For many companies, the sales hiring process focuses on experience. Candidates are considered in the context of whether they have sold the right products or worked for certain companies. This approach is flawed because it limits the pool of eligible candidates and, in turn, the likelihood of finding reliable performers. Focusing on personality traits, behavioral characteristics, competencies, or what we call Sales DNA, yields far better results in sales hiring. Here is why hiring the right kind of Sales DNA works:

1. You look for what you NEED – 9 times out of 10 someone is successful in sales NOT because of their experience, but because of their personality and traits, such as ambition, drive, confidence, and optimism. If you focus on DNA, you will determine what it really takes someone to be successful in your unique sales environment and interview candidates who have these today and will do well in your company rather than those that did well in another time, in another company and within a sales environment that may be vastly different from yours.

2. You won’t fall prey to a “Sales Job” - Faking personality traits in an interview is much more difficult for most candidates than making up stories about where they have been and what they have done. You will get a more honest picture of who the candidate really is by focusing on Sales DNA.

3. You will pay less – When you look for people with a certain mix of Sales DNA rather than people who have worked within specific companies or sectors, you open up your hiring to a broader pool of candidates which puts you in a better negotiating position. You won’t have to pay a premium to get the person you need.

Hiring for Sales DNA takes a bit more commitment and structure in your hiring process, but it is worth it in terms of sales results!

Sale Leaders on 2010 Sales Trends (art by Christophe Vorlet)

At the end of last year, we conducted an informal poll with sales leaders in our network on what selling trends we can expect to see in 2010. Here is what they had to say:

1. Competition – Expect fierce competition as companies are still struggling with cash flow. Your team will have to fight harder than ever for each win.
2. Pricing – Buyers may be loosening up and moving forward on stalled purchases, but new benchmarks have been set in terms of pricing. You will have to more creative than ever to get your target margin and terms.
3. Economy – There was split consensus on which direction the economy will go with half expecting a recovery and half forecasting a double dip, while no one would bet the house either way. Staying nimble makes sense.
4. Evolution of Buying – Sales has been changing for several years with buyers having unprecedented access to information on the Internet. Now customers are educating themselves on blogs, social networks, online forums and communities before speaking to your reps and popular marketing channels such as email are becoming less effective. Successful companies will need to invest in new ways to stay relevant and in front of the target customers.
5. Hiring – Most sales managers expressed that their hiring results needed to improve in order to meet increasingly challenging goals. General consensus is to add resources and structure to the hiring effort to find more reliable performers.
6. Process – With increasingly sophisticated buyers all sales managers expected to have at least rudimentary selling processes and guides to move their selling from art to science. In several cases, formal selling methodologies are being rolled out across the team.
7. Sales 2.0 – In order to better leverage marketing investments and lead generation programs, we can expect companies to increase cooperation between the marketing and sales functions, at least in defining target customers and collaborating to capture, qualify and close new leads.

We expect to be busy helping our customers meet these new challenges with top performing sales teams and leaders. It will be an exciting year.

This is the time of year most people think about goals (of course, our readers think about goals year round). Whether you make detailed sales plans or tend towards goals that fit on a napkin, make sure to include the following hot topics in your thinking for 2010 sales goals.

1. Besides the economy, how did your market/customer base change in 2009?
2. What worked this year, what do you need to do differently next year?
3. Do your goals reflect a “2008-2009 Survival” mindset or are you visioning real success?
4. What kind of staff do you need to win in 2010 and do you have the right team in place?
5. Will your comp plans motivate reps in light of any new pricing models and offerings?
6. What programs will generate more referrals and make your customers love you even more?
7. What are your top ten target customers/segments/territories that you will win in 2010?
8. What selling systems, processes and infrastructure will make your team more successful?
9. Beyond revenue, what metrics will lead to necessary “in-flight” adjustments?
10. What will you do in 2010 to create a culture of success and be a more inspiring leader?

We will be here some days next week (busy, busy), but there won’t be an @Peak until the new year, so have a great holiday break and we will see you in 2010.

