Good advise regarding talent mgmt. 
 
 
 
Good advise for recruting towards Traditional sales logic. 
 
 
 
BUT. 
 
 
 
Very dangeraous, misleading advice (infact outright counter productive) in super complex Sales logic (Strategic, Cross fucntional teambased, Hight risk high value type sales) 
 
 
 
Several pieces of reasearch and evidience exists to back up the fact that A-player profiles, capabillities and motivations are very different to be successfull in Traditional vs Complex sales logic. 
 
 
 
cheers 
 
 
 
Henrikgothberg1@gmail.com 
 

Is there a post where we can read about how to hire for call center operations for B2C like the one we have over @ Online courses on WizIQ. There are both outbound and inbound calls. And each course is different from others. Reps need to quickly find info, take the call, respond and close the deal. We are doing a Level B right now. Any tips would be great :) 
 
P.S. following you now on Twitter.

I profile sales based on their philosophy, creativity, and innovativeness. There are only three kinds of sales philosophies - wait, look, and cook/create. The A players CREATE opportunities where none exist...but that doesn't mean the wait and the look players are useless. Trained properly, they provide excellent follow-up support and are sources of sustainable revenue.

I must be an enigma. While I totally understand where you are coming from with this article and I realize that this is conventional wisdom, I seem to be successful in spite of the fact that I don't meet really any of this criteria.  
 
I worked at Cisco for 10 years; the first 8 years was as a systems engineer and the last 2 years as an account manager. I met and exceeded my growing quota each year. Interestingly, when I inherited a new manager in my second year of sales, he quickly diagnosed me as someone in the wrong role. He said I should be in marketing, not sales; all the while I succeeded in every metric relative to my sales peers. 
 
In fact, out of the 8 to 10 reps in my current territory, most who have up to 10 times as much experience as me, I stack rank consistently in the top 3, currently number 2 (I am 39, btw). 
 
I left Cisco and landed in the Cisco reseller world where my quote was 5 Million. I booked 7.5 Million in my first year and exceeded everyone's expectations. They too were skeptical as to whether or not I could make it in the "sales" world and was pretty open and candid about it. However, they saw my track record at Cisco and decided to give me a shot.  
 
Here are some interesting facts about me relative to your article. I never look at my commission statement. The only way I know how much money I made in 2011 was because I had to provide my recent W2 to a lender as I plan to buy another rent house.  
 
I am great at building relationships. But, I don't know the names of the children or spouses of my best customers, but they keep buying from me. I wouldn't even say that they think that I am that great at sales or really any one thing. 
 
While I know how to prepare for high stakes meetings using CAB (conviction, action, benefit) or AIDO or other acronyms, I rarely prepare for meetings to that degree though I am generally prepared. 
 
I don't mind long sales cycles, as I sell networking products. The sales cycle is often 6 months to a year long. If I can see an easy way to close the business early I will but I don't spend a lot of time and energy doing so.  
 
I am am not the typical funny, gregarious, story telling sales guy.  
 
So, that begs the question, "How do I do it?" 
 
VSE - Vision, Strategy, Execution. 
 
When I presented my territory plan to my management team a year ago, they balked. They gave me 50 accounts when I came on board. I told them I wanted 10. They said, "No one can get to their number with 10 accounts." I held to my position and showed them how they win if I can accomplish my goal.  
 
Vision - Win the hearts and minds of my customer by showing more value than my competitors and by providing great customer service. Does that sound like a sales guy? What happened to business value? I mean, don't I have to show "Business Value?" Don't I have to have an executive relationship? Don't I have to "create" new opportunities? Don't I have to tie the opportunity to a business need or show them how their business will increase by 20% over the next 3 months with my handy dandy shiny object? These are all things that I have read in the mountain of books that sit in my office. My ex-Cisco boss kept telling me the same thing. 
 
Strategy - Understand my customers needs and figure out a way to meet them better than my competitors. Show value to them and the manufacturer (Cisco). This is accomplished by aligning my resources to help them (customer/Cisco) accomplish their goals. It's that simple. 
 
Execution - This is the hardest part as I have to rely on an imperfect company (they all are) and very stretched but talented resources.  
 
