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.

Video Rant #3 – Without a Sales Hiring System, You Are Screwed

I’ve seen a lot of successful businesses over the years. One thing they all have in common is, they have systems for EVERYTHING. So they can break every aspect of their business down into steps. And once you can see all the steps, you can pretty quickly analyze what’s working and what’s not. Now … if you’re not overjoyed with your company’s sales production right this moment, then you absolutely need a system for sales hiring.

Have you ever hired somebody you KNEW was the PERFECT salesperson? And then 6 weeks in, you’re thinking, “Uh-oh! THIS does not look good.” Three MONTHS later, they quit. Or you fire them. If you go thru that WITHOUT a system, you have no way of knowing WHERE you screwed it up. And I guarantee you, EVERYBODY who’s hired even just a few salespeople has screwed it up SOMEWHERE along the way.

So creating a system gives you the tool most sales hirers just don’t have. You can identify what’s working, what’s not, where they screwed up, where they got it right. That’s why you NEED a tested, proven sales hiring system.

Many companies only start looking for a salesperson when one of their people fails or quits. All of a sudden, it’s a tight time-frame. Let’s say your rep gives 2 weeks’ notice. Do you really think you can hire an effective salesperson in 2 weeks?

You gotta stop what you’re doing, get ads up, wait for people to call, decide which applicants to interview, do the interviews, make an offer. It’s a tight position. And last-minute sales hires rarely ever work.

You’re on a short road to failure. We know, statistically, 75% to 90% of ALL sales hires fail in their first year. Your odds of success are bad.

Look. I’ve been hiring salespeople for more than 16 years, for my own business and, of course, for clients. In 16 years, I’ve gone thru a QUARTER-MILLION sales applicants. And number one, natural-born salespeople are rare. Number two, hiring people who are NOT natural salespeople and turning them into salespeople is close to impossible. It’s WAY easier and more efficient to hire people who are CLONES of tested, proven, successful salespeople. That’s why you’ve GOT to have a good applicant profiling system.

People tell me, “Well, we train them here.” Yeah, RIGHT! To some degree, training can work. Listen. Let’s say, all of a sudden, you decide you’re gonna be an artist. No proven ability, but you’re gonna be a painter. But your FAMILY depends on YOU to produce art that’ll pay to support them. So my question is, what’s your ramp-up time? You suddenly have to successfully do something that is not at ALL your natural tendency. Over time, maybe it works out, to some degree. But it sure won’t be a quick solution. And it will almost certainly involve a LOT of pain for you and everyone in your family.

Think about a time you were talking to a salesperson. And whatever they were saying, you just wanted to buy. You felt GOOD talking to them. They had an ABILITY to move you in their direction, to make it EASY for you to go along with them. THAT is a rare, rare talent. Can you train THAT talent? Maybe, in some cases. But our data shows it mostly does NOT work. I’ve talked to some of the best sales trainers on the planet. They tell me they’re OFTEN handed salespeople who just CANNOT sell. Their personality does not mesh with sales.

They can’t quickly establish rapport. They can’t think on their feet. Lousy language skills. And more than ANYTHING, they CANNOT take rejection and keep on going. A salesperson has to deal with disappointment after disappointment after disappointment. That’s why only 3% of the population shine at sales. All the rejection just kills them. It takes a very, very, very special person to handle constant rejection. And whatever sales hiring process you’re using right now, you are NOT finding those special people who will stick with it, no matter what. And it’s not easy to find them, because they are so rare.

And THAT is why you need Advanced Hiring System. I’m Alan Fendrich. Give me a call.