Blog

Five Considerations in Selecting a GREAT Sales Manager

Companies need great sales managers.  To find them, Sales VPs and business owners need to (1) know, in advance, the sales goals their managers will work to achieve.  Sales managers assume responsibility for sales team goal achievement.  And, it’s important to investigate their background for team achievement levels and to set clear expectations for them at the beginning of their employment.  Typical expectations are set for team performance, individual product sales, territory expansion, and retention.

As a coach, sales managers guide salespeople into prospecting and sales activity levels necessary to produce enough quotes and sales for goal achievement.  They create an inspiring environment in which salespeople want to motivate themselves to achieve sales goals. To accomplish the goals of a sales manager’s position, a person must be able to do certain activities.  They must show a competency to handle certain duties.  We will call these duties (2) sales manager competencies.

Know the competency requirements for top sales managers in your industry.  Examples found in a cross section of industries and sales manager positions include:

1. Recruiting salespeople
2. Planning sales goal achievement
3. Coaching and teaching in three areas: sales planning, activity (funnel) management, face-to-face skills
4. Confronting mavericks and poor performers
5. Building teams
6. Inspiring others to motivate themselves
7. Monitoring individual and team performance (sales goal achievement)

(Note:  In some industries, a high ability to sell or close deals is necessary, while in others a moderate ability to sell is required along with greater competency in the areas shown above.  Group presentation skills are required in some industries and not in others.)

As you can see the competencies are the things that great sales managers can do and do well.  To consistently do these tasks over a long period of time, a sales manager usually possesses certain (3) personality traits.  Just as in athletics, certain traits produce speed and an ability to catch a ball.  In sales management, certain personality traits allow sales managers to more naturally do the competencies shown above.  Those personality traits are ....

• High social confidence and ability to ask, tell, present, persuade, and confront
• Lower social drive and need for recognition and thus a greater tendency to praise others
• A moderated goal drive with a respect and knowledge of sales systems: processes, tools, and skills
• A moderated detail-orientation to allow for analysis within a big picture orientation
• A moderated need to nurture - ability to hear an individual’s needs and yet keep time management a priority
• Willingness to understand and adapt communication and coaching to different personality styles
• Out of the box thinker and creative problem solver - personal flexibility

While the goals, competencies, and personality traits combine to show what a sales manager must do, (4) attitudes and beliefs make up the philosophy that drives the system.  They also define the sales team environment and whether it will be an inspiring one.  And, certain attitudes and beliefs must be present to exist comfortably within a company’s values.  The follow list contains attitudes and beliefs most commonly found in great sales managers.  Before recruiting a sales manager, it will be important for you to see which you agree with and what attitudes and beliefs you will add to the list.

- Honest: with money, time, and promises
- Hard work ethic:  the amount of hours doesn’t matter
- Personal responsibility: it’s their ship, their watch, their people, their goals
- Servant hearted:  it’s all about contribution and service
- Positive:  meets challenges with a ‘can do’ attitude

Finally, the (5) cognitive strength of the sales managers is important.  It determines how fast they will learn and how quickly they grasp complex information - the need for which varies from industry to industry.

When selecting great sales managers, build a matching sheet of +’s and -’s and keep score during a best practice recruiting system.  Screen, profile, and then do structured interviews.  Focus on deciding if the candidate can accomplish the goals and if they will be competent in the areas shown above.  And, most importantly, for retention and for sales organization health, decide if the candidate will do these things naturally and in a way that will keep both sales team morale and production at high levels.  Now, take the information in this article and do a better job in selecting your new sales manager.  You can.  Lance.

The 13 Best Criteria for Choosing Sales Assessments

The sales assessment chosen for use in a recruiting process should:

1.  Be scientifically validated for the position.  The process and cost of validation, if any, should be included in the RFP.  Validation documentation should be provided to company adminstator.

Explanation:  Many companies and individuals marketing personality profiles have not invested in validation studies to prove the predictive effectiveness of their profiles.  Be sure that this has occurred for those profiles you choose to place in your selection process.

