This tendency is one of the most important reasons to hire the right people (with the relevant personal traits for the job) and provide those people with the structure, processes, and tools to assure that only the positive elements of subjectivity (reading people and situations, instinct (to a degree), and other capabilities one might classify as the “art” aspect of selling) impact their decision-making and how they pursue business. At ESR we know that objectivity is a critical selling capability.

Selective attention is an interesting behavior to study when it comes to salespeople.  Basically, it’s deliberate, focused attention. (Here is a detailed description.) The problem is, as I see it, that many salespeople focus their attention on what they want to see, rather than what’s really there. Some of you may remember that I often use the quote, “We see things not as they are, but as we are.”  Or, the more popular and humorous, “Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.”  That one is attributed to Mark Twain.

So here’s a video for you. I’d like you to watch it, then come back to me with your response to this question:

Do you agree or disagree that selective attention is an issue that must be addressed in a strategic sales effectiveness initiative?

Here is the YouTube link to the video below, in case you’re on an iPhone or iPad:  http://www.youtube.com/v/vJG698U2Mvo

We have a strong view at ESR about this subject.   With the right approach, time, and support, you might be able to get a B player to an A level.  But you won’t get a C player past the C level.

How can I say that?  It’s a matter of defining the terms. We know that the best approach for recruiting and selecting, as well as ongoing sales force development, is through a foundation of job profiling and competency mapping.  We also know that salespeople can, under the right circumstances, improve their skills significantly. On the other hand, the personal traits with which they are born are, for all intents and purposes, immutable.  You can’t train or coach someone whose DNA prevents it to be intelligent, analytical, resilient, driven, charismatic, courageous, passionate, curious, goal orientated, or have any other of the many traits required for success in B2B selling today (depending on the specific job).

Sure, you can support C players with resources, such as special attention and extra time from management, but empowering them to own and manage their territory and drive maximum profitable revenue from it will forever be a challenge.

What then is the difference between an A player and a B player?

In general terms, the A player has more of the skills, behaviors and traits required for consistent performance than the B player, and their numbers support that fact.  On the other hand, the B player may have all the traits of an A player, but not the all the skills or behaviors.  (That’s where training and reinforcement comes in.)  Or they may have many of the required traits, but are deficient in some ancillary ones, or perhaps their required traits aren’t to the level of the A player.  Therefore some B players can become A’s and some are just not able to.

What does all this mean to you?

First, you’re going to have to figure out what skills, traits, and behaviors are required for success in each job category within your sales organization and map your existing personnel against that list, so you can formulate the appropriate development plan going forward. Second, you’ll want to redeploy your C players into some other role inside (or outside) your company, over time.  Third, you’ll vow to never to hire another C player, because if you do, you’ll be stuck with them.

Photo Credit: © Jim Barber – Fotolia.com

A Conversation with Sales Training Industry Leader Dave Kurlan

Part I:  What’s In It for Me (and My Sales Organization)?

If you’ve been following this blog or investing in ESR’s research, you know how important it is to have the right people in and managing the sales team as an absolute pre-requisite to any sales training initiative.

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with Dave Kurlan, a pioneer in sales candidate screening and sales force evaluation, and the founder of Objective Management Group and Kurlan & Associates, to discuss one of our mutually favorite topics—the value of assessments. Our conversation only lasted about a half an hour, but it was packed with interesting and extremely useful information on an often misunderstood and generally under-utilized component of a sales performance improvement initiative.

I asked Dave if I could share parts of our conversation on the blog, and he readily agreed, so I’ve included some pertinent excerpts here, with additional installments to come—it’s that good.

Dave Stein: The effectiveness of sales force evaluation and candidate screening has been proven; assessment has been around for years.  Why aren’t more companies doing it?

Dave Kurlan: I don’t know the answer, but I can speculate. Many sales leaders think they have it down. They think they know their existing salespeople and why they get the results they get, even though that understanding is probably very superficial.  On the candidate selection side, they think they’ve got selection down pat, but if you look at their records, most are probably finding no more than one out of four to ten people that they hire actually rises to become the cream of the crop. So I think the number one issue is ego—“I can do it myself.  I’m supposed to be able to do it myself.”

DS: How do those managers explain the salespeople who aren’t producing?

DK: If you ask them about the folks who aren’t the closers or the hunters, managers go to the default answers—it’s motivation or time management, or lack of effort or practice, but they won’t go to the real issues, because they just don’t know what those are.  They think they’re seeing the real issues, but they can’t get two or three or four levels down to find out exactly what’s behind two-thirds of their sales force not filling the pipeline the way it should be filled.  Typically, a few people are doing most of the work, while most everyone else has an empty pipeline, or one that’s filled a third of the way, which just doesn’t get the job done.

