www.advancedhiring.com/blog

Have you ever hired a total dud…even when you were sure they were going to be great?

I’ve been a fan of Business author and speaker Robert J. Ringer since the 1970s. Author of eight books including best sellers…

“Winning Through Intimidation”…
And “Looking Out for Number One”

He’s well known for his set of Theories. For example Ringer’s “Theory of Reality”. Reality isn’t the way you wish things to be or the way things appear to be, but the way things actually are. You either acknowledge reality and use it to your benefit or it will automatically work against you.

We’ve all experienced it, deluding ourselves about reality and getting ourselves in big trouble for it.

Ringers writes a blog and a recent post caught my attention when he described a disastrous hiring experience.

Ringer explains why psychologically, standard hiring strategy, that is — hiring the way most people do it:
Flipping through resumes…
Then hiring the applicant who “handled themselves well in the interview”…

Causes more failures than successes.

Titled “More on the Dunning-Kruger Effect” the post describes Ringer’s experience hiring a dud snd the pain that hiring that dud caused him. Ringer cites extensive research conducted by Cornell University psychology professors Justin Kruger and David Dunning into “The Dunning-Kruger Effect” which states “Incompetent people often suffer from delusions of superiority the result being that they overrate their own abilities.”

Since incompetent people overate their abilities the most incompetent write the greatest resumes Which they can’t deliver on. And, too, since they’re extremely confident because of their delusions of superiority hiring managers often get tricked in interviews and come away saying “They handled themselves well in the interview”.

Advanced Hiring System clients use a strategy to avoid these common pitfalls. Since AHS clients never rely on resumes to select. Instead we look for a match between the Values and Personality Style of the applicant and the requirements of the position itself.

We’ve honed those requirements with nearly 16 years of data. As a result you’re rarely fooled by “The Dunning-Kruger Effect”.

We welcome Robert J. Ringer and readers of his blog to take a look at the Advanced Hiring System if they’re hiring salespeople so they can stop using standard hiring strategies and avoid hiring duds as a result of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

Most of us will admit that self-esteem is an issue that develops in our childhood and follows us throughout our lives, and hiring managers know that high self-esteem is a key factor in what makes a good salesman.  As long as a person has a high level of self-esteem, he will most likely also have many of the other traits that determine what makes a good salesman: enthusiasm, self-motivation, energy, competitiveness, resilience, and a positive outlook. These are all fundamental aspects of sales success.

A healthy level of self-esteem is what gives salesmen the confidence to go after a target and follow the process just to experience the greatest sound in the world, “YES”. Each sale builds more self-esteem, which creates more confidence, which leads to more sales, and the cycle has the power to repeat itself indefinitely. When a candidate shows the potential to engage in this cycle of success, you know he has what makes a good salesman.

Combined with a competitive nature, high self-esteem translates into a persuasive disposition, which in turn translates into an almost irresistible force (for good). Salesmen with these qualities see the influence they have over others—the way they are able to inspire others to make decisions—and it makes them feel good, not only about themselves, but good in general.

Even in cases where salesmen are rejected, and those cases do occur, a high level of self-esteem enables them to bounce back and keep going, rather than see the rejection as some kind of personal failure that makes it harder and harder to face the next challenge. Like the Energizer Rabbit, good salesmen keep going, and going . . . .

This is not arrogance, nor is it narcissism. Most hiring managers want to avoid the salesmen that customers perceive as obnoxious. A high self-esteem enables a salesman to be proactive, not pushy; strong-willed, not mule-headed; motivated, not confrontational; and confident, not smug. With high self-esteem, salesmen feel natural in any situation, and they can control it with no sign of obnoxious behavior.

Even though good salesmen may have a healthy self-concept, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t have some limitations. Rather than ignoring those limitations or despairing of ever improving themselves, good salesmen constantly self-evaluate to stay connected to an  awareness of both their weaknesses and their strengths; they work on creating a balance to capitalize on their strong points, but remain realistic in their expectations and goals.

Sales managers probably most appreciate the fact that the salesmen who exhibit high self-esteem will be the ones who aren’t always looking for emotional and/or professional support from others. As long as supervisors follow recommendations revealed in the pre-employment tests, such as the ones in the AHS sales hiring materials, to recognize their achievements, reward their successes, etc., these salesmen will always maintain a high performance level in every phase of the job. They are the self-starters who will set challenging goals for themselves, and will do everything within their power to achieve those goals. That’s ultimately what makes a good salesman.

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.

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.