Hiring Salespeople is Like Training for a Marathon

Anyone who has ever crossed the finish line of a 26.3 mile marathon knows how it is a life changing event. Less than 50% of those who begin a marathon achieve their goal

Son: What does running a marathon and hiring a sales team have to do with each other?
Dad: Everything, son. Everything

Running a marathon requires daily attention to daily mileage goals. You can skip a day every once in a while. Skip two and your odds of success fall dramatically.

Successful sales hiring is also built from the ground up. Step by step we build. First placing ads, then profiling all applicants and finally only interviewing those applicants that have passed the profiles. We exercise discipline in our interview, as we interview each of the three applicants who pass both profiles.

Some managers tire of the process and try to skip steps. They often try to select applicants by scanning resumes. They think they are saving time, but in the end their team is made up of mediocre players. They try to patch that by giving rah-rah motivation.

Just like training for a marathon, half steps always lead to failure. Skip steps, try and train sporadically and you’ll be lucky to cross the finish line running. In all likelihood you’ll be out of the race.

Note: Alan ran The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Marathon, his first marathon, in 2001 at age 48. This year he’s training for the Tel Aviv Marathon at age 58.

Better Sales – Managing Different Styles – The High-D

The D score is defined as Dominance. I like to call it Ego Drive and I think that conforms more with the seminal article “What Makes a Good Salesperson” published in Harvard Business Review

High-D’s are highly motivated salespeople. In fact, the reason that they are successful is because they are so highly motivated.

To a High-D there is literally a dialogue going off in their heads that says ”I can make it. I can do this work. I am the one who can make this happen. It’s all up to me.” (They might have different words, but that’s the essence.)

High-D’s love a challenge. They are never satisfied with the status quo and will be attracted to the new and different. This is a great asset for you, as a manager since you can be sure they have the ability to achieve more.

Whether you can get them to live up to their potential is another thing.

Hopefully after you read this, and other more detailed tools in the Member Area, you will know more about helping them to maximize their productivity.

High-D’s don’t shy away from confrontation. And if they are not getting enough challenge or they are feeling frustrated they are more likely to get involved in conflicts.

I joke that it seems like they can almost appear to encourage fights. “I’m bored, why don’t you two fight?” In some ways it’s not really a joke because they like being highly charged.

The way to motivate a High-D is to challenge them. For the Low-D confrontation is a turn off and leaves them hurt and retreating. For the High-D they don’t get offended when you call them out. Tell them that they darn well could do better than they’re doing.

Give the High-D a goal to shoot for – and then make sure the reward is congruent with their highest ValuesMatrix^TM value. (Just look at page 2 of the ValuesMatrix^TM and match the reward to the number one value in the report.)

High-D’s might seem a bit difficult, but once you understand what makes them tick they’re easy to manage. The trick is to challenge them to reach a goal that matches their values, then get out of their way…

A P.S. to this, is be sure you really have a High-D. Check their StylesMatrix^TM to be sure. If you don’t have a true High-D and you try and manage them like one you will wish you hadn’t…

Sales Hiring is Easier Than Hiring a Web Designer

Clients watched “live” the recent debacle for a simple change of the look of the Advanced Hiring System website. Starting Friday I notified clients that we were going to swap the “skin” of the site.  We figured everyone would be out barbecuing in honor of our vets and web traffic would be low.

As it turned out, because I violated my own rules on how to hire a temporary contractor, I ended up with a nightmare. From Saturday until Wednesday the site looked like an elementary school student had designed it. Repeated calls, emails, SMS’s went unreturned. When I finally did get connect, the excuses were a yard long and a mile deep.

After deciding “enough was enough” I contacted our Developer and we went back to our old skin.

Sales Hiring using the Advanced Hiring System, on the other hand, is something so predictable it’s laughable.

Follow the Steps and Welcome A Hunter to Your Sales Team

The steps are:

1. Write an Ad using the model and keywords contained in the AHS Ad Writing Module. This is important because the ad is the first step – and as the old expression goes, “How you start is how you finish.
2. Place the ad and use Social Media using the steps contained in the AHS Ad Placement Module. The steps will save you countless wasted hours and frustration
3. Profile all applicants using the AHS ValuesMatirx (TM). This determines what are the values most important to the applicant. Top sales performers have values in common regardless of what product or service you sell.
4. Profile all applicants with the correct values with the AHS StylesMatrix (TM). This is to check for the personality style. Your top sales performers have similar personality styles.
5. Interview applicants who have similar styles to top performers using the AHS Four Part Interview Module. Conduct a scripted interview. DO NOT WING YOUR INTERVIEW. Better to be boring and thorough. Don’t be a salesperson here.

Do this and watch your sales hiring results soar. If you want more info consider signing up for the AHS Sales Hiring E-course. It’s the cheapest $47 you’ll ever spend. And if you don’t think it’s worth it, let us know and we’ll give you a no hassles refund for every nickel.