Most of our readers will be familiar with Stephen Covey’s great book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Basic stuff we know, but what percentage of your sales force has read this book and how many are practicing the habits?

Junior reps, in particular, are good at being busy, however they are not always productive. Activity and results are related, but they are definitely not the same thing.

To jog your memory, the seven habits are listed below and adapted to a sales context:

Habit 1 : Be Proactive - focus your time and energy on outcomes you can control.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind – Begin each day, or endeavor with a customer service mission or sales goal in mind.

Habit 3: Put First Things First – Know your priorities, your top deals and accounts and push everything else off.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win - Work towards deals and contracts that are mutually beneficial to you and the customer.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood – Focus on the what the client is saying and wants instead of what you want to say

Habit 6: Synergize – Value different perspectives and leverage the creative energies of many – prospects and team-mates alike.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw – Stay at peak performance by staying fresh and balanced across all aspects of life – physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.

**Special note re Habit #3. Put First Things First, offer the following important and useful tool for being productive: the time management matrix. Our diagram below shows Covey’s matrix adapted to sales and sales management.

Covey Time Management Matrix for Sales

Condition your sales force to stay focused on Quadrant 1 activities which are both Important and Urgent.

PS – you may also be interested in reading our recent blog post – Habits of Highly Effective Sales Leaders

A few days ago I bought a new cellphone at a retail outlet and thought I would share the experience since it highlights how not to design a comp plan (no need to mention the company).

The store rep was great, engaging me, asking questions, showing various different products and sharing facts and opinions on each. I might add, he successfully upsold me on a couple of items. Great service and a good sales for his company. After I had paid for the items he mentioned I would likely get a customer service call asking me to rate my buying experience. Straight forward so far. So he informs me that how I respond on this followup call is critical to him receiving any commission for this sale. He further explains that if I don’t use specific words in my response he would not be entitled to any commission at all. For example if I said the service was “great” but didn’t say “perfect” he would not secure any commission. And he expressed his opinion that this is just one of the ways that his employer tries to screw its sales staff – his words not mine.

This finish almost ruined a great buying experience for me and I blame the company not the rep.

First of all, when I buy something, I want to pay and go. I shouldn’t have to spend my time being coached on how to respond to a courtesy call or feel obliged to take the call at all.

Second, I shouldn’t have to hear about a reps comp plan and a company’s internal problems. None of this is my business and it should be transparent to me. It makes the company look bad.

Third, the company is being petty to be so strict about the way it comps its reps. Surely, I could say the rep was great and that I would buy there again and the rep should be entitled to a commission?!

This serves as a good reminder to all sales managers and employers to incent the sales staff to provide courteous and good quality service, *which includes* the staff feeling good about their compensation plan. If you are not sure if your reps feel the comp plan is fair ask them. And don’t assume they will tell you the truth, so find ways to ensure they feel their honesty will not be punished.

Many companies can’t resist the temptation to hire a group of inexpensive junior resources to pound the phones and generate more sales at a lower cost of sales, but the results are too often disappointing for a variety of reasons – lack of support from marketing, required tools and processes don’t exist, or the sales simply requires a level of maturity, experience and competence that is beyond the average junior rep, to name a few.
If this has been your experience, you might be wondering what to do next.

More and more, we are seeing B2B companies leverage a three-tier sales model to close both transaction and enterprise level deals. We drew this out on the white board so we could share with you.

Three Tier B2B Enterprise Sales Organization

The sales effort is separated across the team depending on deal size. Often the Major Account Reps are outside or in the field, while the rest of the roles are inside. The pyramid reflects the proportion of different types of reps across the team.
The key to making this work is to provide a lot of structure, process and support, particularly at the junior levels, so all pieces work well together.

We have been involved in thousands of sales hiring and recruiting projects. We are often called in to investigate and fixed failed hiring initiatives. Here in countdown order are the top 10 sales hiring mistakes we see and what you can do to avoid them.

10. Hiring based on gut.
Problem: while a person may feel right from meetings, your gut is often not skilled enough to make the right choice. Usually the hire that will perform 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.

