Then you need to worry how the draftee will get along with the coaches, team members, media and fans. You’re also going to be judged and second-guessed on the decision and it may be years before you even know if it was a good one. With so much risk involved, it’s no wonder teams spend months — or even years — scouting potential players.

As I was thinking about how carefully scouts watch prospective players as they are put through the paces, noting their specific performance talents, strengths and weaknesses, weighing each of these attributes before making a final decision, I was contacted by one of my clients. He was down to two sales candidates and looking for some advice on how to decide.

As is my way, I replied, “I’d be happy to help, but can I ask a few questions before I weigh in?” I wanted to understand what they had learned during interviews and how that had helped to distinguish the final two candidates. I was thinking of the in-depth NFL-level analysis and how they get to see the potential player perform before making a decision.

My client answered, “The interview team met with each of them for an hour, followed by a 15-minute debrief. Both candidates have pluses and minuses and we think either of them could be successful in the job. We were hoping you could meet with them for an hour and help us break the tie.”

I thought to myself, just like with the NFL process, what can the sales or business leader do to truly identify which candidate is the best fit? We want to feel confident in our decisions and we want our newly hired sales people to withstand the rigors of our expectations, but we lack the in-depth approach required to determine if they can truly perform.

Okay, so maybe you aren’t making multi-million dollar investments like the NFL, but you are making a significant — sometimes, a million-dollar — investment in the people that represent your products and services to potential customers. It may be worth the time to really scout their performance during the interview process. What should your scouting process include in order to really see your potential player perform? Can they really handle the contact?

Interviews that Scout for Performance
As we’ve discussed in recent posts, a little pre-work needs to be done prior to the interview:

• Be sure you know what you’re looking for and have defined your red box

• Then, establish an overall selection process that puts some objectivity into the approach and ensures the interview team is aligned around the goal

Once that’s all in place, design an interview that investigates what people can and will do and how they react in job situations. In other words, make them perform for you! We can’t make them run, jump and lift weights (although sales simulations can help), but we can structure the conversation and ask behavioral-based questions that provide deeper insight into our critical sales talent.

Let’s start with the structure. We’ve had the opportunity to participate in hundreds of sales interviews. What we’ve learned is that it’s easier to compare candidates when you take them through the same process and similar questions that target the same skills and abilities. We recommend your scouting process follow this format:

• Welcome and opening. This is where you’re selling the job and the company, setting expectations and helping them get comfortable.

• Set the agenda and the timing. It helps candidates know what’s happening, comes across as planned and professional, and allows you to keep the interview on track.

• Ask your questions. Depending on how much time you have, the questions can be separated into multiple interviews. Be as consistent as possible to aid in the comparison. We like to see questions in several categories:

o Competencies: Do they have the ability to do the job?

o Sales process skills: Can they describe how they go about their work and do they understand the intricacies of each step of the process?

o Cultural fit: Will they succeed in your environment and your management style?

o Interest in the position: Do they want this job or just any job?

• Allow the candidate to ask their questions. They should have questions and this can often provide a great deal of insight into how they think and what’s important to them.

After going through these, wrap up and thank them for their time and be clear about next steps. Many managers have already determined the candidate is not a fit but end the interview with “we’ll get back to you.” Believe it or not, it is infinitely preferable that you directly tell the candidate that they’re not a match, even though you’ve enjoyed getting to know them.

This may seem harsh, but candidates tell us again and again that they’d rather know this than go away wondering and hoping. It’s always better to cut them and let them catch on with another team! If the candidate is moving forward, be specific about when they’ll hear back and what will happen next. Demonstrating your ability to follow up and communicate says a lot about your company and how you do things. Remember: Top talent is looking for companies that “walk the talk.”

Watch for the fourth installment of this four-part post, where I will outline a format for asking questions and provide examples of how you can really dig into their performance.

Do your company’s interviewing standards go in-depth enough to determine if a candidate can truly perform? Why or why not?

One very smart manager I used to work with stated, “It never ceases to amaze me how awesome, capable and motivated every seller is during the interview process. Then they get the job and I quickly hear how unrealistic the quotas are and how the competition has a lower price with more to offer followed by a demand that the company needs to do more to help them sell.”

