He’s barely out of the building when he calls his sales manager to debrief on the meeting. “I told him about our latest products and all the great colors that it comes in. It was a great meeting … I talked the whole time … We are going to get this deal!”

Anyone who has been in sales for even a minute can see the glaring flaw in this meeting.

The salesperson talked the entire time and presented features and benefits without knowing what his prospect needed. David completely missed the needs analysis part of the meeting, which is the most critical part of any sales process.

The life of a recruiter parallels that of a salesperson. Recruiters need to develop a needs analysis strategy when recruiting sales candidates just like salespeople do when pursuing prospects. Lecturing candidates on how wonderful the company is does not bring about excitement any more than it did with Mr. Stevens. Sales managers often refer to that approach as throwing darts while blindfolded. A candidate recruiting strategy using David’s approach is destined for the same fate.

No such thing as a great salesperson. To develop your needs analysis strategy, you need to start with a foundational question. What is your goal of the sales recruiting process? “It’s obvious … hire great sales people!” Wrong! Folks, there is no such thing as a great salesperson. You read correctly. Don’t believe me? How many of these so-called great salespeople have been hired by your company and failed? How can you explain this rock star failing in your company? If you believe that great salespeople exist, then the explanation for their failure is one of two things. Your company is the absolute worst for which to sell. Or, the salesperson completely forgot how to sell when they arrived on your doorstep. There is no door number three.

A salesperson’s success isn’t just based on their sales skills. Success is based on the synergistic match of needs, wants, and desires between the role and the salesperson. This means that the goal of the process is to serve as a matchmaker between these two entities. In essence, you are formulating a sales marriage between the candidate and the firm.

Who do you want to hire? The first step is to develop a profile of your ideal sales candidate and prioritize the attributes between required and desired ones. Just like the salesperson needs a profile of the ideal client, the recruiter needs a profile of the ideal candidate to develop their needs analysis strategy. This detailed, written description presents a comprehensive picture of the successful candidate for the role. This document serves as the basis for the entire sales talent screening program. Interviews, mock roleplays, and assessments should compare the candidate to this profile. The needs analysis strategy should be geared toward identifying synergies, or lack thereof, between the candidate and the opportunity.

Knowing what to ask and when. In sales, the needs analysis serves a number of purposes, including exposing prospects who are more like suspects. The same goes for the recruiter. Part of the needs analysis strategy is to quickly identify fatal flaws in the candidate that would remove him or her from employment consideration. They say if you are going to lose, lose early.

Ah, but what are those areas for the recruiter to explore? It comes back to the profile of the ideal candidate. Those areas that are deemed “required” attributes of the successful candidate provide the exploration list. For example, if one of the requirements in the profile is that the candidate must have extensive experience selling services in the C-suite, a question asking about the candidate’s prowess in doing so brings this to light.

Getting ready to propose. When a salesperson conducts an effective needs analysis, they gather information that helps them develop the scope for a proposal, including pricing. However, asking intimate questions about the prospect’s current situation cannot be effectively done unless the salesperson has earned the right to do so. It may occur in a first meeting, but it may be a little later in the process. However, the strong seller knows that they can’t develop a winning proposal without knowing as much as possible about the current situation.

The same holds true when you get to the offer stage of the sales talent-screening program. When you reach the time to extend an offer, much like the well-skilled salesperson, the expectation is that it will be accepted. Who has time to waste on prospects who aren’t going to buy? It’s a rather ugly day for the sales rep who gets blind-sided by a competitor who wins the account.

The recruiting experience is much the same. Making a huge investment in a candidate only to lose them to another opportunity is costly and wasteful. A recruiter should never be surprised by a candidate rejecting an offer because it was $20,000 lower than what they were looking for. This requirement should have been uncovered and worked through well-before the offer stage … during the needs analysis.

As part of the needs analysis strategy, the recruiter also needs to know what it will take for a candidate to leave their current employer, if they are looking at other opportunities, and where this opportunity ranks in contrast with the others — just to name a few. Keep in mind that the No. 1 killer of sales pipelines is status quo: the decision to do nothing. The common cause of this affliction is a poor needs analysis strategy. The same holds true when recruiting. If the candidate elects to keep their current position, your needs analysis strategy may be the root cause of status quo keeping the candidate from accepting the position.

The big picture is that every question asked in the needs analysis strategy must have a purpose, which is to identify the matches to the ideal candidate profile. The stronger the match, the stronger your sales marriage. If you would like my tip sheet on developing an effective sales recruiting needs analysis strategy, send me an email.

Life would be grand if we could sprinkle a few seeds in the ground, fertilize, add water … and a great salesperson would sprout. This is truly a pipedream, but one often pursued by small business owners and sales management executives in their quest to find great sales talent. Rather than grow their own, they attempt to steal the crops from their competitors. Why not — their competitor is much better at growing a sales organization than they are. They will grab some magic from their competitor’s land and they too can enjoy great success.

When did the competition begin building a better sales organization than your company? Before you harvest their crop, consider these five myths when hiring your competitor’s salespeople.

“Hiring from the competitor means the salesperson will hit the ground running with no training.” Some of the attraction to the competitors’ salespeople is sheer laziness. Hire a salesperson from the competitor today … instant revenue tomorrow. No need to train them; they already know everything. Needless to say, this is flawed thinking. Salespeople always need training and development regardless of who their former employer was.

That said, every once in a while, lightning will strike and you will hire a rainmaker. More often than not, this approach is a recipe for a making a bad hire. A thought: What salespeople do you really think are available from the competition? Rarely is it the top performers. It’s the bottom 20% that, truth be told, the company is glad to see leave.

“Our industry is so complex that we must hire a salesperson from within it.” How can this be true? No one ever came out of the womb mastering your industry — not even you. You were taught it and so was everyone else. If you truly feel that industry experience is the top requirement, be prepared for another major challenge: scalability. There are only so many people in your industry and very few that you will consider hiring. At some point, your talent pool will run dry.

Salespeople need to have a certain level of knowledge to effectively sell in an industry. Determine what they need to know to be effective and develop training tools to quickly get them up to speed. Identify resources in your company that can help them with their questions. Test their knowledge assimilation along the way to make sure they are getting it.

“They’re going to bring a book of business with them.” Before you buy that argument, consider these three points. First, despite what they tell you, it is extremely difficult to move clients. The pain of change is not one that is easily resolved with clients. It is rare to find a salesperson with that strong of an influence to overcome that issue.

Second, the salesperson doesn’t own those clients; their employer does. While non-competes don’t usually hold up in court, client list protection does. And, you can be at risk in the mess. Do you really need that headache?

Third, don’t think for a minute that the salesperson you hire today will one day retire with your firm. They will leave your employ some day. Imagine your salesperson attempting to take your clients with them when they go. It doesn’t feel overly ethical, does it? And, it’s a flawed reason to hire a salesperson.

“We’re a little firm and we could really use a salesperson who comes from one of our large competitors.” This statement is true if, and only if, your company and the large competitor are identical twins. A synergistic match between your company and the candidate is needed to put together a long-lasting sales marriage. There are a number of nuances that affect this synergy.

The flaw with this statement is that it assumes a complete sales culture match. Every sales organization is different, even within the same industry. The large competitor may have a ton of sales support for prospecting and presentations, while in your company the entire burden is on the salesperson. The salesperson at the competitor may enjoy great name recognition in the marketplace while you do not. Thus, a different skill set is needed to get in the door with prospects. The list goes on and on. The key is develop a profile of your ideal sales candidate with the required and desired attributes and interview accordingly.

“Since they have been in the industry, they are passionate about it, and passion sells.” Absolutely true! Passion sells, but it’s an incorrect assumption that these salespeople arrive with passion. Salespeople who bounce from company to company in an industry become “vanilla.”

Years ago, I had a salesperson on my team who had sold for three of our competitors prior to joining our company. I participated in a ride-along sales call with her, and the meeting was interesting to say the least. She could have had any of her former employer’s business cards in her hand, or ours for that matter, and everything she said was accurate. There was no passion. It was all vanilla information that failed to arouse any excitement in the prospect.

Sales hiring is daunting for companies of all sizes. The key is to have a profile of your ideal sales candidate and interview the prospects against it. This will help you find the right sales talent for your team whether they worked for your competitor or not. Need help interviewing sales candidates? Send me an email for my 28 favorite interview questions for sales candidates.

“So, how much revenue can you drive for us this year?”

I thought it was a joke, but he wasn’t joking. Maybe it was a trick question — no, it wasn’t. So, I said, “Before I answer, may I ask you a few questions?” He acquiesced…

How many salespeople can I hire?
What is the marketing budget?
What is the travel budget?
What is the budget for cost of sales?

