Different industries also have different sales rhythms the size and number of deals in a year. Some salespeople are used to a deal a day, some one per week, some one per month, and with some organizations, its only one deal per year. Knowing what percentage of their business came from repeat orders vs. new name or competitive sales can indicate whether they are a hunter or a farmer.
Another challenge is taking transactional salespeople and putting them in a long sales cycle. Some salespeople are better at more frequent sales rhythms, whereas others are better at working on bigger deals over long periods of time.
Are Great Salespeople Born or Made?
I am often asked if great selling ability is something that people are born with or whether training is necessary. Without a doubt, there are great intuitive salespeople with innate abilities (see Figure 42).
Dave Sample, a long-time client of ours, now at Blackboard, summed up the problem like this: Heroics dont scale. Yes, there are people who can do this intuitively, but there arent enough of them. You have to find them and you have to grow them.
Not only that, but intuitive salespeople are unconscious about their competence. If your sales model is different from their experience, they may not be able to adapt because often they are good but dont know why.
So both hiring and training are important. But what can we change in a person, and what is in a person that is too difficult or time-consuming to try to change?
The nature versus nurture question has been the subject of many stories over the years, as in the movies Wall Street and The Firm, for example. In both stories, the main character was tempted to actions outside their basic principles, with grave consequences, only to find their true character in the end.
In Figure 42, it can be seen that there are things in a persons DNA and in their early developmentintelligence, personality, core valuesthat are very hard to change. And a person may change behavior a little for a little while. But if that change is at odds with the persons inner fiber, eventually, they will snap back or be ineffective because their heart is really
not in their actions. Thus these inner core traits are what you should really focus on in your hiring. In my experience, people usually have to bring these things with them.
The next layer outgoals, habits, and principles are drivers of action and daily choices. If these are to be changed in a person, they need to be changed within the first 90 days of when the person is hired. The company may set a goal or principle for a person on the outer ring of the figure, but if that goal or principle is not owned in the persons heart, the result is usually a weak or false effort and ultimately, replacement.
Heroics dont scale.There are people who do this intuitively, but there arent enough of them. You have to find them and you have to grow them.
Notice how far inside we have placed habits. This is where the subconscious overrides the conscious. Changing organizational behavior often means changing individual behavior, which often takes time and consistency.
In the United States, HR managers are very nervous about the types of questions asked in interviews for fear of litigation. In reality, lawsuits probably are cheaper than bad hires. (A statement such as this usually sends HR managers right through the roof.) The problem is that the cost of bad hires is invisible and the cost of litigation is very visible. The truth is that bad hire costs, as we have discussed, are very expensive.
Each one of these elements has a number of questions that will help you to drill down past the standard questions to find the right things youre looking for. We have to get through what theyve done and what they seem to be to who they really are.
Personal Accountability
As you would blame others, blame yourself; As you would forgive yourself, forgive others.ownChinese proverb
Life is a grindstone. Whether it sharpens you up or wears you down depends on what you are made of.
One researcher asked a set of twinsone a successful physician and the other a derelictthe same question: What contributed most to where you are in life?Both answered,Well, what would you expect from the son of an alcoholic?
One used his background as an excuse.The other used it as a driver.
My favorite interview question is, When did you become an adult and how did you know? This will tell you when the person took personal accountability
for their life.
Most successful people have an answer for this question. For some, it was a memorable event, such as the death of a parent. For others, it was a series of events, such as when they went away to college, when they got married, or when they had their first child. Or it may have been when they got their first job or when they took charge of their spiritual life.