{"id":1730,"date":"2008-09-11T11:58:54","date_gmt":"2008-09-11T16:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/09\/the-experience-myth\/"},"modified":"2008-09-11T11:53:08","modified_gmt":"2008-09-11T16:53:08","slug":"the-experience-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/09\/the-experience-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Experience Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As you have probably ascertained, we are strong proponents of hiring for ability\/potential that matches your sales as opposed to tenured experience in your industry.\u00a0 Naturally, this article &#8211; <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.managesmarter.com\/msg\/content_display\/management\/e3idef185a6ef750b7332803a5e8f0cb754\">The Myth of Experience<\/a> &#8211; from Managesmarter.com is right up our alley.<\/p>\n<p>Please allow me to reference an analogy from later in the article:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Don&#8217;t fall into the myth of relying upon experience. Instead look for potential. That&#8217;s why there is always an image of flowers on a package of seeds. We don&#8217;t really care what the seeds look like. We want to know what they will become.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I like that characterization even though I am not one to use &#8220;potential&#8221;&#8230;I prefer abilities and potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The author jumps right into it with a paragraph we could have written:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The truth is, we all have a tendency to think of experience in a way that is entirely too limiting. What we should be looking for is not direct experience but transferable skills. It is not whether someone has sold the same product or service before, but what have they carried with them:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Are they able to initiate relationships easily?<br \/>\n\u2022 Can they get a client to open up?<br \/>\n\u2022 Do they know how to identify and solve problems?<\/p>\n<p>These are some of the transferable skills that can take an individual successfully from one position to another\u2014and even from one career to another.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Transferable skills are the key to hiring salespeople.\u00a0 The best way to spot these skills is to profile your sale first, then find salespeople with skills that match up well to your sale.<\/p>\n<p>And finally, a suggestion that we support:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>An in-depth personality profile can provide the insights you need into whether an applicant has the potential you are looking for. Is it their empathy? Their persuasiveness? Their perseverance? Their ability to connect with people in a very real way? The capacity to quickly analyze problems and arrive at solutions?<br \/>\nDiscover that. Then look for applicants who have those same qualities. That&#8217;s the potential you&#8217;re looking for.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In sales, it is important to go into skills, motivations and abilities since personality is primarily a style issue.\u00a0 Nonetheless, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.managesmarter.com\/msg\/content_display\/management\/e3idef185a6ef750b7332803a5e8f0cb754\">this is an excellent article<\/a> and one I strongly recommend you read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As you have probably ascertained, we are strong proponents of hiring for ability\/potential that matches your sales as opposed to tenured experience in your industry.\u00a0 Naturally, this article &#8211; The Myth of Experience &#8211; from Managesmarter.com is right up our alley. Please allow me to reference an analogy from later in the article: Don&#8217;t fall into the myth of relying upon experience. Instead look for potential. That&#8217;s why there is always an image of flowers on a package of seeds. We don&#8217;t really care what the seeds look like. We want to know what they will become. I like that characterization even though I am not one to use &#8220;potential&#8221;&#8230;I&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/09\/the-experience-myth\/\">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":[6,16],"tags":[1748,1762,38,1000,352,999],"class_list":["post-1730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assessing","category-hiring-salespeople","tag-hiring","tag-hiring-salespeople","tag-sales-hiring","tag-sales-hiring-strategy","tag-sales-test","tag-salesperson-assessment"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-rU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":110,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/06\/sales-hiring-myth\/","url_meta":{"origin":1730,"position":0},"title":"Sales Hiring Myth","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I am a member of an online recruiter's group and have a mild interest in their topics. What we do at Select Metrix is far from recruiting, but we often get lumped in with recruiters so I figure it is good to know the topics that interest them. One myth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2230,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2010\/01\/interview-myths\/","url_meta":{"origin":1730,"position":1},"title":"Interview Myths","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This article from Yahoo\u2019s Hot Jobs contains 5 hiring myths designed to help candidates perform better in an interview.\u00a0 Myth #1 is excellent for the hiring manager: Myth #1: Be prepared with a list of questions to ask at the close of the interview. There is some truth in this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2518,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2012\/08\/5-tips-for-hiring-a-sales-manager\/","url_meta":{"origin":1730,"position":2},"title":"5 Tips For Hiring A Sales Manager","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"August 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This Selling Power article is a quick, solid read.\u00a0 The 5 tips are all on point with this one being my favorite: 2) Metrics without context. Your candidate noted that his or her team closed $2 million in sales last year. That's great. But what was the quota? What were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":683,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/02\/6-sales-hiring-mistakes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1730,"position":3},"title":"6 Sales Hiring Mistakes","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Salesopedia has this article on their home page this week - Six Common Mistakes in the Sales Hiring Process. Obviously we are going to read that one. First off, great quote from Zig Ziglar in the article: \"Sales people are really the only people in business who pay the bills!\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1538,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/04\/the-urgency-of-hiring\/","url_meta":{"origin":1730,"position":4},"title":"The Urgency Of Hiring","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"April 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"BusinessWeek.com has a terrific article about executive recruiting that applies to more than just executive positions.\u00a0 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":690,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/02\/10-simple-hiring-rules\/","url_meta":{"origin":1730,"position":5},"title":"10 Simple Hiring Rules","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Monster.com offers Hire Great People: 10 Simple Rules which contains some straight-forward, sound advice for any hiring activity. The article starts out with one of the most important rules to hiring (and often least followed): Rule number one is clear, but very counterintuitive: Don't ever, ever hire somebody just like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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