The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Simple life lesson: One of the best ways to find exactly what you need is to know exactly what you’re looking for.

We regularly work with hiring managers and recruiters to clearly define the role they are working to fill so they know exactly what they need for superstar performance. This morning I received an email from a sales manager asking which talents he should look for to hire a strong sales hunter. Great question! So good, in fact, I thought I’d share my response with you.

Do other people really see you for who you are? Are you maximizing your natural strengths in your work? It’s often hard to know!

I recently worked with a sales manager in our Executive Coaching program and helped him get to the bottom of how he was perceived by his sales team. It was an incredible discovery, and I think you will find the story both interesting and useful.

Coaching is a hot topic! Makes sense... people who use their strengths every day are 12.5% more productive in their work. Any strong manager knows they need to coach their people to maximize their strengths, so they can benefit from that natural lift in performance.   

If you have hired a salesperson that is younger than 36 years old, you hired a millennial. And you may sometimes feel like many of the other sales managers I talk to every day…

• “They need lots of handholding.”
• “They lack the drive of the generations before them.”
• “They can be overly sensitive and more focused on making friends than making sales.”

As a Talent Analyst, I spend a lot of time identifying people’s innate sales talents and helping managers make smart selection decisions. Once each hire is made, I work with the sales manager to turn talent into ever-increasing performance by maximizing each seller’s strengths and working around their weaknesses.

So my attention is sharply focused on two things: Talent and Fit. 

About a year ago I conducted a sales talent assessment for an up-and-coming college graduate who had very little sales experience but was loaded with both raw talent and a passion for sales. We’ll call her Ashley. The hiring manager, let’s go with Brenda, was thrilled to be able to get someone with such potential “on the cheap,” so she made her an offer right away, which Ashley quickly accepted. 

The Tour of Duty Framework

There are so many young people out there with innate talent and tremendous potential… but zero sales experience. 

People who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged in their jobs, and they will have 12.5% higher productivity (Gallup.com).

Nothing fires me up like facilitating the Talent Focused Management live simulation workshop. The lessons are powerful, and the takeaways are career-changing! Following last week’s workshop, I asked our participants to share one of their greatest lessons learned from the program, and one response really stood out for me. 

Recruiting and hiring top talent is a tall order!  But it is critical for success in a sales organization.