To all of these fundamental business questions, the answer was, “I haven’t decided yet.” Very quickly what I initially thought was a joke became an interview nightmare. Red flags were waving in front of my face telling me to run from this opportunity as fast as I could.

After hearing his responses to my questions, I responded, “Revenue is a function of the investment made in both sales and marketing. How can someone give you a number that you can believe in without having answers to those questions?”

He leaned back in his chair and said, “Well, the other candidate gave me a number.” I told him that I could certainly provide him with a revenue number, but not to come looking for it. I attempted to explain further, but the CEO’s thought process was one-dimensional. He was interviewing a Vice President of Sales candidate as if the role was sales representative. (Mind you, I don’t recommend that question for that role either.) Following my instincts, I told him that it was best that he proceed with hiring the other candidate and I wrapped up the interview. He was dumbfounded to say the least.

If you are hiring a Vice President of Sales, there are five critical areas to explore of your candidate, but a revenue growth commitment is not one of them.

Sales force Recruitment. If you have decided to hire a Vice President of Sales, you are expecting them to build a sales team. Hiring salespeople is both risky and costly. The ideal candidate for this role should have a methodology that mitigates the risk and quickly gets the new hire up to speed. Bad hires kill the bottom line, but so do unproductive salespeople. Every day that a new salesperson is on the bench, not yet ready to generate sales, they sit on your books as a liability. Thus, a key skill that the ideal candidate will possess is development of a process to screen and onboard new sales team members.

Sales Process Development. One of the goals of having a sales organization is to establish consistent performance. This can only happen if a defined process has been established for the salespeople to follow.

Many companies hang their hat on the performance of a single rainmaker. One person generating 75% of the revenue means that you have one highly profitable team member and a bunch of unprofitable salespeople on the team. What happens if the rainmaker leaves for greener pastures? Having a well-defined sales process in place reduces the amount of time for new hires to get up to speed, as well as provides continued direction and focus for the tenured salespeople. This translates into another key benefit: scalability. Your company’s ability to experience significant growth resides on this leader’s acumen at building a process that leads the entire team to perform.

Compensation Plan Formulation. In many companies, one of the responsibilities of the Vice President of Sales is the formulation of a sales compensation plan. Sales compensation plans should be designed to reinforce the sales process that has been developed. Salespeople do not need a job description to tell them their job. The compensation plan tells them where to focus their time. The wrong plan can tank the company; the right plan can lead to explosive results. To learn more about developing the right compensation plan, read my article titled, “The Equilateral Triangle Model for Developing Sales Compensation Plans.”

Metric Management. In many sales environments, today’s sale is not necessarily an indication of a salesperson doing the right things now. Thus, you are paying commissions for what they did right one month, three months, or maybe a year ago. This makes it critical that other metrics are measured beyond revenue achievement. There is an old expression: what gets measured, gets done. In essence, the process that they create has multiple measurement points that allows for the creation for a dashboard. The metrics on this dashboard show the performance of the sales team and allow for intervention when performance is not meeting expectations. Thus the key is to understand how the candidate uses metrics to develop, manage, and grow their sales team.

Performance Management. The world would be a wonderful place if every salesperson hired performs like a rock star, but that doesn’t happen. You will have both over-achievers and subpar performers, and each requires a different management approach. Top performers need nurturing, appreciation, and growth opportunities, while subpar performers need support, guidance, and intervention. Handle the top performers wrong and they leave. Handle the subpar performers incorrectly and they can suck the profits from the company. Thus, in the interview process, it is important to understand the candidate’s management approach for different situations.

Not sure what questions to ask of your Vice President of Sales candidate? Send me an email and I’ll send you my favorite 24 questions when interviewing these candidates.

The Vice President of Sales is a key member at the executive table. As a business owner, when screening these candidates, focus on the skills that lead to the creation of your sales architecture® which means you are selecting a candidate that creates a sales organization based that delivers consistency, stability, and profitability.

Going back to the earlier story, that company did hire the other candidate … and fired him six months later after he did not deliver on the expectation he set in the interview for growing the business.

Originally published April 8, 2008.

It’s a great day at Newman Industries! For the last month, it has been actively recruiting a hot candidate to join its sales team. Today, Steven Harmon agreed to join. Newman sees him as a true rainmaker. The recruiter and sales manager share high-fives. Mission accomplished! Spike the ball in the end zone. The job is done! The competition was fierce for Steven, but Newman Industries won.

While Newman Industries was celebrating, Steven resigned his position with his present employer and enjoyed a celebratory dinner with his wife. That night, Steven lay in bed wondering if he made the right decision. He came to terms with his decision and looks forward to his first day at the company.

It’s 8:28 a.m. when Steven arrives for his first day at Newman Industries. He is excited, while also apprehensive. When Steven walks into the office and introduces himself to the receptionist, he is surprised to hear, “Oh, I didn’t know we had a new person starting today. Who did you say you were here to see?” Steven brushes this off, as it is not completely foreign for the receptionist not to be notified about a new employee joining a company.

The receptionist calls around and tells Steven that he is in the right place, but his manager Jamie has not arrived yet. Steven sits in the lobby as person after person walks by without saying a word.

Finally, at 9:10 am, Jamie walks in carrying a Starbucks coffee. She greets Steven in the lobby and takes him to his cubicle. Steven is surprised by what he sees. The cubicle looks like it belongs to someone else. Jamie explains that they had a salesperson leave the company the other day and that they had not had a chance to remove his stuff. “I have an idea,” sputters Jamie, “Since I have a meeting to run to, why don’t you get rid of this stuff and then we can get together at 10. Here is a garbage can. Thanks.”

Steven agrees, but is also a little miffed. “I signed up to sell, not provide janitorial services,” he thinks. While cleaning out the desk, he finds a farewell card in the top drawer that is signed by all of the Newman employees. He thinks it is thoughtful that they recognized this employee as he left the company.

It’s 10:30 when Jamie returns to Steven. She notices that there isn’t a computer set-up for Steven in the cubicle. She calls the IT department to see where it is. She hangs up the phone and looks annoyed. She turns to Steven and tells him that HR forgot to notify the IT department. “They won’t have your computer ready for a couple of days.”

She turns to Steven and says, “I have another meeting to run to, but let’s have lunch. Here is a bunch of stuff to read for now.” Jamie produces a foot-high pile of wrinkled papers and says, “That should get you started.”

Lunchtime comes and Jamie hurriedly comes by the cubicle and asks Steven how he is doing. She then proceeds to apologize, but tells him that she cannot go to lunch. She explains that she got called into another meeting. She suggests that Steven go out and get lunch on his own. “We can get together at 1 pm,” says Jamie. “By the way, Steven, can you grab a burger for me? I’ll pay you when you get back to the office.”

Steven leaves for lunch and is starting to question his decision to join Newman. He thinks back to the interview process and how attentive the team was with him. He remembers how aggressively they recruited him to join their team. He thinks about how warm and welcoming the management group was in its pursuit of him. Today, he feels like a third wheel on a date.

Steven comes back to the office with Jamie’s burger. It’s now 1 pm, and Steven is hoping that Jamie has some time for him. Jamie comes by Steven’s cubicle and thanks him for the burger. She asks Steven to come by her office at 2 to talk about his territory. Steven sits in his cubicle and flips through the pile of papers left for him. All the while, employees walk past his cubicle without ever saying a word.

At 2 pm, Steven goes to Jamie’s office. Jamie explains that the sales team is in a bit of a transition and the compensation plan is changing. Thus, there is no compensation plan to share with Steven that day. The territory is also in flux, but that should be resolved in the next two weeks. After chatting with Jamie for about a half hour, Steven returns to his cubicle. The rest of his day is more of the same and at 5 pm, he heads for home.

Steven’s wife asks about his first day. Steven says, “I’m really happy that I didn’t pull my resume off the job boards or tell the recruiters that I was off the market, because I don’t know if this is going to work out. We’ll have to see.”

The truth is that Newman Industries is really a fine company. It just made a very common mistake when hiring salespeople. It worked so hard to recruit Steven that they celebrated prematurely. The company thought they had Steven when he accepted the offer. That was their error. They failed to recognize that they had only completed the next step of the process. What is missing is a program to ensure the impression made in the recruiting and interview process is continued when the person arrives on their first day.

Many of you reading this probably think I made up that story about Steven. The truth is that this story is an amalgam of the many horror stories that I have heard over the years from salespeople.

Putting together a new-hire welcoming program isn’t overly difficult to do. However, it takes commitment on the part of the entire management team to ensure it is followed.

Think back to the story. Steven found a card that was given to the employee on the way out. How about a welcome card for Steven that is placed in his clean cubicle that has everything he needs to do his job? Office supplies, new-hire paperwork, a computer, a who’s-who list, a phone that is ready for use, etc. Again, it’s not hard to do this, but it does require some thought.