I also follow the 4 P's. Price, Promotion, Product and Place. In every deal, I look for ways to win in as many of those areas as possible. If I can't, I won't participate. I also prioritize my time to focus on the deals that will get me to 10 Million dollars. However, my bigger strategy is to garner as much of the budget as possible each year through consultative selling and customer service. Treat others how I want to be treated. 
 
Not very exciting. Not earth shattering. Apparently, not something articles and books are written about. I probably couldn't get hired by the author of this article, though I respect his position. Now that I have succeeded by leveraging this strategy and have a track record to look back on, I am more confident that I will be successful, given the right opportunities, for as long as I want to stay in sales.  
 
As a side note, my job is not easy. It is stressful and requires a lot of my mind. I don't plan on doing it forever; at least not at this pace. 
 
Good luck finding the A players. 
 
Brian 
 

@Brian : You should create a course with http://www.wiziq.com/courses and help people with your balanced and sustainable approach :) I'd love to enroll in it. 
 
P.S. I work with them, so this could be biased but if not us, do consider teaching this :)

Henri, Vikrama, Michael and Brian: 
 
 
 
Thanks for the excellent comments! It is always appreciated feedback on our posts.  
 
 
 
Brian, you especially took time to respond. Thank you. Your description of your current position is well thought out. As I read your explanation, you are an 'A' player. But I believe you actually exhibit most of the 4 signs I described in the post. You definately have enthuasism for your job. It shows through in your reply. You keep it simple by sticking to the fundamentals. You obviously are in sales for a reason. And finally you do show urgency. Urgency in finding value for your customers. Most sales people just want to sell the product. You mentioned providing value. This takes longer but creates a sense of urgency with your customer. Remember, urgency is not just time! 
 
 
 
Thanks again for the responses. I am glad I provoked some thought. 
 
 
 
Dan

I just hired an "Account Director" (sales rep) who displayed all 4 signs during the interview process, PLUS one. She believes in forming relationships with clients to become a trusted partner in their success. This is where I side with Brian - relationships do matter, especially in an industry like mine (advertising)that depends heavily on repeat, long-term clients. You can't establish trust without a trustworthy relationship. Clients are smarter than you think; they know the difference between someone who is trying to close a sale and someone who genuinely wants to help their business thrive. 
It's hard work to constantly hunt for new business. When you become a trusted adviser, you reap the rewards of not just repeat business, but also referrals. Fully half our current client base came to us by referral, so I'd hardly call it selling any more.

spotting sales talent

Carole and Jerry: 
 
 
 
Thanks for the additional comments and insight! I agree with you as well. Relationships are critical to an 'A' player. The question is how do you develop that relationship? It is just being nice and attentive. Or is it challenging your customer unlike most sales people ever do? I believe that is how you truely form a life long relationship. The client gives you more business because they know you have their best interest in place by challenging the status quo and really helping them succeed. In my humble POV, that is creating urgency with the customer allowing the relationship to strengthen.  
 
What are your thoughts? 
 
 
 
Dan

Save for future interviews

Dan - I lead a sales team in Canada and all of what you say is true. I'm not tasked with building a winning team in our new European office, and servicing UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain. Do you know if these "A" player traits are universally true to make a successful sales team in all cultures, or do you believe an A player needs to show some cultural relevance in place of some of these traits?

Ryan 
 
 
 
Good question about cultural differences. We have done alot of work in EMEA and APAC recently. The same fundamentals apply but the way 'A' sales people display them are different. For example, showing enthuasism in Germany is culturally different than Italy. The UK has a very dry sense of humor whereas French sales people have a aura of arrogance (even though they might not actually be arrogant). You must know and look for these differences applying the fundamental logic I wrote about in my post. 
 
Keep the comments coming 
 
 
 
Dan

Read

Brian, I suspect what you do you do better than 90% of your competition. That is you add incredible value and perspective to every meeting that you have with your prospective customers. I think that you have embraced the way buyers buy in today's connected world. Your buyers are probably on Linkedin and /or other media and probably belong to groups. They probably exchange on a regular basis. You come in and add so much more. Who wouldn't want to develop a long term business relationship with someone like Brian. Who needs the pushy guy who just wants to close the deal? Buyers can smell those a mile away and frankly they don't need them. They typically add very little relative value. I would even strongly suspect that Brian can navigate much easier within a complex sale than most. Why? He adds value and perspective. He becomes part of the buyers team. He is on their side....and they feel it. I would hire 10 Brians because he is the A player in today's information saturated world.

