12 Differences Between Your Salespeople and Sales Candidates

  • September 28, 2011
  • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
  • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

I was reviewing data for a recent subset of the salespeople that Objective Management Group has assessed and  was analyzing the distribution of the Commitment finding when I decided to separate the findings into two groups:

  1. Sales Candidates – those who had applied for positions at your companies.
  2. Existing salespeople – those who were part of a company-wide sales force evaluation.
While comparing the two sets of data, I saw something we had not previously noticed.
Salespeople that already work for you are TWICE AS LIKELY to LACK Commitment than candidates applying for sales positions at your company.
What are some of the possible reasons for this discrepancy?  Here are 12:
  1. Your salespeople are complacent
  2. Your salespeople are not truly salespeople
  3. You may have moved some of your people into sales roles
  4. You may have selected the wrong people for the role
  5. Your salespeople are taking the path of least resistance
  6. Your salespeople don’t have anything to prove
  7. Your salespeople aren’t being held accountable
  8. Your sales management isn’t recognizing the signs
  9. The candidates will do anything to prove themselves worthy
  10. The candidates are true salespeople
  11. The candidates are more motivated
  12. The candidates want to work
Feel free to add your own thoughts to the comments below…
If you are one of the stubborn leaders who hold on to under performing salespeople, thinking the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t, get over it.  As long as you are using OMG’s predictive sales candidate assessment, you’ll surely hire salespeople who are stronger than those you have in place today.