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.