Consider how much money was spent to recruit Steven into Newman Industries. Now think about those dollars evaporating after Steven doesn’t return after his first day.

“The successful applicant will have 10 years experience in the widget industry.”

Hogwash!

The end result of this approach is that companies hire the industry retreads.

Perhaps, employers think that this person will bring along valuable competitive secrets — maybe even some clients. While that may occasionally happen, this approach negatively impacts the company. They may as well hang a sign outside that says, “No new ideas permitted” because that is what you get when you focus your search on industry people only. What often happens is that the individual gets hired because they can create the illusion of brilliance by using industry jargon to blind the interviewer. “Eureka! We’ve found our sales manager! She is very strategic!”

Every company thinks they are in an industry that is so unique and has so many nuances that the hire must have industry background. But most industry information can be taught. The company needs to get over its hubris thinking that its industry is so special that it takes an industry veteran to be successful.

Product knowledge is not the main driver in a successful salesperson, nor is it the primary one for the successful sales manager. CEOs bounce from Fortune 1000 company to Fortune 1000 company based on their CEO acumen, not their industry knowledge.

A more prudent approach for hiring the right sales manager is to look for a candidate who comes to the table with the specialized skill-set associated with a sales manager. This is a specialized skill set that is often portable to any industry. The role of the sales manager is to both be a leader and a manager, which are not usually skills developed in the womb; they are cultivated and developed through training and experience as a sales manager. Some of the elements that companies should be focused on when hiring the right sales manager include:

• Recruitment. Whether the company has an opening on the sales team or not, the best sales managers are on a never-ending quest for strong talent. As the prospective employer, you want to understand the candidate’s process for screening sales candidates. How do they prime the applicant pump? Can they develop a profile of the ideal salesperson, and prioritize it between required and desired attributes? What is their process for evaluating candidates against the profile? Ask any company why they miss their revenue targets and most will tell you that having unfilled slots on the team is a contributing factor. Recruitment is a very important arrow in the sales manager’s quiver.

• Onboarding. Rarely can you hire a salesperson, hand them their territory, and send them off with a good luck kiss. Not if you expect them to be successful. Another key skill of the sales manager is their method for quickly assimilating the salesperson into the organization. What is their strategy to minimize the amount of time that the new salesperson is in a non-revenue generating capacity? What is their plan to make them productive in the least amount of time? How do they measure whether or not the neophyte salesperson is going to be successful?

• Process. Many companies have one superstar on their sales team — their rainmaker. That’s not exactly a scalable model. It limits growth and creates exposure for the company if the rainmaker leaves. Scalable sales organizations are based on process. The entire team follows a specified model based on a defined formula. Find out if the candidate can create this process for the company, what experience they have in doing so, and what the results were.

• Metrics. The wonderful aspect of sales is that there is so much data that can be reviewed to understand trends and make changes to the business. While interviewing, scrutinize how the sales manager uses metrics in their approach. See how they have used metrics to affect performance of their team. Learn their approach to scrutinizing a sales pipeline or forecast.

• Compensation. The beauty of sales is that the compensation plan serves as the salesperson’s job description. This can also be a curse for the company if the wrong behaviors are rewarded by the plan. This is another important skill that a strong sales manager should possess. Find out their approach for developing the right compensation plan for the company. See how they determine which behaviors to reward, when, and how.

• Skill development. Sales is philosophy, so no one ever knows everything about it. It’s also very easy for salespeople to develop bad habits. Thus, the sales manager should have a skill development plan for their team. Get to know their approach for developing their team members. Probe how they inspire the overachievers to continue to overachieve. Ask they manage the underperformers and lead them to either perform or deselect from the company.

• Leadership. The first six items fall into a management category. However, the strong sales managers are also leaders. Their sales teams will run through walls for them. Their salespeople not only want to be successful for themselves, but also for their manager. Determine how this sales-management candidate creates an environment where others are inspired to follow them and their teachings. Leadership skills and sales force retention work hand-in-hand. Strong leaders keep their strong players on the team for the long haul.

In addition to cultural fit, these are the seven key elements that a company should use to make a decision to hire a particular sales-management candidate. What the employer will get with this hiring approach is a strong, scalable organization with fresh ideas.

Many companies are not prepared to go through the offer step of the process. As a result, they damage the relationship with the candidate. This leads to one of two unfortunate conclusions. Either they lose the candidate or the candidate comes on board, but with scar tissue. Applying some of the best practices from the sales world into a sales talent screening program helps to avoid that scenario.

The offer stage of the hiring process parallels the proposal phase of sales. Best practices in sales say that you don’t present a proposal until a thorough needs analysis has been completed. If a sales person is presenting a proposal to a prospect, he has acquired the information needed to design a solution, has discussed budget, has a full understanding of their solution requirements, and has set an expectation on pricing. This is certainly the case if the salesperson is going to be successful in winning the account.

Looking at this process in relation to the offer stage of the sales talent screening program, many of the same best practices from sales hold true. During the screening program, information needs to be gathered from the candidate to determine their financial requirements. Unfortunately, many sales talent screening programs focus exclusively on screening the candidate for fit, but do not consider the needs for the offer phase of the process. This leads to a last-minute scurry to mine the information from the candidate, or they design the offer blindly. Neither of those are best practices for the offer stage.

In sales, it is said that if you are going to lose, lose early. This prevents you from making a huge investment in a relationship that will not generate revenue. The parallel to screening sales talent is understanding the financial requirements of the candidate early enough to stop the process before over-investing in the relationship. There is no point in continuing a process with a candidate who requires a compensation level 25% above what you can offer. This probably seems logical, but hiring executives rarely focus on this as a de-selection element early in the process.

Just like discussing pricing with a prospect, the financial-needs discussion requires finesse. The candidate knows that you are asking questions about their financials, just like a prospect knows a sales person is fishing for budget information. The better-skilled salespeople tell their prospects, “I don’t want to waste your time by getting you excited about a solution that will not fit in your budget constraints…”

In much the same way, this discussion can be had with the candidate, “I don’t want to excite you about an opportunity that might not be a match for your financial needs. As you look at making a change in position, what thoughts have you given to your compensation requirements?”

With continued finesse, you can dig further into the mix of salary versus commission. Some candidates may rebuff this discussion as they feel the information will be used against them. In some instances, they are justified for having that concern. Hopefully, that is not the case in your company. We’ll come back to this point later. The bottom line is that the two goals of this phase are to gather information that allow you to formulate an offer and to de-select those candidates whose requirements exceed your financial package.

In sales, the proposal phase should not be like a magic show. The prospect should not be shocked by what is included in the proposal. In essence, the proposal is the documentation of what has already been discussed. No surprises. The same holds true for candidates. The time to review the compensation plan details is not after they are hired, or even at the offer stage. The compensation plan should be reviewed at the point where you have a genuine interest in pursuing the candidate and they have a complete enough understanding of the company that they will be able to comprehend the compensation plan.

One of the core requirements associated with any process is that it is measurable. The offer phase of the sales talent screening program should be measured statistically to determine effectiveness. The key statistic is number of offers made versus ones that are accepted. If the acceptance level is less than 80%, the process should be reviewed by asking the following questions.

1. At what point of the process are the candidate’s financial requirements reviewed?
2. When it is known that the candidate’s financial requirements exceed the package, is the candidate removed from the process?
3. At what step is the compensation plan reviewed with the candidate?
4. In what level of detail is the compensation plan reviewed with the candidate?
5. How often is the initial offer to the candidate rejected, and subsequently, negotiated successfully?

The last question in the list above ties back to my opening position about damaging the relationship. Again, this ties back to lessons that can be learned from sales. Many years ago, a procurement training specialist shared a pearl about the counsel he gives to salespeople who ask about pricing strategy. He said, “Provide us with the best pricing that you feel comfortable providing and either way you are happy.” This always puzzled salespeople so he explained further. “If you provide your best pricing and are selected, you are happy because you won the account. If you are not selected because we found lower pricing elsewhere, you are happy because you would not have been happy at that price point. Again, either way you are happy.”

Consider this when making an offer to the sales candidate. Develop an offer based on what was learned from the candidate that represents the best offer you are willing to make. Early in the process, tell the candidate that you don’t negotiate offers, but rather put your best offer on the table upfront. It demonstrates a professional message to the candidate and reduces their fear of attempts to lowball them. When companies negotiate offers, while they may “win” the candidate, they damage the relationship. This person is onboarded with the worst scar tissue of all, a lack of trust. The salesperson will always be on the lookout for the company to try to cheat them.

As with any component of the sales talent screening process, preparation is the key to success. Organize your team and design a process that achieves your desired results. This will allow you to create longlasting, fruitful sales marriages.

