Peak Sales Recruiting’s founder Eliot Burdett was recently interviewed by Internet entrepreneur and Maverick 1000 CEO, Yanik Silver.
During the 60 minute interview Burdett shared many aspects of sales recruiting and hiring mastery, including the traits of a an “A-player” sales achiever and why they are so hard to find, how to attract top sales talent to your company, how to save money on hiring, how to approach compensation, how to save management time and money by hiring sales reps that will perform in the desired role and belong in your company, how to assess and interview potential sales hires and how to ramp them up quickly once you have hired them.
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
We were recently putting together the interview script for a sales hiring project we are working on and I was thinking about some of the nutty questions that have been popular over the years.
“What would you say was your weakest attribute?” This is not an uncommon interview question and I can remember asking this myself back when I was a young hiring manager. I had replies ranging from the lame, “I try too hard” (but what did I expect?) to the forthright, “not having time for silly questions.” (She got a job, by the way!)
Not that long ago “cute” questions were considered illuminating and insightful. I am not quite sure what interviewers get from questions like that, but there was a time when, “how do you fit an elephant in a VW Beetle?” or “how would you move a mountain?” were popular. There is no “right” answer but how the candidate replied was supposed to shed light on the personality of a candidate and into how they would perform in a certain role.
Things have evolved since then and today we rely more on “behavioral interviewing” techniques; asking people to describe how they have behaved in relevant situations in the past. This line of inquiry gives us insight into how a candidate will react when confronted with a similar situation in the future. For instance, describe the activities you engaged in to open new accounts in your previous role or describe how you won over a customer that wanted to buy from an incumbent supplier. For a comprehensive list of sales interviewing questions, check this article out!
We also tend to avoid “imaginary scenarios” because they aren’t that useful for separating the weak candidates from the strong ones. For example, any sales rep can provide a great textbook answer to a question like “if you worked here, how would you open up a new account?”
Quirky questions might have a place in trying to see measure someone’s level of creativity or fit with an unusual culture, but for the most part they won’t give you much proof of a candidate’s ability to excel in the sales role for which you are hiring.
To your success!
Photo Credit: milos milosevic via Compfight cc
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Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
The harsh reality of being in management is that along with the buzz you get giving someone a job and a chance to earn their living and work at something they (hopefully) enjoy, there will be times when you have to fire the very same individual and in sales unfortunately this invariably happens more often than in other company functions.
Whatever the reason for the termination of their employment, here are six ways NOT to fire a sales rep and yes, these are all examples I have experienced personally or recently heard about either from salespeople or from sales managers.
Here are 6 things to avoid doing when terminating a salesperson:
1. Send a termination message by text
It’s bad enough when you have to let someone go by phone either because they are remote and travel to their location is not feasible or because you are stuck somewhere and are forced to make a change on short notice, but via SMS? Our recruiters spoke to someone that was relieved of their duties this way and while I appreciate that no one likes to deliver a termination message live, there may be legal issues with not providing a full and complete termination notice and it is certainly more human to have a call or meeting so you can address any questions the departing sales rep might have.
2. Neglect to be upfront as to why you are firing them
While saying too much could give them ammunition to fire back at you in a court challenge to their dismissal, telling them false reasons, even if it is to make everyone feel better about the firing, is wrong. It will only come back and haunt you. Whenever I have had communicate a termination, I have always couched the message in such a way that they leave accepting they were not suited for that role, but are still worthwhile individuals. Keep in mind that their ego is going to be bruised and they have to find a new job. Furthermore, if they give their new employer spurious reasons why they were fired and, when checked, the new boss discovers a different story, then that won’t help the departed staff member at all.
3. Try to make things lighter
You are doing something that is not pleasant, for you or them so don’t try to make it into something it isn’t. Now is not the time to try to boost their confidence with compliments that will likely seem insincere. You are changing their life’s course. They now have to find new employment and figure out how they are paying next month’s bills. Also don’t offer more help than you can give. You can be as helpful and supportive, but ultimately you are parting ways so there is no point in offering them more support than you are actually in a position to provide. Strike the right balance.
4. Tell them they are fired before securing company assets
This could be your price list, client list or some other proprietary information. Letting them go back to their work-station and log on to the company network might not be the wisest of moves. Except for a couple of times, I have always had a departing sales rep surrender company assets such as lap tops, mobile phones, cars and product information at the time of the dismissal. Even if there is no perceived security threat, it is an emotional experience for everyone and always best to err on the side of safety and in any event, it is always easier to retrieve everything in the moment. In some cases, you will want to walk the person out of the office and as ‘Big Brother’ as it may look to other staff, having security or a more senior executive accompany them as they clear out their things makes good sense. How it is done is the key to everyone retaining their dignity and morale. The alternative, losing perhaps millions of dollars of company assets just to not ruffle the feathers of the dismissed employee often impacts unfairly on everyone else’s job security. Your call.
5. Forget “administrivia”
Upon termination, a departing employee will want to know what termination pay they will be entitled to and any trailing commissions. You need to have these answers and you will want to make sure you are clear on these prior to the termination meeting so you know what commitments you are taken on as a result of the dismissal.
