After a pleasant lunch with one of my brothers I walked to my car and found this flyer stuck in my windshield wiper. I had to laugh.
That morning I was chatting with a Sales VP. He had just taken over the reins and was doing his due diligence on a number of issues including recruitment. What he described was a typical lack of rigor in their approach to selecting sales talent. He described some “uga buga”, crystal ball, astrology like practices that were in place.
Here are just a few of the things he told me.
1. We tend to hire jocks. The CEO was a college football player and big golfer. He thinks athletes are naturally competitive and therefore the best suited for sales. Gender didn’t matter but they did seem to have a 90-10 mix of men vs. women.
2. They poach from their competitors. The industry is incestuous. Everyone knows everyone else and people bounce from one firm to the next. The promise is that they will bring their book of business with them.
3. The sales managers agreed that they knew a good rep when they saw one. When interviewing they felt they could spot a winner within minutes.
4. They felt they needed to sell the candidates on joining the firm. After all, applicants were taking a big risk coming over to our side. We need to tell them what a great place this is and the kind of money and career opportunities that exist.
5. There were no standards or metrics around recruitment. When an opening occurred the manager dialed 1-800- HR Recruiting and started looking for the best talent.
Of course these SOP’s were yielding predictable results in terms of high turnover, slow ramp time to productivity and stagnant new business growth.
Lets look at each one of these common ailments and see if we can counter them.
1. We tend to hire jocks…… This one is so arcane it hardly warrants an answer. Most sales forces I’ve worked in or with had women at the top of the stack rankings. Moreover, there are a lot of women buyers today in most industries and they notice when your sales force isn’t diverse. http://www.strategicsearches.com/2015/04/24/women-advantage-sales-industry/
2. They poach from their competitors. Problem is very little of that business switches. At best they bring a big deal they were working on. Its is also hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Better to hire fresh thinkers from outside your business as opposed to inherit a bunch of bad habits.
3. The sales managers knew a good rep when they saw one. They should quit their jobs as sales managers and make a fortune in recruiting. The odds on interviewing alone as a predictor of success are on average a coin toss. Sales Managers don’t interview enough to be masterful at it. Most are rusty, don’t prepare and ask questions that telegraph the response they are seeking. Manager : “Tell me how you prospect?” Candidate: Hmmmm, prospecting must be important I can make up a good story here.
4. They felt they needed to sell the candidates on joining the firm. This means they spend 80% of the interview talking versus asking questions and listening. Probably similar to half the sales calls their sales force makes. There is a time and place for everything. To me it’s a half buy – half sell conversation. Yes, at some point you are selling but you don’t want to over sell.
5. There were no standards or metrics around recruitment. Although they had no metrics to examine, because they had no replacement planning discipline the number of lost territory sales months was very high and costly. Territories or seats in the sales desk remained open of weeks or months. Worse the pressure to fill often lead to snap decisions to hire because they were desparate.
Maybe Ms. Stephanie could be engaged on a part time basis and add another “worst practice” to their talent management process? On the other hand they could hire my sister Suzanne White the High Priestess of Chinese Astrology to help.
For help in assessing your sale force’s talent and strengthening your Talent Management practices contact me at JHoskins@salesgenomix.com or 480.235.5582
ABOVE Quota 