Close your eyes. Now think of the perfect mate. Are you done? Close your eyes again. Think some more. How long is your list of requirements of the perfect mate? Are there five of them? Ten? Perhaps, you have 20 requirements.

Think about your list again. Are each of those really requirements of your ideal mate? Or are those desired attributes? On which items are you willing to be flexible? For example, some people say the religion of their mate is a requirement while height is only desired. For others, it is the other way around.

People make decisions every day based on their desired and required aspects. There are some aspects on which people can compromise and others where they cannot. This challenge hits employers when they are trying to attract sales talent to apply for their open positions. Instead of creating ads on job boards that invite folks to apply, they tightly close the spigot.

I regularly look at the job boards to see how companies are attempting to attract great sales talent. What I find is interesting. Companies place an ad listing the required attributes of the candidate. However, when I speak to companies about their ad, I find that many of the items on their list fall more in the desired category.

I’ve also talked with sales people about their perceptions of a job advertisement that lists requirements. “I look at the list of requirements in the posting and if I don’t have 100% of the background, I don’t submit my resume,” said a sales person actively looking for a new role. When I ask employers about their biggest challenges, finding great candidates ranks high on their list. “It just seems that we place an ad on a job board and we get few candidates to respond,” said one employer.

Ads Can Choke the Entire Process

Here is the disconnect. Employers publish job advertisements to lure sales candidates to apply. Yet that same tool is choking the entire process. In essence, instead of enticing candidates to apply, they are convincing them that they won’t be considered.

Here is an example of the requirements section from a job board advertisement:

The successful candidate must have:

• BA/BS with a focus on business or life science
• An MBA from a well-respected institution
• 10 years’ sales management experience
• 10+ years’ business-to-business sales experience to the Fortune 1000
• Broad knowledge of principles and methods in a recognized professional field, or working knowledge of multiple fields
• Well-versed in using CRM tools
• Experience selling in disciplined, formal sales methodology is essential
• Must be good at developing and articulating ROI to C-Level executives
• Telecommunications experience is a must

How many people meet this list of criteria? Very, very few.

Would this company really not consider a candidate who met the most critical elements of their criteria, but was missing an element or two? Well, by publishing an ad that is so restrictive, those candidates won’t apply. The company misses out on those potential superstars.

I’m a huge proponent of formulating a profile of a company’s ideal sales candidate. Yet, if that profile is so restrictive that only one person in the world matches it, how will this company ever hire anyone? I’m not suggesting that companies reduce their standards or that they hire subpar performers. No one wins in those instances. However, there are two follow-on steps of the process.

Let’s say you have come up with 20 items for your ideal sales candidate profile. The next thing to do is to rank them in importance so that each item is ranked one through 20. The first one on the list is the one deemed most important. In essence, you are prioritizing the importance of the criteria. Not much different than what people subconsciously do when searching for a mate.

Once that is done, the next step is to categorize each as either required or desired. I won’t insult your intelligence by defining those. Start with number 20 (least important from the prior exercise) and work your way down to number one. If this exercise was done correctly, the lion share of the items become “desired” while the finite few at the top become required. It is the few items that are deemed critical to one’s success in the job that should be listed as required in an ad.

This is a challenging set of exercises, no doubt. That’s the whole point. You want to make sure you encourage the right candidates to apply versus discouraging them.

Thinking back to the company with the laborious list of requirements, would they really not hire a really bright individual who lacks the MBA component of the profile? If the answer is no, they shouldn’t list that in their ad, as it discourages potentially strong candidates from applying.

Did they put the requirement of a telecommunications background in the ad because they prefer not to teach the industry? If the answer is yes, then they wouldn’t want to put that in the ad because they could miss out on a superstar sales person who needs a little assistance learning the business.

This issue isn’t limited to candidates and employers. Recruiters are frustrated too. The company provides them with such restrictions that they feel handcuffed in their ability to find the right candidates.

“I really want to help my client, but I feel like I’m searching for a needle in a haystack. I don’t dare send any candidates unless I find an exact match to what they’ve given me,” says one recruiter. Continuing on, “I don’t think they intend to be so restrictive, but that’s what they have given me to work with.”

Attracting candidates is very difficult to do. Make sure your communication tools, to attract candidates, are formulated to truly represent what you intend. It’s one of the important steps in formulating long-term, prosperous sales marriages.

In my sales management career, I would bet that I’ve seen about 5,000 resumes for salespeople. Yet, I still haven’t seen one that shows someone who has achieved 40% of quota. Every single resume shows 100%, 200%, or 2,000,000% of goal. Where are all of the people who have had less-than-stellar sales performances? Did they all leave the sales profession? If all of the resumes that I saw truly represented the performance of the individual, the U.S. economy would be thriving, to say the least. Every company would be enjoying record revenue performances.

If you have read my past articles, you’ve felt my passion for creating sales marriages, those relationships whereby a mutually-beneficial relationship is formulated between a sales professional and a company based on synergistic matches of needs. This is not easy to do as, right off the bat, the relationship begins with a flawed tool: a resume. It is this tool, not necessarily the individual, that dupes, tricks, and stretches the truth of a person’s pedigree. Yet, as an employer, that is what you have to work with when hiring a sales professional. You need to find a way to mine through the information in a quest for the complete truth.

There are also cases where the tool isn’t at fault, but the truth has been stretched. I spend a tremendous amount of time preaching about the importance of honesty and integrity in sales. Those are two words that are not often associated with the profession. As such, I believe that the quest to find salespeople who represent a company’s brand well starts with a thorough resume review. Plain and simple, dishonesty in a salesperson’s resume means he or she doesn’t play on my team. There are more than enough statistics to support the issue of what I call “resume inflation.”

I can recall a time when I ran a sales organization in the employment screening industry, a company that provided pre-employment background screening for other companies. We made an offer to a sales candidate who had impressed everyone he met, including the CEO. When we ran his background check, our core business, we found that his claim to have worked for a company for two and a half years was actually two and a half months.

The funny part is that when we asked him about the discrepancy, he lied again and said his former employer made a mistake. Fifteen minutes later, he called back (I think he remembered that background screening was our core business) and confessed. Needless to say, we couldn’t have this person selling our background screening services.

Think about this: If someone would apply for a sales job at a company whose core business was employment background screening and lie about his background, what candidates do you think you are seeing? Every day, new technologies are introduced to the marketplace to make the screening process better and easier for hiring managers. Yet, none of these technology companies advocates using their technology as a replacement for a strong screening process. Assessments, for example, serve as a tool for the process, but they do not replace the process itself. Thus, it all begins with a strong resume review.

The resume review should not occur for the first time with the candidate sitting in front of you. An effective interview requires preparation. As such, the resume should be studied and areas of questions identified so that questions can be asked of the candidate during the interview. What areas should be perused? Here are five areas of a sales resume that require detailed attention.

Accomplishments

In sales, there is an old expression that says if you can’t prove it, don’t say it. This usually refers to the dialogue between a salesperson and a prospect, but it is also applicable for a resume. As a hiring manager, you are well within your rights to ask candidates for documentation of the accomplishments they list on their resumes. If they don’t have documentation, perhaps a request for a reference for that accomplishment is appropriate.

Checking every single accomplishment is over the top, but checking one or two accomplishments makes sense. I suggest those that seem the most impressive to you about the candidate be verified. If someone told me that they personally doubled the size of the company in one year, I would want to see proof of that!

Title

Salespeople have more titles than there are prospects in the world. I can’t keep track of all of them anymore. However, those titles don’t necessarily correspond to responsibility. A small company may call their only salesperson a vice president, while a large company may call a person performing the exact same role a sales representative. While reviewing the resume, don’t limit your perusal to the title. Dig a bit into the responsibilities that the individual had. During the interview process, ask questions to understand the role and responsibility that goes with the title.

Where some companies get into trouble is when they look to hire a senior salesperson and don’t consider candidates with higher-level (vice president, for example) titles. Analyze the responsibilities that the individual had in his or her capacity to see if this individual matches your needs, regardless of what you call this role. If the resume is unclear about this, ask the candidate for details.

Employer Dates

If a salesperson has a gap, or gaps, in his employment, meaning he did not leave one job and go directly to another one, he will show years of employment, but not months. This creates the illusion of continuous employment. If you background screen as part of your hiring process and employment verification is part of that scope, this will be identified at that time. However, that takes time and dollars. (If you haven’t seen my white paper titled, “Are There Criminals on Your Sales Team?” send me an email for your copy.)

But, why wait until the end of the process to learn something you can know now? When you see years on a resume, ask the candidate to provide months of employment, too. Ask questions to understand the gaps. You may still elect to hire the person, based on the explanation. At least you get the complete picture.

