Experience is not always the key in hiring salespeople!

Finding a great salesperson is a noble quest that few get right.   Yet identifying a rockstar seller is literally a game-changer for any business.   As a buyer of products and services, each of us have worked extensively with salespeople as both a consumer and a business professional.  It is this experience set that we feel fantastically informs our hiring decision.  This is a misguided notion!  Rather, it is a crippling mindset that imbues us with unearned confidence.  Let’s digest that a bit.  How many of those salespeople that you worked with responded to your inquiry?   More importantly, how many found you?  (It is my hearty recommendation that you retain the contact information for this later group!).

According to Crunchbase, reps that don’t do cold outreach have 42% less sales growth.  However, cold calling has only a 2% success rate on average.  That is a huge dollop of rejection that few can endure over the long haul.  The revealing question, then, is what do these persistent cold callers have in common?  The answer is that it isn’t their experience, it is their “Sales DNA”.  It’s not what they learned, its who they are.

Very often as we embark on the arduous task to add or replace a seller, we invariably seek to find industry-experienced sellers with deep contacts among the buying community.  Make no mistake, this is hugely valuable.  But as you are looking to make a hire, it’s critical that one honestly explores where you need to be on the Experience – Sales DNA spectrum.  Ideally, we seek to find an individual that is strong on both measures.  However, the data does not favor that outcome.  In a famous research study of over 2,000,000 salespeople, only 6% were “elite.”  Their success had no known correlation to their industry experience.  It was their “Sales DNA”.  It was not only their ability to do the work – but their drive to do so vigorously and continuously over the long run.  So, it comes down to one clarifying question;

“How quickly and thoroughly can I teach a talented, natural seller to be successful in my business?”

Depending on the competitive advantage for your company’s products/services and your onboarding capabilities, you might have greater long-term success hiring a strong seller with no industry experience than a very experienced (and expensive) sales veteran.  These veterans tend to have great experience with decision makers who, at some point will graduate or retire out of their positions- leaving a veteran with less sway. While a tenacious seller will continually do the required activity to continue to bring new companies into your client portfolio.

Sales assessments are valuable but should only be about 25%-40% of your decision.  It is the sales hiring process that is the magic to creating an unstoppable sales force that will be the envy of your industry!

Why quit so quickly?

We have all heard the Woody Allen saying, “80% of success in life is just showing up.” I would like to append his quote so as to remove any ambiguity. “80% of success in life is just showing up, again and again and again!” I read the following statistics recently and felt compelled to share them with you,

48% of sales people don’t follow up
25% make two contacts with a prospect and stop
12% make only 3 contacts and stop
10% of sales people make more than 3 contacts

Now compare the above with the realities of sales:

2% of sales are made on the first contact
3% of sales are made on the second contact
5% of sales are made on the third contact
10% of sales are made on the forth contact
80% of sales are made on the 5-12th contact – depending on the many variables of a particular sale such as size and frequency of the transaction, geography, seasonality, etc.

Nevertheless, the data is staggering. Most outbound sales efforts are meaningless in the absence of a process that allows for sustained contact with a qualified prospect. The truth is that just because you are ready (because you have a quota to fill or payroll to meet) doesn’t mean that the prospect is quite there yet. Consider that most of the time you are typically talking to the 90% that aren’t ready. That doesn’t mean you drop them in the everlasting search for the 10% that are ready now. It means that you must engineer your sales process so that you can have a meaningful and value-steeped contact leading up to their preparedness. If you wait till they are ready – then you are coming into the process too late and will likely have to be competing on price.

Stay relevant and when they are ready – most of your work will have been done!

To your Success!