One of the by-products of doing business in a sluggish economy is dealing with a relatively high unemployment rate. There are lots of people available and few jobs to offer them. One of the exceptions to this problem is often the position of salesperson: Most companies have perpetual openings on their sales staff, high unemployment rate or not! Why is this true? Because good sales professionals are hard to find, and even harder to hire.
You might argue with me on this. You might say "Al, put an ad on any job board for a sales position, and you'll be reading resumes for months." True. And once you begin to sort through the resumes and have preliminary interviews, you'll soon have a large reject pile and a very small "keeper" pile.
The fact is, the "A" players are happily making high six-figure incomes and never have to post their resume on a job board. They've got three or four standing offers from competitors and non-competitive companies, and their current employer can't sleep at night because of the possibility of losing the "A" player.
The reject pile is voluminous because there is never a shortage of wannabes. Wannabes can talk a good game in an interview, and their resume is a real work of art (remember who wrote it – the candidate). But true "A" players aren't looking for jobs. Most of the time, you'll have to steal them away.
The managers who find winners consistently are always looking, even when they don't currently have an opening. They are continually updating their People Bank with the names and contact information of people they hear about or meet who would make excellent sales team members. But that is only Step One.
Step Two is the hiring process. It is important to have a process that you use to recruit and hire sales professionals, and do not deviate from your process. Here is a great one:
Develop a model of attributes. Many of our clients use a tool called the SEARCH model. It is an acronym for categories of attributes: skills, experience, attitude, results, cognitive skills and habits. The SEARCH model augments the job description, and provides a profile of the ideal candidate.
Assess the people in your People Bank. Before any face-to-face interview, ask candidates who fit your SEARCH model to take some kind of assessment. There are a lot of good ones out there, and the best ones test for behaviors and competencies relevant to the kind of selling your open position requires.
Use a tough interview. Don't shy away from questions like these: "Tell me why you will make dozens of cold calls day after day," "Convince me I would regret not hiring you," and "How much money do you need to make" (not "how much would you accept?"). Try using a couple of role-play scenarios to see how the candidate performs under contrived pressure. And always tell the candidate that you don't think they are right for the job. The good ones won't take that as a final decision. The bad ones will fold like a lawn chair.
Finally, do not give in when the candidate says they must have a high salary component in the compensation plan.
True "A" players believe in themselves, and will prefer a high commission component that gives them a high ceiling of income. In fact, the best ones will be comfortable and confident with 100 percent commission and have probably been operating that way for awhile. "B" and "C" players will talk the good game, but in the end they want to be able to live on the salary and hope for good commissions as icing on the cake.
They will tell you they could do better if the economy was more robust, the marketing materials were better, the pricing structure of your products or services wasn't so high, etc. Do not be deceived! Hire only winners.
Al Simon is president of Simon, Inc., an authorized licensee of Sandler Training. He can be reached at www.SimonSaysSell.net