DS:  So this means they’re hesitant to look outside for selling solutions that may help their people sell better, and or to ask whether it’s time to refine the process or bring in a new one?

DK:  Exactly, and there are preconceived notions about assessment. There are a number of “personality” and “behavioral style” assessments that have left a bad taste in their mouths, because, while they provide some nice information, it’s not relevant.  It doesn’t reveal why people are selling the way they are, or whether this person will succeed in this role or not—it’s just information.  So these experiences with assessment have people thinking, well that’s not going to help.  And, they don’t know that there are assessments that go wide and deep in a very sales-specific way.

DS: Would you describe your assessment process?

DK: On the development side, if we want to get a sales force to where it should be, or to the next level, or we want grow the organization or bring in more revenue, it’s all about answering questions.  Some common questions that CEOs and executives from the top down want answers to are:  Can this sales organization execute our strategies, which are changing every month, now? Can this sales force go from order-taking and account management to more proactive hunting and closing roles?  Have we been selecting the right people, and if not, what kind of changes do we need to make?  Are any of my non-performers savable?  If they are, what do we have to do to get them there? What impact is sales management having on the sales organization?  What do we need to do about that?  Do our systems and processes support the sales organization in a way that helps them rather than making it more difficult to do their job?  What kind of ROI would we get from training? What should training consist of?  And, it goes on.

On the candidate side, it’s all about being able to predict, with extreme accuracy and confidence, on a consistent basis, whether or not a particular candidate will succeed in a particular role, at the particular company, in their particular industry, calling on their particular market, with that particular decision-maker title, against their specific competition, challenges, and price points.  And it’s not a vanilla, “this person can sell” or “this person can’t sell” because one person could succeed in Company A, but not at Company B, based on what the company needs that salesperson to do and what that candidate is capable of doing.

When executives recognize what’s going on, we can drill down and finally understand why it’s happening and do something about it.  On the development side, if you identify what the real problems are for performance, it’s much easier to develop your people.  If you get the selection part right, then you really don’t have to do anything except manage.

Next time: Part II:  Evaluating Your Investment in Salespeople.

Dave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of Kurlan & Associates, Inc., an international consulting firm specializing in sales force development. He possesses 30 plus years of experience in all facets of sales development, including consulting, training, coaching, recruiting, systems, processes, and metrics.

Disclosure: Dave Kurlan is an ESR sales training provider subscriber.

If you’ve hiring the wrong sales candidate, onboarding is a waste of time and money. And it gives you false hope that the person might be productive in within a reasonable period of time. They won’t.

I’ve read a number of articles and posts recently about onboarding and some of them miss the most important point: onboarding plans shouldn’t be generic. Putting all new sales hires through the same one-day, ten-day, or hundred-day program will not get the most out of them in the shortest period of time.

Companies that use a profile-based, behavioral interview approach have a reasonably accurate assessment of what each candidate brings to the table. Hiring authorities know what traits and skills the candidate possesses and how that candidate has performed in relevant and important selling situations in the past. If a candidate doesn’t have enough of the most critical traits they don’t get hired, because you can’t train them to perform in one way when their DNA, personal attributes, or other strong tendencies are directing them elsewhere. (There are exceptions, of course.)

The skills side is another story. There are no perfect candidates. But to know, when you offer a candidate a job, by how much they fall short in important skill areas and have a plan to train, coach, reinforce, educate, support and in other ways close any gaps that exist using the onboarding process—that’s how to get a B player to A more quickly and predictably.

Here’s a real example: Jason (not his real name) came through the interview process for a software company with flying colors. There was a strong match between his traits and what had been identified as being critical for the job: analytical thinking, positivism, courage, extroversion, etc. He did very well in the skills area as well: territory management, presentation skills, planning, negotiation, leading customers out of their comfort zones. But Jason was short on financial knowledge. The software company sales leaders knew that that financial knowledge is critical for making a sale. In fact, being able to read and interpret a prospect’s financial statements and articulate where, how, and specifically by how much their software would make an impact, would make the difference between being a finalist or not.

You can see where this is headed. The onboarding plan for Jason didn’t have him sitting in classes wasting time on things he already did well. Sure, he was provided with enough product and industry training to get him going. But the real focus was on getting Jason up to speed in financial knowledge and the business contribution his product makes to his customers. So Jason was given a detailed 90-day ramp-up plan as condition of employment. The plan provided resources (six hours with an in-house financial expert, for example), several books to read, a two-day program at the AMA, and monthly progress discussions with his manager.

