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DAWN OF A NEW AGEBusiness landscape in undergoing momentous evolution and all the mind-boggling technological innovations are changing the face of reality. Yes, we do get that starry-eyed feel about the industries’ progress.

But let’s look deeper – any industry is not evolving by its own self. The directors and actors of this developing phase are simply the people, i.e. the work force across all levels.

Sales domain is ever expanding, of course to keep pace with the business progress. In so doing, they are charting out newer territories in the global skies. The trend requires expansion in the workforce, in terms of quality and quantity, both. Primarily, a bigger army of modern sales talent or rather, the militia of change makers.

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INCREASING TALENT APPETITEThe need for precise ‘role – trait’ match is growing day-by-day, but the satisfaction levels of sales leaders are not rising by the same rate. Reason is simple, there exists a talent pool but firstly, tapping into accurate match is not easy and even if they get their hands on the perfect match, it’s another tough task to coach and retain that match.

So, how do companies go about having a sales army equipped with requisite arsenal to deal with new-age challenges or to encashing blink-and-miss opportunities of the highly competitive modern-day sales world?

The answer to this makes all the difference and segregates high performing firms from the rest.

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THE PROBLEMBefore attempting to resolve any contention, it is important to understand it in depth. While the need to access a relevant talent pool, a well-laid out strategy for better hiring and techniques for enhanced coaching are now apparent – let’s check out the hurdles first.

Thinking that there is nothing wrong with the 80/20 rule (20% of your workforce bringing 80% of the revenue) had been a mistake since beginning because it ignored the contribution of the remaining 80% workforce completely!

Another favourite (or rather habitual) practice of not collaborating with the recruitment team in filling up the talent needs but shoving the requirements completely to them in the name of outsourcing. This not only takes more time but also doesn’t utilise the existing network of in-house professionals to close the vacancy. This has majorly impacted firms in zeroing down on the best fitment.

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Studies claim that there is a low correlation (generally, less than 25%) between interview predictions and job success. 3 & 4

TRACING BACK THE REASONS FOR BAD HIRESBoth these errors have their roots deeply ingrained in the traditional practices and hence it’s not easy to get out of the trap easily. Let’s see some of the most common erring acts.

• Being unclear about the precise requirement in terms of traits, skills, job role demands etc.

• Being in rush for filling the position and not projecting the opportunity or the requirement aptly.

• Weighing the candidate majorly based on his/her resume which can project set of accomplishments but won’t showcase any failures or learnings.

• Getting confused between must-haves and nice-to-have traits and doing incorrect prioritisation between the two.

• Inability to properly coach the candidate with high potential or keep them motivated.

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The estimated average cost for employee turnover is about 1/5th of their annual salary and the direct replacement costs for a telesales employee can range from $75,000 to $90,000, while other sales positions can cost a company as much as $300,000. 1 & 2

COST OF A BAD HIREIt is simply not just another wrong decision when you hire somebody who is not fit for that role (which you get to know later) or if a right fit bounces-off the retention net and abandons the organisation for a better opportunity. The cost implications, some of which are apparent, and some are hidden yet existent, are huge.

Let’s look at the opportunity cost of this loss:

• The cost of lost time and energy gone into hiring and on-boarding that person.

• The severance cost which comes into picture after you realise it was a bad hire.

• The cost of lost opportunities and sales which didn’t happen.

• The cost of reduced productivity because many other staff members would be in the damage control mode for negating the impact of lost opportunities.

• The cost of starting from the scratch - hiring exercise for the same role.

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5 FAIL-PROOF WAYS TO MAKE THAT STAR SALES TEAM

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Now that we know which turns and potholes to avoid, it will be an easy journey to attract the right talent, aptly gauge their interest and skilfully ensure their retention. It is important to remember that any correction of the process will require dollops of patience and discipline.

In this entire exercise of creating that winning sales team, identification of the right talent while weeding unsuitable matches is the most critical element.

