It’s hiring time. Time for you to replace a member of your team because he moved on, he’s been promoted, or you had to let him go. It’s time for you to wade into the salesperson marketplace and hire the “right” person. Do you know what you’re looking for?
Read any number of sales job postings and you’ll see some common themes. Experience. Education. Willingness to travel. Ability to sit and stand and lift objects at least 25 lbs.
In too many postings, in my opinion, there is one more common requirement for these jobs. That is the requirement for an existing list of contacts and customers in the industry. Your network. For those of a certain age, your Rolodex.
It begs the question. Is it more important who you know, or what you know, to be selected as the “right” candidate.
In my career I’ve probably screened a thousand sales candidates, interviewed a few hundred, and hired dozens. The hiring teams I’ve worked with have hired great candidates and we’ve hired candidates that didn’t work out. Why is that?
We’ve seen a wide range of candidates, but in interviews, we tended to see these two types.
Candidate A. Many of the best candidates we hired went onto success in roles beyond their initial job. Take Candidate A. Candidate A demonstrated a clear ability to think strategically. She researched our company before her interview. She knew about our current financial situation, our heritage, and our pain points. She thought about how she could add value before she walked into the interview room. During the interview, she was able to place herself into our situation, and create a picture for the interview team of how she would behave as an employee.
In other words, she made it easy for us to visualize her as a member of our team. We could see how she would help solve our problems. We could feel her passion for becoming part of our team.
While often candidates like Candidate A came from our business or a related business and had a current list of contacts common to ours, we almost never talked about who they knew. The conversations centered on how they thought, how they solved problems, how they worked to find solutions for customers, and how they stayed positive and persistent regardless of the obstacles they faced. It didn’t matter to the hiring team how many people they knew. We knew starting any relationships we needed to wouldn’t be a problem.
In a few cases however, we didn’t meet a candidate like Candidate A during our hiring process. There wasn’t a standout strategic thinker that emerged from our interviews. We didn’t meet that person that went deep into her research of our company and our issues. We met a different candidate.
We met Candidate B. This candidate brought knowledge of our company to the interview, but it was limited to top of mind information that he had heard in his sales travels or saw on the news. There was no depth of analysis or insight. Often, minor details were incorrect, such as the name of a product or a date in our history. When we tried to ask questions about strategy, this candidate would quickly drift onto a list of the people he knew and the deals he did with our customers. He assured us that because he had these relationships already, he would be able to persuade these people to shift their alliance from another supplier to our company. All based on his personal relationships.
Even though in most cases something didn’t feel right, there was something attractive about the possibility of hiring someone who could hit the ground running, right?
Believe it or not, while we usually hired Candidate A, we also occasionally hired Candidate B. The results weren’t as great.
In my experience, companies hire Candidate B when they are in a pinch. When an employee leaves unexpectedly. When they are entering a new segment and want to ramp up quickly. When sales have dipped and a comeback is needed, now. It’s also been my experience that hiring Candidate B tends to be shortsighted, and you end up back at the interview table sooner than you should.
It is possible to be a strategic thinker and have a long list of contacts. In other words to have the best of both Candidate A and Candidate B. In my experience that tends to be rare. If you find this candidate, you should hire her.
In selling, sales leaders stress the importance of the customer relationship. As a salesperson, you need to develop a strong, empathetic relationship with your customer. I even endorse the development of friendships with customers. After all, we’re all people and relationships are person to person endeavors.
But there is a superseding relationship that sales leaders and salespeople need to prioritize. That is the relationship between your firm and your customer’s firm. This is the relationship you must support above all. This is the relationship you must satisfy when you hire a sales candidate. This is the relationship your sales candidate must recognize and demonstrate the capacity to build for mutual benefit between your two firms. Personalizing customer relationships is OK, as long as the relationship between the firms takes precedent, and your salesperson demonstrates the appropriate balance between your firm’s priorities and your customer’s priorities.
In my opinion, the candidate that overplays their personal relationships with customers should raise a red flag for you. They probably don’t recognize the higher order customer relationships you are trying to build.
Chances are, if you hire Candidate B, you’ll be sorry. Once he and his contact at your customer’s firm have moved on to other jobs, you’ll be back where you started. And your firms will be no closer together.
If you don’t see Candidate A in your hiring process, keep looking. It will be less painful to make that extra effort now than later.
Your results will show the difference.
Lead well.
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