1: Know where you are going

If you don’t have goals, a destination, the any road will do and you will find yourself chasing any rainbow that pops up. This is what Steven Covey http://snipurl.com/xlscz calls “Having the End in Mind” . Make sure that your goals are tangible and that you taste, feel and visualise what they are like so you know when you have achieved them and can make the next goal.

2: Have a Road Map

Knowing where you are going, in every area of your life means that you can plan how to get there and know what success looks like for you. Having a clear road map helps you cope with the obstacles and plot ways past them, where and when to divert and rejoin your route. Look on your goals as a road trip where you have roadworks and traffic lights, meal and comfort stops, but a plan and an ETA.

3: Know the milestones to success

According to the One Minute Manager http://snipurl.com/xlscz “People who feel good about themselves produce good results”. More succintly success breeds success. And if you have and know the milestones leading to your ultimate goals, then you not only keep yourself on track and on task, you also experience the successes that breed future success.And you know where to put the extra effort that will pull you up the ladder to your goals.

4: Create a personal, winning culture.

Winning is a learnt behaviour. Winners maximise their potential while demonstrating constant improvement. If you don’t have goals you cannot take the neccesary steps to demonstrate improvement. Because improvement needs to have direction. For more about winning we recommend “Think Like a Winner” http://snipurl.com/xlscz

5: Maintaining Focus

There seem to be 3 schools. Most posters seem to think that gut feel and reading the CV is enough. My position and that of a couple of others is you need to assess and a third is coming down in favour of assessment centres and Behavioral Event Interviews(BEI)

But it seems to me that the principles of time and efficiency must apply.
Let’s ignore the question of scanning software. Having spent 10 years of my life running recruitment companies I dislike it, but we needed the efficiency that it produced.

Nowadays I would rather assess everybody on their competency and suitability for the job before checking their CV. With a web link and auto responder this gives me fit for the job and a set of screening questions ( http://snipurl.com/va7lb describes this a bit better), without any effort from me – we can autorespond rejection letters too. I have had over 200 responses in a day to a single job,most of those filtered positive through the CV scanner.

Let’s take relevant experience.Well for know let’s just take one aspect, longevity. The data says that only 16% of A type sales people will stay longer than 2 years in a job. So many companies will specify, say, no more than 3 jobs in 10 years. So would you reject A performers on this sort of qualification ?
Yet how many salespeople bend the truth, extend their period of employment, make not quite true claims ? In my extensive experience the majority of sales people write a CV that casts a rosy view on what they did.

As for BEI interviewing and assessment it will always be an expensive option. I am a great fan of BEI at the right point in the process and particularly for significant, strategic hires and internal promotion. For me this is an end game pre hire option because it helps select from the short, shortlist and would be preferable to, say, a presentation which tells you close to nothing. I would also use other tools if, for instance, the sale require substantial intellectual horse power or numeracy or literacy skills.

But, nothing, compares with a competency( http://snipurl.com/va89o ) based evaluation backed by substantial data. AFAIK – and I have spent some years researching -this limits the field to OMG.

Finally if, you have got the evaluation against job, experience(CV), initial interview/further evaluations right, then the interview is about can you work with this person and will they fit your culture. They need to meet a cross section of the group they are to work with in order to ensure that the fit is possible. Or you may decide that, since selling is not a team game, the fit is not important.

Excuse me but this is abject puffery and nonsense. Selling isn’t just about presentation of Features and Advantages.

Sales is about a four stage process and this just looks at one of those stages, taken in isolation and not even out of context. There is no context.

Surely the world’s best sales person should be able to prospect, qualify and close, not just present. This is like finding the world’s best lawyer on their cross examination skills or the world’s best accountant based solely on their adding up.

I am n exponent of data supported assessment of sales ability. How can this be anything more than an example of 1970′s smoke and mirrors applied to what in the 2010′s should be a proper analysis. Or maybe it just shows advertising in a time warp – I hope not.

Part of the conversations were about how quickly they could get going
and how they could get the march on their competitors by growing quickly
and gaining market share. This played back to some counter intuitive
facts coming out of our main partners in Boston who have been mining
their database of around 1/2 million salespeople. You can read more here, then see if you agree with how
we interpret the conclusions in the current climate.

