In this election year, there are, as usual, a large number of voters who are dissatisfied with their options at the polls. Most elections are like that—we want at least one candidate who is clearly perfect, but what we are given rarely lives up to our expectations. Most of us sigh and punch the ticket for what we consider to be the lesser of two  evils, and some of us just stay away from the polls, feeling completely ineffective.

Sales hiring is a lot like an election: some sales managers are forced to sigh and choose the lesser of two (or three, or four) evils, and they find themselves with more dead wood on their sales team.

The reason is usually a flawed sales hiring process, and it begins with step one—attracting the right candidates. If you don’t have A players in your hiring pool, you’re not going to end up with the A team that will take your company to the top.

The best place to start sales hiring top performers also offers the best price: free. You undoubtedly have networks of associates, friends, even employees who can direct you to some viable candidates. All you need to do is have them put out some feelers to find the quality applicants you’re looking for. Your network is also a good place to get candidates because your connections can talk up your company as a great place to work.

If your network happens to be a little short of ideas, you’ll need to do some recruiting for your sales hiring. Some companies actually hire recruiters to find candidates for them, but that can be a little risky if you’re not sure of the recruiter’s track record. You’ll save some money and possibly get better results by doing your own targeted recruiting.

Most top talent is not going begging for a good sales job. To attract A players, you need to have an ad that far outstrips the competition. Fortunately, much of your competition is still relying on the same old “help wanted” ad with a laundry list of desired skills, but those types of ads aren’t going to attract the superstar salesmen. In fact, your ad should specify that you’re looking for a superstar, instead of mere “help.” That will be sure to appeal to the top salesmen egos out there. And instead of listing skills needed, inspire them by boasting about results, challenges, and opportunities. If you highlight the ways your company makes a difference, you’ll be able to attract the very best and find good salesmen for your team.

In order to seduce the types of applicants that will round out your A team, remember that, in sales hiring, the devil is in the details. Since the best salesmen are extremely Money and Power driven, make them salivate with your descriptions of great compensation, benefit packages, perks, rewards, recognition, and status. Create a powerful headline that will virtually pull their eyes to the rest of the ad, then tantalize them with targeted keywords, as recommended in the AHS ad writing module. They’ll be knocking at your door well before their scheduled appointment (after all, they are superstars!).

Once you’ve attracted the best applicants, you can use the rest of the AHS sales hiring tools to narrow the field. With a hand-picked set of candidates, you can rest assured that you’ve elected—I mean hired—the very best salesmen.

Scott Wolf at Arcamax pointed me to a link for “Harnessing the Science of Persuasion” by Professor Robert Caldini.  Its a Harvard Business Review publication from 2001.

Nothing new from Dr. Caldini, by any stretch,  but nonetheless, it’s worth reading.

The article is a rehash of NLP 101, which Richard Bandler and John Grinder created in the late 80’s. Scott Wolf and I had a stint in a former life, promoting NLP Master Trainer Kenrick Cleveland in 1988. It was an eye-opener for both us us — in many ways.

Caldini lists six tools master persuaders use to convince others:

1. Liking. People like those like them, who like them.
2. Reciprocity: People repay in kind
3. Social Proof: People follow the lead of similar others.
4. Consistency: People fulfill written, public and voluntary commitments.
5. Authority: People defer to experts who provide shortcuts to decisions requiring specialized information.
6. Scarcity: People value what’s scarce.

Any sales professional is going to agree with the list. You get a couple of those going for you — or even one well executed, and you’ve got a buyer.

Of course, the question is, can you teach this list to salespeople and get better results. If you could script it and coach it, you’d just collect the orders.

But, any sales manager who’s been around sees most sales training produce a “temporary bump,” at best. Only a small percentage of salespeople (1 out of 5)  “get it” and end up with any long term improvement.

The reason is because only natural salespeople can really sell. I’d go as far as to say that non-natural salespeople, in their heart of hearts, find persuasion distasteful.

There’s no question persuasion can be “engineered” to a more predictable result as Caldini suggests. However the salesperson’s Personality Style and Personal Values ultimately predict sales success over the long term.

When it’s your job to hire salespeople, your primary concern is attracting the right types of applicants: the top producers, the A players. If you’ve been depending on someone else, someone in HR, for instance, to write your ads, you may find that the candidates that answer your ad may be something short of the answer to your wildest dreams. After all, HR people don’t really understand salespeople. Their ad is probably some kind of generic summons that top producers will ignore, if they even give it more than a glance.

According to some sources, only one person in thirty has all the necessary elements to make a good salesman. When you hire salespeople, these few are the types you want to attract, and a generic ad is not going to do the trick. While you want to attract applicants who will be suited for the job, you also want to discourage any applicants who don’t in any way fit a salesperson profile. After all, if they can’t do the job, you’ll be unhappy, they’ll be unhappy, and eventually they’ll be gone. Then you have to start again at square one.

If you find that you’ve been experiencing an excessive degree of turnover because of bad hires, consider the starting place—the ad you use to hire salespeople.  It has to be personal; there’s someone out there who will feel it’s calling to him. Look at this example: “Wanted. Men for hazardous journey. Low wages. Bitter cold. Long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in the event of success.”

Admittedly, there is some question as to whether the explorer Ernest Shackleton actually placed this ad in the London Times. But authentic or not, whatever he did to recruit the crew that would accompany him on his South Pole expedition, he got the right team, as they all made it back alive. In any case, it’s an excellent illustration of a targeted ad.

Of course, if you want to hire salespeople, you don’t want to make your ad completely unappealing to everyone. And you don’t want to alienate anyone, either; for example, including the statement, “Losers need not apply” would be considered bad form, and it might actually attract some belligerent losers.

Instead, focus on the tried and true methods of ad writing as demonstrated in the AHS sales hiring system: Create a compelling headline—one that says (in effect), “Hey you! Want to get in on something great?” Once your headline has attracted their attention, you’ve enticed them to read the rest of your ad, where you have included targeted keywords that continue to speak directly to the prospect. Words such as Energetic, Creative, Determined, etc. will let the prospect know that he’s the perfect fit for your company.  The AHS ad writing module provides you with the kinds of keywords that get you the results you need.

Once you’ve created the perfect ad for your sales hiring purposes, follow the recommendations in the AHS ad placement module to ensure that your perfect ad will be seen by the perfect eyes. Once you’ve attracted the right prospects, the rest of the process to hire salespeople should be smooth sailing.