Hiring the Ideal High Value Sales Person Opportunity No 2
Hiring the Ideal High Value Sales Person Opportunity No 2
My company, PERFORMAX, has been retained by many software & other technology companies to work with their sales forces to improve their effectiveness, and implement our Opportunity Planning, Creation and Management System to provide the backbone of a repeatable and scalable sales management process.
Even with the best processes in the world, when it comes to selling high $ value solutions (eg: $5+ million software licenses for ERP & CRM Applications etc), some sales professionals just never make it, even though they may have succeeded elsewhere.
Thus, on several occasions we have been asked by our customers to help assess what the ideal, successful sales person "should look like” to help facilitate better hiring.
Objective of this Report
This report documents the findings from several such assessments in a way that is designed to help you find your “ideal” sales people.
The report contents are:
1. Assessment Methodology
2. Answers to the 3 Questions
3. Key Deductions
4. Conclusion
1. Assessment Methodology
In all cases, we surveyed and interviewed:
a. Top Sales People
b. Some Sales People who had failed (but who had succeeded in other sales roles)
c. Several Sales Managers
Based on the structure of our Performance Management System’s Personal Success Checklist (PSC), we asked the following 3 questions:
Question 1: What do you see as the key attributes needed by a Sales Person to succeed in your company, ie:
1a. What Personal Characteristic do they need?
1b. What Key Knowledge and Experience do they need?
1c. What Key Skills do they need?
Question 2: What do the successful ones do that the others do not (ie: what differentiates the winners)?
Question 3: What are the main reasons that you have observed that have caused some Sales people to fail in your company?
2. Answers to the 3 Questions
NB: (N) indicates a large number of respondents stated this point
Question 1: What do you see as the key attributes needed by a Sales Person to succeed in your company, ie:
1a. What Personal Characteristic do they need?
• Need to win and hate losing; Unwilling to hear “No” or take “No” for an answer (N)
• Control Freaks who are very Proactive and Focused (N)
• Able to predict what will happen next and go wrong, plus be prepared to overcome obstacles & objections (N)
• Smart, good brain power, high MIPS, able to work through complex scenarios (N)
• Really care about their Customers/Buyers
• They easily develop a relationship of trust, ie: bond well with the client
• They are very responsive (key to winning large account deals)
• Really cares about delivering Value to help their Customer’s Business
• Try to ensure “No Surprises” for Customers
• Able to “tell it as it is”
• Very Intuitive
• Opportunistic…. Always looking for opportunity
• Laser like focus to succeed
• High work ethic; Force themselves to do the tough stuff
• Personal Drive and Fear of losing!!!
• Likeable Personality & Team Player
• Passion for the kill
• Credible and honest.
• Act as the Quarter Back and the Team Lead to ensure processes are being followed
• Attention to detail and preparation
1b. What Key Knowledge and Experience do they need?
• Need to know all standard facets of selling (presenting your case, questioning, objection handling, closing etc) (N)
• Know all the landmines that might go off in a sales cycle
• Good knowledge of the industry being served and its business problems
• Good knowledge of where the Industry is going, and how your technology solution helps this
• Understand the customer’s business
• Some background in IT & Technology
• Understanding of Competition and how to beat them
• Know when they are being “BS”d
• Be able to tell name drop and tell war stories
• Be convincing
• Understand the selling process for large, mission critical software deals
• Knowledge & contacts in the appropriate Industry or Segment
• Relevant Industry or Segment Knowledge is nice but not mandatory
• Technology plays and how to position your Company in these
1c. What Key Skills do they need?
• Need to know all standard Selling Skills, especially “Killer” and Qualifying Questions (N)
• Able to deal with and sell to Execs and their Issues (N)
• Ability to create Compelling Events that drive Boards to spend big $
• Ability to manipulate situations
• Ability to target and qualify Accounts who might buy
• True Partnering Skills (eg: finding a true Win/Win)
• Know how to solve Business Problems with IT
• Getting out of tactical by doing Business Research and relating value at all levels
• Assemble stories to help address the Big Picture issues of customers
• Anticipate 50-60 objections and know how to handle them
• Addressing large groups and to think on their feet.
• Good Listeners to hear what customers are saying.
Question 2: What do the successful ones do that the others do not (ie: what actions differentiate the winners)?
• Anticipate & strategize around all possible Landmines (N)
• Dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. There’s no room for error (N)
• Good listening and communication skills are essential. (N)
• Proactively try to manage/control the Process (N)
• Don’t take things at face value; drill down and x-check with multiple sources (N)
• Figure out what it will really take to do a deal, and then Strategize and set Milestones Qualify hard on whether we can do business/partner together
• Find out who the real Decision Makers are, where they are from, their background, existing Relationships and Friends
• They don’t react by doing everything the Customer asks; they ask for proof of why they should do something
• Get to know the guy who will sign the (license) agreement
• Empathy and honesty help a great deal.
