Screen for Great Salespeople - Like the NFL

The NFL screens high-profile college athletes for speed, quickness, agility, mental aptitude, and other important traits relative to their positions.  The NFL Combine with its statistical history for vertical jumps, 40 yard dash, bench press, aptitude tests, and interviews greatly increases the chances for excellent player selection.  And, these are just a few of their screening tools.  With a multi-million dollar investment on the line, owners make sure that due diligence occurs in the screening for new NFL players.

In great sales teams, the same situation exists.  Each new recruit represents thousands and perhaps millions of dollars in corporate revenue.  And, one recruit impacts morale, production, and the retention of other salespeople and fellow employees. 

The sobering thought ... coaches know that ultimately the best players get the job done on the playing field ... and, they help them keep their jobs.

For these fiscal reasons, great sales managers take their candidates through some initial examination steps (Stage One: Screening).  They screen by resume, by phone, by email, and perhaps face-to-face for 3-6 personality and character traits.  The typical traits they screen for include: goal-orientation, social drive (for prospecting), social confidence (for prospecting, asking hard questions, presenting), and important character attributes: honesty, hard work ethic, and personal responsibility.  This keeps them from spending additional recruiting dollars and interviewing time on candidates who cannot pass initial screening.

Problem ... Resume reviews and reference checking alone are worth less than 4% in making good hiring decision. 

After screening candidates, some candidates make it to Stage Two: Profiling.  In this stage, validated profiles (see craftprofiles) are used to screen for the critical personality traits which contribute to doing important sales tasks.  Also, just as in the NFL, mental aptitude is measured as well.  How fast will they learn product information, paperwork requirements, marketing information, etc. for ramp up to minimum production.  Scientifically validated profiles, especially ones with built in lie detectors, help isolate the traits.  They are worth, in predictive measurement, between 20-50% in making a good hiring decision.

THREE PROBLEMS WITH PROFILES ...

Problem #1:  Many profiles are not validated. 

Problem #2:  Many profiles are hard to understand and very general in their reported measurements.  While true, they are hard to use.  Accurate information is presented in a difficult and hard to apply format.

Problem #3:  Sales managers have very little practical experience with profiles, or have had a negative experience with them.  They are not comfortable with how to use them.

The recruiting funnel, at its finish, narrows into the final stage - Stage 3: Interviewing.  This stage may provide at least 16% of the information necessary to make a good hiring decision - if structured interviews are used. It is also the stage in which we get the participation of other team members in separate discussions and interviews.

INTERVIEW PROBLEM ...

Problem: Most sales managers do interviews that are not structured to screen for the 3-6 critical traits. They also do not ask the same questions to every candidate and then score out their responses.  An unstructured interview is worth less than 4% to a good hiring decision - some experts say less than 2%.

...............
An outstanding RECRUITING SYSTEM finds great salespeople ...

Use multiple sources for an adequate flow of candidates.  Recruit with a three stage funnel in the order outlined above: Screening, Profiling, Interviewing, and do so with critical traits in sharp focus. 

As you become more proficient with the process, its tools, and skills, your selection will improve.  Just like the NFL, you will use proven selection methods to separate the best from the rest - to find salespeople suited for the challenges they will face.

To impact ramp up time, first year production, and retention, recruit the best.  Learn the skills.  Use the tools.  Follow the process. 

What’s next?  After hiring, the ramp up period and coaching process become important.  And, that’s a message for another time.  For now, Recruit the Best ... and later we’ll discuss Coaching the Best.  Do Great.  Lance.

A Best Practice Recruiting System for Salespeople

“Yes, we’ll meet our numbers, It’s my job.“

That’s what Jack Plating, a President with Verizon, once told me in response to my end-of-the-year question,

“Are you going to meet your numbers?”

Sales executives want to meet their numbers.  However ... very few companies train their managers to recruit well USING present day selection methods. For example, many do not know that validated personality profiles (craftprofiles.com), as a part of a recruiting system, will help them:

- Decrease new salesperson ramp up time
- Increase first year production
- Increase retention

A best practice recruiting system contains a process that uses state-of-the-art selection tools at three (3) stages of a recruiting funnel - Above the funnel, great managers learn to use several sourcing methods to bring candidates into Stage One - Screening.

