Understanding the Sales Force

There are two variables that have a huge impact on your success using an assessment in the hiring process.  The first is which assessment you use.  The second is where in the process you use it.

We established 21 Core Competencies for Selling about a decade ago.  They’re still important but they might be evolving.  A salesperson’s ability to use the internet may now be just as important as his ability to prospect, develop a relationship, qualify and close business. 

There’s a moral to this story, a lesson learned right in my own back yard.  If the OMG Sales Candidate Assessment says, “Not Recommended”, do not, under any circumstances, hire the candidate. 

You probably know Jeffrey Gitomer, author of the Little Red Book of Selling and a syndicated columnist in many business journals. In this week’s column, Gitomer presented five internal senses required for having a sense of selling.

He says that “you must interpret the customer’s words, questions, tone, mood and motives in order to determine both where your opportunity is, and when that opportunity has surfaced.”Generally good advice.  But what would happen if we took it one step further?

Up until now, whenever I’ve mentioned Seth Godin, it’s been to take him to task on the subject of the “Death of Selling”. Today, Seth made lots of sense with his post on Getting Referrals.  I’ve also written a post on getting referrals.