Let’s see how that sieving can be perfected:

#1 KNOW WHAT YOU WANTThis entails going beyond the regular skill-set lookout. An in-depth understanding of the profile – what the person in that role would be expected to do day-in and day-out, even the smallest details (since it is the minor gaps in role understanding that triggers the crack later) are crucial.

Going granular in dissecting the job role demands in your head will help. Another critical step is to ensure that you don’t fall into the trap of getting a highly qualified person for a static role because it is all about the right fitment instead of getting the best which may not fit.

#2 HAVE A STRICT LIST OF NON-NEGOTIABLESOne common mistake which often goes unrecognised is the compromise on the non-negotiables in the face of some extra but ‘not-so-required traits’ perk, such as, a candidate might be not that proficient in the technical tool competency required for that role but may have a great deal of experience in deciphering the reports culled out from that tool. Such person may be a good talent but still remain a misfit for the role you have at hand.

Therefore, a candidate may be proficient but not a perfect match for the role. Thence, a stern cut-off when it comes to precise requirements, is something which shouldn’t be side-lined at any cost.

#3 CAST A WIDE NET TO SEARCHRelying on limited outreach channels hurt your eventual selection. Access to widest possible talent pool should be the goal and for that to happen, explore multiple channels instead of focusing on one.

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Going beyond recruitment agencies or general advertisements, experiment extensively with social media too, given its reach in today’s day and age. Another important fact is to remember ‘like attracts like’. More often than not, it is likely that your existing top talent would be connected with other top talents, hence, making use of referral channels is also a great idea.

#4 LOOK FOR PROOFS BEYOND THE WORK LIFEOnce you have your pool of prospects ready, brace up for some hard work as a candidate reconnaissance is going to take time and active interest to be able to reap you a perfect hire.

This is one of the most important yet neglected element of hiring –look beyond the verbiage of the resume and the rote answers to the typical interview questions. It is imperative to understand the behavioural predispositions of a person – how do they act when they have their guards down or when they are not being watched over. The tendencies which are intrinsic to a candidate’s personality, play a significant role in determining the variance in their performance later.

Generally, some off-league questions unrelated to the field of work can give you an insight into the predictive patterns or behaviour of the potential candidate. They can also reveal if the person would be an apt addition to the company culture or would be a catalyst to chaos.

86% of millennial job seekers who are in the first 10 years of their careers, use social media in their job search. 5

TRIVIASome of the ultra-successful billionaires like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Dell were college dropouts. Imagine these people being judged based on their resumes!

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S Skills needed for doing the best job in the role

E Experiences from past work and life situations

A Attitude or mindset which forms the dominant personality

R Results which they have accomplished so far (and the methodology they use for the same)

C Cognitive skills which can determine success or failure in the particular role

H Habits which will aid the performance

#5 BEWARE OF INCORRECT COMPARISONSIf you think comparing the candidates amongst one another and then picking up the one which looks promising in comparison to the rest, is a good idea then your probabilities of doing a bad hire manifolds.

It is advisable to have a profile map of an ideal candidate and then comparing the candidates to that ideal skill-trait-quality matrix because scoring them against each other will leave you best of the lot candidate which may in fact be a mediocre!

Searching the Right One in the Right WayThis is the culmination of all the best practices of hiring. There is quite a famous ‘formula’ which has been laid out for this, focusing on skills, experience, attitude, accomplishments and cognitive skills of a person.

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Increasing employee engagement investments by 10% can increase company profits by $2,400 per employee per year. 5

WHAT AFTER HIRINGOnce you are successful in hiring the ‘best fit for the role’ candidate, it is important to be wary of getting into the complacency zone thinking that the star-salespeople army is now in place.

Ever wondered, what is the common element amongst these globally successful names from various fields – Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Michael Phelps, Anushka Shankar, Pandit Birju Maharaj and Oprah Winfrey? The answer is – A great coach!

Brilliancy of any individual is polished with right guidance and coaching and despite multiple statistics proving this fact again and again, some studies suggests that 63% of sales managers spend no more than 11% of their time coaching 6. It is a grim reality indeed.

