make the right sales hire every time€¦ · with good sales people and bad marketing, a company...

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Make The Right Sales Hire Every Time

Copyright © 2014 by Peak Sales Recruiting Inc.

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Peak Sales Recruiting Inc.

340 March Rd, Suite 100

Kanata, ON K2K 2E4

Canada

www.peaksalesrecruiting.com

Copyright 2014 – Peak Sales Recruiting Inc. The Right Sales Hire, Every Time

http://www.peaksalesrecruiting.com/

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WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO GET

THIS TEAM TO PERFORM?

That’s a question on the mind of anyone

managing an underperforming sales

team. With good reason. When sales

teams are not producing, management

usually addresses the problem with

some blood-letting, and the VP or

manager is often the first to go.

With great sales people and bad

marketing ,a company

can still survive.

With good sales people and bad

marketing, a company

may survive.

With bad sales people and good

marketing, a company

will not survive.

(Miller, 9)

Anyone with sub-par performers on their

sales team spends sleepless nights

trying to understand the difference

between a Top Sales Performer and an

average performer, between the

“superstars” on the team and the other

players.

If you’ve been lucky enough to have a

Top Sales Performer working for you,

you may have tried various approaches

to have some of that “magic” rub off on

the other salespeople in the

organization: mentoring, friendly

competition, incentives, threats. You

may have invested in assessments and

training to improve the results of

marginal or

PART 1:

Why hire

Top

Performers?

Copyright 2014 – Peak Sales Recruiting Inc. The Right Sales Hire, Every Time 1

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deepest pockets of the most patient

backers will be empty soon enough if

sales milestones are not met.

“ I know you’d like to get rid of

[your salespeople] and just take

orders on the web. But that’s

always going to be the low-

hanging fruit. The game-changing

sales, at least for now, come from

real people interacting with real

people.” Seth Godin

average performers so that they

approach the results of your best

people. In all likelihood, you’ve

scratched your head at why none of

these approaches have worked for very

long, if at all.

As demonstrated by Gallup researchers

Smith and Rutigliano (October 2001):

“ Salespeople in the bottom 50% of

most sales forces will not benefit

at all from additional training.”

In reality, the most important investment

a company can make is in ensuring it

hires the absolute best salespeople in

the first place.

It’s not easy. It takes discipline and an

up-front investment of time, resources

and money. Still, once you know what

you are looking for, and have the

discipline to accept nothing but the best,

it becomes easier to spot and hire the

winners than you may think.

As Miller, cited above, points out,

companies with poor marketing (and

good sales people) may be able to

survive long enough to re-align

themselves with their markets. Similarly,

companies with flawed products (and a

good sales organization) may be able to

survive long enough to fix problems and

ensure customer satisfaction.

Companies without sales, without

revenues, cannot survive. Even the


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There is an increasing pool of research -

from venerable organizations like Gallup

and the Harvard Business Review, to

many newer outfits - suggesting that the

costs of a mis-hire in sales, more than

any other functional group, are huge and

that they tend to be grossly

underestimated by companies. Some of

the costs to consider include:

Direct costs

• Lost revenue (lost and delayed

business)

• Extra training and management

required

• Costs of turnover (firing and replacing)

Indirect costs

• Long-term impact on market share and

brand (lost customers and brand

loyalty)

• Impact on morale (leading to lower

overall performance of other team

members and higher turnover—

ultimately the loss of the best

salespeople)

Using methodology developed by

Croner andAbraham (37-41), for a

company where the sales quota of the

best salespeople is $1.5 million, and

sub-par performers are delivering half of

that ($750,000), the annual impact of

having a poor performer on the team

can be estimated at $1,360,000

(including lost revenue, lost customers,

and extra management costs). The

costs of delaying action are $2.6

million over 2 years!

PART 2:

The High

Costs of

Mis-Hires


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quoted by Joinson), but the costs of

inaction are huge and compounding.

Doing nothing is not an option, and the

sooner poor performers are identified

and dealt with the better.