6. Fail to be sympathetic
It is a big deal, most likely the biggest thing they have had to deal with in their time with the company. It will impact their life and the lives of their loved ones after you tell them they are fired. Over the years, I have had dismissed employees break down or express anger. As I said it is an emotional experience, so give them a moment to absorb and process the news.
Firing someone is never fun, but it can be done with dignity and respect for all concerned and move on to bigger and better things for all concerned. If you handle it well.
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
We have said it many times. The world’s second oldest profession has changed more in the last fifteen years than it has through all of time. Dan Pink’s latest book, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, covers this evolution and if you love selling as much as we do, you will love this book.
First of all Pink is not a salesperson, so you don’t get the typical rah-rah, salesmanship that you would naturally expect to find in a sales book written by a sales person. Pink is a business and management author that has extensively studied motivation and psychology so he has some degree of objectivity.
Some key points in the book:
We Are All in Sales – this has never been more true that it is now. while 1 in 9 people in the workforce are involved in traditional sales, the other 8 in 9 are engaged in non-sales selling and influencing others which consumes a significant percentage of work time.
Caveat Venditor – buyers have access to so much information and choice that honesty, fairness and transparency now rules sales over old school sales tricks and manipulations.
New Science of Selling – Pink proposes a new model for success in sales which involves creating meaningful connections and providing service.
The Value of Purpose – Pink shows how people don’t have to sell out to out sell.
If you sell or manage sales, or want to know more about the most important profession in the world, get this book.
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Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
One of the biggest challenges faced by hiring managers and sales leaders looking to hire is how to get exposure to top sales talent. Creating more sales candidate flow won’t necessary get the right person to show up at your door, but the more people you are exposed to certainly increases the chances that you will find someone that can help your sales team be more successful.
Post Ads – there are many job boards that can raise the awareness about your open position and don’t forget Craigslist as a source of talent for certain types of positions.
Linked-in – probably the largest resume database in the world, if you look for people here, you will have to be an expert at searching or you will be overwhelmed with the number of people with whom you are interested in speaking.
Facebook – the largest social network in the world, so the chances are the people that you want are here.
Competitors – If your competitors have a good track record and a similar culture then it is likely they have sales people that can help you.
Outside your Industry – Look at the career history of your top performers – are some sectors a better source of new talent than others?
Referrals – ask your network or even your customers who you could approach about your open positions.
Networking – industry and social events are a great place to find sales people.
Candidate Database – search through your database of people that have submitted resumes to your company for people that you have spoken to in the past that you may want to go back to
Internal Referral Programs – existing employees can be a great source of new sales talent, especially when combined with some kind of incentive like recognition or a gift.
Hire a Sales Recruiter – of course we are biased, but if you have tried some or all of the items on this list and still need to get to the right candidate, call us to leverage our large team of people that do this on a daily basis.
In many cases, the biggest challenge is that the great sales people that you want to speak with are unaware that your open role exists. The purpose of generating candidate flow is to get enough candidates in front of you so that you are picking from the best that exist rather than the best that apply. To make the best decision, you need choice. Lots of choice.
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
In the weeks to come we are going to address the various questions that a VP of Sales or CEO are faced with as they are looking at developing a kick-a$$, bullet-proof sales recruiting strategy and process. These strategies will apply whether you are a VP Sales/CEO of a enterprise or a small company.
The topics we will ask and address are as follows:
Creating a large candidate pool
Developing pre-defined success criteria
Defining an effective interview process (who does what & when)
Conduct effective sales interviews
Using tools and exercises to help you assess the suitability of candidates
Pre-negotiating compensation before the offer
Ensuring candidates are not counter-offered.
Checking references and how do to a sales specific reference
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Never underestimate what you can learn from checking the references of someone you are thinking about hiring and never get so enamoured by a prospective hire that you don’t bother to make reference checks part of your hiring process.
Here are some of the most insightful things we have learned from years of checking sales candidate references.
Great person, but not for sales – One time I received a call about a sales rep who had worked for me, which surprised me since I had terminated this particular rep several years earlier due to poor performance. Not wanting to mislead the caller, I disclosed that the rep was a great person, but not meant for sales based on what I had seen.
No managerial references – often we will get a list of references that include peers, customers and senior executives in companies that the candidate worked, but no former managers which is a huge red flag. Great sales people have a long list of former bosses with heaps of praise for the candidate.
Wait a second, they said what? – Sometimes during the interview process, a sales person will get a little over confident about their accomplishments and when you check references, you find a different version of what actually happened. Perhaps the deals were slightly smaller, or were closed by someone else altogether.
This is how I got the most from them – A best case scenario on a reference check is finding out that the potential hire is in fact solid and worth hiring, and in addition, you find out how previous managers were able to coach the best results from that particular sales person.
References are always worth pursuing when hiring sales. Make sure they are part of your hiring process.
