Interviewing vs Auditioning

Following up on my last post about auditions, this quote is from Dr.Wendell Williams' recent article When Is "Good Enough" Good Enough?
"GETTING TO KNOW IS NOT "BEING QUALIFIED"

Interviews give folks a nice warm feeling. We "get to know" the applicant, but we frequently learn we hired the nutcase from the movie "Fatal Attraction." When pressed, most people agree that applicants do a good job of faking in interviews regardless of the questions or techniques. Does anyone except me see that people can, and do, fake interviews?

Ponder this: Why don't talent scouts recruit serious athletes using interviews?

Audition For Your Next Sales Rainmaker

Actors, musicians, athletes, and many others must audition to get the "part" they want. The same technique can be used when you are ready to hire your sales rainmaker.

Once a candidate has successfully passed your pre-screening phone interview, a first face-to-face interview, and possibly a second interview, you can set up an "audition" where they do an actual sales presentation to your senior management team. You will provide the "scenario" to them and they will prepare their presentation based on the criteria you provided. Here are 3 things you might include in the scenario:

The Situation
This should describe why the presentation is being done.
The Facts
Specify 5-10 areas of concern for the prospective client. These might include staffing issues that may affect the buying decision; competitor they currently use and any issues they have with them; budgetary issues that could affect the buying decision.
Candidate's Job
Prepare a presentation that identifies needs and how they will be met.
The amount of time they will be limited to.
Tell them who they will be presenting to. CIO? CEO?

The best way to learn how the Rainmaker is going to do a presentation once they are out selling for you is to have them "audition" for the part.

Questions To Ask When Hiring Rainmakers

Last week I mentioned a few questions you should ask yourself when hiring rainmakers for your sales team. What do you think a rainmaker should bring to the table when you hire them?

Do you expect the rainmaker to bring in a book of business from a competitor when you hire them?

Have you considered the possibility that those companies will not do business with a sales person who sold them similar, or identical, products from someone else?

Or the rainmaker's previous contact with a company may have moved on, so they will have to develop a whole new relationship within the company.

Better to hire a rainmaker who has proven successful in all of their previous jobs - that will show that they have developed a sales process that works, regardless of the product!

Read more articles on hiring rainmakers here

Interviewing for Sales Jobs

Dave Stein's recent post on EyesOnSales Blog hits the nail right on the head with his points on hiring sales rainmakers.
Interviewing for Sales Jobs

Read more articles on hiring rainmakers here

Why You Must Hire Top Employees, Not Top Candidates

Why You Must Hire Top Employees, Not Top Candidates
by Lou Adler

The real problem is that the hiring processes at most companies are designed to find and hire top candidates, not top employees. So even if you to want to hire top employees, you won't be successful if you assume top employees and top candidates look for and accept jobs the same way.

Top employees, for example, are more discriminating. They want more information. They won't waste their time. They want a better job, not another job. They decide with others, and they don't want to be sold during the interview. They want a chance to be heard and challenged. If your hiring processes aren't designed to cater to the needs of these top employees, you'll never be able to consistently hire them....
Read full article here

Rainmakers and Your Business

I find it interesting when talking with other business owners, sales managers, and sales executives, that Rainmakers are seen as equivalent to "Super Star" Sales People.

Historically, to the Native Americans, the Rainmaker was most valued when there were droughts and fields dried up. Today, that is still true in the business world. When sales slow down, and leads dry up, the powers that be want someone who can make it rain - or pour revenues.

When you are looking to hire a Rainmaker, you should ask yourself:

Do you want this person to bring in new business only? Or do you want them to build on existing relationships as well? Often, the Rainmaker is challenged by the Hunt. They get bored and start looking for greener pastures when they are asked to Farm; they see paperwork as a necessary evil at best.

How important is it that the Rainmaker work as part of a team? Some Rainmakers can work alone or as part of a team. Others do far better when they are given the details of what you want done and then left alone to get the job done. During the interview, ask questions that elicit details of times the person worked as a member of a team. Watch for clues that the Rainmaker felt like the other team members "held them back".

Check back later for more questions you should ask when hiring a Rainmaker.

Read more articles on hiring Rainmakers here

Will Your Rainmaker Experience Sales Call Reluctance?

I read this article from Gary Stauble of The Recruiting Lab with great interest. When you are hiring your Rainmaker, how can you tell if they experience any of these types of sales call reluctance? Comments?

"Sales researchers Dudley and Goodson came up with the following list of 12 Types of Call Reluctance (excerpted from The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance):

Doomsayer: Worries, will not take social risks (loses three new accounts per month).
Over-Preparer: Over-analyzes, under-acts (sells at 43% of quota)
Hyper-Pro: Obsessed with the image and looking good (but is rated only average in presentation skills.) This person confuses..."
Read the full article here

Read more articles on hiring Rainmakers here

Is your HR person in on the hiring loop?

A while back, during a search for a call center sales manager, an excellent candidate was bypassed (and the company lost out) when the HR person was looking for all the wrong things. How did that happen? How could it have been avoided?

I got a call from Mary at MNO company one day telling me her VP of Sales needed someone with very specific experience to lead their call center sales team. The team made outbound sales calls and their productivity over the previous 2 months had been falling off. They had recently let the manager of the department go and other managers were having to cover his team until a new manager could be found.

The team had 25 people and would be growing rapidly over the next 3 months, so the candidate needed to have experience managing up to 50 people, Mary said. They should be able to motivate, mentor, train, hire and retain a sales force.

I was really excited. I had a guy in her area that just happened to be looking for a new opportunity with growth potential and he was definitely interested in this company. He had managed 10 employees, but had an awesome background in business, including P&L responsibility.

Mary said no - they must have managed 25 -50 employees.

So, I sent over 3 resumes of candidates who had managed 50 - 200 employees. Mary loved them and arranged interviews with the hiring manager. He turned all three down. Hmmmm

Turned out the hiring manager didn't really care how many employees the person had managed in the past - he was looking for the person with business experience including P&L responsibility. Unfortunately, my perfect fit had found a new career opportunity by the time Joe told Mary what he really was looking for.

Are you giving your HR person a wish list of what your ideal sales manager will have done in the past and what you want them to do for you?

Read more articles on hiring Rainmakers here