- January 7, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Dave Kurlan is a top-rated keynote speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and expert on all things sales and selling.
Got you on that title, didn’t I?
Did you ever find yourself in a position where you needed to hire salespeople? Of course you did.
Did you use Objective Management Group’s (OMG) incredibly accurate and predictive sales candidate assessments as part of your filtering and selection process? Perhaps you did.
Did you decide to augment the candidates whom you were finding and hire a recruiter? Perhaps you did that too.
That’s when all the fun starts!
Recruiters think that all of their candidates walk on water. Clients think that because of our assessment, quality advice and guidance that we walk on water.
So the recruiter sends 5 of the best candidates ever to the client, who has them assessed, and 3 are not recommended. The recruiter is upset, “Why are you using that stupid assessment? You don’t need that! I know these candidates and they’re awesome.”
We simply explain to our client why the recruiter has such a high opinion of the candidate (they represent a commission) and why we don’t share that opinion. There are always excellent reasons why a candidate may not be recommended for a particular client, and in some cases, for any client.
The client feels stuck between a rock and a hard place.
It’s just like the title of this article.
You hurt your back and feel tremendous pain. Your doctor tells you that you’ll require surgery to repair a bulging disc. He suggests bed rest until the following month’s surgery. A friend introduces you to his brother-in-law’s, girlfriend’s, cousin’s nutritionist, who has a yellow pill that will make all of your pain go away. Today. Right now. Decisions, decisions. Do you listen to your doctor who knows what’s best or go for the drug dealer’s quick fix?
To complete this sales analogy, OMG is the doctor, the recruiter is the drug dealer and the client is the user. It’s so easy to get and take the drug for temporary relief. It’s only money. But the surgery provides the proper long-term solution. If you take the drug (recruiter’s candidate) which wasn’t recommended by the doctor (OMG), you’ll be back for more when the euphoria wears off, realizing that you still have the disc problem (ineffective salesperson) and ultimately need the surgery (be selective and listen to the expert advice).
I don’t mean to upset recruiters, but let’s face it. They don’t go nearly as wide and deep on their candidates as we do. Most aren’t sales experts, and really don’t know if the salesperson who succeeded at XYZ can succeed at ABC. We, on the other hand, do know and can show you why, explain the science and provide accurate advice 95% of the time.
The doctor or the drug dealer? The choice is always yours!
Use this free tool to calculate the cost of your sales hiring mistakes. If you aren’t already an OMG client, you can get a free 72-hour trial of our award-winning sales candidate assessment. OMG was awarded the Gold Medal for Top Sales Assessment Tool in 2011 and 2012.
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