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Sales Manager: Hire Entrepreneurial Salespeople for Better Sales

One of the least understood, yet essential personality characteristics of top salespeople that can give you better sales, is a drive toward entrepreneurialism.

I’ve heard those I consider weak Sales Manager say “I don’t want salespeople to be too entrepreneurial because they won’t stick with me.” But there is no separating top salespeople from the entrepreneurial drive.

A smart Sales Manager, on the other hand, realizes: Top salespeople produce 7 times the sales results of a mediocre salesperson1. A mediocre sales hire causes your sales department to be stuck with low average sales results per salesperson.

By running the numbers, you can easily see how when you manage a sales department you can’t afford to have weak sales performers. Salespeople who are excellent give you a dramatic increase in sales results – because of their drive toward entrepreneurialism.

This might be the most important insight a top sales manager arrives at. Once you fully understand the implication you realize how essential it is to concentrate on getting top salespeople.

How do you motivate these entrepreneurial top sales performers?

I recall years ago in one of my first meeting with my Sales Manager. He sat me down and said, “If you want to be successful in sales, think of sales as having your own business. We do all the work. We create the product. We bill for it. You are the sales company we hired to sell it for us. You get 15% of everything you sell.”

That was the catalyst! I got 15% of everything I sold and the company did all the work. What a deal! I owned my own business for no capital – and they were even giving me a draw until I got up and running.

Determine whether the applicant has the real entrepreneurial drive by using the AHS ValuesMatrix™ and StylesMatrix™. Do this before wasting time in an interview, not after.

I came across this video. Do you think this guy understands entrepreneurialism? Leave your comments below.

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Why Doing a Sales Personality Test Is Crucial to Hire Good Salespeople

A sales personality test helps you differentiate good salesmen from bad ones, quickly and effectively. For this reason, it’s important that you carry out one when screening applicants for a new opening.

Here’s a brief overview of how to hire salespeople by carrying out a personality test, as shown in the Advanced Hiring System sales hiring course.

Assessing Business Personality

There are several business personality assessment models out there, but AHS believes that Marston’s DISC model is the most reliable of them, and consequently uses it as the basis for its sales personality test.

In brief, the DISC model assumes that human personality is the result of the interaction between four distinct yet closely-related factors: drive, influence, steadiness, and compliance. Understanding each of these factors is crucial when giving a sales personality test, which is why AHS provides a concise overview of what each means.

On top of the four aspects noted above, there are two other aspects relevant to sales managers looking to hire good salesmen: natural style and adapted style, both of which are covered by the proposed model. AHS proposes a highly-effective personality test which takes for its foundation all the aspects and factors noted above, to ensure accurate results.

AHS believes that when using recruitment management software it’s preferable to stick to the DISC model for personality testing, to get the best results.

The Reliability of Business Personality Assessment

Assessing business personality is a technique long used by companies to find the right professionals for the job. And it works. There are huge amounts of data out there that support it, and that should encourage you to use it as well.

A sales personality test, like the one proposed by AHS, is the ideal solution if you want to screen job applicants quickly and effectively. And because of the way it is conceived, the assessments are always highly accurate and cannot be blamed on pressure or any other like factors. That means that in the end, you always succeed in identifying the right people for the job.

Ultimately, regardless of the recruitment management software you use, conducting a sales personality test is essential to hire the best salespersons for your company.

Want to learn more about how to hire salespeople effectively? Check out Advanced Hiring System’s comprehensive 4-step sales hiring course. It will teach you all you need to know to improve your hiring process.

 

 

 

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Successful Sales Hiring Tips

Never take your sales hiring skills for granted.  And never assume you’ve got all the answers until you get some sales hiring training under your belt.  Hiring mistakes can begin before the applicant is even in front of you for the first time.  If your old sales hiring habits keep creating stagnant (or worse) sales results, let these quick tips help steer you back on the right path.

 

  1. 1.       Start with Enticing Job Postings and Advertising

 

You’re actually starting the sales applicant screening process the moment your job listings are posted.  Writing enticing job ads is the first step for attracting top performing sales people to your company.  Save time and money on the hiring process by getting the right people in the interview chair.

 

  1. 2.       Never Underestimate the Power of a Great Headline

 

What makes a good salesman want to find out more about the job you’re offering? A great attention-grabbing headline.  Use specific details about the job benefits, when possible. Entice them in a headline that lays out exactly how much money they could make at your company in the first year or two.  For example, your headline might read “If You Don’t Want to Make Six Figures or More, You Need Not Apply.” Always be truthful with your headlines and ad content, but bring the most enticing details forward.

 

  1. 3.       Use Important Key Words to Attract the Right Applicants

 

If you want to know how to hire employees with great sales skills, appeal to the skills they feel they already have and you need them to have. Use key words like independent, strong-willed and persuasive in your job candidate requirements. Top salespeople want to be where those traits are rewarded.  The role of sales hiring gets much easier when you appeal to sales professional egos in this way.

 

  1. 4.       Learn that What Makes a Good Salesman Might Be a Surprising Discovery

 

Don’t just depend on your skills regarding how to take interview questions. Successful sales hiring requires more. Use sales assessment testing to determine each sales candidate’s values and sales personalities. See this section in the AHS Sales Hiring Course for more details.

 

  1. 5.       Know How to Ask Interview Questions like a Hiring Expert

 

Vary the kinds of questions you ask in each interview. Ask your applicants to answer fully and creatively to resolve sales challenges they might face. The AHS Sales Hiring Course interview model is easy and comprehensive. The questions are already provided for your convenience.

 

  1. 6.       Be Professional.  Be Fair. And Be Quiet.

 

Sometimes how to hire employees with the traits you need requires more than just the right process. Be professional in all communication. Be fair by using the same testing and interview questions with every applicant.  And let the applicant do most of the talking.  This is their time to shine and your time to make note of whether or not they can.

 

  1. 7.       How to Hire Employees with Top Sales Potential Starts With You

 

Think successful sales hiring depends solely on the quality of sales applicants? Think again. Going about sales hiring the proper and professional way has a huge impact on your hiring success.

 

These tips can enhance your sales hiring skills by leaps and bounds, providing your company with the support needed for better sales. To be truly great at sales hiring, use the comprehensive information provided by the AHS Sales Hiring Course.

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