JC the Sales Guy: Ethical selling

Most every sales manager has faced the challenge of sifting through a stack of resumes to find the sales pro that will take them to the next level. The stakes can be high, as a great sales contributor can grow the company and create jobs, while hiring the wrong person can stall or even kill a small company. Here are a few tips to help you hire winners, and avoid low performers.

Know your product

Before you can determine what attributes to look for in a sales person, you have to understand what they will be selling. Different products have different target customers. Understanding your product is the first step in understanding the customer.

Know your customer

Every customer is different, but for most products you can readily identify trends in the customer population. Matching your sales staff to the type of customer that they will sell to can be critical to their success and yours. For example, if your company sells feed to cattle ranchers, your sales staff will need to know how to interact with cattle ranchers… who can be a unique bunch, and have a language all their own. Many customer groups will have similar institutional vocabulary and/or customs that act as a barrier to entry for your sales staff if they are not equipped to handle them.

Know what has worked and failed before

This sounds simple, but surprisingly, I’ve seen many sales managers that hire the same profile over and over, even if prior hires have shown a trend of being sub-optimal performers. Take the time to understand how the most successful sellers in your industry (not just your company) sell. Look for evidence of demonstrated success in these areas.

Understand the candidate’s goals vs opportunities

Another issue that I see frequently is that of hiring people that want something that isn’t really realistic to expect in the position. For example, hiring only over-achievers that want to move up quickly into management. While this might provide sales performance in the short term, there will never be enough opportunities for promotion to satisfy a sales team constructed of individuals that all want rapid advancement. Every opening will result in one promotion, and multiple disgruntled, disappointed folks that were passed over. Matching the goals of the individuals with the likely opportunities within the organization should provide for less destructive competition and a higher likelihood of retention.

Be open minded

While I think it is critical to understand what has worked before, you might also consider that there are likely a variety of ways to successfully sell most any product. Sticking with tried and true methods only guarantees that your team will be well equipped to sell in the environment that existed in the past. Markets and products evolve and change, as do customers. Consider expanding your job descriptions to attract a diverse group of applicants. Building a team that all posses the key skills, but bring a range of experiences and backgrounds can lead to creative solutions and a more engaged team.

Simulate the sale

One of my favorite assessment tasks is the sales simulation, as it allows the interviewer a chance to experience the sales process employed by the candidates. In some cases, the skills required for interviewing for a job and selling a product can be very different. Candidates that soar in the interview process might crash and burn when put in the actual selling environment… or vice versa. Craft the simulation to mimic the desired sales process as closely as possible. If the role will be telephone based, then conduct the simulation as a telephone based sales call. If the role involves a face to face visit while walking the client’s manufacturing floor, then conduct the simulation while walking a client’s manufacturing floor. At the end of the simulation you should have a better feel for how the candidates naturally interact, what sales process they gravitate towards, and whether they are likely to be successful right away, or a long term development project.