There’s nothing like finding a natural-born salesperson. Then getting them to join your team and go out there and start selling. That’s what our client, Harry, of Ohio National said about a recent applicant we helped him pick.

The applicant had no sales background, nor was he a Financial Advisor at a competitor. In fact his background was manual labor.

But this month, his fourth month in  his new role as Financial Advisor, he won the VIP award for the entire Ohio National company.

Using our system, he was one of the 100 applicants(!) Harry received that month. Then, using our profiles Harry picked him out and hired him.

This is the kind of sales hiring results we see all the time here at Advanced Hiring System. Harry is ecstatic. When he first signed up he didn’t think it was possible. Today he gets tons of applicants and then lasers in on the best applicants.

Are you wondering whether your sales hiring results can improve? Let’s schedule a call to find out whether we can help you.

Schedule your strategy call here.
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There’s talk in the sales industry that the “old” type of salesperson — money-motivated and highly persuasive, is no longer needed. Instead according to some self-appointed new thinkers, the new era calls for a kinder and gentler type of  salesperson.

Having enough grey in my hair to have lived through a few “paradigm shifts,” most have turned out to be temporary hiccups.

From the trenches of sales hiring, there have, in fact, been three major changes in the market since the Stock Market Crash of 2007-8:

1.  Today the market, overall, is much slower to make a decision. Prior to the Crash there was a greater sense of confidence. Today seven years later, decisions happen much more slowly. People continue to be cautious in the “recovery.”
2.  In this same period, the amount of information available to the prospect has increased exponentially. Where salespeople used to be the primary sources of information, today prospects do their own research on Google, LinkedIn and specialized websites.
3. The competitive environment due to the Internet has markedly increased. Everything can be sourced cheaper from overseas. Goods and labor are up for bid.

The net effect of this shift means salespeople must allow more time and lower any sense of pressure.

Are Money-motivated Persuader salespeople incapable of this type of selling? Hardly. It would be a huge mistake to think characteristics like strong money and power values, together with Drive, Influencing and willingness to circumvent rules are no longer the most desirable personality characteristics of salespeople.

In fact, these salespeople continue to be the top performers in virtually every one of our client’s teams.

Money-motivated Persuaders continue to excel at this work.

Long before there were electric lights, the ancient Greeks identified that different people have different personality styles. This personality style typing has become much more sophisticated since Greece’s golden age.

Computers make profiling a lot easier for us. Today, in less than 20 minutes, you can get a very accurate reading on what your sales applicants’ personality styles are.

Among the 2000+ clients we have, there are quite a few who started out thinking that “profiling doesn’t work.” But when we looked at how they had been taught to use them, it became clear why they hadn’t gotten laser sharp results from implementing a 100% profiling policy for sales hiring.

So for the benefit of those who have doubts about the effectiveness of profiling, we are sharing with you essential tips on how to make it a success:

1. We recommend that you profile all applicants before you look at their backgrounds. You should find out what makes them tick first.
2. Use a validate instrument – this should be obvious, but there’s a lot of snake oil out there in the world. It’s best to be cautious at all times.
3. First, profile applicants for CORE Values – What do they get out of bed for in the morning? Make sure they are High Practicals where Money or Power is number 1 priority for them.
4. Next, profile applicants for CORE Style – whether they enjoy persuasion and don’t find it tedious OR if it’s not their cup of tea. You are hiring long-term talents here; people who don’t like persuasion burn out in a sales job.

The use of profiles makes setting up a sales hiring system easier. You are able to review more applicants more quickly. You’re not going to miss hidden gem applicants and you’re not going to get fooled by faked-up resumes or polished LinkedIn profiles.

The bottom line: You’re going to make more money per salesperson with correct profiling and guess where that leads? More profit for your business!