Download - The Ten Most Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes€¦ · the basic mistakes that kill sales teams. Avoiding these common mistakes is what separates the winners from the losers. Avoiding

The Ten Most

Costly Sales

Hiring MistakesAnd How to Avoid Them

Copyright 2010 – Peak Sales Recruiting Inc. Ten Most Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes ‹#›

Ten Most Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes

Copyright © 2014 by Peak Sales Recruiting Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced or copied, published, distributed,

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Peak Sales Recruiting Inc.

340 March Rd, Suite 100

Kanata, ON K2K 2E4

Canada

www.peaksalesrecruiting.com


WANT TO KNOW HOW TO GET ALL

OF YOUR REPS AT TARGET?

WANT TO KNOW HOW TO

VIRTUALLY ELIMINATE TURNOVER

ON YOUR SALES TEAM?

Just read on.

The hiring manager for sales in any

organization is in a unique position and

a difficult one because there is no

degree or accreditation for sales stars.

Compare your position to others in your

company. If a production manager

needs an engineer, he looks for

someone with an engineering degree.

There are no degrees in sales. The

controller can weed out people that

aren’t CPAs. Sales people don’t take

three-day exams. R&D managers can

find somebody in a lab. There are no

labs for sales people.

Hiring for sales is uncharted

territory—or so it seems.

But you don’t have to go it alone.

Over the course of 20 years of growing

companies, managing sales teams and

successfully recruiting top performers for

other companies, we have developed a

keen sense of what it takes to build high

performing sales teams. We are

fascinated with the characteristics that

separate sales winners from losers in

any sector, any industry, any company.

Foreword

1


But first, a few questions to

determine your profile--

Are you managing a team and

constantly dealing with turnover?

Do you have hard-to-manage reps?

Are you getting average-to-poor

results from a highly-paid staff?

Feel like you are pushing the bus up

a hill, alone?

If so, you are probably making some of

the basic mistakes that kill sales teams.

Avoiding these common mistakes is

what separates the winners from the

losers.

Avoiding these hiring mistakes is the

vital first step to:

1) making managing a whole lot

easier

2) paving the way to success on more

levels; and

3) increasing and achieving more

predictable, and increasing, revenue

and results.

This eBook is a roadmap for sales

hiring success by giving you, the

hiring manager, a Don’t Do list.

Building on that fascination, we studied,

dissected, and quantified those

characteristics. After seeing many

companies make simple but deadly

hiring mistakes that were killing sales

productivity, profits and ultimately killing

the company itself, we launched Peak

Sales Recruiting to help companies get

it right.

We partner with our clients and their

success is our success. Only by

making you successful can we thrive

as well.

Now after years of helping companies

build their sales through completing

thousands of sales search projects, we

are in the unique position to share the

most common mistakes we see CEOs

and sales managers making when

recruiting and building sales teams.

We gained our knowledge by being part

of the action because, in the process of

doing thousands of searches for

hundreds of companies, we quickly

learned what the good companies do to

succeed and the bad companies do to

fail. Patterns and behavior quickly

emerged.

One thing we learned early was

to not make the most common

mistakes and we identified

those mistakes. And formulated

ways and means to avoid those

costly mistakes.

2


The current economic turbulence means

that:

1) there is more competition for sales

professionals who can produce on a

consistent basis

2) these reps are reluctant to take risks

by leaving developed pipelines, and

3) these successful reps are reluctant to

leave dependable, established

companies to join a new company with

all its risks and unknowns.

The old model of hiring says you place

an ad and pick off the best applicants.

This is a recipe for spending a lot of time

going through C resumes and hopefully

hiring some B players-the needle in the

haystack approach.

This is not how the successful

companies do it today.

Industry leaders can leverage their high

profile brand, but this really only applies

to one or two players in any industry.

Successful companies know that the

best sales talent isn’t watching the

job boards; they are busy selling and

entertaining regular calls from

recruiters. And the technology

makes it easier.