• Curiosity about business is very helpful
• Industry knowledge and experience certainly help get a fast start, but if you can find someone with the right selling skills and personality traits, the Industry stuff is fairly easy to train in.
• Relentless Follow Up + Doing the things they say they will do
• Reference sell by relaying benefits of your products to other, similar customers and how you help solve their problems
• Sell at a Level 3 Strategic Level ie: Knowing how to assemble compelling Business Cases + Understand Tactics + know how to play the Politics
• Understand & focus on what’s important
• Exhausting the objections; and never take “No”
Question 3: What are the main reasons that you have observed that have caused some sales people to fail in your company?
• Great contacts & relationships, but low skills to describe and communicate business value
• Not good at qualifying; trying to make your Company fit where it doesn’t belong
• Reactive by trying to do everything the Customer asks without question
• Try to Facilitate the process; vs proactive management and participation in it
• Some can’t work for an unstructured company, or don’t like working from home.
• Don’t really understand why your Company has the best solution, thus they cannot convey the right messages with passion
• Over-reliance on a very strong company presales organization
• Unwilling/unable to recruit your Company’s organizational support needed to bring in big sales
• Basic sales skills: very busy but didn’t do the hard thinking; too superficial:
• Not very smart; too touchy / feely; Worked hard but struggled with complexity; not enough depth plus Shotgun approach
• Not very smart from a sales point of view;
• Talked but didn’t do tough stuff; Not one to face and handle any bad news or tough objections
• Too Tactical: Only doing what customer asked with no Strategic Value connection
• Not able to describe or show value to Execs
• Could not face Worst Case thinking to anticipate what can screw up
• Deep questioning and exhausting issues
• They try relationship selling vs value based selling
• Try to they take the easy way out and not really try to understand what a customer needs (versus wants)
4. Key Deductions
As the plethora of software and other technology products increases, and as these products offer more and more strategic value to customers, it is imperative that:
a. Your sales force is able to relay that value,
b. They sell to the audiences that can authorize large expenditures and, in tough economic times, change other company priorities to do this
c. You have a process for defining the Ideal Person, and then both a hiring process to help you find new people, and an evaluation process to find those of your existing force who have the right characteristics.
They are vital to find, or grow in your sales force, if they are to compete successfully in today’s marketplace.
5. Conclusion
It is my hope, this document gives you some assistance in selecting or hiring “the right stuff” for your high value sales teams.
If you have any other inputs for this article, I would be very interested in receiving them.
Peter Michie, Founder,
PERFORMAX (561) 202-8163
Hiring the Ideal High Value Sales Person Opportunity No 2 - To learn more about this author, visit Peter Michie's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Background
My company, PERFORMAX, has been retained by many software & other technology companies to work with their sales forces to improve their effectiveness, and implement our Opportunity Planning, Creation and Management System to provide the backbone of a repeatable and scalable sales management process.
Even with the best processes in the world, when it comes to selling high $ value solutions (eg: $5+ million software licenses for ERP & CRM Applications etc), some sales professionals just never make it, even though they may have succeeded elsewhere.
Thus, on several occasions we have been asked by our customers to help assess what the ideal, successful sales person "should look like” to help facilitate better hiring.
Objective of this Report
This report documents the findings from several such assessments in a way that is designed to help you find your “ideal” sales people.
The report contents are:
1. Assessment Methodology
2. Answers to the 3 Questions
3. Key Deductions
4. Conclusion
1. Assessment Methodology
In all cases, we surveyed and interviewed:
a. Top Sales People
b. Some Sales People who had failed (but who had succeeded in other sales roles)
c. Several Sales Managers
Based on the structure of our Performance Management System’s Personal Success Checklist (PSC), we asked the following 3 questions:
Question 1: What do you see as the key attributes needed by a Sales Person to succeed in your company, ie:
1a. What Personal Characteristic do they need?
1b. What Key Knowledge and Experience do they need?
1c. What Key Skills do they need?
Question 2: What do the successful ones do that the others do not (ie: what differentiates the winners)?
Question 3: What are the main reasons that you have observed that have caused some Sales people to fail in your company?
2. Answers to the 3 Questions
NB: (N) indicates a large number of respondents stated this point
Question 1: What do you see as the key attributes needed by a Sales Person to succeed in your company, ie:
1a. What Personal Characteristic do they need?
• Need to win and hate losing; Unwilling to hear “No” or take “No” for an answer (N)
• Control Freaks who are very Proactive and Focused (N)
• Able to predict what will happen next and go wrong, plus be prepared to overcome obstacles & objections (N)
• Smart, good brain power, high MIPS, able to work through complex scenarios (N)
• Really care about their Customers/Buyers
• They easily develop a relationship of trust, ie: bond well with the client
• They are very responsive (key to winning large account deals)
• Really cares about delivering Value to help their Customer’s Business
• Try to ensure “No Surprises” for Customers
• Able to “tell it as it is”
• Very Intuitive
• Opportunistic…. Always looking for opportunity
• Laser like focus to succeed
• High work ethic; Force themselves to do the tough stuff
• Personal Drive and Fear of losing!!!