If you want a fast ramp up then hire A performers now. They will be
around, they may have had difficulty getting a job because their CV
shows so many moves. Intuition says don’t trust a salesperson who moves a
lot. The data says the opposite.

Once you have the A performers who will get the numbers up for you,
quickly, then have a pipeline of B performers who you can have ready in
the wings, building up their business for you and plan on their being
around for 5 years.

You need to have a pipeline of sales candidates to cover the 2 year and 5
year point and you must replace a failed C performer with an A in order
to rejuvenate a run down territory.

Oh and there is only one 95% accurate method to determine in advance if it is an A performer you are going to hire. Click
http://snipurl.com/v00ch now for a salesforce health check

5 Surprising Factors to predict sales staff turnover and longevity

Dave Kurlan is the producer of the world beating Objective Management Group (OMG) evaluations of salespeople performance. Over last 20 years his company have evaluated close on 500,000 sales people in over 8,000 companies across most industries. Their data is statistically significant in the big league. You can read his excellent article here I am grateful to him for his material which provides the core of these comments.

In our opinion Dave has the best analysis tools around and his data is an astounding resource for determining the shape of your salesforce and how best to structure and manage it.

Is there a connection between sales success and tenure?
Is it really a given that a successful salesperson will stick around longer than an unsuccessful salesperson?

What about other factors like the compensation?
Do unsuccessful salespeople who are compensated mostly by salary stick around longer than a similarly unsuccessful salesperson who is compensated mostly by commission?

How does  role factor in?
Will an unsuccessful account manager stay around longer than an unsuccessful hunter?

How about sales management?
What is the impact of  close management or pressure to perform, have on how long a salesperson will hang around compared to a similar salesperson who is not closely managed or who is not under the same pressure to perform?

What is your RoI for a salesperson?
Let’s say you have a 12 month sales cycle and an 8 month learning curve.  Essentially, it will take nearly 2 years to get your new salesperson producing consistently.  In that 2 years, maybe you’ll pay out close to £150,000 in subsidies.

So if you take your  average margin, how much revenue must be generated to offset that £150000 subsidy?
How much revenue much be generated to produce a satisfactory ROI?
How long must the salesperson stick around in order to produce that ROI?
If we can predict longevity, does that help you determine whether you will realize a ROI with a sales candidate?

How will a combination of longevity,performance and ROI determine how and where you employ different types of sales performer

In the last week Dave has been mining the OMG data looking for the figures and facts behind salespeople turnover and came up with some surprising results

Salesperson Longevity – What Did the Numbers Demonstrate?

Some of the intuitive factors just weren’t there.All top salespeople who stay are motivated by the money

Wrong.  Not even a scintilla of difference. A money motivated salesperson is not even 1% more likely to stick than one who isn’t motivated by money.

So may be the  salespeople who were paid mostly on salary might tend to stick around longer than their colleagues who were paid mostly by commission.  Wrong again .

Well I always assumed  that stronger salespeople stuck around longer than weaker salespeople.  Wrong yet again.

Top Five Factors to Predict Sales Turnover / Longevity

So Dave tells us the most important factors in predicting sales longevity are —

1        Experience.
It takes 5 years of sales experience for a high degree of certainty that someone will stick with you

2        Management
Close management by you will increase the time you keep a salesperson. Letting them do their own thing, follow their own way and their own proocess will simply reduce the chance they will stay with you.

3        Money
High Salary lower commission = shorter time in the job. The higher the commission element the more chance they will stay with you

4        Reverse Ramp up quickly
Sales people who “get it” quickly are less likely to stay with you . The sales people who ramp up quickly are LESS likely to stick. Those who take more time to get going are likely to stay longer and produce more.Slow starters, big finishers!

5        Counter Intuitive Ramp up ability
Strong salespeople have – A Players – aren’t the ones who are most likely to stick.  Salespeople with SQ’s B Players – have the greatest sales longevity.

Summary Good news, bad news and news to help you plan

The good news is that there are five specific s that enable prediction of sales longevity.
The bad news is that these 5 are inconsistent with these that allow us to identify top performers will be.  According to OMG only 16% of the A players with experience stick for more than two years.

So it raises some big questions.

Where is your business, your products and your divisions?. Do you need fast producers or consistent, longer term results?  how do you create balance and how can you keep giving the A players new challenges to retain them?

