Posted by on October 31, 2022.
As we close out the month of October, many organizations are making final sales force decisions to set their company up for revenue growth in 2023. With the unemployment rate at a 40-year low of 3.5%, as sales leaders explore their recruiting options they are finding it very difficult to find talented, experienced sales people. Because of this, some of our clients are considering hiring people already within the organization from functional areas outside of sales.
Resist the temptation! If you are considering someone from marketing, R&D, or Finance because they already know and understand your product line, you will likely be setting that person up for failure in sales. Some companies use the following thought process:
They seem friendly enough
They already know the products
We can easily teach them how to sell
Actually, the reverse is true. It is much easier to educate a new hire about you’re the company’s products, and significantly more difficult to teach someone the art of sales. When considering an individual for a job, you want to ensure you’re evaluating that person relative to the qualities required to perform successfully in a specific sales position within the organization. The PXT Select Sales Talent Management System can provide your organization with the data to recruit sales talent and mitigate the urge to hire from a non-sales function within the organization.
To understand the difficulty of trying to teach the art of selling, click here to read the Profiles, Inc. Sales: Comprehensive Selection Report, paying close attention to pages 8 – 10. This is our primary recruiting report. Here’s a look at what we believe are the 8 Critical Sales Skills:
Prospecting Initiating Contact
Building Relationships Closing the Sale
Self-starting Resourcefulness
Coachability Working with Team
As you can see, it would be challenging for an organization to teach these critical skills versus hiring people that are already competent in them. It is much easier to educate competent sales people on your products and have them use their artful sales experience to grow the company revenue line.
In addition, the Profiles Sales: Comprehensive Selection Report provides key data on various possible interests that your sales candidate naturally is attracted to. Page 7 of this report defines 6 key work interests, such as Creative, Enterprising, Financial, Mechanical, People Service, and Technical. Ideally, you would like to see Enterprising first or second in order of priority interests. In the sample sales position reflected in the report, Oliver Chase enjoys leadership, presenting ideas and using persuasiveness. They are motivated by competition and exercise initiative, ambition and resourcefulness. These traits are not likely to come from non-sales company functions.
Profiles, Incorporated has over 30 years of experience in helping organizations recruit top sales talent. Our employee solutions are designed to help your executives, managers, and human resources professionals select the right employee for the right job, enhance their performance and build their leadership skills. Connecting with us will support your organization’s sales force expansion with the PXT Select Sales Talent Management System. Contact us today to gain access to the resources your company can use to be successful.