• Likeable Personality & Team Player
• Passion for the kill
• Credible and honest.
• Act as the Quarter Back and the Team Lead to ensure processes are being followed
• Attention to detail and preparation
1b. What Key Knowledge and Experience do they need?
• Need to know all standard facets of selling (presenting your case, questioning, objection handling, closing etc) (N)
• Know all the landmines that might go off in a sales cycle
• Good knowledge of the industry being served and its business problems
• Good knowledge of where the Industry is going, and how your technology solution helps this
• Understand the customer’s business
• Some background in IT & Technology
• Understanding of Competition and how to beat them
• Know when they are being “BS”d
• Be able to tell name drop and tell war stories
• Be convincing
• Understand the selling process for large, mission critical software deals
• Knowledge & contacts in the appropriate Industry or Segment
• Relevant Industry or Segment Knowledge is nice but not mandatory
• Technology plays and how to position your Company in these
1c. What Key Skills do they need?
• Need to know all standard Selling Skills, especially “Killer” and Qualifying Questions (N)
• Able to deal with and sell to Execs and their Issues (N)
• Ability to create Compelling Events that drive Boards to spend big $
• Ability to manipulate situations
• Ability to target and qualify Accounts who might buy
• True Partnering Skills (eg: finding a true Win/Win)
• Know how to solve Business Problems with IT
• Getting out of tactical by doing Business Research and relating value at all levels
• Assemble stories to help address the Big Picture issues of customers
• Anticipate 50-60 objections and know how to handle them
• Addressing large groups and to think on their feet.
• Good Listeners to hear what customers are saying.
Question 2: What do the successful ones do that the others do not (ie: what actions differentiate the winners)?
• Anticipate & strategize around all possible Landmines (N)
• Dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. There’s no room for error (N)
• Good listening and communication skills are essential. (N)
• Proactively try to manage/control the Process (N)
• Don’t take things at face value; drill down and x-check with multiple sources (N)
• Figure out what it will really take to do a deal, and then Strategize and set Milestones Qualify hard on whether we can do business/partner together
• Find out who the real Decision Makers are, where they are from, their background, existing Relationships and Friends
• They don’t react by doing everything the Customer asks; they ask for proof of why they should do something
• Get to know the guy who will sign the (license) agreement
• Empathy and honesty help a great deal.
• Curiosity about business is very helpful
• Industry knowledge and experience certainly help get a fast start, but if you can find someone with the right selling skills and personality traits, the Industry stuff is fairly easy to train in.
• Relentless Follow Up + Doing the things they say they will do
• Reference sell by relaying benefits of your products to other, similar customers and how you help solve their problems
• Sell at a Level 3 Strategic Level ie: Knowing how to assemble compelling Business Cases + Understand Tactics + know how to play the Politics
• Understand & focus on what’s important
• Exhausting the objections; and never take “No”
Question 3: What are the main reasons that you have observed that have caused some sales people to fail in your company?
• Great contacts & relationships, but low skills to describe and communicate business value
• Not good at qualifying; trying to make your Company fit where it doesn’t belong
• Reactive by trying to do everything the Customer asks without question
• Try to Facilitate the process; vs proactive management and participation in it
• Some can’t work for an unstructured company, or don’t like working from home.
• Don’t really understand why your Company has the best solution, thus they cannot convey the right messages with passion
• Over-reliance on a very strong company presales organization
• Unwilling/unable to recruit your Company’s organizational support needed to bring in big sales
• Basic sales skills: very busy but didn’t do the hard thinking; too superficial:
• Not very smart; too touchy / feely; Worked hard but struggled with complexity; not enough depth plus Shotgun approach
• Not very smart from a sales point of view;
• Talked but didn’t do tough stuff; Not one to face and handle any bad news or tough objections
• Too Tactical: Only doing what customer asked with no Strategic Value connection
• Not able to describe or show value to Execs
• Could not face Worst Case thinking to anticipate what can screw up
• Deep questioning and exhausting issues
• They try relationship selling vs value based selling
• Try to they take the easy way out and not really try to understand what a customer needs (versus wants)
4. Key Deductions
As the plethora of software and other technology products increases, and as these products offer more and more strategic value to customers, it is imperative that:
a. Your sales force is able to relay that value,
b. They sell to the audiences that can authorize large expenditures and, in tough economic times, change other company priorities to do this
c. You have a process for defining the Ideal Person, and then both a hiring process to help you find new people, and an evaluation process to find those of your existing force who have the right characteristics.
They are vital to find, or grow in your sales force, if they are to compete successfully in today’s marketplace.
5. Conclusion
It is my hope, this document gives you some assistance in selecting or hiring “the right stuff” for your high value sales teams.
If you have any other inputs for this article, I would be very interested in receiving them.
Peter Michie, Founder,
PERFORMAX (561) 202-8163
Hiring the Ideal High Value Sales Person Opportunity No 2 - To learn more about this author, visit Peter Michie's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan 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 and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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