I was out on the road doing some field coaching earlier this week with a great sales rep. She was a classic. See if you recognise the type:
- In her mid to late 30’s
- Excellent communication skills
- Bubbly, effervescent and full of NRG
- Keen to change the world overnight
- Taking on far too much responsibility
- Over promising and over servicing clients
- No idea with time and territory management
From experience these are the reps that will burn out within 18 months at your company. They’ll leave your company and go somewhere else for a:
• Slightly better car,
• Better lap top
• A few extra $’s
18 months later, they’ll be off again.
So, why do you hire them?
1. They interview really well
2. They seem confident and determined to succeed
3. We like their attitude and positive outlook
Top 3 reasons why the bubbly rep won’t last more than 2 years with your company
1. No real process -Sales success is more about following a proven process than it is about having a bubbly personality – give me process over personality every time
2. Shocking self management -The bubbly extrovert often struggles with their self management and wastes enormous amounts of time being in the wrong place at the wrong time (CRMs won’t solve this)
3. Don’t understand relationships -Despite strong first impressions they are not true relationship builders and don’t really understand how a proper commercial relationship works
Who should you hire when looking for great reps?
Glad you asked Steve, as the biggest challenge any sales manger will face is finding great sales people.
My top 7 things to consider when hiring sales people
1. Work out what you want – Finder, Minder or Grinder – This is very important
2. Don’t place too much emphasis on their performance in the interview –it’s of fairly limited value. Dig deeper and look for their values, attitude and beliefs- seek evidence
3. Profile or psych test the sh-t out of them before they start. You wouldn’t spend 50k on a vehicle without a mechanic inspecting it first. Lift up the hood and have a good look at the engine
4. How long have they lasted in previous sales roles – people repeat patterns most of the time- people repeat patterns most of the time – did I just say that?
5. Always be looking for new sales people – if you advertise for a role you’ll attract the gypsies of sales – they are always on the move, they are probably the bottom 20% of the market
6. Allocate sufficient time in their first 3 months for you to be with them. Develop, nurture, coach and guide them when it really matters
7. Trust your gut – My wife is great at this. “I didn’t rate that guy, not sure why, just didn’t like the feel or vibe he gave out”
Your sales conference in the new year
I take a well earned rest from December 18th to January 20th. During this time I’ll be a wrestling referee on most days refereeing daily bouts between my 3 kids.
Tickets are still available if you want to watch.
If you want a hand with your sales conference in the new year please contact me in the next 2 weeks as my diary is filling up quickly for late January, February and March conferences.
I can speak or run sessions on:
- What makes a great sales person
- What makes a great sales manager
- Getting more face to face selling time each selling day
- Stop wasting your time with poor collaborators
- Adjusting your selling style to match in with your customers
- Why setting clearly defined goals is the key to sales success
- Is fear holding you back and what to do about it
- Selling to different generations – gen X, Y and Baby Boomers
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