While there are many things that can affect a company’s ability to reach its financial goals, fewer things affect it more than the performance of their sales team. As a company leader, you can invest in technology, additional products, and new equipment to profitably grow your revenue, but if your sales team isn’t able to sell the benefits, it doesn’t guarantee that you will see the return on the investment.
Sales training events may not be the answer either. A recent study found that 55% of the people with a sales title, don’t have the aptitude for selling. Another 25% have the aptitude but are not positioned in the right role to capitalize on it. That leaves 20% who have the aptitude, and who are positioned in the right role. These are your “Rock Stars” that produce for you. It all starts with hiring the right individual.
We are not perfect at interviewing, even if we think we are…
Studies show that most decisions to hire a person are made in 4.5 minutes into the interview and based on “how I feel about the candidate fit.” Have you ever done this? Other common mistakes are haloing the candidate based on how they look or act in the interview, talking too much, not enough listening, jumping to conclusions instead of asking deeper questions, and allowing personal bias to influence the decision. If you aren’t enamored with the performance of your sales team, do you see any of these practices that have affected your company? It’s expensive to miss on hiring. The cost of recruiting, hiring, and onboarding a bad hire can be as much as $240,000. That doesn’t include the broken relationships with customers that a poor hire can produce.
There is no Silver Bullet, but you can improve your odds!
There are steps you can take to make sure you are giving you and your team the best chance for success in hiring the right person for your company:
· Build consistency in the profile and your interview process
· Identify the competencies that a salesperson needs to be successful in your company
· Create “must have values” for your company- if the candidate doesn’t have these traits, they don’t work here- no exceptions
· Train your team on how to use the recruiting and interviewing processes and always be identifying possible candidates
· Successfully on board and develop your Rock Star Sellers
While it may sound complex and sound like a lot of work, once you develop your process, it is a simple, productive venture. Your return on the investment is outstanding. Is there anything more important than your associates? People are the lifeblood of a company. Find the right fit for your company.
NineRuns has a proprietary process for developing competencies and solutions for recruiting, interviewing and hiring Rock Stars.
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