‘Don’t’s’ are usually negative but not in

this case. They are actually the

necessary steps you take to ensure you

don’t make a bad mistake—a mistake

that will most probably result in missed

sales goals, a potentially messy

termination, and you having to explain a

lot of bad news to your boss rather than

telling him about your sales successes.

As you read, stop often and think about

whether you are making any of these

mistakes in the hiring process.

Make the small adjustments we

suggest and watch the results flow

in, the positive results.

The Challenge of Recruiting

Top sales Talent is Evolving

You are managing a sales team and one

of the most critical parts, if not the most

critical, of your job is finding the right

talent. No amount of training, coaching,

managing, rewards or incentivizing is

going to get results from your team if

you don’t have the right team in the first

place.

And guess what?

At the same time as buyers have

become smarter and selling has

evolved into both a science and an

art, the war for talent has gotten

tougher.

3


Now that everyone has access to social

business networks such as LinkedIn,

Plaxo and other research tools, your

competitors can easily pick through your

team to see your best reps, then actively

chase them.

The smartest companies have a

structured process for marketing to

candidates to attract the best in addition

to sophisticated mechanisms for

evaluating and selecting talent that

belongs in their company and will

become reliable producers.

You have to make your

recruiting efforts pay.

The vital first step in successful

recruiting is to not make mistakes—

mistakes mean you are going

backwards, not forwards.

Avoid the top ten recruiting mistakes and

you will soon have a team full of

productive sales reps who are happy to

be part of your team.

Avoid these mistakes and you will

spend less time recruiting and more

time selling. You, and your company,

will be moving forward, not

backward.

These aren’t revolutionary changes, just

simple, common sense adjustments to

the way you look at and go about hiring

and building successful teams.

4


The Inconvenient TruthsThere are three major obstacles to

building high performing sales teams:

1. Reliable producers are rare -

Numerous studies show that 20% of the

sales professionals in any industry close

80% of the sales.

2. Successful candidates are hard to get

at - They are too busy selling and being

successful to listen to you.

3. Sales people are hard to evaluate

because they excel at …selling!

Finally, combine this with the fact that most

companies don’t know what they are

looking for in the first place.

Your CommitmentBuilding high performance teams, requires

you to commit to some basic philosophies.

1. Settle for nothing but the best.

2. Put in place a comprehensive system

for attracting the best including

marketing, networking, and

headhunting.

3. Become very thorough in evaluating

talent

4. Keep score. It is not about filling

seats, it is about delivering sales.

To overcome the three major obstacles and

to build a high performance team, you must

start by not doing something.

You have to quit making the Ten Most

Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes.

Which are---

Introduction

5


Problem:

While a person may feel right sitting

across the desk from you and answering

easy questions, your gut alone is not

skilled enough to always make the right

choice.

A firm handshake, an engaging smile

and easy patter will often put our

‘golden gut’ at ease.

But nine times out of ten, the hard truth

is: the hire that performs the best is the

one that scores the highest against

specific criteria such as competencies,

experiences, proven success and fit with

your sales environment and culture.

Solution:

Map out exactly what you need and

objectively evaluate all candidates using

the same criteria, same process and

same interview questions. Uniformity of

approach may seem boring, and it often

is, but uniformity is critical in evaluating

all candidates using the same scorecard

and same rulebook.

Your gut is important but only if it is backed up by careful review.

Mistake

Number 10:

Hiring

based on

gut feel.

7


Problem:

In the hiring process, urgency is your worst

enemy.

The pressure to hit targets is immense.

Very often a sales manager succumbs to

the pressure and quickly jumps to hire

the first person that looks good or, in

most cases, just good enough.

But getting sales hiring right takes patience

and in the end the hiring manager that

makes a quick, but wrong, decision usually

ends up wasting more money and time

investing in someone that is not the right fit.

However, this is not a license to

procrastinate. It is a building block on the

solution to Mistake Number 10—take the

time to map out exactly what you need.