1. Trait Screening
2. Validated Profiling
3. Structured Interviewing

There are three problems above the funnel.

Problem #1 ...
Most sales managers cannot tell someone the top 3-6 personality and character traits important for their sales position - natural and learned traits necessary for sales success.  So, how can they screen for them?

Problem #2 ...
Sales managers rush too few candidates into unstructured interviews and make quick hiring decisions under pressure.

Problem #3 ... 
Sales managers do not employ several sourcing methods to bring enough candidates into the recruitment process. So, they panic and act with haste as they look at a candidate through rose-colored glasses - making quick decisions because of cash flow needs.

Here a solution to problem #1…
Ask yourself three questions, “What changes has your company and industry experienced in the last 1-3 years.  Then, “What challenges, in order of priority, face the sales organization as a result of those changes.  Now, your ready for the final question. ”What will be the traits of high performers for your company and industry - to handle the changes and meet the challenges.“ This final question should bring out a lot of excellent traits required for your sales job.  Prioritize these into the top 5 traits for success.

Solutions do exist for problems #2 and #3.  A best practice recruiting system contains specific tools and skills, that when used in the process outlined above, impact the quality of new recruits - their 1st year production and retention.  Lance.

Social Confidence in GREAT Salespeople

Social Confidence is trait #3 of four personality traits that affect the achievement drive of great salespeople.  People endowed with this trait can naturally and without stress interact with people.  This helps them gain power throughout the sales cycle. 

In simplistic terms, salespeople need to ...
1.  Find prospects
2.  Set appointments, and
3.  Close sales
And, in sales cycles of ninety days or less, they need to do these activities over and over again.

Prospecting requires a great salesperson to network, ask about others, and to leave a memorable impression on the phone and at events.  Sometimes they must answer questions with tact, poise, and a frank demeanor.  So ... great salespeople not only ask questions well themselves, but they also respond well to the questions of others.  People with low levels of social confidence appear weaker and less memorable in face-to-face encounters.

And, then the real fun begins - setting appointments.  For many salespeople, this is a most difficult task.  And, it is made all the more difficult if someone would rather not assert themselves.  Great salespeople make appointment sales every month.  They sell someone on the need to meet.  While stressful to many people, it is greatly stressful to someone with low social confidence.

That brings us to the sales process - developing rapport, asking questions, listening, presenting, negotiating, and getting agreements completed.  Many people with low social confidence have trouble gaining rapport with dynamos - people with abrupt and demanding personalities.  They do better in less pushy sales situations with less pushy people.  While a person whom is not socially confident may ask questions very well, they sometimes do not probe well into sensitive areas and into the financial or emotional impact of a person’s needs. 

When it is time to present, this same lack of confidence may produce weakness in obtaining commitments, responding to objections, and handling rejection.

Salespeople, by the nature of their profession, need to tell people to do things from time to time.  While it is very important to ask questions and uncover needs, it is also important for a salesperson to tell a person what to do next - what’s important and what’s not important.  And, they need to do this with confidence.

Social confidence in a salesperson’s personality combined with goal-orientation, social drive, and a need to control naturally creates better genetics for finding prospects, setting appointments, and closing sales.  High-activity salespeople whom lead their teams have healthy doses of these traits.  Personality profiles created to help managers in the recruitment process must contain social confidence as one of their targeted traits. (see craftprofiles) (Other important traits include goal-orientation, social drive, and a need-to-control.  (By the way, some people interview well, and have great social confidence, but are process-oriented - not goal-oriented.  They do not focus on achieving end results, the sales and the money, within a given time frame.  But, they sure interview well.)

I’m thinking of someone right now whom I hired with all of these traits.  He had never worked as a professional salesperson.  His learning curve was sharp and his sales went above anything previously accomplished in his company.  It takes awhile to find people with these traits, but it’s always worth the effort.  In your screening, profiling, and interviews look for social confidence.  It’s a key performance trait in high-performing salespeople.  Now, be GREAT.  Lance.