This scenario is more common than you would think. Your best tool against it is to design a selection process that gives you the opportunity to allow people to reveal what they can and will do once they’re hired. Here are a few steps I recommend building into your selection process:

Stick to the Red Box
We recommended in our last post that people spend a significant amount of time identifying their red box — that intersection of skills, talent and selling style that fulfills your company’s needs. We often see companies do a good job at establishing these hiring criteria and then jump into an interview process where the interview team quickly abandons that criteria. Be sure to align the entire interview team around the goals. Otherwise, you may get post-interview feedback that has nothing to do with the red box. I recently helped a client evaluate a series of candidates. As we started the discussion, people quickly shared their opinions of the candidates. I heard things such as:

We didn’t make a connection.
He seemed to talk a lot.
I think he’d be fabulous — he’s a real people person.
I like him a lot. I’m ready to make him an offer today.

When I asked a few follow-up questions to learn more about why they felt this way, I got some blank stares. This problem arises when the questions asked are not designed to reveal the skills and characteristics designated by the red box and the interviewer seems to be bringing more of themselves to the interview than the interviewee. For example, if the interviewer is talkative, they like that the candidate was talkative. But, if the interviewer is quiet, the talkative candidate comes across as too expressive and not appropriate for the position.

Ensure Interviewer Alignment
After reviewing the red box with your interview team, as well as the job profile requirements, be clear about your interview plan. Our clients have done well creating two to three different questions for each skill or competency they want to learn about. Each interviewer should ask about all of the categories you’re interested in but with slightly different questions. That way the candidate has to describe different situations, which keeps them engaged and still allows for clear comparison on the requirements. Ensure the questions will produce the needed feedback and that the interviewers will be asking their questions in a consistent manner.

Here’s an example of what I’m suggesting. If you want to learn more about the candidate’s influence and persuasion skills, have each member of the interview team ask one of these questions with any of the listed follow-ups:

1. Tell me about your single most important sales achievement.
- How did you recognize this sales opportunity?
- How did this achievement relate to your overall goals?
- What was so special about this achievement?
- How did you leverage your strengths?
- What advice would you give others?

2. Tell me about a time you were able to use what you understood about a client’s situation in order to
make the sale.
- How were you able to assess their situation?
- How did you obtain useful information?
- What were the motivators you identified?
- How did you appeal to their motivations?
- What would you have done differently?

3. Tell me about a sale that was difficult to close.
- What made it difficult?
- What approach did you use to close this sale?
- Where did you learn this approach?
- What other approaches might have worked?
- How would others rate your closing skills?

Each of these can help you gage the candidate’s ability to influence and help the group assess similarities and differences in how the candidate approaches these situations.

Assess and Reassess
Assessment tools will help you determine things such as personality, cognitive ability, style and work preference. Other instruments will help you determine if the candidate is a risk-taker or cautious, if they are a workaholic or if they pace themselves. There are many tools such as Profiles International, Prevue Assessments, Predictive Profiles and others available to assess these traits. Look for a future post comparing these instruments and how best to use them.

Simulations
Simulate scenarios where the candidate can show their stripes. For example, have them identify a client they believe you could work with, do some research and tell you their plan to approach the customer. They will not likely have enough information to get all the specifics right but you’ll sure get an idea of how they approach the assignment and how well they articulate their thought process.

Another example is to have them make a presentation of your products or services. Tell them they need to make a short presentation (20-30 minutes) on the problem they’re addressing, the solution they’re recommending and the business results you should expect as a customer. Again, you’re looking for their ability to be clear, articulate and effective in addressing the issue.

This is the work they’ll have to do, so why not see them in action? As a side rule, let them know they can ask anyone in your company for help. You’re likely to learn how resourceful they are and how they interact with your team. I’ve seen this separate the good ones from those that merely talk a good game. I also tend to learn more than I do with, “Tell me about yourself.” Or my favorite, “If you were a car, what kind of car would you be?”