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Is allowing your inventory to wither really a great response to a reduction in demand ? I think not. If the cake is getting smaller the grab a bigger slice.

Businesses are still in thrall of the low risk tactics of cost cutting – not just inventory cutting accountants. It is seen as a quick fix to cut costs to maintain profits. But for this to work it must be limited to cutting the fat, Unfortunately in many organisationss it also damages the muscle sinews and skeleton of the business.

Surely a better approach is to undertake a body building program and build the muscle – to grab a bigger slice of the cake that is shrinking – and focus sharply on get biggest bang for an increased marketing spend and on investing in strengthening the sales function.

It seems to me that while we should allow the accountants and cost cutters to find the fat and carry out their liposuction. It is wrong to ever let them dictate how to make our companies stronger, fitter and bigger.

The clue is in the title ACCOUNTant, they are not in place to direct or manage, they are there to account. And they are there to account to DIRECTors who should be directing the business on behalf of shareholders.

What really bothers me is how directors can be delivering best shareholders best value – making them more money than they dreamed possible – when they are allowing middle management to direct the company with swingeing and damaging cutting.

The only way the directors can fulfill the trust of the shareholders is to ensure the company is constantly lean and engage in activities to grow assets and build earnings. And the only way to do that is to hire and invest in the best salespeople. Managed by the best managers and coached, targetted and remunerated to deliver beyond expectations.

But cutting costs and reorganisation remains as it was in 60 AD

“I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising: and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation” – Caius Petronius Roman Consul

” I have invested in an early stage start-up and they are struggling with sales. How do hire the best of the best”

You may have worked out this is very much on the money for what we do.And relates to much of the content of this blog.

So the first point I would make is that the best of the best is a rare and often apparently expensive purchase (they are only expensive if they don’t deliver) . This IMO should be treated as non trivial and consequently your hiring process needs to be serious.

The majority of hiring decisions fail 80% of the time. This is largely because the hiring process and the on boarding process are flawed.
Taking on boarding first, most companies’ actions indicate that all you need to do with a salesperson is have them turn up and give them their carkeys, cell phone, laptop and the yellow pages.

If you think you have someone good (more on that later) then make sure they turn up to a good marketing plan and at the very least a qualified target list that has been researched for them. Better still partner them with a good telemarketing set up so they can spend their days in front of prospects uncovering value and solving problems using you product.

On the hiring process their is strong evidence is that there are specifics that make for success in sales.Dave Kurlan for instance identifies 21 competences. Good pre hire screening will give you 90% plus certainty that your sales hire will work out and be successful for you. Even marginally appropriate screening lifts your chance of the perfect hire from 20% to 40%.

1 resume, 2 interviews and a presentation just don’t cut the mustard.

The Resume is written to be a selling document, it will plaster over cracks and include marginal claims. Even if the claims are more than marginal, to recreate the performance you need to totally replicate the environment.

The best of the best will recreate the results wherever they are. But you need to screen them to identify them.

Interviews are, by their nature subjective. Many sales people are charismatic, how do know if they are tough, if they, inter alia, have a high need for approval, if they will cold call, if they have money perception issues. How can
an hours conversation determine this?

And as for the presentation

To summarise. Source (adverts, Monster etc., best of all partner with a good recruiter), Screen, Interview with the screening results as your pathway, appoint, follow through for at least 90 days after they start. Count your profits
The first point I would make is that the best of the best is a rare and often apparently expensive purchase. This IMO should be treated as non trivial and consequently your hiring process needs to be serious.

Express Screens – the ultimate sales hiring tool Failed hiring is one of the highest costs that any sales operation incurs. * How much have hiring mistakes cost you.   ?

Few sales organisations use sales specific evaluation and screening tools to move from the only 20% effective CV 2 interview and a presentation.

http://www.huntersm.com/pre_hiring_assessments

10 Reasons for HR and Sales Management to Hire Winning Salespeople Using Assessments

And the one big reason to get sales hiring right

Let’s begin with three management beliefs about assessments as they relate to hiring salespeople:

“If we use an assessment in our hiring process, we’ll be making a more informed decision than if we don’t.”  True!

“A personality assessment, behavioural styles assessment or aptitude test will do just fine.”  False!

“We should narrow the field down to our final candidates and then assess.”  False!

There are two variables that have a huge impact on your success using an assessment in the hiring process.

• The first is which assessment you use.
  