Social Drive in GREAT Salespeople

Research scientists have found “Social Drive” to be a core characteristic for high performing sales reps.  The scientists who create validated personality profiles may use different terms for being socially engaged. 

Salespeople who are driven socially will want to be out among people in networking events. They love to go toward people - especially if their social confidence is high.  Top performing reps ‘need’ social interaction with people for ANY of the following reasons ...
- Competitive drive
- Recognition
- Emotional connection
- Word bantering (talking)
- Goal drive (money: another core trait driving a great salesperson to ‘go be social’)

This rings especially true for high activity salespeople with sales cycles of 10 minutes to 90 days. The best of these work hard at continuously bringing new prospects into the top of their funnels. It is less true for major accounts salespeople. While the best large account reps do prospect and network, it is less on a grand flat horizon and more on a targeted and strategic basis.

The type of social networks that salespeople participate in most varies.
- Chamber events
- Industry trade shows
- Sporting events
- Sport’s teams for young people, i.e. Little League Baseball (many kid’s coaches are salespeople)
- Formalized business networking groups
- Theatrical performances
- Business networking groups

(Additional note: High-activity salespeople often have a low detail orientation and a disdain for step-by-step process, and we can help their sales performance with coaching suggestions for consistency in social networking.)

If a salesperson’s social drive is low, you may see the following behaviors.
• Waiting on prospects to come to them.
• Going home after a 9 - 5 day, done, finished.
• Procrastinating follow up activities.
• Avoiding social interaction at gatherings.
• Preferring to do detail work during prime prospecting time.

Regarding other professions, I think it’s easy for all of us NOT to think of engineers and accountants as socially driven. And, the research bears this out.  Most are not.  And, while we can all think of someone who breaks the mold, the bell shaped curve of people in these ‘analysis and thinking’ professions shows them not as likely to ‘socialize.’ (They actually have to remove themselves from social activity to recharge their energy. Doing things social drains their life battery.) And, that’s my oldest son, Matt, the mechanical engineer. Other family members can socialize, FOREVER.

Make sure the profile you use provides a percentage range (1-100) that show social drive intensity.  High-activity salespeople naturally reside in the upper range.  They prospect with less stress especially with high amounts of goal-orientation and social confidence.  (see craftprofiles).  Recruit with greater certainty and choose social drive as a top trait for great performing salespeople. Lance

Goal-Orientation in GREAT Salespeople

Goal-Orientation: Personality Trait #1 in High-Activity Salespeople (for sales cycles less than 90 days)

Is your team motivated to achieve timely results or to steadily pass the day?

TARGETS • OBJECTIVES • SALES
When salespeople achieve their numbers, CASH FLOWS .......
and, businesses thrive.  Owners hear the streaming sound of profits reach the bottom of a healthy income statement.  They love that sound!

Driven salespeople (racehorses) who consistently achieve their numbers are naturally goal-oriented.  They find enough prospects in the time required.  They set and hold the right amount or appointments.  They present a high enough number of quotes to reach their sales goals, and then start the cycle again.

Goal-Orientation combined with Social Drive (Trait #2) leads to more prospecting.  A person networks and attends social events for the purpose of lead generation.  They make things happen with networking activity and by attending events for prospecting reasons.  They keep their sales funnel FULL.

What if a salesperson has a low goal-orientation?  What if they do not look at their progress - and just work at a steady pace?  Do you think this would affect sales?  Of course, it would.  It’s common sense.

What if a salesperson does not like to socialize (low social drive) and prefers working alone?  Have you ever noticed that office parking lots do not contain cars belonging to great salespeople? 

Top performers, with short sales cycles, do not sit in offices.  They RACE for the tape.

They get out of the office and into the lives of potential customers. 