Writing Assignments
In sales, providing clear and effective emails and proposals is critical to developing a credible client relationship. I suggest asking them to develop a proposal regarding a product/service you offer and using email to communicate with you on any questions or clarifications needed. Again, you’ll see how well they write and how they bring you into the process.

Check and Double-Check
Once you’ve narrowed your search down to a couple candidates, conduct reference checks.

Ask their professional references strategic questions
Many companies are counseled not to share information about an employee that could come back to haunt them. By asking strategic questions, you’ll be able to find out what they really think. A couple that have worked for me are: “What was the best thing she did?” or “If you brought him back and put him in the perfect role what would that role be?” Then listen as closely to what they say as you do to what they don’t say.

Check W2s
Their pay history will help you determine an appropriate offer and validate what they told you they make. Many sellers like to exaggerate what they could’ve made based on their incentive plan. I like to focus the offer on a balance between what the market studies tell us is appropriate and what their actual pay has been.

Run a credit check
You want to keep an eye out for salespeople who are in financial straights. Desperate people are prone to desperate measures. However, it is also important not to over react. If a candidate has a less-than-stellar credit record, consider engaging them on a trial basis before bringing them on full time.

Check social media posts
The person you hire is your representation to your customers. Make sure their character is on par with your company’s values. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can provide valuable clues as to how people conduct themselves outside of work.

I have many more ideas, but to get started I suggest adding these into your selection process, which will immediately give you greater insight into your candidates’ true capabilities.

Stay tuned for the third installment of this four-part post, where I will discuss interviewing techniques and best practices.

Does your company have a disciplined process for selecting sales candidates? What strategies have you found to be particularly effective?

Much of the feedback we’re hearing from clients right now sounds like this: “I should’ve already filled this position, but instead I’m staring at 20 resumes. They all meet the requirements of the job description and somehow, they are all the TOP SELLER in their company, have GROWN THEIR TERRITORIES BY 50%, are STRONG RELATIONSHIP-BUILDERS and would describe themselves as ACTION-ORIENTED CLOSERS. Sometimes, I think the biggest sale they make is of themselves to get the job”

Invariably, these comments are followed by the remark, “It all sounds great, but how do I sort through this and get someone who not only produces what their resume promises, but who is also the right fit for our company — so I don’t have to do this all over again in a year? Our organization is very different and not everyone is a good match. We have a complex offering, a very different value message and a unique culture.”

This is no small challenge. During our most recent Sales Leader Alliance meeting, sales leaders cited their success rate in hiring someone who truly made a meaningful contribution to the company at about 1 out of 7. Sales people are, after all, some of the most adept interviewers on the planet. They can be warm, articulate and skilled at focusing in on your biggest needs. And it’s no wonder — it’s what they’ve been taught to do for years.

The Red Box
So, how do you find that person who’s going to drive the numbers, enjoy the work and be a solid contributor to your growth engine?

A good salesperson isn’t necessarily the RIGHT salesperson. Before you start to look at candidates, know what type of salesperson your organization needs. It’s not always necessary to have someone from your industry: Someone with transferrable skills may work just as well.

The key to hiring the right person lies in clearly identifying the type of seller who will succeed with your products or services. While it may sound straightforward and simple enough, it’s not nearly as easy to execute.

Sales leaders looking to score a trifecta with their next sales rep will benefit from answering the 10 questions below. Go through the exercise now and map out the “red box” your sales role falls into and thus the skills your sales rep will need to be successful:

1. Are you looking for a hunter or a farmer?

Hunters need to be highly skilled at finding clever ways to get in, creating referral networks and urgency for prospects to act even when they’ve never met. Farmers, on the other hand, utilize current contacts to build deep, credible relationships and create networks within a given account.

This is just an example of some of the differences in sales positions. As you work through the remaining questions, think about the skills required at each end of the spectrum.