“My main job was developing

talent. I was a gardener providing

water and other nourishment to

our top 750 people. Of course, I

had to pull out some weeds, too.”

Jack Welch

When you add to this the notion that

salespeople embody the brand of your

company to customers, the impact of

brand and market-share erosion over

time of a sub-par salesperson can be

grave.

“ [i]n industries that rely on their

sales force to generate revenue,

people are four times more

important in building customer

loyalty than the products or

services themselves”

(Smith and Rutigliano, October 2001)

The toll on the morale of the other

salespeople, and on the company as a

whole, can also be disastrous. In the

short term, the result is lower

performance overall; in the longer term,

unless the weaker rep is dismissed, the

result will be higher turnover, the certain

loss of the best salespeople, and

ultimately the devastation of the sales

culture.

Research by LeadershipIQ backs this

up:

“ 87% of employees say that

working with a low performer has

made them want to change jobs.

93% of employees say that working

with a low performer has

decreased their productivity.”

The costs of getting rid of a bad sales

hire may be high, with estimates as high

as equivalent to the annual quota of the

rep in question (Warren Culpepper, as


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Of course, if it were easy to hire Top

Performers, we would not see (as we

do) the rapidly growing body of research

that exists into the costs of sales

underachievers, and the many

prescriptive texts, including this one, on

how to properly hire for these positions.

This area of research is “hot” because

the impact on the company of hiring well

(or poorly) in sales is increasingly

understood to be huge, and—even with

rigorous screening methodologies is in

place—companies generally have less

than even odds of hiring successful

candidates for sales positions. Top

performers are even rarer (one or two of

every ten).

The result? Sales turnover for

technology companies exceeds 30

percent, according to research from

Culpeppper andAssociates. For most

technology companies, every year one

in three salespeople is new.

This is because companies are

generally looking for the wrong things

when they hire, and even companies

looking for the right things are often

ineffective in how they screen

candidates.

The majority of companies hiring

salespeople emphasize the experience

of the salesperson in their recruiting and

screening efforts, as if this were the

biggest indicator of future success. They

next look for sales skills (methodology),

and, sometimes, they gauge personality

traits, often to determine the “fit” of the

PART 3:

Identifying

Top

Performers


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traits “the DNA of Top Sales

Performer.”

Finding the right DNA is our primary

emphasis in our recruiting and screening

efforts on behalf

of clients.

candidate with the current team.

This is the inverse of what the actual

screening and recruiting criteria should

be.

At best, researchers say, the effects of

experience are neutral. Many more

suggest that past experience in a

particular industry, with a competitor, for

instance, may actually be a negative.

“ Our data shows no correlation

between experience and sales

productivity. Hiring more

experienced sales reps does not

improve the sales force.”

(Smith and Rutigliano, October 2001)

“ When emphasis is placed on

experience… what is accomplished

can only be called the inbreeding

of mediocrity.”

(Mayer and Greenberg, 6)

Specific personality ingredients are the

real indicator of sales superstars.

Researchers continue to struggle to

define what the important sales traits

are. Some call it simply “drive” (Croner),

while others point to a combination of

“talent, engagement and customer

loyalty,” (Smith and Rutigliano) or

“empathy and ego drive” (Mayer and

Greenberg, 2).

At Peak Sales Recruiting, we label the

magic combination of sales personality


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The best salespeople in our experience

are:

• results-oriented

• positive in outlook and disposition

• competitive

• systematic, and

• extremely focused on the customer.

Companies that can recruit and screen

for these traits will be much more

successful in hiring top salespeople

than those that focus on past

experience.

Let’s drill down on each of these

attributes of top-performing salespeople.

RESULTS ORIENTED A Top

Performer has a burning need to

achieve. He is ambitious, disciplined and

will make sacrifices to reach success.

He is excited by goals, the bigger the

better, and never loses sight of what

he has been hired to do. A Top

Performer understands the impact of his

actions and can tell you how much

he has added to the bottom line. It’s the

same personality trait that allows an

effective salesperson to

articulate the positive impact, in

business terms, to the customer of a

purchase decision.