Excellent personality profiles show levels of Goal-Orientation, Social Drive, Social Confidence, and a Need to Control.  These four traits, anchored by Goal-Orientation, produce top performers with drive and energy.  Salespeople with high levels of these personality traits NATURALLY produce more.

Imagine this.  You hire a salesperson who keeps track of their progress during the month.  They always know how much they’ve sold and how much they need to sell.  They realize that it takes ‘x’ number of quotes and ‘y’ number of appointments to get enough sales each and EVERY month.  And, they love this kind of activity.  They love it.  They love being in the race.  And, you’re the sales manager.  What would that feel like?

Recruit them and use a personality profile to help you spot them. (see craftprofiles)
We’d love to help you.  Lance

Why Personality Profiles?

TAKES THE GUESSWORK OUT OF RECRUITING ...

Increase your ODDS of finding a great salesperson or sales manager by 10-15 times over traditional methods of interviewing and reference checking.  Use a validated personality profile to decrease hiring mistakes - mistakes that cost $8,000 - $200,000 per poor hire. 

For twenty years, we have used personality profiles to make hiring decisions with greater accuracy.  They have also made selecting a top performer easier.  As a result, our confidence has increased along with sales team production and retention.

We want to help you with our profiling expertise.  And, we want to keep you away from a reliance on a ‘seat-of-the-pants’ interview - statistically worth less than 2% in making a good hiring decision.

Select GREAT Salespeople
Let’s keep it simple.  A great salesperson has the natural ability to do enough of the following activities ...

FIND PROSPECTS
HOLD APPOINTMENTS
CLOSE SALES

Use a personality profile.  Quickly determine if a person naturally possesses the personality to do these skills well.  In other words, does the salesperson have the personality to handle these skill areas?  And, at what ‘power level’ can they do them?

Find Prospects.  Does the candidate have enough social drive and goal-orientation to get out among people and find prospects?  Do they have the social confidence to approach these people and build relationships?  Will they assert themselves.  Will they continually prospect to reach their goals?  A personality profile predicts a candidate’s ability to naturally find prospects and network.

Hold Appointments.  Will the candidate pick up the phone and make appointments?  Do they have enough goal drive and social confidence to do this on an ongoing basis?  Will they set enough appointment each week?  Will they seek to control the sale process or will they allow the prospect to control it?  Do they have the social confidence to present well?

Close Sales. Will they quote enough business?  Will they ask for the business?  Will they fight to get enough business completed to reach their sales goal?  Will they ask about next steps?  Will they follow up in order to win sales?  Will manage time and activities to get results?  Will they want or desire to reach performance objectives?

We want you to lower the ramp up time to acceptable production.  We want you to increase the selection and retention of great salespeople.  We want to help you use a personality profile as a recruiting tool - one of several steps to make better hiring decisions.  We want to make you a conscious competent with a great recruiting tool - a personality profile.  (see craftprofiles)

And, we want your coaching confidence to heighten with a better understanding of one new recruit vs. another.

Select GREAT Sales Managers
Great salespeople do not always make great sales managers.  Do you have someone that has the right makeup for this change in position?  A personality profile can help you with this crucial sales team move or outside hiring decision.

A great sales manager must possess the natural instincts to ...
Prospect for great salespeople
Plan sales team goal achievement
Know people as individuals
Manage sales processes - confronting and coaching performance of sales activities and face-to-face skills
Build teams and recognize achievement

Use a profile to determine a person’s strengths and weaknesses in these areas.  Will they prospect and network for great salespeople?  Will they focus on enough detail to plan goal achievement, sales meetings, etc.?  Will they care about their people?  Will they learn about their unique characteristics.  Will they confront poor behavior?  Or, will they give away praise and recognition?  Will they build teams?

Great salespeople oftentimes do not naturally posses the traits of great sales managers.  Goal achievement WILL NOT be pegged at the top of the scale in a great manager.  Sales managers must value step-by-step processes at some level.  Their personality will also require enough patience to plan and to analyze.  And, yet, this level of detail must not be so high that they are not active with their people and driven to get results.  Sales managers must not become paralyzed by analysis.

