In my last post, Sales Productivity And The Tower of Babel, I discussed Sales Managers that believe they should only hire candidates with experience because it relieves them of the need to train. In this post I'd like to visit the Sales Managers at the other end of the spectrum that are so frustrated with training seasoned professionals that they will only hire inexperienced sales candidates.
They tell me, "I never hire someone with experience, because they have too many bad habits to unlearn. It's easer to train someone from scratch."
Is that true? Is it really easer to train someone with no experience than someone with experience?
Lets think about this.
The new hire with no sales experience has to develop the following knowledge and/or skills in order to become productive and effective:
Depending on your industry and how complex the solutions you're selling are, it may take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years to become a high-performance sales professional. Is this easier than training and developing a seasoned sales professional? More importantly, is this even a question we should be focused on?
Lets extend this logic into the future a bit further. So now its 2-5 years down the road. You have this crack hand picked sales team trained and developed by you. They're consistent quota busters and every year the company reserves a seat for you and most of your team at President's Club.
This year the national sales team is assembled in Orlando, Florida for the annual national sales meeting. The President/CEO walks on stage and thanks everyone for a good year in tough times. Then she drops the bomb, the company is shifting its focus to position itself for future growth:
In short, the selling world that you and your team know so well just evaporated in a blink of an eye.
Now what?
Lets stop and think about the original premise that experienced sales professionals have too many bad habits (which were the good habits just a few short months ago) and its easer to train new inexperienced candidates. The solution to achieving the previous level of sales productivity and effectiveness in the face of this massive disruptive change, is to fire the sales team and start over.
The chances of senior management buying that strategy is slim to none. In fact, if you presented that idea the only one getting fired would be you.
If neither of the two hiring extremes (only hire experienced sales professionals so you don't have to train or only hire inexperienced sales professionals because they don't have bad habits and are easer to train) is not the answer to building a high-performance sales team, then what is?
Think long and hard about your answer, because the next person you hire is the future of your company and your career.
Martice E Nicks shares thoughts on improving sales productivity and sales effectiveness by focusing attention on developing the Sales Manager's capabilities. Explore effective sales management philosophies, strategies, processes, tools and skills needed to attract, develop and retain individuals that can become part of an elite high performance sales team.
They tell me, "I never hire someone with experience, because they have too many bad habits to unlearn. It's easer to train someone from scratch."
Is that true? Is it really easer to train someone with no experience than someone with experience?
Lets think about this.
The new hire with no sales experience has to develop the following knowledge and/or skills in order to become productive and effective:
- the industry
- the products
- competitors and their products
- value proposition(s)
- sales terminology
- sales process
- buying process
- sales methodology
- prospecting/marketing
- setting appointments
- opening the initial meeting with prospect
- evaluating the prospects situation
- asking high impact business questions
- the decision-making process
- who has power and influence
- what's the sense of urgency
- prioritizing the objectives
- putting together the solution
- constructing the presentation
- presentation and demonstration skills
- handling objections
- negotiating
- preparing the proposal
- preparing the contract
- following up to build satisfaction
- obtaining referrals
- managing the pipeline
- managing their opportunities
- managing the territory
- managing existing accounts
- organizing their day
- sales metrics and what they mean
- using sales tools
- navigating your companies internal departments and systems
- completing administrative requirements
Depending on your industry and how complex the solutions you're selling are, it may take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years to become a high-performance sales professional. Is this easier than training and developing a seasoned sales professional? More importantly, is this even a question we should be focused on?
Lets extend this logic into the future a bit further. So now its 2-5 years down the road. You have this crack hand picked sales team trained and developed by you. They're consistent quota busters and every year the company reserves a seat for you and most of your team at President's Club.
This year the national sales team is assembled in Orlando, Florida for the annual national sales meeting. The President/CEO walks on stage and thanks everyone for a good year in tough times. Then she drops the bomb, the company is shifting its focus to position itself for future growth:
- the target market is changing
- one of the main solutions has reached the end of the product life cycle and is being phased out
- new solutions are being introduced - with a new value proposition
- several divisions are merging, others are being eliminated
- implementing an enterprise CRM
- success metrics and compensation are being realigned with the new strategy
In short, the selling world that you and your team know so well just evaporated in a blink of an eye.
Now what?
Lets stop and think about the original premise that experienced sales professionals have too many bad habits (which were the good habits just a few short months ago) and its easer to train new inexperienced candidates. The solution to achieving the previous level of sales productivity and effectiveness in the face of this massive disruptive change, is to fire the sales team and start over.
The chances of senior management buying that strategy is slim to none. In fact, if you presented that idea the only one getting fired would be you.
If neither of the two hiring extremes (only hire experienced sales professionals so you don't have to train or only hire inexperienced sales professionals because they don't have bad habits and are easer to train) is not the answer to building a high-performance sales team, then what is?
Think long and hard about your answer, because the next person you hire is the future of your company and your career.
Martice E Nicks shares thoughts on improving sales productivity and sales effectiveness by focusing attention on developing the Sales Manager's capabilities. Explore effective sales management philosophies, strategies, processes, tools and skills needed to attract, develop and retain individuals that can become part of an elite high performance sales team.