Solution:

Your best bet is to know the sales

competencies your reps require and look for

them when interviewing.

Past success is the best proof of ability.

This solution requires you, the hiring

manager, to do a fair amount of work.

Defining the sales competencies your reps

require is no easy task but the hard, upfront

work will be easier and more transparent,

and evaluating existing members against

these competencies is an added bonus of

your hard work.

And you only do the hard work once.

Once you have the definitions in place, you

don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time

you do a new hire. The wheel is finished,

ready to roll.

Mistake

Number 9:

Hiring who’s

available

instead of

who you

need.

8


Problem:

The selling activity and skills required to

sell solutions is completely different than

for products. The kid at Starbucks sells

products, most people can do it.

Solutions are completely different—

selling solutions requires a

professional who can get in your

clients head, figure out how their

company works (or doesn’t work)

and match your solution exactly to

their problem.

Solution:

Your best bet is to know the sales

competencies your reps require and look

for them when interviewing.

Past success in selling solutions is

the best proof of ability.

Mistake

Number 8:

Hiring a

product

sales

person to

sell

solutions.

10


Problem:

In a small company there is typically less

infrastructure and support, less stability in

direction and less brand recognition.

It is tougher. Most professionals want

that stability and support.

You have to find that unique person—the

professional that can work on a team but

at the same time is willing to put up with,

even thrive on, the entrepreneurial

environment. No small task.

Solution:

If your prospective hire has not

successfully sold in a start up before, you

need to test their comfort with the

environment your company offers.

Don’t sugarcoat it.

A good test is to confront the candidate

with the truth—we are not a big company,

we don’t have assistants, no company

cars and no executive dining room.

See how they react to those truths.

Assuming you haven’t run them off, then

give them the good news— no

bureaucracy, quick decision making, the

potential, the ground floor opportunity,

getting in on something that will be big,

and the rewards, both monetary and

career wise, that offset the risk of your

small, but soon to be big, venture.

You’ll find out quickly who really

wants to come along on the ride and

contribute to the success of your

company.

Mistake

Number 7:

Hiring

someone

from a big

company

into a small

company.

11


Problem:

It is an industry truth that the best reps

spend a lot more time selling than

polishing their resume. And vice versa.

Solution:

Focus on results and don’t be fooled by

someone whose resume overstates

limited accomplishments.

The key to success here is to pick the

accomplishments apart. Drill down

to determine if an accomplishment is

real or a fabrication.

The process is not hard—just ask the

candidate to walk you through the scope

of a project, the problems and

challenges they faced, the quantifiable

results. You have been around long

enough and seen enough to quickly

differentiate real results from fiction.

You have to defend your actions to

your boss so asking a candidate to

do the same is fair and justifiable—

both to you and the candidate.

Mistake

Number 6:

Hiring the

person with

the best

résumé.

13


Problem:

Sales people are often at their best in

interviews and accomplishments may be

embellished. And nobody likes to do

detective work.

Being in sales, we are by nature

positive and optimistic. We want to

believe. But our optimism has to be

justified.

Solution:

To the best of your abilities and within

the law, validate all stated claims and

accomplishments.

Check and confirm employment

dates. Verify education claims.

Place a priority on what former

employers say and how they react to

your questions. Put a premium on

their responses over colleagues and

even customers.

Sound elementary? It is, but many

employers do not do a comprehensive

job and end up regretting it.

A person who lies on a resume is not

someone you want around your

company.

Mistake

Number 5:

Hiring

without

doing

thorough

reference

checks.

14


Problem:

Many companies, and a majority of Human Resource Departments, believe that a new hire needs to come from the industry, have the right Rolodex and domain knowledge in order to be successful.

In reality, the top performers are typically successful because of DNA,

not sector experience.

Solution:

Be open. Look past the industry experience, or lack thereof, and give the person a chance to perform.

An industry outsider may not have the industry insight but they don’t

have the baggage either; they don’t have the NIH (Not Invented Here)

disorder.