Matt - take a look at this. This is exactly the kind of people I'm looking to join this team. It does a great job of summing up the 'A' players in sales.

ideas paychex

Right on the mark!

Brian, one of the books on your shelf could be "High Trust Selling". A good read that basically points out what todays buyers want (even though the book was written several years ago). They want experts, that is where trust comes from. Why, because they don't have layers of staff to help them make the right call or engineers who had time to sip coffee over the desk and break down the technical aspects about why the proposal is or is not of any value to the people who will actually use your service. No, today they do all that by themselves as the staff was downsized five years ago or more. So they need experts to be in front of them, because their job is on the line if they make a bad hire in buying your service or product. So any new sales rep presents first, a risk to the current condition.  
 
Your 10 years of experience (applied experience, not just showing up for 10 years) creates the expert in you. Add Expert with enthusiasm, passion, work discplines, and a natural ability to be genuine and proud of your ability to solve challenges will equal success in most cases.  
 
I measure reps by the CORD they hold on to that secures them to their personal and corporate success. C - Committment, O - Outlook, R - Responsible, D - Disciplined. You have all 4 and it shows in just a couple of paragraphs. Your customers and future customers see this as well and they enjoy working with someone who displays all of that and is not a bad communicator either (speaks plainly). 
 
 
 
Well done ! Do you have any disciples in the Cincinnati area:)

hi there

It is extremely naive to think that there is one formula for success in hiring. The poster above who wants to hire inside sales people should be interviewing very differently than the big-ticket solution salesperson. 
 
I can only think of two traits that are an asset in virtually all sales and they both are about preparation. So, to me the best question to someone interviewing for a sales position is this: please show me how you prepared for this interview. Show me your list of questions. Show me how you prepared to present yourself. If they can't actually show you, then ask them to leave. 
 
Second topic on preparation is to begin this way "Tell me about yourself". If the interviewee actually starts talking about themself rather than ask a few questions then ask them to leave. The last thing you need is someone from the "show up and throw up school of selling." 
 
Some other thoughts on your article: 
 
Sense of urgency? Yes, probably, but to someone who is in growth mode and who might be planning for next year's purchase, he might consider your sense of urgency as pressure and be totally turned off. 
 
No, I believe in being customer-centric. Be what the customer wants you to be and probe enough to know the difference. If they want you to "challenge" their thinking and offer suggestions, then by all accounts do it. If they want to by right way because they are in trouble mode, then expedite.

Its truly beneficial for selecting a new candidate as Sales people are revenue generation for organisation.

With regards to hiring A players, Rain Makers, Super sellers, first I would divide the question as whether the industry we are talking about. For example, it is different to manage long technology sales than pushing a buyer to buy from you, as Mary Kay or Amway sales are. Or selling insurances. Knowing-admiring the product you sell is common on any different kind of sale. You need to wear the T-shirt. It helps to share successfull experiences to possible purchasers and mostly to use-wear what you are selling. If you sell Chrysler cars, you Must own a Chrysler; or AVON creams and perfumes, etc. This helps to support the trust from your customer. So, depending on the sale, it is the definition of the excellent hiring for the job. As comments above say, personalities vary from regions, and maybe a high skilled sales person with astonishing personality will be welcome in London, this same person could be rejected in Honk Kong, or Dublin. I liked Bob Hatcher's point on the preparation for the interview questions. Which may be very different too. Think about someone answering: -I have been preparing myself since 15 years ago with this remarkable sales history, etc. but zero for what this meeting means- vs. another one answering: -Yes, i have prepared for this meeting with all your background, financial results, know your competitors, know your actual marketshare, your vision, mission, etc. and I have 2 years of experience in a different industry. Who would you hire? 
 
Thanks for the opportunity to participate in these debates!