Training Programs

Many salespeople list the training programs that they have completed on their resume, but no one verifies that. When hiring IT professionals, it is common to check training and certification completion. Not so with salespeople. So, the salesperson has no risk by stating that he has completed the “Miller-Heiman Strategic Selling” course on his resume. Ask for a copy of his completion certificate. If he has truly taken the course, you will see a confident reaction. If he has only read the book, or perhaps not even that, you will see him squirm in his seat.

College Degree

When I look at the education section on a resume, I expect to see college name, degree completed, and graduation date. However, I regularly see that degree or graduation date or both are omitted. Red flag! Sure, a background check will expose that too, but why wait until post-offer to find out?

When you see missing information on the resume, ask candidates point-blank if they graduated college, what year, and with what major? Some omit their graduation year to hide their age, but others do it to create the illusion of degree completion. Unfortunately, you will find many salespeople who list a college and year, hoping you won’t ask any other questions.

I don’t believe that most salespeople intend to dupe their potential employer, but I’ve also been around the block long enough to know that the percentage that “inflate” is high enough to warrant a circumspect analysis of the resume.

Editor’s note: On March 26, join Lee Salz for a free, one-of-a-kind webinar entitled “Why Can?t I HIRE the RIGHT Salespeople?” Click here to learn more.

I was never very good in science class, which is probably why I’m not a doctor today. Yet, I remember vividly the exercise on heated atoms. The experiment started with a flask of water and a Bunsen burner. When the flame from the Bunsen burner was applied to the flask, the atoms would dart all over the place in excitement. The excitement was uncontrollable. The energy remained as long as the heat was applied. As soon as the Bunsen burner was removed, the atoms moved back to a static state. All movement stopped.

This science experiment teaches a lot about recruiting “passive” sales candidates (those not presently looking for a job). All companies want to recruit the top-talent salespeople from other companies. However, that talent is usually locked in pretty tightly. The top salespeople are the best earners of the company, so they probably aren’t looking to leave. What would get them to leave? How do you find these candidates? What would energize passive sales candidates to be excited about another opportunity?

Years ago, my father used to take me deep-sea fishing off the Jersey shore. When we went fluke fishing, we used one kind of bait. When we went blue fishing, we used a different kind of bait. Thus, you need the right bait to attract a particular type of fish. You certainly won’t catch a shark using a worm for bait.

Once the baited hook was in the water, the fish didn’t usually grab it in a way that allows you to reel them in right away. There was a dance. You had to make sure the fish had eaten all of the bait and was firmly on the hook. Professional fishermen talk about all of the different techniques involved with playing this game well. On any Sunday morning, you can find television shows on ESPN that walk you through the steps on how to select bait and tackle, as well as techniques to bring the fish into the boat.

So, what is the right bait when looking to catch passive sales candidates? How do you motivate them into action? There are two fundamental motivators of salespeople: fear and greed. Very simply, it’s just those two. Thus, the two types of bait for recruiting passive sales candidates are fear and greed. Sales managers use techniques to direct their sales team based on those two motivators every day. Guess what happens when a “greed” technique is used on a salesperson motivated by fear? Nothing! Thus, it is critical for the sales manager to figure out the right motivator for each of his team members.

The wrong bait is also an issue for sales recruiting. Many recruiters rely strictly on the “greed” motivator. “Come to our company, and you can make oodles of money.” That will work with some sales candidates, but certainly not with all.

As sales managers have come to recognize, there is an equally-sized population motivated by fear. I might argue that the “fear” population is larger than the “greed” one. For those folks, the “greed” factor does not motivate them into action. Some of you may be thinking that some salespeople are motivated by both, which is true. However, one of those two is more dominant. One of those two drives them into action.

As you can imagine, I talk to salespeople all the time. Most lament about the goings-on in their companies. So, I ask them if they are looking for another job, and they say no. Then, an event occurs, something that gets their attention, and they call me and say that “today” they have decided to make a change. That event is different for every salesperson, but it always falls into the category of either fear or greed.

To motivate a passive sales candidate into action based on fear, do your homework to effectively use fear as a motivator. The media provides most of the tools you need to do this well. Here are some examples of the fears salespeople have:

Leadership Change

As a whole, salespeople don’t like change. They like their territory and compensation to remain static unless they are getting more. When there is a change in leadership at the top, they get very uneasy about what happens next. Will the territory change? Perhaps the compensation plan will change?

Thus, top salespeople could be open to listening to you about a new opportunity. How do you know when there is a leadership change? The business journal of that city announces promotions/new hires at the management level of companies. A weekly read of this tool gives you new ponds for your fishing expedition. You also may learn that information from an active candidate who cites that as a reason for looking for another job.

Company Acquisition Rumors

For the larger companies, the financial news (print, online, television) broadcasts rumors like this. Whether the company is going to be acquired or is the “acquiree,” there is uncertainty in the sales team. Salespeople don’t like uncertainty. Post-acquisition, there will be changes to the sales team, but who will still have a job and who won’t?

Just like kids who, during the week before Christmas, wonder what is inside the wrapped boxes under the tree, salespeople wonder what their “gift” will be. For some, the uncertainty of the future is just enough to lead them to be receptive to a job exploration.

Company Financial Woes

Again, this information is shared in the financial news media. It is also in the local business journal. Salespeople panic when they hear this kind of news. For one, they wonder if their companies will survive. However, they also connect a few other dots. “If the company isn’t doing well, I bet it will lower the commission rate.” Or, “I bet they cut the size of the sales team. Even if I survive the cut, I’ll have to do twice the work for the same pay.”

Compensation Change

How can you possibly know when there is a compensation-plan change in another company? This information is certainly not shared in the media. When “active” candidates are asked why they are looking at other opportunities, they usually cite compensation-plan changes as one of those reasons. Hearing that should trigger a campaign to find the top performers of that company so you can apply your “Bunsen burner” tactic.

To motivate passive salespeople into action, you need the right bait. With research and technique, you can apply the heat that sends these candidates into a frenzy.

Phil walks into his favorite retailer to apply for a job. He sits down at the kiosk and begins to fill out the employment application. He fumbles through the online form and realizes that he forgot to enter his apartment number. He clicks the browser to go back to the prior page. In doing so, all of the information he already entered is wiped out. Darn it! He begins completing the application again. Name, address, social security number, etc.

Once done, the manager waves him into his office as if he is flagging down a cab in Midtown Manhattan during rush hour. Phil makes his way down to the office. He is shocked and disgusted by what he sees in the office. It is a mess, and that is putting it mildly. Scattered papers are one thing, but leftover crumbs from lunch are another. Phil begins to wonder if he might need a tetanus shot after this experience.

John, the manager, tells Phil to sit down. Phil looks at the chair and notices that it is so badly ripped that it is beyond repair. The pattern of the rip looks like the path the Mississippi River travels as it heads from north to south. Phil looks at John and notices that his shirt flap isn’t tucked in. Better yet, John has a sauce stain on his left pocket. Phil begins to wonder if he is being Punk’d. Where are those cameras?

The interview begins with John asking Phil why he wants to work there. Phil wasn’t expecting a question like that right off the bat and stammers in his response. The truth is that Phil simply wanted a job so he could pay the bills. John didn’t look impressed. After a couple more questions with mediocre answers, the interview ends. John tells Phil that they will call him in a day or two to update him on his candidacy. The call never comes.

So, if you are Phil, when do you think you will shop at that store again? Do I hear never? How many people is Phil going to tell about his experience? 10? 20? 50? How many of those people will look at that store differently? And, to how many people will they tell Phil’s story?

To be clear, John wasn’t wrong for not hiring Phil. As the manager, he is responsible for selecting the talent to work in his store. However, the manager is also tasked with protecting the corporate brand. And that he failed to do. Phil left that store with such a negative impression of the experience that all the marketing and advertising in the world would not bring him back in.

This story is exaggerated. At least, I hope it is. Yet, there are things that recruiters and hiring managers do every day that damage the brand of the company. It doesn’t take much to create a miserable experience. Things like interviewers being late, offices being dirty, and interviewers being rude are just a few. The top of the list from the candidates’ perspective is when things go dark, meaning that no communication is ever received from the company informing them that they are no longer being considered for employment. When I talk to candidates, the lack of notification that they are no longer being considered is at the top of their list of company conduct that leaves a negative impression. They feel disrespected.

Some of you are probably reading this and thinking that you aren’t in the retail industry, so this issue doesn’t affect you. Care to wager on that? Consider this: You interview a sales candidate and, for whatever reason, elect not to hire him. The candidate has a less-than-favorable experience with your company during the interview process, leaving a bad taste in his mouth. He lands with a competitor of yours and proceeds to share his experiences with your company. Stories of your firm’s unprofessionalism spread like wildfire throughout not just this competitor’s organization, but with other competitors in your industry. Don’t think this can happen? Your frog is someone else’s prince.