That was three years ago. Jason’s performance has been stellar, just as they knew it would.

Are you still using using the same onboarding program for all your new reps?

The experts were:

• Brian Dietmeyer, CEO and Co-Founder, Think! Inc.  Brian answered questions about the power of procurement and how companies can begin to regain some of the ground lost as strategic sourcing has surged over the past decade. Previously, Brian and I discussed strategic negotiation on this podcast.
  

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• Braham Shnider, CEO and Founder, Channel Enablers.  Braham is an expert in the area of building and managing sales channels.  Braham said during the call that 70% of  products are sold not through direct sales approaches, but through channels.  I had some questions for Braham in this interview.
  

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• LaVon Koerner, President and Founder, Revenue Storm.  LaVon is an expert in demand creation, among other areas.  His explanation of how salespeople must create, rather than capture, demand was very compelling. A while back, LaVon and I had a great chat on this podcast.
  

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• Rick Page, CEO and Founder, The Complex Sale, Inc.  I asked Rick to join this advanced selling round table because of his thought-leadership in the area of political selling. His comments resonated among the whole panel.  I interviewed Rick a while back on this podcast.
  

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• Steve Andersen, Founder and Managing Partner, Performance Methods, Inc. Steve’s company, PMI, is a leader in the area of strategic account management.  Steve shared a few startling trends going on within his clients’ organizations around this critical sales-related function. Steve and I got to discuss PMI and his view of strategic account management on this podcast.
  

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Among the subjects our experts discussed were talent management challenges, future advanced selling trends, collaboration with clients and customers, and how important business acumen is in a complex selling environment.

So here’s the good news

If you missed the round table, here is the MP3 recording, courtesy of Focus.com.  Great working with those folks.

Photo credit: Fotolia.com

This raises a very important issue: not hiring these people in the first place. One of the important messages we deliver to sales leaders is, “Vow never to hire another sales rep who can’t get the job done.”

Easier said than done, you might say.  But there is something you can do.  Partnering with a knowledgeable and trustworthy recruiter can help a lot. I’ve worked with some of the best, and they can really contribute to you achieving your long-term revenue objectives.

One of the smart sales recruiters I know is Eliot Burdett.  Because the subject of hiring the right people for sales positions is so important, I asked Eliot if he’d submit to an interview.  (This isn’t an ESR endorsement, but for informational purposes for those that follow this blog.)  Here’s the interview:

Dave Stein: I know you serve the U.S. and Canada.  So how is business?

Eliot Burdett: Business is great. When the slowdown hit a few years ago, companies in some of the markets we serve cutback staff and reduced spending, but within time the markets adjusted and things started moving forward again. Around the spring of 2010 we experienced a surge in volume and the pace has not slowed down at all since. Last year several large companies in the U.S. engaged us to help them build entirely new sales teams while other customers grew incrementally and have been retooling and upgrading all along. We had virtually no time off at Christmas because companies were aggressively pushing to add staffs, so we expect 2011 to be more of the same.

DS: In your experience, what are the most common mistakes sales leaders make when hiring reps?

EB: Great question. There are three big mistakes that lead to inferior hiring records and sales results. The first and perhaps biggest mistake companies make is having a poor understanding of what makes their selling environment unique and the characteristics that predispose someone to do well in their company. Too often companies think they need a “hungry sales rep” but overlook things like culture fit, ability to close similar sized deals and other factors like the ability to work in a  start-up or mature company. The second mistake companies make, and this is another big one, is having an unstructured hiring process and hiring people based on looks, mood or gut feel. This is a recipe for a dismal hiring record. The more structure in terms of different objective tests and interviews, cross references and background checks, the better. The final mistake is not looking for potential candidates in the right place. The best sales reps are usually employed 100% of the time, so you won’t attract them in resume/CV databases or by posting job ads—they won’t see them. The best ones are found by networking with them and engaging them at their desk. Actually I did an video blog on this a little while back… Here it is.

DS: What about the sales leaders themselves…  I know they’re often your clients, but are they generally suited for the jobs they hold?

EB: We are fortunate to get to work with some great sales leaders and it is exciting to see them employing more structure in their selling efforts, figuring out how to manage the millennial generation and embrace social media. Where companies run into trouble is promoting their top sales performer to sales manager because the two jobs are so vastly different.  The rep that leads the sales team is usually wired in such a way that precludes them from effectively planning, communicating, coaching, administrating and holding people accountable –the key things that are required to be a great sales leader.