Somebody looking from the outside may very well see something different, and profitable, that an insider will miss.

Give the job applicants tests and role-plays that demonstrate their

ability to learn and sell your offering. Top performers are usually fast learners, regardless of industry.

Mistake

Number 4:

Hiring

based on

industry

experience -rather than

on sales competencies

15


Problem:

Two head to head competitors can, and usually do, have vastly different offerings, cultures and selling environments.

These huge differences will dictate different characteristics in successful

reps which means they may not be suited to your company and may in

fact, bring industry baggage.

Furthermore, hiring from the competition only reduces the available pool of people you can choose from and raises the price you will have to pay. And raiding the competition may alert them to your moves and your strategy allowing them a head start in countering your offensive.

Finally, and most importantly, they may decide to raid you.

Solution:

Model your selling environment.

Put effort into this modeling exercise to determine what makes you successful, what about you makes your company attractive (or unattractive) to a candidate, and to really know who you are—in all things, know thyself.

When you really know and understand your selling model you can easily size up your competition and cherry pick their best people for your team. Or the best people from

outside the industry.

Mistake

Number 3:

Hiring reps

from the competition.

16


Problem:

An established organization needs farmers to cultivate and grow the crops.

A company like yours needs to put meat on the table—now. You need a

hunter.

It is a truth that each role requires completely different sales DNA and hunters can often learn to be farmers but the reverse is seldom true.

Solution:

Make sure your hiring process includes tests—tests for immediacy, urgency, get it done, get it done right the first time--to make sure you select

the right DNA for the hunter role.

Having already modeled your needs, the identification of a good hunter should not be hard.

Mistake

Number 2:

Hiring a

farmer when

you need a hunter.

17


Problem:

Sales is a confidence sport and being likable is a good attribute to have—customers like and want to be liked.

But likeability is only part of the equation.

Winning in sales takes hard work, persistence, optimism, ability to handle adversity and luck.

Past performance is no guarantee of future performance—but it is the best key and leading indicator so rely on it rather than just falling for a smile and

happy disposition.

Solution:

Look at past successes and references to ensure you are picking a great performer along with a great disposition.

The candidate that passes your tests, references, role playing and can still

put on a smile is very likely the person you want for your team.

Mistake

Number 1:

Falling for a

smile and a

happy disposition.

18


Peak is here to help. If you

decide to use us, great. If you

want to try going it alone, we

understand. But either way, make

sure to do the groundwork and

preparation needed so you

don’t commit the Ten Deadly

Sales Hiring Mistakes.

There are the Ten Most Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes and what you have to do to avoid them.

So, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what kind of training, development, incentives and management you have in place if you don’t have the right people on board. You need to build the right team to be a sales powerhouse.

The sales team is the foundation of the company.A weak foundation will bring the whole structure down.

Not making the Ten Deadly Sales Hiring Mistakes is hard work. But you don’t have to go it alone. We are here to help with the hard work of modeling your sales force needs and setting performance goals for potential hires.

Peak Sales Recruiting was founded by sales leaders who understand the critical importance of building high performance sales teams.

Since we started, we have worked non-stop to deliver real solutions that help grow businesses across the US and Canada. Our management and team has extensive sales, leadership, recruiting and sales team building expertise.

19


Peak Sales Recruiting specializes

in B2B sales recruiting services.

Our rigorous and proven

methodology combines role

profiling, headhunting and

candidate assessment,

augmented with our advisory

services. We deliver guaranteed

results, and our unrivaled success

rate helps accelerate sales,

reduce operating costs, and

enhance HR effectiveness,

company valuations and investor

confidence. Please visit:

www.peaksalesrecruiting.com

or call 800-964-0946.

About Peak

Sales

Recruiting

20

Download - The Ten Most Costly Sales Hiring Mistakes€¦ · the basic mistakes that kill sales teams. Avoiding these common mistakes is what separates the winners from the losers. Avoiding

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