2. Will the sales rep have to close many transactions or just a few highly complex, larger sales?

3. Will the sales rep be selling direct or through a distribution channel?

4. Do the sales people work autonomously or are they tightly managed?

5. Does the sales team need to be technical or do they have technical support resources behind them?

6. Is your brand easily recognized by potential buyers or does the sales person need to introduce you?
7. Does the sales rep sell individually or are they frequently part of a larger selling team?
8. Is your value based on low cost or value, or on selling a premium advantage?
9. Are the sales people expected to generate their own leads or does marketing create the demand?
10. How leveraged is the incentive plan — high commissions or significant base salary?

As you can see from the graphic, finding your red box, or even narrowing the search to a general area is critically important to finding someone who will be highly productive in your environment.

Does this sound familiar? What challenges have you faced in hiring the right salesperson? What strategies have been the most effective in meeting those challenges?

Stay tuned for the second installment of this four-part post, where I will discuss what to do once you’ve determined your needs — and how to apply a selection process that will truly unveil the right candidate.

But the most effective sales managers and reps know that a well-devised and well-used sales plan can be an extremely valuable tool to better plan, operate, communicate and perform – no matter what size the organization.  And we are not talking about sales planning that requires high-tech solutions or complex sales formulas. Basic, simple sales plans that track both sales activities (meetings, proposals, closed deals, etc.) and sales numbers (monthly and annual revenue goals) are as effective as any sophisticated planning tool or application on the market. In fact, the real key to sales plan success is not the format of the sales plan or the size of it, it’s the quality of the content.

To give you insight into the many sales planning tips offered in the Webinar, we are happy to share with you the Top Four Advantages of Practical Sales Plans below. If you would like to learn even more advantages and get specific input on what makes a sales plan effective, you can listen to the Webinar online here. And before we list the “Top Four,” we would like to thank The Sales Association for co-hosting the Webinar and all attendees for sharing their time and input.

Top Four Advantages of Practical Sales Plans

Advantage 1: Gives Reps a Well-planned Sales Activity Schedule
The fact is most sales representatives are creating sales plans each year. They fill in the names of accounts they are working on, those they hope to win and even some long shots just to be sure the plan leads to a strong bottom-line number for their managers and their managers’ managers. But if you ask those same reps how confident they are that their actual sales year will mirror their sales plan, most will have the same reply: “Not very.”

The true value of a sales plan is not the bottom line number it points to but the activities it maps out to get to that number. How many meetings do I need to average per week? How many proposals per month? How many deals should I be closing per month? All of these details can be worked into a simple sales plan, starting with the revenue goal and using prior performance to determine the amount of weekly and monthly activity required to achieve the revenue.

In addition, sales plans should focus on activities as much as on revenue to account for the natural differences in sales reps. Some sales reps succeed at selling bigger accounts and don’t need to close as many new deals per year. Other reps may be excellent at selling lots of small deals. Some reps may be adept at converting meetings into proposals. Others might need more meetings to get enough proposals into the pipeline. Well implemented sales plans allow sales reps individualized road maps for putting in the work needed to achieve revenue goals.

Advantage 2: A Means for Seeing Where Activity Adjustments Are Needed
Sales reps can use their sales plans to see how they are meeting their activity benchmarks in terms of getting meetings, securing proposals, making cold calls, etc.  Where performance is lacking they can adjust or ask for help. Where performance is strong, they can see what activities are working best and replicate them for continued positive results.

Advantage 3: Provides a Roadmap for Achieving Organizational Goals
Sales plans should go beyond the numbers to map out the actual sales work—calling, visiting, presenting, demonstrating, etc.—that goes into successful selling. For managers that means, they know exactly what each individual should be doing to meet those goals. Rather than making general inquiries to their reps, “Have you increased your pipeline, Steve?” managers can get very specific, “Steve, will you be able to meet your three meeting per week goal this month?”

It’s important to mention that sales plans don’t track every moment or contact in the sales process. It’s too time-consuming and such information doesn’t yield valuable insight. Instead, sales managers need to determine the best indicators of sales success for their organization and build them into the sales plans. For some companies, meetings and proposals may be the best indicators. For others, it’s cold calls and demos. Whatever those early indicators of strong sales performance are, managers should make sure they are limited to only two or three so they can be well monitored by sales reps and managers alike.