DS: You’re a talented writer. How important do you think that is in today’s business environment?

Writing skills are critical in most sales roles these days because so much business is being done in email. While negotiating almost always occurs in person or on the phone, a lot of prospecting and business development goes on in email and the quality of the writing has a strong impact on brand and credibility. Writing skills are also required to network in online communities and prospect via social media, so now more than ever reps need to have strong written skills.

DS: What makes Peak different from other firms in your space?

EB: We help our customers achieve sales and hit their targets. We are exclusively focused on helping our customers hire top performing sales people and have completed thousands of successful search projects across various industry sectors. Because we have managed sales teams, built companies from the ground up, and employed recruiting agencies ourselves, we understand hiring from our customer’s perspective and the critical importance of effective sales hiring. Customers call us when they need consistent and reliable performers, which means we can’t simply do a quick keyword search in a database, flip a stack of resumes  and start selling candidates to fill a seat. Our engagements involve working with the customer to understand sales objectives and hiring needs, then hunting for candidates, using tailored methods to evaluate that they have the right mix of skills, experience and DNA, then advising our customer on who will produce the best results. It is a highly collaborative process which results in clients getting the right person every time and achieving higher sales, which is really what it’s all about.

Here’s a fact for you:  Scott Hudson, Vice President-Sales and Marketing at HR Chally, tells me that,

“85% of sales superstars fail in sales management.”

I know that executives are faced with a tough decision when a top salesrep comes to them demanding a management position.  I’ve spent a fair amount of time working with reps and managers on that very issue over the years.

By the time this situation occurs, it is usually too late for a positive outcome.  The salesrep may have told her colleagues or family about their plan and staying in their current position may not be any longer possible.  (When this situation does occur, it’s a sign that effective career counseling within the person’s company has likely not taken place.)

I’m thinking now about Lou (not the rep’s real name), a very strong salesrep, who worked for a client’s company.   Four years ago, the CEO of that small technology company called me and asked what I thought about him promoting Lou to be VP of sales, a position that was then open following the firing of the person that held that job. I asked whether Lou was qualified.  The CEO didn’t think so, but then he hadn’t really thought about what was required for success.  With the CEO’s approval, I called Lou and spoke to him about the situation. He told me he decided that he was the most qualified person in the company to assume that position, and that he would leave if he didn’t get it.  We had a number of discussions over several weeks, while the CEO temporarily assumed the role of VP of sales.  Lou became concerned that he might not be as qualified for the position as he first thought.  He continued to sell and made his numbers for the next two quarters.  The CEO had by then hired a strong outsider for the VP of sales role.  Lou stayed in the company, determined to get to that next level.  Fast forward.  The company got acquired, the new VP of sales left and Lou took over as VP of that division of the larger company.  He had plenty of support and, last I heard, was quite successful in his new role.

Here are my recommendations on the topic of promoting strong sales reps to sales management positions:

• If you’re a salesrep and you’d like to move up the ladder for whatever reason, spend some time understanding what is really required for success as a manager.  It’s considerably more than just strong selling skills. You can’t fake it, and these days there are few companies that would wait for you to train on the job.  If you fail, and without the proper skills and traits, you likely will, you’ll have few good alternatives.  Interested in resuming your old role as a rep?  Not likely.
• If you’re the senior executive, think about this:  If the rep isn’t qualified, it’s just a matter of time before they fail in their new role as manager.  Then, not only do they leave your company, but the situation probably winds up worse than before they took the new position. So, if that rep comes to you for a promotion, it’s time to sit down with them and to explain to them precisely the capabilities they need to be successful.  Perhaps agreeing on a six-month plan for them to get up to speed on they key management skills would enable both of you to feel the likelihood of success is considerably greater.

I was primed for this interview, having taken teams of sales leaders and CEOs through discussions on this subject in Ireland during April.  I told them that any time and money invested in sales effectiveness initiatives and tools is going to be wasted unless they’ve got the right people on the sales team.

I’ve got some very important messages here for sales leaders about staffing their teams with salespeople who will consistently deliver.

When you’re done listening to the podcast, you can check here for a lot more on hiring.

Let Richard and me know your thoughts, please.  Here is the podcast.

Photo credit: © Abe Mossop – Fotolia.com

Q. How do you hire?

A. The most important thing is that you hire people who complement you and are better than you in specific areas. Good people hire people better than themselves. So A players hire A+ players. But others hire below their skills to make themselves look good. So B players hire C players. C players hire D players, etc.