Maybe you don’t care what the competition thinks of your company. But, do you care if this is a strategic partner instead? Better yet, it is one of your clients that hires this candidate. Now your client gets to hear the “great experiences” this candidate had while interviewing with your company. When these stories reach your CEO from your client, who in your company will get the call about this matter?

Look, hiring managers and recruiters don’t intentionally create bad candidate experiences. Sometimes they simply get tunnel vision.

I have to fill the seat. I have to fill the seat. I have to fill the seat.

It almost sounds like the repetition of “time to make the donuts” from the old Dunkin’ Donuts commercial. True, every day that seat is open, it costs the company “X” number of dollars, not to mention some manager’s or recruiter’s bonus. Thus, when it is determined that a candidate is not a fit for the role, it is all too easy to forget about him and move on to the next one. However, the same level of care that was used to recruit the candidate to visit the organization should match the level of care when exiting. Why create enemies?

If your company hires 100 people per year and it takes 11 candidates to fill one seat, 1,000 people were not hired by your company. Thus, a lot of people were touched by your process. How did they walk away feeling about their experiences with your company? Try this math with your company’s hiring metrics.

Companies spend hundreds of thousands, or sometimes millions, of dollars building a brand image. Managers and recruiters are responsible for protecting it. When I say recruiters, I mean both internal and external ones. While internal ones seem obvious to you, the external ones may not be. Yet, they are acting as an agent for your company when they are the intermediary between you and the candidate. As far as the candidate is concerned, the recruiter is your company.

I have written about the importance of a company mapping out its sales-talent screening program. I should have mentioned, for all candidate recruits, that a program should be put in place that addresses the candidate exit process as well. It’s not a lot of work to do this. It takes a little thought. (If you would like my tip sheet for putting together a candidate exit program, send me an email.) That little thought could save your company thousands of dollars.

Candidate screening is one of the most difficult tasks that recruiters and managers face. Most will tell you that screening sales talent is the toughest of all. Why? Salespeople are trained in the art of persuasion. They know how to provide the desired responses to the questions. Even more daunting is when you are interviewing salespeople who worked for a competitor. These salespeople know the language and industry buzzwords, making it even more challenging to screen them. Fret not! It is possible to successfully screen sales talent, but there is work to be done before you even look at a resume.

The most important step a company can take is to develop a sales talent screening program. This helps bring focus to the initiative. The mission of this program is to provide data that allows for the measurement of the candidate’s pedigree versus the desired profile. Think in terms of formulating a marriage…a sales marriage, that is.

This program should be fully documented, showing step-by-step the components of the screening program. It is best to define who will be interviewing the candidates and their role in the interview process. It should define the tools that will be used as well as their purpose.

Below are seven key components of an effective sales talent screening program.

1. Ideal salesperson profile. It has always surprised me how many companies have fully documented profiles of their ideal client. Yet, few have a profile of their ideal salesperson. How can you screen when you don’t know for what you are screening? Many of you have a clear picture in mind of the profile of your ideal mate. My bet is most of your close friends can rattle off your profile in a heartbeat. The same principle applies to sales talent. If you don’t know exactly what you are looking for, how will you find it?

   This profile should be fully detailed. Some of the areas to address in the profile are the experience you expect that candidate to already have, the skills that the candidate should already possess, and the skills you are not willing to teach. The truth is this is an extensive topic about which I have dedicated another article.

   The lack of a fully-defined profile of the ideal salesperson is the most common cause of bad sales marriages. It is also the major point of frustration between sales managers and recruiters. Recruiters often tell me that they feel they are throwing darts while blindfolded because they have so few details about the desired profile.

2. Always be recruiting. In sales, there is an old expression: “The toughest time to make a sale is when you really need one.” The same holds true for recruiting. When a slot is open on the sales team, it becomes an all-hands-on-deck exercise to fill it. While the seat is open, revenue targets are in jeopardy. This leads many to forget the profile of the ideal salesperson in the interest of filling a seat. Playing this forward a bit, the seat becomes vacant again a short time later when either side determines that it is not a good fit.

   Sales recruiting is a year-round exercise. The best sales forces are always on the lookout for strong sales talent. Find a company that identifies a strong candidate who meets its profile and who wouldn’t find a way to hire this individual? It is a rarity, to say the least. Sales teams have turnover either driven by the company or the employee. It is better to have a candidate portfolio at the ready than to begin a process of surfacing candidates when a seat is open. Poor hiring decisions are made out of desperation to fill a seat. The open seat is a cost to the company every day it is unfilled. Yet the cost is more painful if the seat is filled by someone who doesn’t fit.

3. Reverse interviewing. Since the intent of the process is for both sides to be able to determine if a marriage should be formulated, a wonderful technique is reverse interviewing. This is an interview performed by members of the sales team who would be peers if the candidate was hired. It is important that the individuals selected to participate in this step are loyal to the company, knowledgeable, and make a favorable impression. However, the “interviewer” does not ask any questions of the candidate. As you know, it is very easy to get yourself in hot water if illegal questions are asked. Thus, you don’t want untrained people asking questions.

   There are two purposes of this component of the sales talent screening program. The first is to provide the candidate with an opportunity to ask questions of someone who would be his peer if he were to be hired. In essence, it is a way for him to get a picture of a day in the life of this job.

   The second purpose is to measure how the candidate prepares for a sales call. A debrief is conducted with the “reverse interviewer” to see what questions were asked, specifically if the candidate took advantage of this opportunity by preparing insightful questions and writing down answers. If he didn’t do this, what kind of preparation will he do for a sales call? How interested is he in this job? Every once in a while, a candidate will ask the salesperson, “Can you take off at noon on Fridays?” Needless to say, the lapse in judgment raises a red flag of concern.

4. Standard interview questions. Oftentimes, many candidates are screened for one job slot. This creates a need to be able to compare candidates to each other, in addition to the profile. To do this, a standard set of interview questions are needed. The responses are documented during the interview and reviewed after a candidate leaves the office. These questions are not designed to provide right or wrong answers. They are designed to see if this candidate’s thought process is congruent with the needs of your business and with the profile of the ideal salesperson.

   When formulating your list of standard questions, it is helpful to include some sales scenarios that are common in your environment, such as “Your client balks at the price of your proposal. What do you do?” It is also helpful to have questions that show what makes this person tick. Since few colleges have “sales” as a major, it is always interesting to find how someone arrived at a sales career. “Of all of the careers you could select, why did you pick sales?”

   The hot topic in today’s recruiting world is behavioral interviewing, which is a powerful tool. Behavioral interviewing, also called competency-based interviewing, focuses on past behavior. As a doctor friend of mine always says, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. The idea here is not to ask arbitrary questions, but rather to ask questions that help to expose areas that affect the sales marriage. If your company is always changing, you might want to determine how the candidate handles change. “Please share with me a time when you had to adapt to change.” Like with any good interview, additional probing is necessary to get to the root of the issue. “How did you deal with that? What did you learn from the experience?”

   You can probably imagine just how hard it is to formulate questions that demonstrate if this marriage will work if you don’t have a profile against which to compare. If it will help you, send me an email and I’ll send you my favorite 28 standard questions for interviewing a salesperson.

5. Mock sales call. What better way to see if someone fits into your company’s selling environment than to put him right in it! To do this effectively, you need to create a scenario for the candidate. I’ve found it most beneficial to give him the scenario with one day’s notice so he can prepare. The candidate should be provided with the same amount of information a salesperson in your company normally has before making an initial sales call.

   Those members of your company who participate in this exercise should be somewhat scripted. I say “somewhat” because you don’t want it to be so dry that it is unrealistic, but without any scripting it can be hard to stay in character.

   The last piece you’ll need to do this well is a score sheet. Know what you are looking to measure in the process, and score accordingly. Can he conduct a thorough needs analysis? Did he identify the challenges faced by this prospect? Would you buy from him?

   It is best if the scoring is done by a nonparticipant of the mock sales call. It is very distracting for the candidate if someone jots notes while he is speaking. What happens is that the candidate spends the rest of the exercise trying to read what was written.

6. Online assessment testing. There are a myriad of tools that are very helpful in the screening process for both personality and skill, though some err in the application of the data from these tools. Few, if any, of the online assessment companies suggest that their tools should be used to make a hire/no-hire decision. The most appropriate application is to treat them as an additional data point in the sales talent screening program.

   Linda Moeller, product director of market leader Employee Continuum, has seen companies use this great tool incorrectly. She says:

   “We have seen many organizations fail to take the context of an organization into account when deciding the most appropriate assessment to use. For example, many organizations assume that implementing a sales assessment will guarantee them improved sales performers. This is not necessarily the case. The personality characteristics required for a salesperson selling office supplies to purchasing agents are very different than those required for a salesperson selling everything needed for a dentist’s office. In order to be successful, an organization needs to consider the type of relationship they have with their clientele and the competencies that will make these relationships successful.”