Advantage 4: Clearly Identifies Coaching Needs
Activities-based sales plans make it easy for sales managers to identify coaching needs among sales reps. If sales plans reveal that a rep is good at securing lots of meetings but only occasionally gets to the pricing/proposal phase, the coaching need is clear: It’s time to review the sales person’s presentation skills and sales pitch to find out where prospects might be losing interest. Another rep may be good at securing meetings and generating proposal opportunities but the average deal size might be too small. Here’s an opening for a manager to help coach a sales rep to try for bigger opportunities or learn to generate more from each account.

The sales plan not only helps managers identify opportunities to assist and coach their staff, it also can measure improvement to show whether or not the coaching is working and if sales reps are making the needed adjustments in order to achieve business goals.

Again, these are just a few of the advantages of strong sales plans. We hope you have time to listen to the Webinar to hear more and see examples of how sales plans can be used to better perform and better manage. To get an example of a winning sales plan, e-mail me at gbraun@pivotaladvisors.com and we will be glad to forward one to you and your team.

Early this April, Pivotal Advisors partnered with The Sales Management Association to host a Webinar to give sales managers specific insight into how they can win more time for strategic, team- and sales-cultivating work. Titled “Visibility for the CEO, Sanity for the Sales Manager,” the Webinar was an opportunity for us to share proven best practices in managing up. It’s easy to get distracted from revenue-driving activities when one-off requests come in from your senior manager. But when those requests are frequent, brief distractions turn into giant gaps in your productivity and your ability to manage, develop and motivate your sales team. Our Webinar looked at how getting the right information and visibility to senior leaders can win sales managers more time to focus on team building and profit-driving  work in addition to earning them the credibility to say “no” to non-critical requests for their time.

The Webinar is currently online and you can follow this link to listen at your leisure. However, because leisurely moments are so rare for sales managers, we have also summarized below the three best practices in managing up discussed in the Webinar. Just a quick once over and sales managers can get back to work with techniques for gaining more time for the most important, results-driving sales management tasks: sales rep coaching, strategic planning and discerning participation in sales efforts.

Sales Manager Insights: Three Best Practices in Successfully Managing Up

Provide the Right Reports
If your senior manager is constantly asking for data and figures outside of the regular reports you are providing, you are not providing the right reports or you are not providing enough information. A senior manager who feels like he/she isn’t getting the full story does not trust the information you provide.

Sit down with your senior manager and determine exactly what information is needed (content), how often (frequency) and how he/she wants to see it (format). Then build a report and reporting schedule that delivers that information.  This process allows senior managers to think through exactly which numbers are important to them and gives you one, valuable reporting tool that meets those needs.  That’s not to say that one-off requests won’t occur, but this process will cut them dramatically while giving your boss information he/she can trust. If the requests start to creep up again, revisit the reporting process and content with your senior manager once more.

Pivotal Advisors also strongly advises that your reports to senior managers give anecdotal sales team insights to demonstrate how sales are progressing. In addition, add a risks and surprises column to inform senior managers of any unexpected events or issues that could be putting accounts in jeopardy.

Ensure the Best, Most Accurate Data
Many managers—both senior and sales—do not trust the data in the sales management or CRM systems. How accurate is the data you are reporting up to senior management? If you’re not certain of the quality of the data, run a historical analysis and verify it. The problem with unreliable data is that it causes senior managers to rely on you to hunt down and vet the data for them. Work with sales staff to ensure information is reported accurately, on time and with integrity. If people are trying to sugarcoat results, put an end to it to ensure the reports you run represent the work and performance of your team. If the reports are true and the data clean, senior leaders will trust them and send you fewer questions and request for additional information.

Practice Saying No
Your senior leader may ask you to participate in panels and attend numerous company meetings which greatly limit your time for team development and revenue-driving activities. Rather than taking them all on, analyze your calendar and agree only to the tasks that are truly important. No senior manager wants their top sales leader in a meeting room all day. If you find a large portion of your time is in meetings (say 20% or more) sit down with your senior manager and explain that you will need to say no to more meetings so you have more time for critical fieldwork, like sales and coaching.