• The second is where in the process you use it.

If you don’t use an assessment that was conceptualized, built, developed, enhanced and perfected specifically for sales, you are using the wrong assessment for the application.  Technically, you can use any assessment in the process but assessments  that have been adapted for sales applications leave a lot to be desired.  The single most important conclusion that you must read – whether the candidate will succeed in a specific sales role, in your company and industry, selling to your specific market, with its decision makers, challenges, competition, margins, sell cycle and asking price – simply cannot be determined from a modified assessment.

Should an assessment use the same criteria for a company that sells high-ticket complex solutions to CEO’s as it does for a company selling office supplies to administrative assistants?  Rule #1 – You must choose the right assessment.

Variable number two is the step in the process where the assessment gets utilized.  While your comfort level may be in assessing your final candidates, there are several compelling reasons not to do it at that time.

Compelling Reason 1 -
If you’ve already fallen in love with the candidates, it doesn’t matter what the assessment says.
You’ll agree with the findings if they support your candidate and disagree with the findings if they describe your candidate in a less than favorable light.
For an objective intelligence that you can use in the interview, assess prior to the interview.  But just how far prior?

Compelling Reason 2 – Assessments help you conduct a more objective hiring process – that’s good.
But if you use an assessment it must be validated, consistent and reliable in its findings.
If you use an assessment, you must assess all of your candidates.
As soon as CVs arrive electronically and show relevant experience, they represent candidates.
In order to avoid compliant, you must assess in the first step of the process if you are to assess at all.  That’s very compelling!

Compelling Reason 3 – This could be the most compelling reason of all.
Our data indicates that the clients who assess immediately following receipt of a resume yield nearly 50% more hirable candidates.
Wow!  In an economy where it is becoming increasingly difficult to find candidates, a 50% increase is very compelling indeed.

Compelling Reason 4 – Companies suck at hiring salespeople so you’d better get it right
The fact that companies get 50% more hirable candidates points to the fact that companies are totally overlooking the right candidates and including too many of the wrong candidates.
This prevents you from making bad choices that impact your final pool of candidates.

Compelling Reason 5 – Time saving.
When you assess in the first step of the process, you can totally automate the process using, of all things, Microsoft Outlook!
You won’t have to look at a resume, talk to a candidate, do a thing, until you have your pool of hirable candidates!
What a time saver.

Compelling Reason 6 – You’ll save money.  It’s much less costly to buy a license to screen on an unlimited basis than it is to pay each time to use an assessment.

Compelling Reason 7 – Standardisation.
By moving the assessment to the first step of the sequence, you’ll create a formalized recruiting process that can be duplicated across your company by all managers.

Compelling Reason 8 – You will use the exact same hiring criteria on every candidate.  That’s not only very Equality compliant, it’s smart recruiting.

Compelling Reason 9 – You’ll actually develop the ability to see the difference between those who will succeed and those who pretend to be successful.

Compelling Reason 10 – Better information for interviews
Think of the information you’ll have available for the phone interview and the first face to face interview.
That information, along with a hirable/not hirable recommendation, will come in handy when you need to make a quick decision on a candidate.
Today, if you can’t pull the trigger on a candidate quickly, you will lose the candidate to a company that will.
If you need to pull the trigger quickly, you had better know whether it’s a candidate who will succeed!

What happens when you compare a model like Deborah’s – if you’re gonna go hunting you’d better come back with dinner – with a model that has its salespeople making 3 sales calls per day, or around 60 per month? Do you think those salespeople come back with 60 new customers or orders per month? No chance! They probably sell 10. That’s why they’re on so many calls.
What would happen if you told those salespeople that you only wanted them to go on 30 calls per month, but you want them to be a lot more selective, and you expected them to close 50% instead of 10%?
I’ll tell you what would happen, your A players would close 50% of them and your B’s would probably get 33% (the original 10 deals with half the work and half the resources). Your C’s? Same as today – they’d still fail to get the 10 you needed.
You need to develop your B’s and replace your C’s. The only problem is that you aren’t really able to identify who your A’s, B’s and C’s are. You think you can but you’re measuring them by the dollars they produce, the worst possible measurement of potential, because the dollars are not necessarily the result of their efforts today as much as the dollars may be the result of their previous efforts or the efforts of others over time.

For more www.huntersm.com