How true.  Here’s another point:

Another issue is that most people believe they are good interviewers, and that they are good judges of character. They’re wrong. That’s why you see clones of the boss in some companies: everybody is white, tall and from an East Coast private school.

Objectivity is the hardest thing for sales leaders to achieve during their interviews with sales candidates.

To that end, ESR strongly recommends that simulations be part of every sales rep recruitment process.  The candidate is provided with a briefing document in advance of their visit to your office.  They are told to prepare for two simulations.

1. Sales call simulation. The candidate “meets” with two or three executives or managers from the company doing the hiring.  The candidate executes a “discovery” sales call early in the sales cycle.  The 25-minute simulation provides an opportunity to measure, among other things, the candidate’s demeanor, listening skills, questioning skills, objective setting, qualification approach, how much research they’ve done, and their business credibility.
2. Presentation simulation. Once the sales call simulation is complete, a twenty-minute break is appropriate.  The candidate sets up their laptop with the presentation they built in advance of this session.  The evaluation team returns to the room and the candidate has the opportunity to simulate a final presentation at the end of the customer’s buying process, with whatever assumptions they’d like.  This 25-minute simulation provides an opportunity to measure, among other things, objection handling, presentation style, executive-level presence, responding to questions, persuasiveness,  and competitive positioning.

I’ve sat through many of these hiring process simulations with clients over the years.  It’s amazing how some candidates will excel live and on the phone during numerous interviews and then fall flat on their face during the simulated sales call or presentation.

Don’t you need to see how that salesrep will perform during a sales call and while presenting your product or service?

Photo: Fotolia.com

In the past, I’ve generally limited my interviews to CEOs and senior executives representing the larger providers.  But anyone on the buy-side of sales training knows that there are individuals and small firms that deliver significant value to their clients.  I’ll be featuring more of those during this year.

My first interview for 2010 is with Steve Waterhouse, president of Predictive Results, a sales performance improvement provider based in Jacksonville, Florida.  In this interview with Steve, I focused on his business—what has made him successful.

Dave Stein: Would you provide us with an overview of your sales performance improvement practice?

Steve Waterhouse: Three years ago, my business was 80% training, 15% speaking, and 5% product sales with the majority of my work in one- and two-day engagements. We often trained only the sales team. Today my business mix is 70% training, 20% consulting, 5% speaking and 5% product sales with the majority of our clients renewing for multi-year agreements. Our training now covers virtually every manager in the company. Ninety-percent of our business is related to Predictive Index® and Customer-Focused Selling™.

DS: What about your background do you believe has contributed to your success?

SW: I started my career as an engineer on the Patriot Missile and then moved into technical sales. I think the discipline of engineering and the high level of professionalism in the technical companies I represented set the standard for all aspects of my business. Once I started consulting and training, having a wide diversity of clients gave me the insight I needed to solve problems in nearly any situation.

DS: Steve, you and I first met at a National Speakers Association conference in 2000.  At that point you were very much into technology.  How have you used technology in your business and what benefits do you believe it has delivered?

SW: Technology has played a critical role in marketing, sales and customer service. In the beginning, it was simple email lists. Today, we use CRM to manage the entire sales and service process. In addition, the assessments we represent from PI Worldwide® are delivered electronically. In some cases, we are directly integrated into our client’s management software, giving them virtually instant results.

DS: What’s your take on the economy as we come into a new decade?

SW: We have just finished our best year in business. I believe our success has come from finding those companies who are forward looking and helping them reach their goals. It is much easier to help someone fix a problem that they know they have than it is to try to convince people that they have a problem in the first place. The tough economy has only made finding the right companies a little more difficult. I expect more of the same ahead.

DS: What are the three biggest obstacles you believe the average sales leader has to overcome?

SW: Here they are:

1. Attracting and hiring the right people is always an enormous issue. We have seen 500% differences in sales results based on proper selection using our predictive testing tool. On the other hand, choosing the wrong people results in leadership efforts being distracted away from achieving those types of results.
2. Failure to use effective analysis to drive skills training. Without data from tools like the one we use for sales skills assessment, managers are flying blind. In this market, you can’t waste time and money. You need to know what they need to learn before you start to teach.
3. Justifying training budgets in a tight economy will continue to be a struggle. Since many programs have not shown results, leaders will need to find those that apply effective adult learning principles for immediate action and ROI on learning.

DS: If you had an opportunity to do the last ten years again, as it relates to your business, what would you do differently?

SW: I would have teamed up with PI Worldwide earlier.