{"id":3833,"date":"2023-02-17T13:21:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T18:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/distributionstrategy.com\/?p=3833"},"modified":"2023-02-17T13:21:02","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T18:21:02","slug":"advice-you-need-to-hear-about-hiring-salespeople","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/distributionstrategy.com\/2023\/02\/advice-you-need-to-hear-about-hiring-salespeople\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice You Need to Hear About Hiring Salespeople"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top performing salespeople are like the Olympic athletes of the corporate world or the astronauts of business. To do their job well, they need to have \u201cthe right stuff.\u201d While I respect and love our marketing and service counterparts, and accountants, HR pros, project managers, and others, not everyone needs to stand and deliver in the way that our sales forces must. <\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone deserves training, development, support and coaching. Not everyone, though, is pushing massive boulders up hill in a tornado, while being taunted by a carrot and poked by a stick. There are other departments that can take a company down (think about an unscrupulous finance leader or CEO) but <\/span>none that can <\/span><\/i>save a company<\/span><\/i> if the sales force fails to produce<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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And, even with our sales forces, the old adage remains true\u2026<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA chain is only as strong as its weakest link.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

~ Thomas Reid (in <\/span>Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man<\/span><\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

A senior sales leader at a client said to me recently, \u201cWe need to be like a \u2018Seal Team.\u2019\u201d I can\u2019t begin to tell you how much I respect that. If we want to build a sales force at this level, in today\u2019s market, especially, we can\u2019t afford weak links, can we?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what is it that separates the best from the rest? And how do you build this sort of team? The nature versus nature debate has raged for years. It\u2019s a relevant discussion in the context of organizational performance and especially for sales force performance.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are two other quotes that, for me, have always exemplified the sides of this debate:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGet the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

~ Jim Collins (in <\/span>Good to Great<\/span><\/i>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPit a good performer against a bad system and the system will win almost every time.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

~ Geary Rummler (<\/span>Performance Consulting Pioneer<\/span><\/a>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you feel that tension? Now, in fairness to Collins and Rummler, I\u2019ve taken their quotes out of context. Neither was advocating for just one side of this issue. But juxtaposing them does illustrate the point.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While there are proponents on both sides, as usual, the truth lies in the middle of a sliding scale. It\u2019s a blend of having the right people (nature) <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> creating an environment that supports high performance (nurture).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Behavior is a Function of the Person and the Environment<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"Lewin's<\/p>\n

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Kurt Lewin, one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology, brought the two sides together in his equation, B = f(P, E).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The equation means that an individual’s <\/span>behavior<\/span><\/b> (B) is a <\/span>function<\/span><\/b> (f) of:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n