7. The ultimate screening tool. Writing is a lost art. Yet, we are more dependent on written communication than ever before. Is there anything worse than a poorly written email that is sent to a prospect? It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is, your company now looks sloppy and unprofessional.

   An effective technique for screening sales talent is the use of the mini-business plan. When the candidate has satisfactorily completed all of the other steps of the pre-offer process, the request is made for a one-page business plan that shows how he would approach the job. I mention three times that I’m only looking for a one-page plan and ask when he can send it to me. It is important that the submission date be asked of the candidate, and not the other way around.

   Of all of the techniques that I have used over the years, this is the one with which I have the most candidate fallout, and I was always happy to learn beforehand that this sales marriage wouldn’t work.

   This technique allows you to evaluate a number of important areas:

• Can the candidate communicate in written form coherently? If you were a client receiving this document, what message do you get about its author?
• Does he understand what the role entails? Since this component is performed late in the process, he should have a clear picture of the job and expectations.
• Is his approach consistent with the expectations of management? It is best to know now if you don’t feel comfortable with his game plan.
• Can he meet a self-imposed deadline? If the plan is late, the candidate is no longer considered for the role.
• Can he follow directions? I asked for a one-pager, not an epic.

Having a sales talent screening program has many benefits. The most obvious impact is a longer sales tenure of your sales team, which means an increase in sales performance and a reduction in personnel turnover. This can do nothing short of helping the bottom line of any company.

I recently had the opportunity to speak to a group of CEOs about their sales recruitment needs. To make a point, I mentioned to them that my friend Willie McMoney had heard that I was speaking to this group and asked that I mention he was looking for a new sales home. I shared Willie’s background with the group: Willie has a bachelor’s degree from a well-respected institution, has a great look, has been selling for more than 10 years for household name companies that offer low-priced products, and has exceeded quota each of the last three years. That being said, I asked the group who wanted to hire Willie. Most raised their hands in earnest.

I shared with the group that there were a few more details to discuss before a decision could be finalized. The information to consider was the profile of their companies, which included the following attributes: They were startups with no name recognition in the marketplace, were positioned as high value/high price providers, and required customization for each client. I asked the group again about hiring Willie. The light bulbs started turning on.

They began to recognize that finding a great salesperson is not a one-dimensional exercise; rather, it requires that the company look within to determine the necessary skills and attributes for someone to be a great salesperson in its environment. The term “great” is the issue here. Willie is a great salesperson, and he has the credentials to prove it. But the question is: Will Willie succeed in your company?

Consider this: Companies spend thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars, defining their ideal client. They hire firms to help them analyze their approach and identify the audience, as well as how to reach them. When I asked this group to share with me the attributes of their ideal client, I felt like a game show host. The group came to life and was shouting out answers nonstop.

I strategically interrupted them and asked them to share with me the attributes of their ideal salesperson. After hearing the deafening sound of crickets chirping, I shared what I often heard as attributes of this ideal: someone who is very strategic, solution-oriented, experienced, and a strong seller, as well as someone who sells on value. The group sighed in relief as they thought I had let them off the hook.

Not so fast! I asked them how they can hire talent to match that scope. How can recruiters translate that criteria into a project whereby they can laser-focus their approach and produce the right candidates? The relief disappeared from the room and was replaced by angst.

Hiring salespeople is the business equivalent of formulating a marriage, a sales marriage that is. Appearance may be enough to initiate the relationship, but without deep commonality of needs and values, the future of the marriage is bleak. Why does that matter? The expense of sales turnover is truly immeasurable. Sure, you can measure cost of turnover, recruitment, and training, but how do you place a value on the damage caused by sending the salesperson of the day into the same accounts over and over again? “Hi, I’m Ben, this week’s salesperson representing Widgets We Make. I’m here to help with your needs.”

The way for employers to avoid this peril is to develop a profile of their ideal salesperson. To produce an effective exercise, the executive team must collaborate and be truly honest about the interworkings of the company. There are three primary components: product characteristics, buying process, and organizational attributes. Answering the following questions for each component will help you develop this profile.

Product Characteristics

• What is the nature of the product(s) being sold? Is it tangible, abstract, or concrete?
• What is the nature of the buying relationship? Is it a one-time transaction sale or a repetitive, complex one?
• Is the product a component of something broader (niche) or is it a comprehensive solution?
• How recognizable is the product and company in the marketplace of your buyers?
• In contrast to the competition, where is the product priced?

Buying Process

• What are the expectations of the salesperson with respect to prospecting? Are you generating leads, or are they expected to self-generate them?
• How long is the buying process?
• Is the product “off the shelf” or does it require the salesperson to creatively build a solution?
• At what level is the purchasing decision made? Who are the other buying players that influence the purchasing decision?
• What sales support is available for the salespeople? Is the salesperson required to go from end to end, or is the salesperson only required to handle certain parts of the process?

Organizational Attributes

• How flexible does someone need to be to survive in your environment? Think in terms of how often the organizational structure changes the compensation and/or the territory.
• What is the sales management approach? Is the sales manager a hands-on coach or a distant observer of performance?
• What are you willing to teach to a salesperson? The product? Prospecting? Product positioning?
• What aren’t you willing to teach to a salesperson? Sales 101? Prospecting?
• What corporate baggage does your company have? What are the oddities that make it challenging for a salesperson to succeed in your environment? Is there a difficult individual in your company? Are there technical flaws that make it challenging to sell the product? This one requires true introspection and honesty.

With this exercise complete, you are ready to formulate your ideal salesperson profile, which looks like this:

We want a salesperson who is experienced at selling:

• A product with the following attributes…
• In a buying process that includes…
• For a company characterized by…

Now that you have a profile for your ideal salesperson, don’t keep it a secret. Be sure that your entire leadership team has a copy of it! Share it with recruiters so they can deliver candidates that match it. Develop interview steps that allow you to measure if these candidates meet the profile. Formulate interview questions that expose these areas.

I concluded the meeting with a quick comparison of Willie’s skills to the company’s attributes. A marriage between these two would be disastrous! Although I wasn’t able to find Willie a new sales home, I did succeed in making the CEOs aware of the steps they need to take in order to create the best sales team possible for their companies.

There are few decisions more critical for a company than the hiring of the leadership of their sales organization. Yet, few know how to do it well. Many err and “promote” their best seller to a sales management position.

Why this is called a promotion is beyond me. The job of the sales manager is vastly different than that of a sales person, so why is this considered employment elevation? Often sales managers earn less than the top sales people. Promotion?

Some sales people make the transition successfully, but many struggle with the change. Sometimes it is a mismatch of the person to the role. More frequently, the struggle is caused by the lack of recognition by the company that this is not a promotion, but rather a move into a completely new job. How do you handle an employee in a new job? You train, mentor, and monitor their performance!

Look, most people don’t come out of the womb with the skills required to be an effective manager. It is a key responsibility of the company to recognize that when moving their top sales person into that role they need to own the development of that individual. A congratulatory handshake and smile just won’t get it done.

Many companies look for their sales management candidates from outside their organization. This approach also has its challenges. Whether you promote from within or hire from outside, consider these five points to make sure you find the right person for the role.

