Case History - How Not to Hire Salespeople

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan
Become an Author

Free PDF Download
Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

A company wants to hire 5000 salespeople - but why? 2000 drop out before completing training, and another 2000 drop out during the first 90 days in the field. Another 500 drop out during the first 6 months, and at the end of the year they only have 500 of the original 5000 standing. What would it be worth to them from a cost, time, resources and practicality standpoint for us to simply identify, in advance, the final 500, before anyone is hired?

Can we do that? Yes.

Are they likely to do that? No.

Why? Because that's the way it's always been done in their industry. The Status Quo prevents improved outcomes and nobody wants to make a change that might not work. Well what about the way they're doing it now? Does anybody really believe that it works the way it is? They do!

Let's take a closer look at why their turnover - at 90% the first year - is so high? Let's look at how they select salespeople since that's one of the things that we could change.

They use a behavioral styles assessment. They're OK, but (obviously!!) not predictive of sales success.

This particular assessment is marketed as a sales assessment but it's the same old story. Behavioral Styles assessment that uses some sales terminology and marketing but under the hood it's a behavioral styles assessment. Here are some examples:

The Assessment reports "Prospecting Ability" but they can't actually measure that. They can only measure how extroverted, social and persistent the individual is - in a social context! It has nothing to do with prospecting ability!

The Assessment reports "Closing Style/Ability" but they can't actually measure that. They can only measure assertiveness and sensitivity to rejection - in a social context! It has nothing to do with closing ability!

The Assessment report "Commitment to Sales" but they can't actually measure that. They can only measure self-esteem and how favorable the individual is to a sales profession. It has nothing to do with Commitment to Sales!

And on and on and on it goes...

What would you do?

How Many Salespeople Shouldn't Be in Sales

The CEO Who Needed to Hire Salespeople

Topgrading Pros, Cons, and Sales Assessments

How Many Salespeople Do you Need?

How important is a work ethic?

Everyone has a plan. Some plans are better than others because they contain all or most of the necessary steps and sequence them in an appropriate order. Most plans have gaps where steps should be and the sequence doesn't lend itself to success. One area where we see this occur repeatedly is when companies are about to hire a Sales VP or Director AND

Do You Need Your Salespeople to Love and Respect You?

Improve Sales Effectiveness at the Salesperson's Hall of Fame

How Does the Salesperson Affect Price Shoppers and Negotiators?

The business process that no longer works

Lousy Salespeople and Great Salespeople - Line Item or Investment?

Startups and the Dilemma of the First Sales Hire

Top 5 Sales Recruiting Observations of 2010

Signs That The Economy Will Soon Improve

When Should You Use a Telemarketing Firm to Schedule Sales Calls?

Manage Your Salespeople by Working Smart, More Stack Rankings

Should Special Effects Determine If You Have the Right Salespeople?

Your Salespeople Can't Even Do That?

New Metrics for the Sales Force - Unusual Thoughts for Unusual Times

Happy Ears or an Empty Pipeline?

Home > Sales > Dave Kurlan > Case History How Not to Hire Salespeople > Google +

Free PDF Download
Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

About the Author: Dave Kurlan

RSS for Dave's articles - Visit Dave's website
Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).
Click here to visit Dave's website.

More from Dave Kurlan
Salesperson Selection
Predict Sales Turnover
Visual Pipeline

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Share this post and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Case History - How Not to Hire Salespeople

Related Articles

Related Forum Posts

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.


Name:
Email: