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5 Beliefs that Cost Business Owners Millions of Dollars

Your beliefs drive your behavior.  We see this in every facet of our lives. What we learned as kids or suffered through as children and adolescents, informs how we think, react and believe.  

Some beliefs are a little out there.  Others seem productive, but are not.  Our brain is an enigma. 

I am not a behavioral scientist, nor do I fully understand how we form our beliefs.  However, I am a business owner who has made terrible decisions when hiring salespeople. I made a few great ones too, but I was not sure why.  

For the last ten years, I have spent considerable time and money getting better at predicting the success of a sales candidate.  Being able to identify who will sell to your prospects in your markets at your price points against your competition.  

There is lots of data around hiring salespeople (you can find some of it here) as well as  lots of great books.  However, it is the core beliefs that I hear from business owners that set them on a path of wasting time, money and reputation.

Experience is the name I give to my mistakes.  —  Oscar Wilde

I will narrow the focus of this article to your beliefs about hiring salespeople. Changing some of those beliefs and applying the principles I recommend below can improve hiring in other areas, but that is not my area of expertise. 

The five beliefs identified below are costing you and your company time, money and the reputation of your brand through turnover; tens of thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars are at stake. 

Here is the structure.  I will identify a belief that a business owner or sales leader has shared with me in the last 12-months.  

Next, I will identify the consequence of the belief.  You decide if the belief impacts your company and your growth! 

Finally, I will offer a solution to the consequences that you can implement.

 

The 5 beliefs are:

  • “Sales positions all have the same function.”
  • “The ad I use does not impact the candidates I attract.”
  • “I must hire a sales candidate who has ___ years of experience” 
  • “I need to hire fast.”
  • “I must sell the job and the company.”

 

Belief No. 1  “Sales positions all have the same function.”

A president of a successful promotional company in NY told me “…all sales positions have the same function.”  I will call her Patrice.  Patrice had the sole business development function in the company.  She grew the company to $5M.   

Patrice had a strong lead generation system in place, and five other employees who did account management and customer service.  She had built a strong machine by documenting processes and hiring people she encountered in her life who were a core value fit.  

Patrice wanted to slow down and get out of the bus dev seat, yet she wanted to exit the business and needed to have $10M in revenue and have a repeatable process. 

Prior to working with me, she had hired 3 people who all failed within 90 days because the candidates did not understand that she wanted them to go sell new logos – business development!  

Solution:  Defined Selling Profile for each role. 

Patrice and I collaborated on the 3 to 5 activities and behaviors that the success rep would need to do every day & week.  She knew what the rep needed to do for success, but she did not make it clear.  We created a crystal clear selling profile, and aligned the comp plan to the objectives.  She hired 2 bus dev reps that have a run rate to $10M in 3 years.

 

Belief No. 2  “The ad I use does not impact the candidates I attract.”

A business owner in the south made this statement to me, and tried to defend it; even after he admitted that his turnover rate for the last 5 years was 43%. His name is Bob, and Bob used the same job posting that he had used when these ads were run in a newspaper. A newspaper that was PRINTED.  

The ad was a list of responsibilities and accountabilities along with a history of his company.  BORING and 43% turnover!

Solution:  A job posting that attracts the right candidates, repels the wrong candidates, and is posted and marketed broadly. 

I helped Bob write an ad so that when the right candidate read it, they recognized that it was describing them, and they felt compelled to reach out. The posting was published on multiple job boards and industry sites.  I also encouraged Bob to tell everyone he was hiring, and give a $500 spliff to any employee who recommended a candidate that was hired and stayed for 90 days.  

It worked.  Bob happily wrote a check to an employee for a great hire, and found two other reps from job boards. 

 

Belief No. 3  “I must hire a sales candidate who has _ years of experience”

First, this is true in very specific industries when specific product knowledge is required or a rolodex of contacts is needed.  If you are not selling the latest medical device or rocket components to NASA, I would challenge you to think about predictable selling competencies rather than industry experience. 

Experience comes with attitudes and bad habits. Steve’s business sold automotive tools to Tier 1 OEM suppliers.  Steve sold a premium product at a premium price.  He found a sales rep from a competitor. The competitor was the biggest in the industry, had name recognition, and the candidate had 9 years of experience calling on Steve’s customers. Let’s call the candidate Cliff.

Steve hired Cliff.  Cliff failed.  Could not open one new account or even get a second meeting with the companies he had sold during the previous 9 years.  

Why?  Cliff couldn’t sell. He had a safe logo on his business card and was likable. Cliff could not sell value.  It was a sad outcome for everyone. Think of experience as a nice to have, maybe.  

You want a rep who can execute the activities and behaviors of a top performer….Sell Value.  Reach Decision Makers.  Hunt consistently for new business.  If a candidate can get the right meetings, don’t you have someone in the firm who can support them technically, if it will take some time to get the rep ramped up? 

Solution:  Be open to thinking differently. Workshop this idea with your team – what other companies have an offering like ours, who sell to the same buyers at similar price points, but in a different vertical?  

Take 30 minutes with your team and white board the company names.  There are other companies and salespeople who are selling something as complex or as simple as yours to your customers.  

Who do you know?  This is also useful in writing a compelling ad. Experience might help, but don’t box yourself out with “in the box” thinking.

 

Belief No. 4  “I need to hire fast.”

You need to hire well!   You want to hire fast.  

You must have a candidate who is successful. You do not want a territory left open for too long.  However, churning two new reps in 18 months is going to be worse.  Create a strategy to protect the territory with other reps or customer success people. Going about hiring talent that will be successful is much better than throwing a new hire at the customers in the territory.  

This belief will cost you tens of thousands of dollars.  What does a failure in sales hiring cost you?  You can find out here; before you do be sure to be sitting and maybe have an adult beverage handy.

Solution:  See the first 3 solutions; plus always be recruiting and looking for talent.  The business owner and the sales leaders should always be identifying talent, engaging them, and evaluating them.  

Set a goal of once a month to have coffee or lunch with someone who is a great salesperson from your orbit.  I bet you have an underperforming sales rep on the team.  Consistent recruiting allows you to get rid of the mediocrity on your current sales team!

 

Two business men shaking hands in front of an all glass buliding

 

Belief No. 5  “I must sell the job and the company.”

This one is so common.  Salespeople are often better at interviewing than the hiring manager. You must stop talking about how great the job is and how great the company is early.  It is important and must be done, but not at the beginning.  

Your job is to get your team to evaluate the candidate as objectively as possible.  Here is why hiring salespeople is so different from any other employee…ready – treat them professionally and with respect, but challenge them like a prospect might.  Unless your prospects need your stuff so badly your reps just show up and get orders, you want to understand how the candidate operates under pressure.  

This cannot be done unprofessionally.  Start with the resume.  There is always some B.S. in the resume.  Gently ask questions that probe the big claims or ask them to describe how they accomplished a big win. You should be observing the body language, tone and demeanor when you find the B.S.  How do they perform under pressure? 

Solution:    Sell the role and the company to the two or three candidates you might consider making an offer.  The interview process should be organized to learn specific details and share information throughout the process. Talk about the sales culture at the end of the first interview.  Save the great story for the candidates you want to have come on board.  

Here is an example of a company who had narrowed the selection to one candidate they really wanted.  They pulled out all the stops.They arranged for a final interview at their office, and created a presentation for the candidate to wow him with just a little theater.  

The candidate was brought into their boardroom to await the President.  The candidate was looking at the portrait of the company Founder and CEO on the wall when the President walked in.  “Oh I see you noticed the portrait of our Found Mr. Johnston.  He is a modest man who does not love his picture hanging in the boardroom.  These days Mr. Johnston focuses his attention on his passion for R & D, and does not get too involved with the day to day.”  

Just as the small talk was winding down, Mr. Johnston walked into the boardroom.  Apologizing for the interruption, he walked to the candidate, extended his hand and introduced himself.  He said, “I have heard good things about you, and wanted to let you know you would be an important addition to our team.”  Mr. Johnston looked at the President, and said, “You are in capable hands, and sorry for the intrusion.”

The candidate spent the day with the team and touring the facility, but his decision was made in the 90 seconds Mr. Johnston spent with him.  The timing was impeccable, authentic, spoke to the culture and made the candidate feel wanted. 

Do any of these beliefs show up in your hiring process? 

These are common problems.  Now that you are aware of the consequences and solutions, you can go about making changes with your team.

 

Green coffee cup on a wooden table with a pen and piece of paper with the words its not my work, its my passion written on it

 

I love helping business owners hire better salespeople.  Sometimes we teach a sales specific hiring process.  We offer hands-on workshops and an online course.  Lately, given the difficult hiring environment, business owners hire us to work with their team and integrate the sales hiring process into their company.  $895 and up.  

Regardless, If you have questions or are just curious, reach out. I have a variety of hiring tools that allow you to self-evaluate.  

We have a program that will reduce churn on your sales team, improve the success rate of your candidates, and build a repeatable sales hiring system that removes sales mediocrity for your company.   

Learn More Here or Ask a Question Here – please reference this blog.