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How the Creator of the Lie Detector Test Can Make You a Sales Hiring Wizard

There’s no doubt that salespeople “puff” up the benefits of their products. It’s good selling to amplify the positives. And there’s not a thing wrong with it.

But liars are not puffing, they’re lying. They are attempting to mislead.

With our SalesMatrix™ profile when a sales applicant tries to lie, our test nails them.

We then send our clients a note that we call the “Flag Page.” In it we  point out the applicant is lying.  Sometimes the applicant is under stress and not handling stress well. We point that out too.

The Lie Detector test was designed by a Harvard psychology professor. And now our tests have built that little “liar” function into them for you.

From time to time, clients chose to ignore the Flag Page. It’s their choice. We warned them but “they really liked the applicant.” So they hire them.

The results can be disastrous. One applicant turned out to be on the National Sex Offenders list. I don’t have to tell you how poorly that played out in today’s environment.

Another applicant got hired and was totally disruptive in the office. They said their leads were no good. The company product needed improving. It wasn’t their fault that no one would buy anything. When our client finally let them go, this Flag Page applicant sued them for discrimination on their way out the door.

If you’re sick and tired of fakers and smooth talkers, give us a call at (757) 251-0064. Or book a strategy meeting with us at meetwithalan.com. We’ve been helping sales-driven companies spot the real sellers for 20 years. Let’s talk.

 

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Talent Acquisition

Be Ready Next Time

Imagine, as you’re trying to get your business moving forward again, if you had had a plan to mitigate the consequences of the shutdown. Or some other terrible interruption to the business.

During 2016 South Africa experienced many protests. Most of them were around tertiary education fees. In November 2016, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party of South Africa took to the streets of Pretoria.It was mostly calm as the EFF had several marshals walking with the various clusters. Despite the massive police presence, there were a handful of vandals and pyromaniacs around. I also got pelted with a few stones in the process.
Photographer: Pawel Janiak | Source: Unsplash

One thing I think every business owner can say about the current economic meltdown is, “I wish I had…..” Possible answers. Stashed an emergency fund away. Studied my insurance policy and understood exclusions. Been prepared to board my business up quickly if needed. There are literally dozens of other “I wish I had”s.

Therefore, I’d like to suggest you take some time to think about how to prepare for future business interruptions. If you’re not located near the cost, a hurricane is an unlikely serious risk. So step one should be to try to think about what could really happen. We know how a “stay at home order” could shut you down. We are also painfully aware of the risk large scale protests can bring to your business’s well being.

It is no small task to try to imagine everything bad that can happen in life or business. I’m not suggesting anyone do that. But look at what could cause your business to have to shut down for any period of time. There are businesses that have thrived during the pandemic. Some because they were prepared and were positioned to capitalize on any opportunities that arose.

A great place to start in this exercise of preparing for what could be next is to create a checklist. Airline pilots have emergency checklists for everything the engineers can think of that might happen. It is the difference, in many cases, between recovery and crashing and burning. A check list of things to do in a business emergency could do the same for you. To learn how a better sales team can insulate your business from catastrophe, click HERE.

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Do Legal Psychological Profiles Work to Pick Real Salespeople?

Video Rant #5

The #1 Mistake Everybody Makes When
They Don’t Profile Sales Applicants

When you use a sales hiring system that profiles applicants before you meet with them, if the profiling is good, you figure out what their motivators are. That’s the point of our ValuesMatrix™ profile. And then you also determine whether an applicant is oriented towards persuasiveness.

People wonder how testing can tell anything about persuasiveness. With our StylesMatrix™ profile, we measure four aspects of the human personality drive:

1. D – Drive: That voice inside their heads that says “I can do. It’s all about me. I am the one who can make this happen.” — or whatever your internal voice says
2. I – Influence: Are they flexible communicators? Can they adjust their style to match the style of the person they’re talking to?
3. S – Steadiness: How comfortable are they with change in their physical environment and/or their emotional environment?
4. C – Compliance: Do they routinely, automatically comply with rules?

The underlying personality style evaluation was first described in the Hebrew Bible. Then 500 years later by Hippocrates in Greece. The testing technology to spot the different personalities has itself been in use for close to 100 years. We have a ton of data points. So we can reliably point out when an applicant’s personality style is similar to personality styles of people who are successful in sales roles. Or attorneys. Or other roles where persuasion or influencing others is critical to success.

So when I say somebody is persuasive, it generally means they have a higher D – Drive – and I – Influence – score. And they have a LOWER C – Compliance – score. They’re not obsessed with following the rules. The natural Low C thinking process is, “The rules are made to be written by me.” Think how critical that is. The nature of persuasion is, you have to stretch the rules in order to help others to make the right decision and to buy your product. Elegant persuaders are always low compliance.

Can you imagine people that go into a conversation thinking that there is a right way and a wrong way to persuade? It’s clumsy. That applicant is high C, high compliant. It’s almost an unbreakable rule. High C’s CANNOT sell. They just will not go against the rules. A natural high C may adapt over time, to a degree, but that’s going against their natural style. That takes psychic energy.

And you have to wonder, if this candidate is naturally high Compliant, that means their first natural response in ANY situation is to simply go along with the rules. But instead, they suppress that natural response and force themselves to be low C in order to be able to sell. So what’s the long-term effect on their stress level? Every day of their career, they have to hide who they REALLY are in order to be successful. That’s got to have some cumulative psychic effect.

So that’s how we use the StylesMatrix™ testing to understand an applicant’s persuasive ability. In my opinion, it is ALWAYS a mistake to ever interview a High C applicant. Why? Because they may impress you. You can easily wind up hiring them for a sales position. And THAT is the road to disaster for you, the applicant, and your company.

The chance of that applicant working out for you in a sales position is close to zero. Wouldn’t you like to know that BEFORE you waste your time interviewing them? BEFORE you maybe make a big mistake and hire them?

I’ll help you set up your sales hiring system to make sure you only interview the right people. This is Alan Fendrich. Give me a call.

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