How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck …

... if they were on straight commission without incentives, goals, or directions?

Three Answers
1. “As much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.” 

2. “A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood.”
3. “A woodchuck would chuck all the wood, if a woodchuck only could.” 



This means that a woodchuck salesperson would chuck all the wood available to chuck. He’ll do it to survive. In the present, that will be the incentive. 

And, he’ll look for the wood. Most woodchucks are solitary independent critters. They do not rely on other woodchucks except for alerts to danger. They take care of themselves. That’s their character and personality. 

Of course with incentives (wood) and direction (location), woodchucks would chuck as much as they could chuck - perhaps even all of it.

from another perspective ...


“As much wood as a woodchuck would ...”

We need to make sure that we’ve got the right woodchucks - ones that ‘would’ chuck wood.

Some woodchucks are lazy while others are unreliable or without a sense of personal responsibility. Some of them might sleep all day or just sit by the hole, and when you ask them about it, they’ll just act like they couldn’t find any wood. 

"If they only could” might refer to their upbringing and the leadership they get - especially from older and wiser woodchucks. I know some woodchucks who often wander away from the hole in any ole direction. With direction and an internal motivation to provide for themselves and their family, OUR woodchuck(s) can receive what they need, knowledge, direction, and skills, to develop into industrious and dependable producers and providers. 

So, in summary, let’s strive to find the right woodchucks, ones that want to learn and and then let’s give them direction, coaching, and a reason to do what it takes.  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

A Talent Fit for Your Organization

Most companies do not know how to do find a “talent fit.” And, here are reasons why:

1. They do not know the top six traits in order of priority necessary for a good “fit.”
2. They do not look for the important character AND personality traits of a top performer.
3. They have not been trained to use a best practice recruiting system: funnel process, skills, and tools.
4. They do not think about how fast people need to ramp up - and the aptitude necessary for success.

How do we find the traits we require for a high-activity salesperson (as opposed to a major accounts sales team)?
1st ... Identify the top character traits: - Honesty - Personal Responsibility - Hard Work Ethic Next, know the top personality traits that align with prospecting, closing, presentation, and high activity.  They are: Goal-Orientation, Social Confidence, Social Drive

[For free, here’s a brainstorming process for determining the character and personality traits required for your sales position 1. Ask current managers, “What are the major changes in the last 1-2 years affecting sales (flip chart)?” 2.  “What are the challenges of the job position as a result of these changes (flip chart)?” 3.  “What actions need to be done to meet the challenges (flip chart)?” 4. “What will be the traits of high performance salespeople who can meet today’s challenges? in this position?] ”

2nd ... Sourcing Methods ... Find best sources for candidates most likely to fit the character and personality traits targeted.
3rd ... Recruiting Funnel Process Stage One: Screening (resumes, by phone: 5-12 minutes, by email, references) Stage Two: Personality Profiling (with EEO validated CraftProfile see http://www.craftprofiles.com) Also, Oxford Learning Inventory for learning style (also see http://www.craftprofiles.com) Stage Three: Structured Interviewing (a interviewer-scored 100 point questionnaire structured to look for the character and personality traits)
4th ... Recruiting Process Tools and Skills (all of which should work toward identifying the necessary character and recruiting skills)
- Phone screening scripts
- Resume screening skills
- Profile analysis
- Interviewing skills
- Matching sheets showing +’s and -’s with regards to character and personality traits desired

... Recently, we installed this type of recruiting system in a company whose industry is showing a 22% drop year-to-date in sales.  This company is presently 18% up year-to-date in sales, primarily due to recruiting more effectively right “talent fits” for their company. So, work at using the ideas you find helpful in the post.  And ... Do GREAT.  Lance.

Sales Performance in Retail Financial or Wireless Services?

After twenty+ years of working with sales teams in banking, financial services, and other BtoB companies, I’ve discovered a foundational problem to exist in Retail Financial and Wireless Services ... And, it’s the word “Retail.”

While the banking industry has transformed itself in many ways, especially with terms like “sales,” it still has a “wait at home” mentality - or, “Build enough branches and they will come.” The people chosen for sales roles often have low social drive and and personalities that comfortably wait for business to walk in the door.  And, most though they talk the sales talk, would rather focus on operational or product issues than face an aggressive campaign for new customers.  Therefore, sales performance improvements in Retail Financial Services will need to start by installing a new system of attitudes and processes that will also include:  a better common sales language, best coaching or sales management practices, and an outside sales-focused selection process.

The Wireless Industry started out differently - with an aggressive outside sales force.  Today, it’s hard to find an outside salesperson in wireless worth much of anything.  The industry has moved toward retail.  And, even though inside reps have many opportunities for outside sales - they typically sit still and wait. (with some exceptions: like Verizon’s independent distributor: Cellular Sales).  The whole outside sales thing has slowly cooked itself into warm soup.  Meanwhile, many small businesses wish for a wireless rep they could trust - one that would keep up with their changing data and connection needs.

To improve their cultures, the selection process for both these industries must recruit salespeople suited for outside prospecting, goal achievement, and an ability to control the sales process - all within a consultancy approach. Increased sales performance will take a major step forward with GREAT recruits and GREAT “outside sales” coaching.

Sales manager coaching will center around basic sales processes like: sales planning, an activity management process, and a face-to-face sales process.  These processes, installed in retail financial and wireless organizations (reinstalled here), along with high-performance sales meetings will establish a new sales paradigm within a best practice sales system - one that progressively improves itself in incremental steps. This also means that great sales coaches will emerge as the champions of this movement - meaning that THEIR selection (the coaches) as well as the salespeople will be of upmost importance to the retail financial or wireless organization that wants increased sales performance.. Now, go and make things better.  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