Hiring Salespeople, Select Metrix

Those Lyin’ Candidates

March 12, 2021March 12, 2021Derrick MoeNo Comments

Sales candidates have a propensity for…expanding the truth. That fact could be stated differently, but let’s stick with this wording. Elon Musk has accepted this fact, according to this Entrepreneur article. His approach: …the mogul asks his aspirants to tell him one of the most difficult problems they have had to solve or face in their life and how they managed to overcome it. According to the employer, the people who solved the problem know exactly how they did it and can describe the little details. However, those who lie will not be able to tell their story convincingly. This approach is effective and revealing. We use a similar approach… Read More

Finding Sales Talent In Other Departments

June 25, 2019June 25, 2019Derrick MoeNo Comments

The labor market is as tight as it has been in decades leading some to say we are at full employment. This labor scarcity is driving companies to look for sales talent in other departments. Have you ever thought someone would be good at selling? Do they seem to have potential? The key here is follow your intuition, but you need to know if it is correct. This is where we can help with our sales assessment tools. What we are looking for in the assessments are intrinsic abilities that lead to sales success. These abilities do not revolve around the gift to gab. The ability to listen effectively, ask… Read More

4 Pillars Of Successful Sales Selection

June 13, 2017June 4, 2019Derrick MoeNo Comments

Successful sales hiring, in any company, is one of the most difficult tasks in which to achieve repeatable success. From unexpected outbursts to terminal tardiness to woeful incompetence, every company has a sales hiring horror story regarding employees who interviewed strong but performed poorly. Perhaps a subtle, but more dangerous occurrence is the all-too-common hire who performs their job in the gray twilight of mediocrity. They never rise to the occasion and they never catastrophically fail. They interviewed well but now simply perform their role in a nondescript manner within the company. Amass too many of these employees and your company will be overwhelmed with mediocrity…or worse. How do you… Read More

Reading Microexpressions A Key To Sales?

July 20, 2016May 16, 2019Derrick MoeNo Comments

In a word…yes. We spend a fair amount of time working with salespeople to access their empathy and read the prospect in a qualifying situation. This ability is one of the keys to all successful selling. This article from Harvard Business Review provides a thorough breakdown of this topic. A first pull quote from the article: In my work as a body language researcher and instructor, I’ve long theorized that one of the key differences between exceptional negotiators or salespeople and those who are merely average is the ability to read these microexpressions, gauge visceral reactions to ideas or proposals, then strategically steer them toward a preferred outcome. And why… Read More

A Mission-Critical Sales Metric

May 6, 2016May 11, 2016Derrick MoeNo Comments

Seems simple, but here it is: Let me offer up some definitions of each box: Connects: Cold contact from a list or similar resource Suspects: Contacted and have general need or use for your product/service Prospects: Qualified for need, budget & buying time Quotes: Formal proposal to do business Close: Completed order in response to quote Again, this is a simple concept, but it is of great consequence when hiring salespeople. We call it the Connects-to-Close ratio and it defines many of the parameters you need to use in your hiring efforts. There are many layers to the ratio that impact the sales skills, selling style and aptitudes to measure… 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

Don’t Ask This Interview Question

September 10, 2015September 10, 2015Derrick Moe

I haven’t heard of this one but it is intriguing: To boost the chances of preventing that hiring misstep, there’s one easy tactic everyone should take in an interview: Stop asking candidates to evaluate their own abilities. Here’s why. Underskilled candidates consistently overrate their abilities, and more skilled candidates consistently underrate their abilities. There’s even a name for this: the Dunning-Kruger effect, a psychological research finding that the poorest performers are the least aware of their own incompetence. So I’m immediately left questioning why? Are highly-skilled salespeople awash in humility? I don’t think so and neither does the author. Top performers set higher standards for their own performance, so they… Read More

2 Habits That Undermine Salespeople

July 28, 2015July 28, 2015Derrick Moe

Supposition – something that is supposed; assumption; hypothesis Think of supposition, in sales parlance, as being synonymous with stereotyping. This is a dangerous approach to sale in that once you start making assumptions, you start derailing your qualifying skills. In most prospect situations, once you stop truly qualifying you are headed towards prospects that are welded on your forecast 90 days out. Eternally. Proposition – the act of offering or suggesting something to be considered, accepted, adopted, or done I suspect you are thinking of value proposition which makes sense. I read an interesting post that turned that term upside down. The author suggested selling to the customer’s value expectations… Read More

Objectivity Trumps Bias

May 7, 2015May 7, 2015Derrick Moe

We are all biased, it is simply how we are wired no matter what people believe. Our brains have the innate ability to categorize – a distinct survival mechanism for sure. This ability becomes problematic in the hiring process as hiring managers can often be influenced by their own biases when making hiring decisions. To be blunt, hiring managers are prewired to clone themselves in their hires. So what of this? Does it matter? If your hiring manager is strong, especially a sales manager, wouldn’t it be best to clone them? No. End of post…ok, I won’t be so short. The key to successful hiring, especially as it pertains to… Read More

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