And if you are asked why you, as a manager, are so dedicated to fieldwork, share this: The study “Redefining Sales Manager Excellence” from the Corporate Executive Board found that a minimum amount of mentoring/coaching (even poorly done) can improve bottom-line results by 19%. Consider then, what just an average amount of coaching will achieve!

If you are like most managers we talk to, you’ll find our advice compelling, but not exactly applicable to your circumstances—there is no chance you could or would tell your boss, “No.” If your senior leader is, let’s just say, really tough, and would not take no for an answer, you’re not alone.  However, we have seen on many occasions sales managers explain to their bosses how they want to focus their time—working in the field, developing team members, etc.—and their plan for creating more of this time. You may be surprised to learn that the senior leader, even the very strong-minded boss, almost always agrees to the plan.  The fact is, most of the time your senior leader has no idea how much time he or she takes away from your day. So, explain your day, what you need to accomplish and the disruptive effect numerous one-off requests have on your schedule and focus. Few senior leaders, even yours, can ignore the advantages that come with helping you get the time needed to improve sales team performance and results.

This is a tale as old as time — or at least as old as cold calling. Businesses have the best of intentions in promoting a sales star to manage a sales team. They want to reward performance, retain a loyal and talented team member and leverage the demonstrated skills of one of their best business developers to improve the overall skills and performance of the sales organization. The problem is that outstanding sales skills and business development talents do not transform into great management skills after a promotion. Not without a focus on developing those management skills.

Without guidance, the Bobs of the world will typically only do what they do best: sell. They rush from account to account, helping to close deals because this is what they know how to do. While some sales reps may glean lessons by seeing the work of these sales-oriented managers firsthand, many learn to get a deal close to complete and then call in Bob to finish the job, thus halting their own sales development. Frustration (the kind that can erode morale) is common as sales reps feel Bob “just takes things over.”  In addition, Bob is rewarded for being the closer allowing him to be the hero.

Can your business avoid this pattern and still cultivate internal talent to successfully lead sales teams? Yes is often the answer if businesses are willing to take the following steps to identify, develop and support new sales managers.

Watch for a Team Mentality – The best sales managers get great satisfaction from the success of others. When looking to promote from within your sales ranks watch for signs of team orientation. Does the sales rep have a record of willingly partnering with others for the greater good of the business? Does the candidate support colleagues in their efforts and openly share tips and opportunities? Is she/he good at managing the administrative side of sales operations? Use these questions and careful observation to identify candidates who will be able to adjust from measuring job success based on the revenue they bring in to measuring success based on how much they boost the performance of each team member.

Commit to Development – The skills it takes to manage a group, motivate people and coach are vastly different than the skills it takes to sell. Managers must be taught how to “coach” to develop the skills of their team members rather than “direct” or simply tell their reps what to do.  They also need to encourage performance by setting clear expectations, holding people accountable, the value and skill of delegation, how to manage conflict, and how to prioritize their time in a very different way.  . Rather than hoping for a sales manager to master these skills through sheer determination or the painful process of trial and error, invest in a more formal development process for your sales leaders.  Also, keep in mind we aren’t talking about something that happens in a two-day class, but a combination of education and on the job activities that create strong, routine habits.

Define Expectations Early & Measure Them Regularly - If you are like most companies, you probably do not sit new sales managers down and tell them exactly what you expect. The first thing every new sales manager should hear is, “Your job is not to do it yourself, but rather to coach and improve performance so your team improves.” They need to understand that the new measure of success is not just an overall revenue number but the marked improvement of each member of the sales team. All sales people—from reps to managers to CEOs are motivated by performance goals. Tap into that desire to succeed by clearly outlining the new measures of success, giving your new manager the right goals to aspire to and measuring and rewarding accomplishments.

Would adding these management development and evaluation best practices to the way you currently operate be a serious departure from how your business works today? If so, it’s time to look at how you have been preparing and supporting sales managers. They are likely struggling and now is your chance to help them truly become leaders while making a big, lasting impact on the sales team AND your overall results.