The Perfect Sales Hire

By Allan Erickson

In our world there are no perfect people, no perfect jobs or houses or neighborhoods...nothing is perfect, yet we cling to the illusion that somewhere out there lives the perfect sales candidate who will eventually become the "perfect hire." This super star sales stud will do for our team what Shaquille O'Neal has done for the Lakers, we think.

The truth is, while we frantically search for the Holy Grail of Sales, often insisting only on people with direct industry experience, other talented, experienced people with excellent skills and potential pass us by. Certainly, people with direct experience are attractive as they can be expected to hit the ground running, providing speed to revenue while helping save on training expense.

However, industry experienced people sometimes bring bad habits, or they are burned out selling digital multifunctional machines, and since training should be ongoing anyway, it is logical that other outside sales people be given serious consideration. Even inside sales people with certain compelling qualifications have found success in our business. Here is a real life example.

More than a year ago I saw a resume' detailing the work history of a new citizen from the Far East. She presented sales background in women's fashion through a retail network, had established significant track record in that role, migrating eventually to inside sales of computers and peripherals. During the phone interview I discovered more detail about her inside sales success, and learned how she overcame language and cultural obstacles in the course of developing her career.

She did not conform to the profile the hiring manager required. She had no outside sales experience of any kind, and no experience with copier/printer sales either. However, I concluded I was communicating with someone who had ambition, intelligence, skill and courage, someone who would learn our industry quickly, and present well in front of customers. It took some doing, but I persuaded the manager to interview her. To my surprise, he hired her! And a year later she made president's club. The manager concluded she was "a gem of a hire."

And there are other examples. There is the man in the Northwest who was selling Yellow Pages advertising and living out of his car. Two years later he was selling $1.5M a year in business machines, living in a new home and driving a Land Cruiser.

There is also the example of the single mother in California who had no copier experience, but she had drive and talent and only asked for an opportunity. Today she is knocking down six figures, enjoying the president's club trips, and raising her child in style.

I also recall the college grad who applied for a sales job ten years ago, saying his only qualification was "people like me, and I like them." He was persistent in asking for the job. So the sales manager concluded he would be persistent in asking for the order. He is still on the job, the top producer in the office.

And there is my experience as well: a moderately successful reporter-turned-media sales rep, I was attempting to sell advertising to a copier dealership in 1989. Rather than buy from me, the sales manager recruited me to sell copiers, apparently liking something in my radio sales pitch. Given his great support and training, I started selling machines my first month, and never looked back, making or exceeding quota most every month.

Along the way, what a lot of these sales managers discovered was the "deeper loyalty factor." By giving people an opportunity, and helping them develop success through solid training, support and mentoring, the sales managers built teams of loyal, productive people.

Skilled college graduates and others with limited sales experience in other industries are tomorrow's super stars, but they must be attracted to the industry, and given the tools to succeed. In sales recruiting we have found that people with backgrounds in these areas (companies) tend to be successful in our industry, to name only a few: (The companies are listed because their training programs are superior, and/or their sales endeavors are among the most professional.)

–  Enterprise Rent-A-Car
–  Retail tire/automotive
–  New Horizons Learning Centers
–  Macy's
–  Nordstrom's
–  Outside sales experience in telecom, pharmaceuticals or other business communications enterprise
–  Any sales environment where heavy prospecting and multitasking are required
–  Sales-related computer engagements, especially in the connected environment
–  College grads with psychology, business administration and computer skills
–  Athletes
–  Student government leaders, members of sororities or fraternities
–  Students who achieve high GPAs and demonstrate people skills
–  Inside sales involving technology

Candidates with industry experience or not must be evaluated properly throughout the selection process in order to realize quality hires. Here are some of the characteristics and skill sets of successful sales people, derived from a variety of sources, used as measurement criteria in evaluating a candidate's suitability:

Essential Skills & Attributes for Success in Sales • a real "people person," able to establish and maintain rapport with most anyone, puts others at ease
• a wordsmith, someone with the gift of storytelling, great communication skills both in speaking and writing
• honesty, integrity, follow through
• a continuously flowing positive personality and great attitude
• a servant, genuinely interested in the customers' highest good
• strong work ethic and a competitive nature
• willingness to listen and skilled in asking questions (we have two ears and one mouth for a reason!)
• writes an action plan and follows a strategy to achieve goals
• organizational and time management skills
• responsible
• self confident
• emotionally stable
• able to grapple in a healthy way with rejection
• recovers from defeat
• comfortable speaking about money and presents negotiating skills
• knows about buying and sales cycles
• shows an ability to demonstrate equipment, or there are indicators that demos will be polished
• knows, or can learn, that you never show a feature without also describing the benefit
• identifies and gains access to true decision makers
• lives activity: knows the value of prospecting (referrals, referrals!) and working all aspects of the sales cycle
• strong desire to succeed, willing to work more than eight-hour days
• can find out how and why customers buy, and knows how to qualify buyers
• submits to the authority of management as a professional interested in teamwork
• creative and energetic, a live wire, someone who really makes things happen
• professional personal appearance: not necessarily glamorous/gorgeous/mega-handsome – but polished
• knows (or can learn) product lines and understands (or can learn) internal processes
• demonstrates aptitude for preparing creative proposals and navigating to win against competition
• teachable and appropriately assertive
• consultive sales awareness, truly a client consultant and problem solver, customer focused solutions
• helps buyers realize the value of their investment by insuring each user gets full training after the install

Through a process of resume evaluation, phone interviewing, confirmation of sales track record information, behavioral interviewing, some forms of testing, and reference checks, a hiring manager can be better assured of making a quality hire.

In conclusion, this is a highly recommend a book from the Harvard Business School Press: Hidden Value: How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People (O'Reilly & Pfeffer, 2000). In some ways the authors challenge the whole 80/20 rule: that 80% of your productivity will come from 20% of your sales people. They assert that the so-called "War for Talent" is based on a false premise: that finding and hiring the super talented sales stud or studette is the only way to be competitive. Instead they present field reports about how actual companies achieved greatness by developing ordinary people into superior performers.

"Of course, companies that want to succeed need great people, and recruitment, selection, and retention are obviously important. But companies need something else that is even more important and often more difficult to obtain: cultures and systems in which these great people can actually use their talents, and, even better, management practices that produce extraordinary results from almost anybody. (my emphasis) The unfortunate mathematical fact is that only 10 percent of the people are going to be in the top 10 percent. So, companies have a choice. They can all chase the same supposed talent ("the perfect hire..."). Or, they can do something even more useful and much more difficult to copy – build an organization that helps make it possible for regular folks to perform as if they were in the top 10 percent."

"Hiring and retaining talent is great. Building a company that creates and uses talent is even better." (pages 1 & 2)

People are not boxes of cereal that we read in two-dimensions, comparing resumes to job descriptions to see if there is a "fit." People are bundles of talents, experience, skills, education, dreams and motivators – all looking for a place shine.

As employers, do we provide the right culture so sales people can fully blossom, or do we hammer them about the "number" week to week, creating a grim atmosphere of droning compliance, high turnover and pervasive dissatisfaction?

Ironically, higher profits are routinely created in vibrant, creative atmospheres, so why settle for a second-class situation both in terms of income and work-place enjoyment?!

To end where we began (with a basketball analogy) remember that Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest player of all time, was cut from his high school team. Michael, and coaches down the line, recognized he had talent and the drive to develop that talent. Once the decision was made to be successful, it was only a matter of time.

© 2001 Allan Erickson. All rights reserved.