certain aspects to pace that are specific to individuals including whether they focus on people or tasks first. Are they detailed or rapid fire? What drives the pace they prefer? TTI provides a terrific description of how the differences in styles presents a difference in pace. A few, quick takeaways: The D of DISC is called Dominance. A person possessing this behavioral style will tend to be fast paced a majority of the time. Direct in their communication,… Read More

Best Salesperson Traits

May 22, 2017May 16, 2019Derrick MoeNo Comments

Two crucial salesperson traits that rarely get discussed. Ok, not my list but Bill Golder’s article on LinkedIn: Top 5 traits of the best sales people I’ve ever seen The list hits on two traits that I believe are crucial to sales success. The first is curiosity. This trait sounds insignificant, but it is far from it. From the article: Every salesperson knows that you have to ask good questions and be a good listener. Unfortunately, far too many simply go through the motions based on some type of training or methodology they’ve adopted vs. truly demonstrating an interest in solving a customer’s problem. The best sales people are not… Read More

Your Boss Is A Psychopath

May 8, 2017May 16, 2019Derrick MoeNo Comments

Maybe, according to this article in Entrepreneur. Check out this statistic: …experts say there’s almost one psychopath for every 100 people, with rates shooting up in the workplace, especially in leadership, thanks to psychopaths’ ease with manipulation. Research finds that nearly 4 percent of corporate CEOs are psychopaths, and this rate is nearly doubled among middle managers. (Shockingly, the share of psychopaths among middle managers is nearly as high as the share of psychopaths in medium security prisons.) I have worked for many bosses with whom I would question their psychopathic tendencies. I suppose that term deserves definition from within the article. A psychopath stands out, Woodward says, thanks to… Read More

Oddities That Make Strong Salespeople-Noncompliance

March 9, 2017May 16, 2019Derrick MoeNo Comments

I’ve been assessing salespeople since 2001 which, as you can imagine, has provided some unique experiences. These experiences have revealed some odd factors that seem to be supportive of sales success. The oddity is that there seems to be a yin and a yang to abilities…a give and a take. Here are just a few: Fearlessness vs. Compliance This oddity might be the most common. There is a component to successful selling that involves a fearlessness to adroitly ask difficult questions to qualify prospects. Many (most) people are uncomfortable asking these questions. For instance, it is “impolite to discuss money” is one of our social mores. However, you will not… Read More

The Most Dangerous Sales Weakness

April 22, 2016May 17, 2019Derrick Moe

Sales is a difficult role, I would argue the most difficult role, in any company. The skill set and mind set required to be successful is rare in the general population. Yet, strong salespeople are out there and hopefully on your team. However, most teams that we assess have a salesperson (or more) who is not performing up to expectations. This salesperson seems to have the tools, but something is holding him or her back. The concern I always have, in this situation, is that they possess the most dangerous sales weakness. Fear of rejection. For sales, this is the big one. This weakness can single-handedly neutralize any strengths the… Read More

3 Tips To Hire Salespeople

January 18, 2016May 17, 2019Derrick Moe

From the Harvard Business Review Tip of the Day email: Most companies spend more on hiring in sales than they do in any other part of the organization. With an average annual turnover rate of 25 to 30%, and direct replacement costs ranging from $75,000 to $300,000, there’s a big opportunity for improvement. Here are a few places to start (emphasis mine): Focus on behaviors. A primary cause of turnover is poor job fit. Consider ramping up assessment tools, simulations, and interviewing techniques to help identify the right people. Or, try temporary positions to assess people on the job before offering a full-time position. Be clear about the relevant “experience”… Read More

Do Great Salespeople Make Great Managers?

August 4, 2015August 4, 2015Derrick Moe

That is an age-old question, isn’t it? You can insert your favorite sports example here which typically involves a superstar/Hall of Fame-caliber athlete who fails as a coach because the game came too easy to him. But does this analogy work in the sales arena also? This Sales & Marketing Management article approaches the topic with aplomb. The pull quote (emphasis mine): Sometimes great salespeople aren’t as good at coaching and managing other people – they’re excellent at being individual contributors, they’re great at building relationships with customers and working deals from start to finish, but they lack the patience or coaching ability or intangible interpersonal savvy to be responsible… Read More

The Singular Difference Between Introverts and Extroverts

July 1, 2015July 1, 2015Derrick Moe

Stereotypes abound around introverts and extroverts-most of them are simply untrue. The stereotypes go too far in categorizing behaviors. Part of the issue flows from the Myers-Briggs and its binary assignment of introversion/extroversion. You are simply one or the other…completely, according to that tool (of which I am not a big fan). This article provides a succinct, accurate definition based on Jung’s work: Shyness and being outgoing don’t have anything to do with it; it’s more about where we get our energy from. In fact, the differences are pretty simple: Introverts get exhausted by social interaction and need solitude to recharge. Extroverts get anxious when left alone and get energy… Read More

Cultural Qualifying

June 26, 2015June 26, 2015Derrick Moe

I ran into an old coworker, whom I consider a good friend, at a coffee shop this Friday morning. He is the VP of Sales with 75 or so direct reports. His company is international with a majority of their revenue occurring in Asia. He was telling me about sales training he held for the entire sales team. The focus was on negotiating and, more specifically, how to ask the right questions to qualify the opportunity. The Asian sales reps balked at some of the questions based solely on their approach to qualifying. Let’s just say they prefer to take a more passive, unquestioning approach which leads to prayer rug… Read More

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