How do you know who will make it in sales? Millions are spent annually on assessments and interviews to determine where the talent lives and who can help build sales success. With that level of investment, it is really important that we measure the right things.
Many companies measure experience, while others measure mostly aptitude. Some measure credentials and educational background too.
While useful, these are only contributors to success in selling. The underlying traits that make success more likely are these:
- Proactive Work Ethic and Results Orientation
- Emotional Resilience
- Communication Skill
- Listening
- Integrity
- Humility and Gratitude
- Ambition and Drive
- Efficiency
- Commitment to Succeed
- Activity and Results Tracking
- It is the person we are hiring, not the resume. What we need is someone who will proactively work to make us more successful. That means that it has to be important to them like it is to us. Higher pay or big commissions won’t make that happen. Nor will an advanced degree necessarily predict future achievement. In fact, many of the highly successful sales people we have known acquired their advanced degrees only after becoming successful sales professionals. Those we hire must already eagerly want to succeed and be willing to work hard in order to make it so. Then we can guide them to best practices and help them refine their skills and knowledge.
- They must be mature enough to be able to bounce back from disappointments and failures, as well as keeping successes in perspective. In other words, “getting over it” must be a part of their make-up. Explore situations they faced that would get someone down and see how they rebounded from them.
- Communication isn’t just talking. It’s also; empathizing, negotiating, conversing with strangers, clarity of expression, creative expression, presentation skill, public speaking, working a room and having a compelling delivery. Look for people who can help you understand complex or confusing information.
- Communication’s little brother is Listening. Maybe even its Big Brother. In order to listen, you must actually want to hear. You must learn what to be curious about and explore ways to draw it out of people who are not like you. Ability to probe well and knowing when to shut up and when to speak up are essential.
- The highest compliment you can give someone is that they are trustworthy. That means you understand who they are, feel confident in what they’ll do when you aren’t supervising them, and you believe that they will tell you the truth, even if it’s bad news. Integrity is the trait behind this. Check to assure that your candidate has the courage and integrity to do the right thing and to make things right.
- Humility and Gratitude are paired here because they come from the same place. Arrogant people might seem confident and strong, but their operating assumption is that they are in charge and others are not. Humble people respect others and appreciate the courtesies, gifts and blessings that come.
- Someone who has the drive to achieve, who is ambitious to advance, will take initiative more often and persist longer. They’ll stick to the plan to fully give it a chance to work. Those who are not ambitious will give up when difficulty arises.
- Efficiency is doing the right things right. Looking for better ways, more accurate information, fewer steps or better ones. As long as someone is willing to work, we know they’ll advance. But when they also continually seek improvements to their workflow, and ways to save time and effort while still getting the results, then they’ll improve constantly. Someone who makes 100 calls is valuable, but someone who makes 100 calls with a higher ratio of wins is much more valuable.
- Commitment means it’s going to happen! Everyone “wants” to succeed but only a few are truly committed to it. Look for people who see every brick wall as a starting point instead of an impediment. Somewhere, somehow, with some new resources, or a different approach…it can be done!
- Winners keep score. In any professional game you’ll find that the winners, the real pros, always know the score even without looking at the scoreboard. They keep the numbers in their heads and track their successes. Baseball players can tell you their batting average against left-handed pitchers, in the early innings, on a rainy day, while playing out of town. It’s amazing the statistics that some of these people keep! We as sales pros should do likewise. Know your ratios of calls to contacts in each market. Know which parts of each sales cycle need your attention next. Track your results and the actual value of them. Know how many customers you retain and how to keep them even longer. What you track tells me what you care about.
When we hire sales people based on the personal and professional qualities that they bring then we will start finding more success with each of them. Hire the person, not the resume nor test scores.