hiring salespeople

  • An Inside Look at Why 3 Good Salespeople Failed and 3 So-So Salespeople Succeeded

    • January 9, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You hired a great salesperson that didn’t work out.  You hired a so-so salesperson that did work out.  You hired another great one that kicked ass, and another one that was so-so.  That’s the story of hiring salespeople.  It’s mostly hit or miss with an emphasis on miss.

    In this article I’m going to share an actual example that illustrates why this happens so frequently.  I’ll show you tangible differences between three salespeople who succeeded and three who failed in the same role at the same company.

    Most of the time when we perform these analyses the differences are usually seen inside of the 21 Sales Core Competencies – the performers are strong in the necessary competencies and the failures are not.

    So let’s dig into some data, shall we?

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  • Good Sales Recruiting is Like Selecting Movies and TV Shows

    • November 5, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Do you like movies and TV Shows?  I love them!

    How do you go about selecting the next movie or show you will watch?  Do you look for a specific show, watch the trailer and if you like the trailer, watch it?  Or, do you look at all of the new releases, or everything in a particular genre, narrow down the selections, watch several trailers, and finally choose one?

    Most people use the second scenario which, by the way, is a very good approach for selecting and hiring salespeople.  Unfortunately, that’s not how most companies go about it.

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  • Six Overlooked Factors When Hiring Salespeople

    • April 11, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I’ve been sick with my annual bout of asthmatic bronchitis – fun stuff – and the question I’ve been asking myself is, “how long will it last this year?”  Historically, it’s takes 2-4 weeks for this to subside and it sucks big time during that 2-4 weeks.  But thinking about time frames got me thinking about one of the universal timelines and challenges facing companies everywhere.

    How long should it take for a new salesperson to become successful and why do so many of them fail?

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  • Great Example of Why Sales Success Is Not Always Transferable

    • April 24, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Would a NFL Quarterback make a good MLB pitcher?  Would a star MLB hitter be a great Pro Golfer?  Would an all-star NBA Center be an effective Lacrosse player?

    Right now, an event is occurring on the world stage that shows, in a very persuasive way, why success in sales isn’t always transferrable from one company, industry or role to another.

    For example, a startup storage technology company hired all the salespeople they could get from the most well-known and well-respected company in their space.  The leadership team expected that these experienced and credible salespeople would leverage the new company’s great new technology and cause sales to take off like a rocket for Storageville (made up name).  It didn’t happen.

    Another company hired a Sales VP from a well-known Fortune 1000 company and believed that his experience would make it easy for him to build a top-performing sales organization like the one he ran at Fortuneville (made up name).  It didn’t happen.

    These two examples aren’t exceptions to the rule.  They are the rule.  But the rule to what?  I’ll explain the context for the rule and explain the event that serves as such a great example.

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  • Increase Odds of Successful Sales Hire by 368%

    • November 6, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A Harvard Business Review study proved that using pre-employment assessments increased the probability of a successful hire from 13% to 72%.

    I read that exact statement in a marketing promo for a search company and as they hoped, it got my attention. I thought the premise would make for a good article. I began by searching Google for the source of that quote and low and behold, I couldn’t locate it. I can’t say for sure that the study doesn’t exist or the percentages aren’t correct but I could not find a single thing that correlated to that quote.

    Of course it makes sense that no such statistic exists

    because with assessments making that much of a difference, it would be a no-brainer for every company to use them and on what planet are the chances of success only 13%?

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  • Can Preventing Hiring Bias Benefit the Sales Hiring Process?

    • August 21, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You’re hiring and you need to identify the ideal salesperson for a particular sales role and you need someone to sell enterprise solutions to the C-Suite.  Aside from all of the other requirements, you’ll need to find someone who has done this before.

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  • Has the Sales Profile of an A Player Changed Dramatically?

    • February 3, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Recently, a number of readers asked me to review two articles which they thought were right up my alley.  Apparently they thirst for one of my specialties – poking holes in articles that are just plain wrong about hiring salespeople.  It’s not that I enjoy ripping articles apart, it’s just that I don’t have any tolerance for authors who either don’t know what they are talking about, don’t have any science backing them up, or use examples that can’t be replicated across industries, markets and geographies.  Shall we dig in?

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  • Is Benchmarking or Perfect Fit Analysis More Predictive for Selecting Great Salespeople?

    • October 7, 2015
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I will actually show you the difference between benchmarking and the Perfect Fit Analysis that we use as proof to clients and to customize Objective Management Group’s (OMG) Sales Candidate Assessments.

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  • Sales Selection Case History – The Fix for This Insanity Works 99% of the Time

    • October 2, 2015
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you had a crystal ball to predict whether or not your next sales candidate would succeed in a difficult selling role at your company, wouldn’t you want to use it?  Heck, you would want to look into that thing even if it wasn’t a difficult selling role.  But what if you were recruiting kids right out of college?  What would you do then?  Would you just recruit a whole bunch of kids and keep the ones who didn’t quit?  Would you hire three times more than you needed and just keep the ones who were successful?  Would you just hire anyone who looked and sounded good and go from there?  What if you could use the crystal ball?  Could that even work with college grads?  Recently, we had an opportunity to study and answer that very question and the results will surprise you!

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  • Why You Must Hire Salespeople Right Now

    • June 4, 2015
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Forbes conducted a survey of Fortune 500 CEO’s and 82% of them said they would be hiring more people within 2 years.  Why should that be important to you?  

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