“I’m not out there sweating for

three hours every day just to find

out what it feels like to sweat.”

Michael Jordan

PART 4:

The DNA of

Top Sales

Performers


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SYSTEMATIC The best salespeople

have a systematic, disciplined approach

to winning business. Regardless of the

specific sales methodology or system

they employ, this means that they don’t

waste time on business that is not

qualified.They understand that success

in sales is an equation whereby a certain

set of inputs will lead to certain outputs,

and they have a methodology for moving

a prospect along the sales cycle step-

by-step. These reps are highly efficient

with their time and spend time on

activities that produce results.

“If you don’t have a selling system

of your own, when you are face to

face with a buyer, you will

unknowingly default to his

system.”

David Sandler

CUSTOMER FOCUSED The best

salespeople are intensely focused on

their customers’ goals and requirements,

and can often articulate them as well as

the customer. They are very service-

oriented and operate in good faith

because they care about their

customer ’s success. Customers reward

them with loyalty.

“If there is any one secret of

success, it lies in the ability to get

the other person’s point of view

and see things from that person’s

angle as well as from your own.”

Henry Ford

POSITIVE IN OUTLOOK AND

DISPOSITION Top Performers are

confident and expect to win. They have

thick skin and don’t take things

personally.They believe that a “no” from

a prospect is most often not the end of

the road, but an objection that needs to

be overcome. They have short

memories for failures and believe

failures happened to them, not because

of them; they are optimistic, and assume

the next win is around the corner.As

Mayer and Greenberg describe, “Failure

must act as a trigger—as a motivation

toward greater efforts” (2).

“Some people fold after making

one timid request. They quit too

soon. Keep asking until you find

the answers. In sales there are

usually four or five “no’s” before

you get a “yes.””

Jack Canfield, Author and Success

Coach

COMPETITIVE Good salespeople are

competitive. They keep score and they

know where they stand, against their

own past performance and against

others on the team. They are excited by

pressure, and operate with a sense of

urgency. These people are often

described as “intense.”

“Money was […] a way to keep

score. The real excitement is

playing the game.”

Donald Trump


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Some companies, in particular those

that understand the existence of a sales

personality, may employ personality

tests to screen sales candidates. This is

often ineffective, mainly because, as

Mayer and Greenberg note, “the ability

to sell, an exceedingly human and non-

mechanical aptitude, has resisted efforts

to measure it effectively” (4).

Still, there are ways to recruit and

screen for the most effective sales

personality.

In simple terms, the recruitment process

can be characterized by three steps:

identify, assess, and acquire. This white

paper touches on the first two steps. (A

subsequent white paper will look at the

acquisition and retention of Top Sales

Performers).

IDENTIFY This phase usually involves

scoping out the sales role that is to be

filled through interviews with the

appropriate company executives. Then a

search strategy can be developed.

Candidates are identified through the

appropriate mix of searching techniques

(candidate databases, postings,

advertising) and networking. The result

is a candidate pipeline.

There are two key strategies when

searching for Top Performers: Looking

in the right places, and recognizing

gold from a distance. Evaluating

PART 5:

How to

Recruit and

Screen for

DNA


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Online, some of the best places to

search are through LinkedIn (a company

can tap into its own executives’

networks), through Google and

ZoomInfo. In terms of candidates who

are on the job market, a sales-specific

resume pool, like SalesLadder, will

generally turn up a higher concentration

of senior people than Monster or

Workopolis (which can still be useful in

staffing less senior positions).

2. Spotting gold from a distance

Because you may have to sift through a

lot of dross before you get to the money-

makers, it’s useful to keep in mind

certain elements in a sales resume that

very quickly tell the story behind the

story. (A more detailed discussion of this

subject is available at

ww.peaksalesrecruiting.com/blog)

In brief, look for:

• Numbers. A salesperson has one

goal, generating revenue. The results

should be spelled out explicitly in a

resume.

• Winners. Awards, achievements, big

wins.

