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.

In sales hiring, you’re not likely to find the term “disgruntled former employee” listed among an applicant’s attributes. If you did, your first reaction would probably be to throw the application away. I blame the media for this perception. They’re the ones who have created the negative bias regarding the term “disgruntled.”

The literal meaning of disgruntled is “dissatisfied and irritated.” Unfortunately, the media have adopted the term disgruntled employee in their portrayals of formerly upstanding citizens who suddenly snap and show up to their former job with an Uzi. Even in the best cases, the media represent disgruntled former employees as troublemakers or whistle-blowers.

It’s not a fair portrayal, and it can lead  employers to be reluctant to consider these workers when they hire salespeople. That can be a mistake because, in most cases, disgruntled workers are actually just ordinary people who, for whatever reason, were unhappy in their former jobs. There’s really no logical reason why many of these people wouldn’t turn out to be good salesmen.

Some professions are promoted as “the hardest job you’ll ever love,” but what if you don’t love it? Then all that’s left is the hard part, which isn’t very fulfilling.  Think of the teacher, for instance. Day after day, she looks at her students and is met with a variety of expressions: a few are respectfully attentive, most are glassy-eyed and detached, and some are downright hostile. After hours spent preparing lessons, grading papers, and calling unsupportive parents—with minimum ROI—why wouldn’t some teachers feel unfulfilled?  Instead of plugging away every day, trying to sell an education to students who just don’t want to buy, some  might be thinking to themselves, “Oh man, I’d so rather be selling widgets right about now.”

Similar scenarios can play out in just about any profession. Most of the time, disgruntled workers didn’t start out that way. Just like your good salesmen, they launched themselves into their new job filled with energy and enthusiasm. Then something happened; their motivation evaporated, and their productivity faded away. Sure, it could have been something within themselves that caused this breakdown, but quite often these are people who have justifiable grievances against circumstances connected to their employment or their employer.

One of the concerns, in fact the most common one according to a Gallup poll of over a million employees, is some kind of problem with managers. After all, many managers don’t have the right temperament for managing, yet they end up in a position where they may engage in tyrannical behavior, bullying employees and making their lives miserable.

Some managers also harass employees, either professionally or personally (isn’t there a law now?), or discriminate against them in favor of a favorite–or worse, a relative. Some make promises they don’t intend to keep, and others take advantage of workers who are willing to take up the slack of the less efficient. There are really all kinds of miserable managers out there, so is it any wonder an employee might get fed up with these less-than-desirable conditions?

Maybe you don’t usually consider unhappy former employees when you hire salespeople. You probably think of them as high risk, and some of them probably are. That’s why you employ all the safeguards of a proven-successful hiring process such as Advanced Hiring System. With the targeted recruiting method to assure attracting the right prospects; the DISC assessment, style matrix, and values matrix to identify the salesperson profile; and the series of scripted interviews to spot inconsistencies, you are alerted to any red flags that would indicate the person is not right for your sales team.

Should you hire a disgruntled worker? Not necessarily. But it could be worth your while to include her in your sales hiring process.