9. Hiring who’s available instead of who you need.
Problem: The pressure to hit targets is immense and often a sales manager jumps to hire the first person that looks good or good enough, but getting sales hiring right takes patience and in the end they may end up wasting money and time investing in someone that is not the right fit.
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.

8. Hiring a product sales person to sell solutions.
Problem: The selling activity and skills required to sell solutions is completely different than for products.
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.

7. Hiring someone from a big company into a small company.
Problem: In a small company there is typically less infrastructure and support, less stability in direction and less brand recognition. It is tougher.
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.

6. Hiring the person with the best resume.
Problem: Often the best reps spend more time selling than polishing their resume. Solution: Focus on results and don’t be fooled by someone whose resume overstates limited accomplishments.

5. Hiring without doing thorough reference checks.
Problem: Sales people are often at their best in interviews and accomplishments may be embellished.
Solution: Validate all their claims and truly understand what it is like to employ them. Place a priority on former employers over colleagues and even customers.

4. Hiring based on industry experience rather than sales competencies.
Problem: Many companies believe that a new hire needs to come from the industry, have the right rolodex and domain knowledge in order to be successful, but the top performers are typically successful because of DNA not sector experience.
Solution: Give the job applicants tests and role plays that demonstrate their ability to learn and sell your offering. Top performers are usually fast learners.

3. Hiring reps from the competition.
Problem: Two head to head competitors can have vastly different offerings, cultures and selling environments, which require different characteristics in successful reps which means they may not be suited to your company and may in fact, bring baggage. Furthermore it reduces the pool of people you can choose from and raises the price you will have to pay.
Solution: Model your selling environment and know which competitors if any actually have the right people on their team.

2. Hiring a farmer when you need a hunter.
Problem: 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 to make sure you select the right DNA for the role.

1. Falling for a smile and a happy disposition.
Problem: Sales is a confidence sport and being likable is a good attribute to customers, but winning in sales takes hard work, persistence, optimism, ability to handle adversity and luck.
Solution: Look at past successes and references to ensure you are picking a performer with a great disposition.

In the end 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 in the first place. You need to build the right team to be a sales powerhouse.

This is a video interview with John Nese, the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA, talking about his product. The video is long (12 mins), but you only need to watch for about 20 seconds before you are hooked. Think of your sales staff and the impact on sales if they all projected this kind of passion when selling to your customers.

HT to komando.com for the vid.

I had the good fortune to be invited to speak to graduating Sales and Marketing Management Classes at Algonquin College this week. Really enjoyed the opportunity to share my experiences and help the students get a head start with some basic tips tricks on Sales Management. Also some great questions from the class on rewards, culture, comp plans, promotions and success and how www.peaksalesrecruiting.com builds teams.

Here are my slides.

Some very good advice from Dave Stein about the importance of a structured approach required to consistently hire sales reps – Three Hiring-Related Truths About Sales Effectiveness. As always he is logical in his observations:

1. If you don’t have the right people in the right jobs, all the training, coaching, tools, technology, and support in the world is not going to result in sustainable sales effectiveness.
2. You can’t coach, train, motivate, incentivize, or otherwise transform C-players into B players. Not according to ESR’s definition of those categories. So, to put it simply, don’t hire any more C-players and put a plan together to redeploy the ones you currently have.
3. ESR has seen very limited cases where hiring authorities can consistently select the right salesreps, sales managers, or VPs of sales without a formal process, including profiling, structured behavioral interviews, psychometric/predictive tests, and simulations.

We frequently see companies hiring based on smile and confidence and it is no surprise that this often doesn’t translate to the desired sales results from the hire. To help ensure our clients select the right candidates, we put candidates through a set of steps designed to properly determine that they have the right competencies and cultural fit with our client’s selling environment. Our process is unique to selecting sales professionals and includes such elements structured and behavioral interviews, role plays, sample exercise, psychometric testing, thorough reference checks depending on the project and role. As a result we are consistently able to achieve a 90-100% hiring success rate for our clients.