Make Winning a Habit [с таблицами]
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Other traits were either “like to haves” or fell in the category of “compensating strengths and weaknesses.” However, if we didn’t have the four “must haves,” we knew that the person probably was not going to be successful and that the cost of hiring such a person was going to be high. We have found this to be true, by the way, of most hunters in most organizations. The four “must have” traits are necessary for competitive evaluation hunters, as we described in Hope Is Not A Strategy.
Hiring Assessments
To find out whether or not people have these traits, a number of companies offer assessments or surveys. Basic intelligence tests and personality style assessments are fundamental and inexpensive for first-tier screening. For complex sales of big-ticket items to committees in competitive situations, however, much more is needed.
One of the best people at defining selection profiles is Ross Rich of Chicago-based Selection Strategies, Inc. He not only knows what to look for, but he also has created a structured two-hour phone interview that listens to what the candidate says and also to what he or she doesn’t say. Although these processes are not 100 percent perfect, they do help to raise red flags for your finalists. This phone interview and interpretation are fairly extensive, so most companies use them for finalists only, but they will show you the weak spots—where you should drill down deeper—before you make the expensive decision to hire a candidate.
As we mentioned, most people look at personality and performance, but there are potential flaws in both these areas. First of all, it’s hard to judge past performance. How quotas are set differs from company to company. Thus, when a r'esum'e says, “I made quota at this other company,” what does that really mean?
One of our principals, Joe Southworth, tells a story of when he was a sales manager at a large software company:
“There was a candidate who I really wanted to hire. He looked great on paper—he had blown away his quota the previous year. I went into the VP of sales’ office, excited about this new candidate, and told him about how he had exceeded his quota last year.
‘Has he made quota every year for the last three years?’ the VP asked me.
‘Well, he’s been selling for 10 years,’ I said.
‘But does that mean he has 10 years of experience or one year of experience 10 times?’ he asked. ‘We’re looking for consistency and improvement. What you really want to know is, is he getting better every year or is he just doing the same thing year in, year out.’”
Two better questions to ask in assessing past performances of salespeople are
1. How did you compare to your peers?
2. Which percentile was your sales performance in each year?
You also should get specifics on how they overcame challenges. Take the groomed references they give you and ask for referrals to other, unsolicited references and teammates who may have worked with the candidate on deals. Their perspective on the rep’s contribution and competency is usually very enlightening. Often their silence or faint praise speaks volumes.
Another important question to ask is what percentage of the reps at your past employer made quota every year? Many salespeople made their quota from 1995 to 2000 because they were reacting to demand in a hot market. If you didn’t make quota, you were considered a failure. In other companies, only 50 percent of the salespeople made it every year. Having this metric gives you some sort of a benchmark to compare quotas.
Different industries also have different sales rhythms — the size and number of deals in a year. Some salespeople are used to a deal a day, some one per week, some one per month, and with some organizations, it’s only one deal per year. Knowing what percentage of their business came from repeat orders vs. new name or competitive sales can indicate whether they are a hunter or a farmer.
Another challenge is taking transactional salespeople and putting them in a long sales cycle. Some salespeople are better at more frequent sales rhythms, whereas others are better at working on bigger deals over long periods of time.
Are Great Salespeople Born or Made?
I am often asked if great selling ability is something that people are born with or whether training is necessary. Without a doubt, there are great intuitive salespeople with innate abilities (see Figure 4–2).
Dave Sample, a long-time client of ours, now at Blackboard, summed up the problem like this: “Heroics don’t scale.” Yes, there are people who can do this intuitively, but there aren’t enough of them. You have to find them and you have to grow them.
Not only that, but intuitive salespeople are unconscious about their competence. If your sales model is different from their experience, they may not be able to adapt because often they are good but don’t know why.
So both hiring and training are important. But what can we change in a person, and what is in a person that is too difficult or time-consuming to try to change?
The nature versus nurture question has been the subject of many stories over the years, as in the movies Wall Street and The Firm, for example. In both stories, the main character was tempted to actions outside their basic principles, with grave consequences, only to find their true character in the end.
In Figure 4–2, it can be seen that there are things in a person’s DNA and in their early development—intelligence, personality, core values—that are very hard to change. And a person may change behavior a little for a little while. But if that change is at odds with the person’s inner fiber, eventually, they will snap back or be ineffective because their heart is really not in their actions. Thus these inner core traits are what you should really focus on in your hiring. In my experience, people usually have to bring these things with them.
The next layer out—goals, habits, and principles — are drivers of action and daily choices. If these are to be changed in a person, they need to be changed within the first 90 days of when the person is hired. The company may set a goal or principle for a person on the outer ring of the figure, but if that goal or principle is not owned in the person’s heart, the result is usually a weak or false effort and ultimately, replacement.
Heroics don’t scale.There are people who do this intuitively, but there aren’t enough of them. You have to find them and you have to grow them.