In my blog last week, I talked about the second behaviour that I think is the most important when you are looking to hire good salespeople –Achievement Potential. This measures the salespersons’ ability to be motivated by challenge, as opposed to being safe and secure.
This week’s discussion is around – Independence.
Summed up in one sentence: you want a sales person that is independent of you; as opposed to dependent on you.
In a sales environment, these people can be taught all the important information about your product or service and then not require hand-holding.
These people work best with people they like and respect.
Too many times when I work with teams, the sales managers simply do not stack up. It’s a problem worldwide. They try and micro manage people, and I can tell you it’s a recipe for disaster, because sales people are not comfortable with a culture that requires their every move to be managed.
How to maximize these people in your sales organisation:
Matching– You see this a lot in real-estate, matching a person with similar types that can create synergies together. I know in my case, we worked on this with sales assessment programmes that could provide us with the right behaviours for the role.
Involve: Sell a Culture Fit.
Explain your company sales strategy and challenge them to consider other ways to implement that strategy. This allows him / her space to explore their way of doing things that compliments that culture.
Have a good support network around them, team them up with support staff and others that can help and enable him / her to do what they do best: sell.
Finally, teach them how the company culture works. When you do this, it allows him /her to be an effective team member, and know where support is required.
Chat to you next week.
Mike
PS: We can help you find these people, just email me for a chat and I can take you through the Leading Sales Training Assessment Tool for Salespeople.
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Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!