I’ve been helping clients hire better salespeople for 16 years now. And the lineup of things we’ve got set up for you in 2015 is truly mind-boggling.
The Challenge is on. So starting tomorrow we are going to start pushing you to focus on hiring better salespeople — because even with all the wizz-bang marketing in the world, you still need great people to help close the deal for you.
But today, I want to remind you to celebrate with your kids and the people you love.
I’m proud of this video. Christmas Day on the beach in front of our beach house on the Mediterranean in Israel, my wife, Leah, and two of our grandkids.
If you’re looking to avoid the pain that comes from hiring dud salespeople and instead to hire salespeople who really can sell This E-course is for you. In fact, if you follow the steps in this E-course you’re going to find your ability to not get fooled into hiring losers is going to change forever.
I learned how to hire salespeople when I had a sales team of 200 salespeople. Through a lot of good luck thinking up a hot product in the mid-1990’s my company found itself in the position to drastically build our sales team.
As a sales manager, I had experience hiring 10-15 salespeople. Now I was to hire 100 salespeople a year! By the end of the second year we had 200 salespeople on staff. Great for growth.
Except our top 40 salespeople were producing four-fifths of our revenue. The 80/20 rule was hurting our ability to be profitable 160 of our 200 salespeople were weak, we were constantly in danger of turning them over at any minute.
Looking at the production numbers we asked. What was it about these top 40 salespeople that made them unique? What was it they held as valuable? What was it in their personalities that made them great salespeople?
I became a man with a mission. I needed to figure out why those few good salespeople produced, while most sales hires failed. A retired accountant forced me to think analytically. He helped me realize that if I could figure out what made these 40 top-performers effective I would increase our revenue — better sales hiring is more valuable than any training, packaging or better leads.
Because I had a large sales team I was able to test and compare hiring strategies. I figured out what I call the 6 Basic Rules of Sales Hiring.
In 2003 I sold that company and retired for six months long enough to realize I didn’t want to retire after all. Since then I’ve helped nearly 1000 managers learn the system I developed. I created this E-course to show sales managers who are fed up not being to hire salespeople with more confidence. It’s free and there’s nothing held back
There is no perfect way to select salespeople but there are better ways than most do it.
Do you review a bunch of resumes (or LinkedIn profiles)? Sort for previous work experience? Or better yet previous industry sales experience? That process has never worked and will never work!
Stay tuned next issue will reveal the one secret to hiring top sales performers.
The latest government job report sounds ominous. Just 74,000 new jobs created in December – missing by a mile the projected 196,000. Ouch. Future job growth (other than registered nurses), will be for jobs at Walmart and the like.
With the lousy jobs report, you’d think that it would be easy to hire sales talent.
Unfortunately hiring for sales talent has become more difficult. Advanced Hiring System clients continue to report a tight job market all across the country for real salespeople.
Tougher finding good sales applicants than ever
Regular readers of this blog know that real sales talent is rarer than finding an honest man or woman in Congress.
In fact, our data shows only one in every 33 Americans is what we call a “natural” to become a top performing salesperson.
The rarity of those who have the personality to be good salespeople is why most salespeople hired end up failing. Most sales hiring strategies simply fail to look at personality style, instead looking at previous sales experience as primary criteria.
Traditional sales trainers attempt to take the untalented and teach them to sell – like putting lipstick on a pig we think.
One strategy Advanced Hiring System clients use it to constantly be recruiting in their markets. You don’t need to waste time on sales applicants until you’ve found their profile matches the rare personality qualities that make for a great salesperson.
Bottom line is to always have the “Welcome Mat” out for top sellers who are Money-motivated Persuaders. Finding them takes time, but when you find them they are worth their weight in gold.