• Value proposition. Top Sales

Performers always know why you

should hire them, and they tell you

why right up front.

• Pedigree. While some companies

lend too much weight to “experience”

there is still value in hiring from

companies that hire well. If you know

of a company that hires well in sales,

and cultivates a winning attitude,

experience is also important in this

phase, but rather than simply looking for

the right company names or job titles,

this analysis should focus as much on

analyzing the sales role as it does on

screening the candidate, to ensure there

is a match.

1. Looking in the right places

A resounding eighty percent of

placements at Peak Sales Recruiting are

of candidates not looking for work! This

underlines that the best sales candidates

may not come looking for you; you need

to find them.

The majority of Top Performers are not

found on job boards, and do not

generally respond to postings (unless a

posting is forwarded to them by

someone in their network).

The most effective searches for Top

Performers are through offline

networking! But identifying candidates is

the easy part – developing a relationship

is much tougher. Recruiters’networks

are bigger, and they invest a great deal

in maintaining and expanding them.

Companies not using recruiters need to

ensure they leverage the networks of

their existing sales team and others,

through employee referral programs and

other means. If staffing enough sales

roles, companies should be proactively

populating and maintaining candidate

databases and using the people in these

databases as the starting point for

searches. consider any candidate whose


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1. The interview

Draft questions that will evaluate sales

DNA, and also skills and experience.

The desired sales personality traits are

most readily assessed using open-

ended questioning during the interview

process. It is important not to “telegraph”

the answers you are seeking to the

candidate.You want them to pitch to you.

Some examples:

• Tell me about your last failure? What

did you do next? (Positive in the face

of adversity.)

• What was the last sales situation that

you lost control of? (Ability to

rebound, systematic.)

• What was your biggest success?

(Numbers, results, customer

focused.)

• Describe a situation you walked away

from, because you just couldn’t win.

(Positive and tenacious, systematic.)

• Why should we hire you? (Numbers,

concise answer about delivering

results.)

• What motivates you? (Money should

factor into the answer. Top Sales

Performers have an unambiguous,

love-love relationship with money.)

“Money isn't the most important

thing in life, but it's reasonably

close to oxygen on the "gotta have

it" scale.”

Zig Ziglar

“The will to win is worthless if you

resume demonstrates she has been

successful in that environment

• Warning sign! Consecutive short

stays may indicate an

underperformer.

• Warning sign! Beware the resume

that is long on words, and short on

detail.

3. The role of experience

While experience is not the largest

factor to be considered in evaluating a

candidate, companies should look for a

match between the demands of the

sales role in question and the

experience of the candidate, if for no

other reason than to make sure that the

expectations are set effectively on both

sides. It is important to begin the search

by identifying the type of sales role.

Some aspects to consider:

In this context, a match between the job

and the candidate’s experience can be

very useful, and can help a new

salesperson hit the ground running.

ASSESS The assessment phase

usually consists of multiple structured

interviews, “testing,” reference and

background checks, and weighted

scoring. don’t get paid for it.”

Reggie Jackson


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3. Reference and background checks

Employers and recruiters should

exhaustively check references.

Sometimes clients want to move fast

because they don’t want to lose a

candidate, but consider the cost of a bad

hire or a re-hire.

Even the savviest recruiters can believe

a candidate to be suited to a job, only to

have the reference check stop the

process dead in its tracks.

Ask open-ended questions of the

references as well, and try to gauge

Top Sales Performers DNA.

• Describe a setback she suffered?

How did she react? (Failure is a

trigger to work harder.)

• Describe his relationship with

customers? (Look for situations in

which the salesperson advocated for

the customer, demonstrating a desire

to make them successful.)

In addition, do searches on Google,

news sites, business databases and

online networking sites for anyone on

the shortlist, as a way of discovering

inconsistencies in the story.

4. Scoring

Prepare a standard scorecard in

advance of the assessment phase, so

you are equipped to compare apples to

apples. Ensure that you give enough

weight to the sales personality, the DNA

of your candidate. We recommend that

the DNA-related elements account for

the majority of the overall score.