1. Selling versus managing. If you consider the broad spectrum of responsibilities from selling business directly to managing a team, what percentage of the time do you expect this person to be focused on personal selling versus managing? As mentioned above, the skills required for those two responsibilities are vastly different. It is difficult to find professionals who have equal strength in both skill sets. Often there will be a trade-off. If there is a sacrifice to be made, it makes the best sense to select someone who has their primary strength in the more predominant part of the responsibility. If the decision is made that the position has equal responsibility for selling and managing or the dominant responsibility is selling, it may make sense for an internal hire. This allows the company to develop a new manager. However, the plan falls down if the company is not committed to a development plan.
2. Creating versus executing. Another consideration is what your expectations of the sales manager are relative to developing the company’s sales architecture? (the framework of the sales organization). In some companies, there is a plan already in place and the job of the sales manager is to ensure the plan is executed as written. In essence, the job is to motivate the troops and coach them to make sure revenue targets are achieved. This is usually the case for mid-level sales managers. In other situations, the primary job is to establish the overall direction of the sales organization, formulate the compensation plan that supports that direction, and execute the plan. Needless to say, this is a very different profile than the sales manager described above.
3. Title versus responsibility. Check any job board and you will find a plethora of titles referring to sales management. However, there is not a direct correlation between title and responsibilities. This can create a disconnect with the new manager and with clients if those two are not synchronized. If you are going to give someone the title of vice-president, there is an inherent expectation that this is a high-responsibility, high-authority position. When clients hear that title, they believe that this person is a senior-level person in the company and can make decisions. Thus, this can create client frustration if the responsibility and authority are not consistent with the title. At the other end of the spectrum, calling this person a “sales manager” creates a more junior-level perception. There is nothing wrong with the term, but it is important that you recognize the created perception. Again, this can cause issues with both the person in the role and clients if the responsibilities don’t match the title. Some very good sales management candidates will elect not to apply to your company because they believe it is a junior-level role.
4. Interviewing. Probably the toughest role for which to interview is the sales manager. For one, they are experienced in interviewing and know the desired answers. To get past the fluff and get your real answers, develop a list of benchmark questions. (Send me an email and I will send you my favorite 20 questions.) It is important that the questions not follow a sequence so that the candidate cannot build off their prior answers. Document the responses to each so you can review them later. You will be amazed by what comes out of this step of the process. Also, consider the candidate’s future business relationships. For example, there is an inherent strife between sales and operations. However, the company will fail if the leaders of those two areas are not able to work together in a productive manner. Consider the various department leaders with whom this person will interact and engage them in the process. This also helps the new manager assimilate into the organization once they are onboard.
5. The ultimate screening tool. When the candidate has completed all of the other steps of the pre-offer process, the request for a one-page business plan shows how they would approach the job. I mention the one-page scope three times in the conversation so my expectations are clear. The candidate is asked when he or she can submit the document. It is important that the submission date be asked of the candidate, not the other way around, as you will see in a moment. The benefits of this step are numerous:

• First, it shows whether the candidate can communicate in written form. Writing is a lost art in business, but a critical one for someone in a leadership role.
• It shows whether the candidate understands what the role entails. A number of hours have been spent with the candidate by this point. If they are near the finish line, they should have a clear vision of the expectations.
• It helps to gauge synergy in the approach to the role. It is best to see before the marriage is performed if their approach is aligned with the leadership’s vision.
• It helps determine whether this person can meet a self-imposed deadline. I asked when he could have the plan to me. He provided me with a date and time. If it is late, the candidate is no longer considered for employment. End of story.
• Finally, in this role, I am the client. I’ve asked for a one-page plan, not an epic. Do they follow directions? Or do they ignore what the client desires and do whatever they want? While I don’t eliminate candidates solely for this, I refer to this in a follow-up session with the candidate.

One final point that is critical when hiring is to background screen. Resume fraud is at an all-time high! Candidates lie about employment history, salary history, and their education experience, not to mention criminal history. Find a reputable firm to do this work for you.

Many cars today tell the driver when it is time to perform maintenance. Even better, some tell the driver that maintenance is needed in 1,000 miles with updates along the way. It would be great if as a business executive or small business owner, you had this kind of technology at your fingertips.

Unfortunately, managing a sales organization will always be a manual effort. Sure, CRM systems and contact managers help, but there is no technology that replaces the leadership associated with sales management.

Not sure where to dig into your sales organization? Here are 12 areas that will show just how game-ready you are.

1. Business objective. In your capacity, I’ll bet you can cite the objectives of the business easy as pie, but do the key members of the sales team know them? Better yet, do they know the current one(s)? Business objectives change. It is important that those affected by the change are in the know. The business objectives serve as the foundation of the company’s sales architecture?, which is the overall selling system framework. If the foundation changes without reviewing the selling framework, there is a high risk of not achieving the objective. It is the equivalent of constructing a building with the wrong materials, or worse, in the wrong place.
2. Differentiation. Some argue that differentiation is the job of the marketing team. I see this as a shared responsibility between sales and marketing. The bottom line is whether your company is successful winning business at your desired prices. The comedian George Carlin has a great line about this: “If you nail together two things that have never been nailed together before, someone will buy it!” The target for differentiation is always moving. What is unique today is pass? tomorrow. However, sales people can differentiate themselves above and beyond the product by being a valued resource to their clients. This is critical in a competitive or commodity marketplace. One of my favorite questions to ask sales people is why someone should buy from them. The goal is to see what value they see that they bring to their clientele.
3. Ideal client profile. Hopefully, you already have one of these. This is the document that clearly defines the attributes of your ideal client. Think in terms of size, buying circumstance, budget, buying habits, etc. This is a profile that each member of the sales team should memorize and be held accountable for knowing. Their pursuit of new business should be aligned with this profile. As the objectives of the business change, this profile may change. Be sure that it still meets the needs of the business.
4. Messaging consistency. You spend time and money investing in a new campaign. Your sales people position the company using this new message, but the print material and website still convey the old information. Not good! The outbound message to the market must be consistent. If the sales people say it, the corporate presentation should reinforce it. The printed collateral material and website should help position the message. In essence, the entire approach should be aligned.
5. Intellectual capital. These are your “referenceable” clients. Other than your employees, they are your most valuable asset. This asset is critical for your sales team to help them win business. How are you growing your portfolio? How are you ensuring that your largest client is not over-utilized by the sales team for these purposes? Do you have clients who can speak to everything your firm does, coming from multiple buying circumstances (newbie, veteran, etc)? The use of references can serve as a key competitive advantage for your sales team. It is important that the portfolio be ever-growing and well-managed.
6. Sales performance. How are the members of the team performing relative to their assigned goal? While you may be tempted to measure only revenue performance relative to quota, this is not always the best approach for longer-term buying processes. In those circumstances, review of performance in the buying process itself is an important area for study. That said, the rule of thumb is to look to upgrade the bottom 20% of the sales team. Recruiting is an ongoing initiative of any healthy sales organization.
7. Pipeline analysis. There are various opinions on how large a sales pipeline should be to ensure it yields enough to meet the business objective. The challenge is that a strict quantitative value minimizes the importance of a qualitative one. I’ve seen salespeople with a pipeline of twice their goal finish the year at 150% of quota. I’ve also seen sales people with a pipeline of five times their annual goal miss the target. Quantitative studies aside, the best approach is to conduct formal, periodic pipeline reviews so that you and your executive team can dig into the pipeline to see what prospects are real. Quality supersedes quantity. Pipeline reviews are very helpful for executive teams with respect to learning market trends and competitive intelligence.
8. Ideal sales person profile. You need this tool if you are going to upgrade the bottom 20% of your sales team. The attributes of this profile change, however, as the business changes and matures. Think in terms of the Blackberry. About seven years ago, their sales people had to create demand in a minimally competitive market. Today, the Blackberry is a staple in business, but buyers have product choices outside of the Blackberry brand. The skill set required to be successful in their business initially is very different than today. Don’t have a profile? See my article titled “The Sales Marriage” to learn how to formulate your ideal sales person profile.
9. Revenue accelerator program. Again, you are probably asking yourself what this term means. I could have just written “new hire training.” That doesn’t convey the importance of getting sales people to a productive level as quickly as possible. Every time a salesperson is hired in your company, there is a cost to the business. Thus, the development of a program that is focused on reducing the time for a sales person to generate revenue is critical. To effectively formulate your revenue accelerator program, ask yourself what the sales person needs to know to effectively sell your product and when they need to know this information. Some err by using the fire hose approach. “Teach them everything in their first week and tell them to go sell!” The fundamental question is, how quickly is there a return on the investment for this hire?
10. Skill development. Many think that sales talent is born, not developed. Oh, if that were only the case. Companies need to invest in their sales team development just as professional sports teams practice their craft every single day. Sales is a profession, one of the few professions in which ongoing training is not required to continue to perform in the role. However, it is critical to success. One of the biggest disconnects between executives and sales people is when the sales team is criticized for not “selling the value.” When the executives are asked when and how they trained the sales team on demonstrating this value, a blank look appears on their faces. Sales people will perform based on how they are trained and how they are compensated.
11. Compensation. Does your compensation plan drive the sales behaviors you feel assist in meeting the business objective? It all comes back to the business objective. The blessing and curse of sales people is that they use their compensation plan as a job description. If you pay them for doing one thing, but expect another, you will be disappointed. This is also a very sensitive area. The plan must change as the business objective changes. However, if the plan changes too frequently, the sales team will grow distrustful and look to leave. Approach this with true circumspection.
12. Metrics. The beauty of sales is that just about everything can be measured. Some like sales for that very reason. It is incumbent on the executive team to create metrics with desired goals such that every aspect of the company’s sales architecture can be measured and analyzed. This is a great way to use your CRM. They are designed to track what needs to be measured. I suggest analyzing performance of team members, product lines, and the sales organization in total. Who sells the most of what product? Who sells the highest margin deals? What product is not selling as expected? Which sales person has the shortest buying cycle? Which sales person has the longest buying cycle?

A review of these 12 areas will ensure that your sales organization is finely tuned and ready to conquer the selling world.