Effective coaching and active engagement are the two elements which will ensure that you get the best out of that star team and are able to retain them as well. After all, it hurts the most when the perfect candidate leaves you for another opportunity that too once you have already invested heavily in training them for the role.

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PERFECTING THE ART OF EFFECTIVE COACHING

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Let’s look at 5 important points to ponder over when strategizing a coaching or training strategy for the newly hired or existing sales people.

#1 UNDERSTAND THE PERSONIt is crucial to understand individuals who constitute the team. Every salesperson will have a different driver, a different motivator. Your strategy is going to be impacted majorly by the kind of people you’d be dealing with because in such a personalised act, there is no one-size-fits-all mechanism which can do the job.

#2 SEGREGATE THE MICRO AND MACROWhile putting your coaching plan, keep the micro and macro areas of the coaching clearly defined and don’t mix them. Micro coaching will constitute job/role specific elements and will help salespeople address specific aspects which they may encounter while doing their jobs. Macro coaching on the other hand considers the bigger picture and deals with the composite actions, methodologies etc.

Aim of coaching is to foster an environment where employees gradually become self-motivated and passionate about expanding their learnings and fast-tracking their growth curve.

#3 BE MINDFUL OF CONSISTENCY AND FREQUENCYOnce your plan is put in place, the only thing which can bring down the whole plan of action is inconsistency. Hence, ensuring that you have a defined consistency and frequency of sessions or meet-ups with the salespeople, is going to be the differentiator. This will also be an important tool for gauging the effectiveness of the plan and will allow you to introduce any changes, if and when they’d be required.

#4 BE CONSTANT WITH THE CONTENT SCRUTINYOwing to the trend-driven nature of the sales world and the numerous innovations which fuel this shift day-in and day-out, it is important to keep a sharp eye for the reactions and results around the coaching content you’re using. The shelf-life of various ‘must-dos’ and other hacks have the tendency to get replaced by new sets of work arounds quite often. Therefore, continuous evolution on the content part is an imperative of effective coaching.

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Eventually, the key to create a winning sales team lies in investing mindful time for the objective. Balancing the strategic, tactical and specific elements in your interaction with the team sets the pace for a fruitful engagement. Other important thing is to prioritise data over your gut when it comes to analysing the team and their performance. After all, with so much of scientific intelligence now being out into systems as basic as CRM, it will be a miss not to leverage it.

“Tell me and I forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

– Benjamin Franklin

#5 BALANCE THE ‘DESCRIBE’ AND ‘PRESCRIBE’ PHASESBeing a keen observer is fundamental to the role of a coach. Based on the observations, you can describe some specific patterns of behaviours or skill-leverage (or miss) which you observed. This will be the feedback part. However, stopping the buck at that stage is going to wreck the whole plan and hence comes the ‘prescribe’ phase where you share suggestions on how they can go about improving in those described areas.

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With a well-planned and aptly-integrated coaching program, companies see a 10-60% increase in quota attainment. 7

TIME TO RELISH THE RECIPEWith practice and dedicated efforts, once you master the art of attracting the right talent for the right role and are also able to retain the A-Lister army with effective engagement and continuous coaching, you can bask in the glory of having a winning sales team. It is quite a tough feat to achieve but worth the time and effort indeed!

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1. https://recruitloop.com/blog/the-cost-of-a-bad-hire-infographic/

2. https://hbr.org/2015/11/the-best-ways-to-hire-salespeople

3. http://www.sjdm.org/journal/12/121130a/jdm121130a.html

4. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140606071003-7589947-no-correlation-between-interviewing-and-on-the-job-performance/

5. https://www.inc.com/peter-economy/19-interesting-hiring-statistics-you-should-know.html

6. https://blog.thecenterforsalesstrategy.com/weekly-roundup-8-habits-of-a-great-sales-manager-more-0-0

7. https://ambition.com/blog/entry/2017-08-12-roi-effective-sales-coaching/

Sources:

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