Mark Suster obviously knows his stuff and he doesn't need me to confirm it, that's for sure. In his recent post (at his bothsidesofthetable.com blog) Journeymen, Mavericks & Superstars: Understanding Salespeople at Startups, he does an excellent job at sorting salespeople out at startup companies.
He does a marvelous job of putting salespeople on a classic XY graph with innate talent on the vertical X axis and process driven on the horizontal Y axis. This helps create 4 categories of salespeople. Journeymen, Mavericks, Superstars, and Trouble.
I like this line of organization. One of the only things I struggle with is the contrast of innate talent vs process driven. I'd much rather see innate vs. learned and/or process vs. persuasion. Why? It makes more sense as far as a spectrum. Opposite ends of the same stick, if you will.
In my nearly 20 plus years in the field of persuasion, I have noticed more occurances of these types contrast. I wouldn't even say the 4 categories have to change, either.
I have found that superstars are a more balanced combination of persuasion and process and a more balanced combination of innate talent and learned skill. Without these balances, no salesperson is going to make a lifetime career of it. Granted, it's all relative to the work environment, but in general this is true.
How does this assessment assist you past Mark's blog? First, it gives you a more accurate and useful spectrum from which to assess new hires. Second, it basically just re-labels what he's calling "innate talent," yet provides more clarity.
How am I qualified to build on Mark's assessment? Maybe you're thinking, "you can't do that." As someone who promises to sort out the top talent on a team within the first few questions or role plays in my training programs with no prior player knowledge, I can tell you persuasive talent is far easier to assess in a potential hire or current employees than the more ambiguous term "innate talent." Also, persuasion is the end result, or at least the most important means to the end.
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