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Removed from the sales effort in the trenches, the CFO is not always in a great
position to understand the impact of the sales compensation plan on the behavior of the sales force. Since it is the
CFO’s role to help the company to be successful from a business and financial perspective, it follows that it is
critical to work with the sales and human resources leadership to create compensation plans that result in the right
sales results.
Here are five things the CFO needs to understand about sales commission and incentive plans that work:
Tie rewards to the right outcomes – while this may sound obvious, we often see this rule
broken. If a company’s objectives are not revenue growth, it doesn’t make sense to reward sales reps for revenue
achievement at the expense of all other outcomes such as profit or customer satisfaction.
Keep it simple – the less complicated the plan, the easier it will be for reps to act in a way
that earns rewards. The more complicated the plan the more likely that reps will either be confused and
frustrated about how their work produces rewards, or they may focus on the area of the plan that they understand
which may not in fact be the priority results the company wishes to receive.
Report regularly – sales people, like most people, want to see immediate feedback that they are
doing the right things and succeeding. Consequently, providing results on a regular basis helps motivate the
reps and react as quickly as possible when behavior needs to be adjusted in order to produce better results and
rewards.
Pay regularly – many comp plans pay long after the triggering behavior has occurred. Again we
all like to see the fruits of our labor as quickly as possible as this provides the incentive to continue
performing. While it may be great for cash flow to extend the time between a success event and paying
commissions, plans that pay out long after a rep has done “the right things” don’t necessarily provide strong
positive reinforcement of the behavior.
Don’t mess with a good thing – one of the biggest beefs for sales reps are plans that regularly
change. While it may make financial sense to change plans regularly to match changing market conditions and
company goals, it becomes self defeating if the reps are not properly motivated because they don’t understand a
new plan or if they are rewarded less for doing the same things as they did under the old plan. In a worst case
this can lead to turnover and loss of top producers who will seek to work for other employers with more
favorable sales compensation plans.
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and
leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams.
He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also
Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton
University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales
Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales
team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Nothing in life is as much fun as having fun and that is why its always great to try and turn work into a game. Sales competitions are powerful motivators because they bring out the competitive spirit in sales people and encourage sales team members to have fun while they are working hard.
Put some fun into your team when you gamify your sales efforts with these sales gamification methods:
Scoreboard – we have a big screen TV in our office that tracks metrics vs Q goals and all of us look at it regularly while we scheme ways to improve the results.
Prizes – obviously the sales commission is the big prize, but find ways to add rewards for finishing first, second, and third amongst a team and watch the team compete. The prizes don’t he to be large or even financial, sometimes a toy trophy is all it takes to create the right mood.
Mini competitions -Incent the behaviors that lead to sales for instance a competition for most calls or meetings, or create energy surges by having a contes for most calls in a day or most meetings in a week.
Apps – there are several apps that tie in to CRM data and allow you to get granular with the games assigning points to different events and updating results in real time.
Have fun – encourage team members to pick goofy nicknames that can be used on the scoreboard which further enhance the sport and spirit of competition.
Your sales will never be the same. To your success!
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Dana Lewis is the Director of Human Resources at the Tomlinson Group of companies and has almost 20 years of experience as an HR professional, hiring top talent and building high performance teams. We recently had a chance to speak to her about hiring sales people.
Peak: How has hiring sales people changed over your career?
Dana: In the mid-90’s, hiring a new sales person meant calling up the Sales VP and asking for the phone numbers for his friends. You would interview a few people and choose the guy that was the best ‘people person’. Now, there is much more of a science to the process. A good sales person still needs to be likeable, but they need to understand what it means to build a partnership with their customers. It is not just about closing one deal – it is about building a long term relationship. They need to understand requirements of their customers and continual build upon their skills.
Peak: What are some of the biggest challenges in hiring sales people?
Dana: Sales people can usually sell, which means they are also good at interviewing and up-selling themselves. So, I’ve been tricked a couple of times into hiring the best interviewee, opposed to the best candidate. So, the challenge is selecting the best candidate for the role, not the best person at interviewing.
Peak: What are some of the strategies you employ to hire sales people that become consistent contributors at the companies you have worked for?
Dana: I like to get an understanding of their quota achievements, and be able to prove it with actual documentation. I find out about new customer development and how they hold on to their existing customer base. How do they follow the industry trends and what plans do they have to change with these trends.
Peak: What is the role of culture in sales hiring?
Dana: A sales person is a front line representative of your company, they need to be a reflection of what you want your company to represent. So, culture is very important.
Peak: How is hiring sales managers different from hiring sales people?
Dana: Being able to lead and motivate sales people is very different from being able to close a deal.
Peak: The sales organization and the human resource function are under very different pressures and in some companies there is tension between the two organizations. How have you managed to work effectively with sales organizations in your career?
Dana: Sometimes there are cowboy sales people, but ultimately sales people and HR all work towards the same goal – making the company successful. I find that if you try to understand the other person’s perspective and explain your reasoning to them we can usually come to a solution to work together.
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Removed from the sales effort in the trenches, the CFO is not always in a great