2.  Meet EEOC validity as a selection tool under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) (29 CFR Part 1607 for EEOC, as amended by 46 FR 63268), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1978.

Explanation:  These federal laws prohibit discrimination in any term or condition of employment (including employment tests) on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, age and gender.

3.  Include an accuracy index that catches those who try to leave an unrealistically favorable impression (high, moderate, invalid accuracy), and to reduce applicant faking.

Explanation:  (source: Dr. Larry Craft) There are literally hundreds of personality questionnaires in the marketplace. Psychologists developed the great majority to use in a mental health (not employment) environment where faking was seldom a problem. A host of other personality tests were recently developed by marketing specialists who have very little knowledge of test validity or reliability. The test items are so transparent that any ‘test-wise’ applicant can see-through the questionnaire and respond in a way that generates the highest possible score. Very few of the existing personality tests have the sophistication and research required to reduce and measure applicant faking.

4.  Show a compatibility percentage (0-100%) match to the job position.

Explanation:  This will, at a glance, help recruiting or hiring managers see which applicants are more closely matched in their personality traits to the those normally required for the competencies of the sales position.

5.  Show a high, moderate, and low compatibility ranking to the job position.

Explanation:  A high, moderate, and low compatibility cut for participants will provide the recruiting manager or job manager a quick look when working with large volumes of applicants.  These should correlate with validation studies done on the job position.

6.  Show what personality trait(s) scores cause a variation from a high compatibility match and the amount of difference graphically displayed verses the ideal range for the job position.

Explanation:  Profiles scores derive from personality trait variation for job position norms usually present in high performing salespeople.  These should be shown in the output along with which traits are out of norm.

7.  Display results on a one page summary chart for easy use and interpretation.

Explanation:  A summary chart provides ease-of-use benefits for recruiting or hiring managers with lots of applicants.  The ability to ‘drill down’ into details should be provided in the design of the one page summary chart.

8.  Show the selling style of the person based on the four (4) quadrant personality grid common in psychological literature (example:  persuasive, administrative, authoritative, participative or other similar names). 

Explanation:  This is included to help the sales candidate understand for what prospect of customer personality style(s) the sales candidate will have to “stretch” to improve selling or service rapport.  Coaching tips for the candidate and the sales manager should be provided.

9.  Provide a measurement and prediction of a salesperson’s cognitive learning style.

Explanation:  Sales positions vary in the need to learn complex information and products during the ramp-up period.  Sales managers know to challenge quick learners or to provide more instruction time and communication for candidates with different learning styles.

10.  List the recommended amount of coaching hours per month for each applicant.

Explanation:  The profile output should provide the sales manager with the number of coaching hours predicted per applicant and new hire.  This provide a realistic understanding of the coaching effort expected for each new hire.

11.  Provide coaching instructions to the manager for helping the candidate achieve at a high performance level.

Explanation:  Provided with the number of coaching hours, the specific tips and instructions will help the sales manager get a better start bringing the candidate to minimum performance standards. 

12.  Be provided with profile training for those administering the profile to applicants.  The process and cost for training, if any, should be included in a proposal.

Explanation:  While there are many sales assessment profiles marketed in America, very few sales managers or recruiting managers have been training to understand the results and how to accurately use these during the recruitment and coaching process.

13.  Be administered online and have online access to results provided to the company administrator(s).

Explanation:  In today’s world of Internet connectivity, remote and/or virtual offices, personality profiles that are fully administered online meet important efficiency standards.  Test taking provisions and profiling results should be made available through an internet interface.

Make sure to use a validated profile as part a best practice recruiting system for salespeople.  Craftprofiles meet the 13 criteria in this article.  Place the profile you choose as the second phase of a recruiting funnel prior to screening and before structured interviews.  When you do this, you will be screen out applicants before profiling and better prepare yourself for a candidate’s interview.  Screening, profiling, and interviewing should then contribute to a better selection process and help you improve retention and ramp up time to minimum production standard per recruit.

Recruit the best.  Build a great sales force.  Lance