You generally want to lead with these

open-ended questions. If the candidate

seems to be the right personality type,

the relevant past experience of the

candidate can be assessed with closed-

ended questions. These are the

questions about past quota, specific

deals, territory, sales methodology. Here

you want metrics.

Of particular importance in a sales

interview, avoid being “sold” by the

candidate; ask questions in multiple

ways, and look for inconsistencies.

2. Testing

While canned personality tests are not

the best tool in assessing a sales

candidate (they can be faked, and the

standard tests generally don’t test for

what makes a sales person tick) hiring

companies can “test” the candidates and

get a sense of their sales DNA using

certain interview techniques.

In a situation where the candidate

seems to be a fit, try closing the

interview without giving a yes or no

answer to whether she will be put

forward for the job. Or try closing the

interview without outlining next steps in

the process.A Top Performer will not let

an interview end without understanding

where he stands, and will try to win the

deal if you are non- committal.

Another technique: try to take the

meeting off-focus, and see whether the

salesperson is successful in steering

you back to the agenda.


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Hiring well is arguably more important in

the sales function than in any other

function in a company. Hiring poorly in

sales is costly and the costs compound

quickly, often with disastrous results.

To hire well in sales, it is important to

recognize the key personality traits that

make a Top Sales Performer tick, their

DNA. This is more important than

experience and skills, and yet it is the

thing companies are poorest at

screening for. In addition to

understanding the winning sales

personality, companies need to

understand where to look for the best

candidates—recruiters can be very

effective here—and how to screen for

Top Sales Performer DNA.

Hiring well in sales may require up-front

investment of time and resources, but it

is well worth the investment.

In the famous words of Jack Welch, “the

team with the best players wins.”

PART 6:

Bottom Line


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Peak Sales Recruiting specializes in

B2B sales recruiting services. Our

rigorous and proven methodology

combines role profiling, headhunting

and candidate assessment, augmented

with 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.

Visit www.peaksalesrecruiting.com

for more information or call 800-964-

0946.

About Peak

Sales

Recruiting


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Croner, Christopher, Ph.D. and Richard Abraham.

Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again: Selecting

Candidates Who Are Absolutely Driven to Succeed.

2006. The Richard Abraham Company, LLC.

Culpepper and Associates. Turnover climbs for

finance. April 2006.

http://www.culpepper.com/eBulletin/2006/AprilCompe

nsation.asp(accessed, August 2007).

Godin, Seth. Nine things marketers ought to know

about salespeople. June 2006.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/06/nine

_things_mar.html (accessed May 2007.)

Joinson, Carla. Capturing turnover costs. July 2000.

HR Magazine 45 (7).

http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/2000index/0700/070

0joinson.asp(accessed August 2007).

LeadershipIQ. Study: Nobody likes low performers.

2006.

http://www.leadershipiq.com/news_lowperformers.htm

l (accessed August 2007).

Mayer, David and Herbert M. Greenberg. What makes

a good salesman. July-August 2006.

Harvard Business Review: Best of HBR. (Reprint

R0607N).

Miller, Joe. 2005. Great Salespeople are Not Born,

They’re Hired. WBusiness Books

Smith, Benson, and Tony Rutigliano. October 2001.

Buildinga world-class sales force. Gallup

Management Journal.

http://gmj.gallup.com/content/print/331/Building-a-

World-Class-Sales-Force.aspx

(accessed July 2007).

Smith, Benson, and Tony Rutigliano. November 2001.

Creating a successful sales culture. Gallup

Management Journal.

http://gmj.gallup.com/content/328/Creating-a-

Successful-Sales-Culture.aspx

(accessed August 2007).

Bibliography


http://www.culpepper.com/eBulletin/2006/AprilCompe

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/06/nine

http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/2000index/0700/070

http://www.leadershipiq.com/news_lowperformers.htm

http://gmj.gallup.com/content/print/331/Building-a-

http://gmj.gallup.com/content/328/Creating-a-

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