Understanding the Sales Force

I hear that one a lot.  The assumption here is that you were getting resumes before and you’re not now.  This is almost always a case of not understanding the need to repost your ad each week.

The Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University has invited me to conduct my intensive two-day workshop to help you develop a world-class process for hiring top sales talent at your company.  The ISBM does some really wonderful things under the direction of Ralph Oliva and this event is a great example.  You can check out the calendar of all their upcoming events here and their previous events here.

Salespeople need to close sales at the first bonafide closing opportunity – the point at which (in the Baseline Selling model) all the bases have been touched. Bob, who I wrote about yesterday, tends to let people put him off if he thinks they have a valid reason. George tends to blow people up when he thinks they’re putting him off. Somewhere, in between, exists a happy medium.

It takes real salespeople to differentiate your company, its products and the value you provide.  Take the salespeople out of the equation and you guarantee that yours will be a commodity, with price the only criteria.

One attendee asked about my comprehensive guidelines for on boarding new salespeople during the first 90 Days.  I believe that most companies set their new salespeople up for failure.  I believe you should prepare your new salespeople for success.  While I have probably posted about this subject on various occasions, I’ll try to get it all in here.

Most management teams don’t have a clue how to interview a sales candidate.  I’ve seen them waste precious time reviewing their job history.  I’ve seen them put candidates through hypothetical situations, and attempt to pass judgement on whether candidates have sales ability despite the fact that most of them don’t know how make that determination!