"Two men are walking in the woods when they come across a bear...”

At the point of conception we are endowed with a stew of DNA. It determines our height, our weight, our hair color, our eye color, everything about us. This includes our intelligence, our passions, our resilience and our desires. We have a DNA blueprint of how our lives could roll out. We are in part a reflection of our life experiences, but more importantly, if we choose, we are the product of who we are destine to be.

Every morning when we first wake we are given a chance to mold the rest of our day. We can choose to look backward at those things that have happen to us or we can chose to look forward to how we will change our existence into something of meaning. All too often I meet people whose yardstick of success is predicated on the performance of those around them. In the story of two hikers in the woods who come across a bear, the one hiker puts on running shoes. The other asked "why, you can't outrun the bear." The first responds "I only have to outrun you." I would suggest that we are all given the innate ability to overcome the bear in our own unique way, without sacrificing someone else.

The travesty of this "outrun you "mentality is that first of all it creates a win-lose scenario and second it robs us of our true potential and our self actualization. We go through life thinking that we have to be better than someone else to have meaning and value. The problem is that we will always know people who are better than us in many ways. Ways in which we are not naturally talented or gifted. The truly competitive people among us become good at marginalizing these talents in an effort to build themselves up.

I know that a better approach is to surround yourself with those much more talented than you and learn from them. "Fly with the eagles." Know that your destiny is as unique as your talents, passion and drive. Spend every day living up to your DNA. The great thing about following your passions is that it makes everyday an adventure. It's easier to get up, it's easier to learn, it's easier to excel and you can do it longer.

Nothing could be more tragic than a life wasted and yet I see it every day, people going through life trying to be better than their neighbors or co-workers, but falling short of their true potential. In time this constant competition, in which we are doomed to lose, wears us down. Retirement is that far off goals that signifies the end of the race. Those, whose focus is on living to their potential, don't want the race to end. They are still creating the person they ultimately want to be. Retirement means no longer working for money.

At conception each and every one of us has all the tools to be successful and happy. It is not externally driven, but internal. Madison Avenue, MTV or Vogue Magazine doesn't own your potential, don't let them form it. Find that which your inner-self longs for, nurture it, feed it and watch it grow. Jack Trout, one of the great pioneers in marketing says "If you can't be first to market, create your own market."

Hiring Soft verses Hard Sales Management Skills

 

Now is a key time to upgrade you staff. As unemployment rises more qualified people find themselves out of a job. If you have questions about your staff's ability to take you to the next level now is the time to make a critical review and take action if required. I want to provide a framework for thinking about this next step. I have hired or help organizations hire hundreds of sales people and sales managers. This discussion is about sales leadership, but some of the principals could be applied to hiring individual contributors.

So you have two candidates which one do you hire? Candidate "A" has a strong understanding of the correct profile of high producing employees. This person can articulate a sound sales methodology and has documented success in teaching and coaching sales skills, but they have average knowledge of the industry and although they know many of the businesses in the territory they don't have personal relationships with decision makers. Candidate "B" has a good track record of sales success but can't easily tell you the profile of a good sales person, their sales methodology is generic and simple and they say they are good a sales training and coaching, but can't give good example where they have actually done it. The good news is that they have been in the industry for years; know all the key players, including the one you're trying to land and can walk the sales people into a few good accounts.

 

Skill	Candidate "A"	Candidate "B"
Employee Profiling	High	Average
Sales Methodology	High	Average
Sales Training and Coaching	High	Average
Industry Knowledge	Average	High
Territory Knowledge	Average	High
Rolodex	Average	High

 

What I find is that most CEO's and business owners with say candidate "A", but their interview techniques lead them straight to Candidate "B". Now I'm going to distinguish between large company CEO's and small companies CEO's at this point because large company CEO's have a tendency to be more strategic in their outlook, because they have staff to handle the tactical issues of implementing the vision. Small companies CEO and middle managers of large companies are more tactical in nature. Small company CEO's and middle managers of larger companies are closer to the market. They naturally understand the need to get into XYZ Corporation or out sell ABC Company at a pragmatic level. Someone else has helped profile the employment candidates (if it is even done), build out the sales methodology (which might be a natural melding of past managers) and they have third parties do their sales training (outside firms or dedicated training departments).

The end result is that the hiring manager has pointed and specific questions about competitors, companies, decision makers and tactical sales strategies. They know the objections they are trying to overcome; they know the frustrations in the market. They are focused on the next 30 days, 6 months and year, not how to sustain growth over extended periods. They could and sometime do ask questions about the perfect sales person, but they don't know the answer, so they have no gauge. Their sales methodology is a simple six step sales process. They sometime feel if they can hire someone to come in to train the sales force once a year or once a quarter, they don't need to want their sales manager to take the time to do it. They need to be closing business. In the end they can full quantify a candidate's ability to interact with the market, but they can't quantify their soft skills. So the hire hard skills

Here is the reality of your decision. Markets change, people come and go. Any industry, business or decision makers knowledge a sale leader brings to your company will be dated in 6 months. Once they run through their rolodex they don't have any new value to add. Once new competitors come into the market or old ones change their products, their value diminishes. From that point on they will be doing an average job of managing your sales organization. Here is what I would suggest. Turn your hiring criteria around 180 degrees. Hire a consultant to get you into the prime accounts. Hire consultants to update your organization on industry knowledge. Hire your sales leader to build and maintain an innovative sales methodology that will constantly change with the market. Hire a sales leader that will teach your sales people to be successful in any environment. At the leadership level hire someone who knows the science of sales and sales leadership. Know that they can coach the sales people into executing the strategy that produces results. They need to be a student of sales, sales processes, sales strategies and tactics, not a student of the industry or the geography.

You can hire sales people to get you into accounts, but once they are there can they close business?