And, a great sales manager will give away praise and recognition.  They will not possess too great a need for praise themselves. 

Personality profiles are great at predicting if a person possesses the traits of a great salesperson or manager ... so let’s get started making better, easier, and more confident hiring selections NOW.  Please read through this post several times.  There’s much to be absorbed here.  Thanks, Lance.

Coaching Value of Personality Assessments for Sales

Great coaching involves three (3) stages of progress. The first one, “Knowing People” begins in the recruiting phase as you compile information about each candidate. Behavior-based, personality assessments, and aptitude testing provide as much as 20-50% of validated input toward predicting which candidate will do best. 

And, they provide a wealth of information about the candidate if hired. This information combined with in-depth recruiting interviews and on-the-job foundational interviews tell a sales manager the likely strengths and weaknesses of a new salesperson? Is their goal-orientation high or are they process-focused? Is their social drive high leading to prospecting strength, or will they need to network through a few people they get to know well? Are they optimistic? Are they detail-oriented or big picture? Will they listen well? What will their time management be like? How strong will they close? How fast will they learn? What will motivate them - demotivate them?

Assessments are invaluable to sales managers who coach their people.

(Note:  Many profiles like the Myers-Briggs and others were not made with a sales manager in mind. They require a lot of indepth knowledge about the psychology of the assessment parameters to understand what “sales” coaching will be required. They do not tell you the number of coaching hours required per month and which specific ‘sales’ traits must be coached. They also do not specifically tell you what sales management coaching to do with ideas and suggestions.) 



The other two (2) stages of great coaching include: activity management and face-to-face (or phoning) skills. And, great coaching will mean coaching unique individuals differently to successfully follow your sales processes in those areas. Again, knowing the individual will allow you to tailor your training approach to each person. (Even baseball coaches must do this as they work with young players over a baseball tee - each one learning differently.) Personality profiles specifically designed for sales coaches will provide great help. 

Now, know your people well and use personality assessments as tools that help coach them to greatness. Lance.

Game Changing Recruiting Technologies for Great Salespeople

When researching all the subject experts in recruiting, a best practice recruitment funnel emerges. After sourcing well to develop five or more recruiting channels, the three stages of recruiting are: - Screening - Profiling - Interviewing.  (Note: This recruiting funnel also presumes that you have analyzed the sales position well enough to isolate the top five (5) personality characteristics of a great salesperson.)

Stage One:  There are several ways to screen a candidate for your top traits.  They are by: resume, phone (5-7 min), face-to-face, references, email, etc.  An interesting way to screen by email is to ask the candidate to email you how they plan to approach their first ninety days as a new rep. 

Stage Two:  After screening each candidate, a few make it to the personality profiling stage which increases predictability by as much as thirty percent (30%).  A profile also provides an objective look at your candidate.  We use Craftsystems CPQ (Craft Personality Questionnaire) with 30+ years of sales recruiting research and 2 million+ administered tests (see craftprofiles.com).  From the profile, you will receive a high, moderate, or low job match and the personality trait scores within or outside of the acceptable range.  You will also know the type and amount of coaching that each rep will require.  Biodata information and learning style testing can continue to add strength and predictability points to the profiling stage.

Stage Three:  A “Structured and Scored Interview” continues to up the odds of a great hire (16%), as well as involving others in the interview process. It will contain customized questions that you will ask of every candidate.  The questions will be structured to discover fits and mismatches with your top five required traits.  (Note: traditional methods of reference checking, unstructured interviews, and resume checking are worth less than 6% in predictability for making a great hire.)

For those heavy in recruiting, an online recruitment funnel is helpful as well - kinda like a CRM of recruiting or a sales funnel of recruits. With this tool you can work candidate through your recruitment funnel with an interview to recruit goal of at least 3:1 ... ratio of new recruits vs. those making it to the interview stage.

If your rigorous recruitment system is successful, the technologies you use will improve retention and productivity of new reps - provided your sales managers also provide a healthy working environment.  Now, go and make things better.  We believe you can do it.  Lance