Red,Flags,Sales,Recruiting,Nee business, insurance Red Flags Of Sales Recruiting: No Need To Take Action (Don't
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If youve seen the movie adaptation of David Mamets stage play Glengarry Glen Ross, no doubt youre familiar with Alec Baldwins infamous scene in which he delivers one of the most memorable motivational sales speeches of all time. If youve worked in sales at any time during the last 14 years since the movie was released, chances are either yourself or someone you know can recite chunks of Baldwins speech, or at least some of the key takeaway phrases (coffee is for closers!). For those of you who havent seen the movie, Baldwin portrays a real estate shark (albeit briefly: hes only onscreen less than 10 minutes) brought in by fellow brokers Mitch and Murray in order to rally their sales team and roll out the guidelines for the monthly sales contest. The top two salespeople get to keep their jobs while everyone else is canned. At the end of his tirade, Baldwin responds to Ed Harriss question of why hes there. I came here because Mitch and Murray asked me for a favor, Baldwin sneers. But I said the real favor is follow my advice and fire your (rear-end) because a loser is a loser. Meeting dismissed. Harsh? Absolutely. Motivating? Without question it motivated the unproductive reps to take action, just not the actions Mitch and Murray would have hoped for (youve got to watch the movie to find out what truly desperate people in these circumstances will do). The first five minutes of movie blatantly establishes that the entire sales department, with the exception of top-producer Al Pacino (nominated for an Academy Award for his role) has already begun the downward death spiral many salespeople go through once industry burn-out has begun to set in. For those of you with a background in sales management who have seen the movie, you probably recognize that the intent of the sales meeting at the fictional Rio Rancho Properties was not to motivate the reps to sell; it was to motivate them to leave. Mitch and Murrays reasoning: turn up the pressure to an unbearable level and the ensuing war of attrition will weed out the ones that cant take the heat, thus saving the management team from the unpleasant tasks of either confronting the reps regarding their lack of production or terminating them in person. For many sales managers across companies of all sizes, turnover is a way of life. Dealing with performance issues comes with the territory: either you address it with your reps individually or someone will be addressing yours with you. Whether a sales rep leaves voluntarily or is escorted to the door by security, its a painful process to watch someone go from excited candidate to promising newcomer to frustrated rep to underachiever to latest casualty. I have yet to meet a manager who wouldnt rank firing people at the bottom of the list of most rewarding aspects of their job. Looking back at the interview process, most sales managers will admit they recognized the red flags that ultimately led to the undoing of a particular candidate once he or she became an employee, but for whatever reason chose to overlook or downplay them. Ive spoken with sales managers and business owners who, after an exhaustive parade of unsuccessful hires and terminations, have come to the conclusion (incorrectly, I might add) that its virtually impossible for them to predict whether or not any one candidate will be successful in their organization based on a handful of interviews. Salespeople are professional interviewers, right? Arent they trained to tell you exactly what you want to hear? So they devise a recruiting strategy that consists of establishing some rough hiring guidelines (ie., Bachelors degree, minimum of 2 years sales experience) bring on the first person that looks presentable, throw them a bunch of dead leads and/or disgruntled customers, point them to a phone and if they fall to produce in the first 90 days, get rid of them. Recruiting the RIGHT people is no easy task, so its understandable how one could adopt this scattershot philosophy. My advice would be that if you want to make every working day feel like a week while ushering in your own demise, then adopt this strategy immediately. While this is an extreme example, most hiring managers would concede there have been occasions when they have overlooked critical flaws in a candidates background, character, etc. simply because they were desperate for someone to step into the position, only to watch it blow up in their face down the road. If you are the type of manager who is swift in taking action upon the realization you have made a bad hiring decision (and by that I mean terminating the employee), then I applaud you. There is nothing worse than watching someone toil away just to collect a paycheck. But wouldnt life have been easier if you hadnt hired them in the first place? One of the keys to successful recruiting (particularly in sales, where the candidate criteria can be more subjective than with other roles) is to pay close attention to your gut instincts and if something about a candidate doesnt sit well with you, move on to another candidate! If youre an individual with a lot of pet peeves, then youd better do your best to determine early on in the interview process whether or not a particular candidate has the potential to drive you crazy. You can save yourself a lot of frustration by recognizing those subtle indicators of future termination-worthy actions. Here is a handful that I watch out for when interviewing sales candidates: The Inaccessible Candidate. It bothers me when I am unable to connect with a sales candidate on their cell phone after 2 or 3 tries. If Im not able to get through to them after a reasonable number of attempts, why should I assume that one of their prospects or customers would be able to? I can appreciate not answering calls from blocked numbers, but I dont think refusing to answer because they dont recognize the phone number is a legitimate excuse. Whos to say Im not a referral from a client? The candidate who gets too personable, too quickly.Like many of our clients, sales reps in our industry are essentially consultants: we do not sell a product and the services we provide are highly customized based on the needs of our clients. In addition, our firm operates on a retained basis (whereas the majority of our industry is comprised of contingent firms), so in order for us to justify an up-front engagement fee its imperative that we establish credibility and capacity very early on in the relationship. Our clients look to us as professional consultants and solution providers, first and foremost. If a personal relationship develops beyond the scope of our obligations, great, however, our clients to do hire us to discuss deep-sea fishing, my nephews wedding and whether or not the Marlins can pull a rabbit out of a hat this Saturday against the Cubs. If this is the route a candidate takes in an attempt to immediately try and establish rapport with me, what makes me think he or she is going to act any differently with one of my clients? There is a time and place for those conversations: just make sure theyre not in the first 15 minutes of our initial conversation (that is, of course, unless I happen to mention the Marlins current winning streak). The Agreeable Candidate.It always bothers me when someone sits across from you, looks you in eye and agrees 100% with everything you say. Its one thing if Im at a cocktail party making small talk with my co-workers spouse with whom Ive just met. Its another thing when Im having a serious business conversation with an individual Im either considering recommending to my client or adding to my own team. If youre interviewing a candidate that appears to be in agreement with everything you say, youve either got a yes man on your hands or youre talking way over their heads and theyre too intimidated to say so. Theres an old business cliché that says if you have two people within an organization that think exactly alike, you have one too many people. Either way, you need to keep looking. The Blame Game.The majority of people leave their jobs either because they do not get along with their immediate supervisor or they simply do not like what theyre doing from the hours of 8 to 5 each day. Thats understandable; I think all of us have been there at one time or another. The problem I have is when a candidate consistently points the finger at someone or something that stood in the way of their success, thus forcing them to look for a new line of work. This is particularly troubling when you have a candidate with a less-than-consistent work history (more than 2 jobs in the last 5 years). The job was not as described, is a way of saying I didnt fully investigate the opportunity. The company was not financially sound, in the candidates mind is better than saying I failed to do my due-diligence and research because I was desperate for work. My boss had unrealistic expectations. They probably should have figured out what those expectations were before they accepted the position.
Red,Flags,Sales,Recruiting,Nee