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.

Sports fans know the importance of recruiting the right players for a team. Whatever the sport, the coach is important, but it’s the players that win or lose the game.

It’s the same with selling—you may have a great game plan, but if you don’t have good salesmen to run the plays, you’re just not going to make it to the Super Bowl (or the World Series, or the World Cup, or the NBA tournament). That’s why, when you’re building a sales team,  you want to have a sales hiring system that enables you to consistently hire winners.   

When it comes to good salesmen, one thing that winners all have in common is a competitive spirit. It’s highly improbable that your game is the only game in town, so there are going to be other sales teams running offense against your defense, and vice versa. Your salesmen will need to be effective at communicating the message of uniqueness that will make your company stand out from the competitors and convey the idea of added value to your prospects.

Standing out is probably one of the hardest things for a company to achieve in a competitive market. That’s why it’s a good idea for your salesmen to have a bit of detective skills to go along with their communication skills. It’s important to understand what’s going on in the competitors’ camps: their message, their sales strategies, their pricing. We’re not talking Watergate here, a lot of information can be gained through the publicity that’s already out there, or from casual conversations with customers to find out what makes the other guys so attractive. Once salesmen have the information, they can develop ways of presenting your product in a newer, fresher style that shines bright enough to attract the attention of prospects.

Another winning strategy of good salesmen is having a better understanding of customer needs. Even though salesmen may know a great deal about the competitors’ strategies and statistics, if the customer’s needs are ignored in the overall game plan, your team could find themselves defending the wrong goal. If you want better sales, customer needs must be factored into every offensive play.

Just as strong sports teams maintain a consistent routine of training and practice—even when they’re winning—good salesmen will persistently perform self-evaluation of their selling skills to maintain their dominance in the sales game. They never rest on their laurels, but keep making  that extra effort to rise to the next level.

That’s why every sales hire you make should have that hunger that identifies the strong players. Salesmen who indicate a tendency to value Money and Power on the AHS Values Matrix will have the hunger that good offensive players require. Once you’ve staffed your sales team with the right salesmen, just sit back and count the points on the profit scoreboard!