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Got the right people in place

Written by: Harlan Goerger

Article Overview: Getting the right skill sets and behaviors in the right spot is not always easy, yet it will make or break that new hire!

Got the right people in place

In the past week I've talked with several people on the subject of having the right people in the right place.

Most of the conversations revolved around salespeople, yet this applies to all positions a company may have.

Many wonder if they have the right people in place or how they can get others to perform like the top producers! Sales people wonder why they have a challenge selling to certain customers! Got these same kinds of questions, read on, we'll give you insight.....

Here are five areas that come up in every discussion on this topic. Each has a part in the answer as no single one address the whole issue.

1. Behavioral/Personality fit. Not everyone is designed for the same position. Not everyone should be in sales. Not everyone should be an engineer, teacher or manager. Each individual has a set of behaviors that are pretty much set in stone. These can be modified with effort, yet they emerge under pressure and take a great deal of effort to permanently alter.

That's why teachers teach, engineers design, sales people sell and you do what you do. In virtually every organization there is a tension between marketing, sales, accounting, production and other departments. Not because one is better than the other, rather because of the Behavior/Personality of the different departments. They simply see the world through different glasses than the other department.

A classic case, the sales manager wanted a system developed for the sales people to track sales activities. Some type of stop gap before they went full CRM. The programmer came up with a fairly complicated system using multiple spread sheets to find and track the data. The sales manager tries to use the system and sees nothing but his beaten body in the gutter after the sales force revolts! There is no way my salespeople will use this! The programmer can not understand, this is how he runs his day, everyday! (you who are in sales are already getting this!) That sales person is not a detail person. They are hunters that will go after that lead long before going to a spread sheet, especially if it is complicated! Two very different views of the world collided because they did not understand each other. Do you have the right Behavioral/Personality in the right place?

2. Entertainer vs Competent: Gary May from the UK runs a strong sales force as does Dr. Jonas from Seattle. Both look for "Entertainers & Hunters" when hiring sales people. Both these sales forces are experiencing expediential growth.

Gary even has some interesting training at his sales meetings. They practice joke telling and chiding or giving guff to each other. That way they improve the skill when working with customers! It seems the better any one salesperson is, the higher their sales performance! Now if you are a Competent type, you're probably shaking your head at how ridiculous this sounds! The sales team needs to know product and all the specifications so there are no errors in the orders. (See #1 above, this is a classic example of different glasses) This also applies to management; many times I've seen a very competent technical person move into a leadership role because they "know their stuff". Yet they lack the interpersonal skills to be a great leader of people. The department's performance suffers because the emphasis tends to be on process and procedures rather than people and results.

Competent type people are very valuable. There keep us on track and will do the detail work that others do not want to and should not do. The challenge is using their abilities in the right way! You really need to ask what skills are really needed for top performance in this position. Then find the person who has those natural inclinations and give then the training to bring out more of their natural ability!

3. Hiring yourself: This is more common than most are aware of. When talking to owners or GM's about a performance issues it is often indicted they hired that person because they "felt comfortable" with them. When we discuss the actual skill sets and behaviors required for the position and compare that to the current person, it usually does not match!

One example when consulting with a company on hiring new salespeople, we had an overwhelming pile of resumes. My Competent side came out and a spread sheet was used to reduce the pile to a hand full of potentials. I took the two piles to the owners to review and asked them to indicate which pile I should hire from. Guess what, they picked my refuse pile because they felt more comfortable with them! I hired out of the other pile because they had a very different profile than the owners, or even myself! Results; each salesperson personally sold more than the entire company had sold the year before. That is 4X what any salesperson in the company had ever done prior to this. They even outsold me! Key point: Hire to the skill sets and behaviors need for the position! Keep you out of it!

4. Testing & Profiling: There are many types of tests in the market today that give you insight into how someone sees the world. We use the DISC profiles that can give us a basic look at who this person is. Plus we can add on additional profiles specifically for sales, management, listening and other specific skill sets. Often times when we have consulted with mangers hiring people and used the DISC, we find it verifies what they were "feeling", good or bad, about the candidate. It provides an in depth view of how this person will most likely perform in a given situation as well as how best to manage and coach this person.

The DISC also tells you how the management may or may not fit with this person. In #3 the owners were driven crazy by the new salespeople even though it was clearly spelled out what to expect and how to manage and lead them. But they sure liked the sales growth! In addition, these profiles give both parties an insight into how they interact with each other. Often times the comment, "Oh, now I see why we clash" or "Why we don't get along well." Now the parties can choose to interact differently and get better results! When you're down to your final candidates, utilize some type of profile tool to verify and give you insight. It puts some logic into an emotional choice.

5. Coaching and the Peter Principle: The Peter Principle simply states: "A person will rise to their highest level of incompetence and stay there!" The question becomes, how well can we "Coach" this new hire? So you find the right candidate with the right skill and behavior sets. Who is going to coach them for higher performance? Does management have the skill sets and time to do so? How much have you invested in time and effort to get to this point only to have it wasted because the management wasn't prepared?

I know of one organization that has a long and successful history in their industry. They are very cash rich and financially solid. The president has indicated "this is a family" and no one gets fired. It is know by several mangers in the organization that there are some "problem" managers in place where the Peter Principle is rampant, yet nothing is done. And yes, they hire good sales people only to have them leave in 2-3 years because they are tired of the BS!

The key here is to hire the right people, but also to make sure you have the right leadership in place! If you want Entertainers & Hunters in your sales force for high performance, it would be best not to have a Competent in charge of them! It will be nothing but conflict that eats up energy, time and productivity from both parties. You'll need a different skill set to manage this sales force and be the buffer between the other departments and Competent styles. They do not see the world the same way as the Entertainers & Hunters.

Summary:

1. The real key is to have a clear idea of what skills sets and behavior style is best for the position.
2. Once you have this clearly defined it is easier to find those factors in your candidates. You can even define these in your talent search and eliminate those that do not fit.
3. Utilize testing to add a logical element to your hiring.
4. Be sure the management that is in place is capable of managing this profile effectively.
5. Be sure the coaching and training is in place to assure the new candidates success!

Best of luck in your finding talent, it is out there!

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Article Tags: accounting, classic case, conversations, engineer, engineers design, gap, glasses, gutter, insight, marketing sales, personality, programmer, revolts, salespeople, set in stone, single one, spread sheets, stop gap, tension, top producers



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