81 "I am glad that our weekly meetings are more than just x’s, o’s and numbers crunching. I find his vested interest motivating, and oddly it has helped me troubleshoot through client solutions." Personal goals can become a professional inspiration. Consider a parent who wants to put a child through college – how much more motivated will they be to succeed if it’s directly tied to something that’s so import- ant to them? Again, this will require you to put in extra effort to build a relationship with each of your team members and to foster the type of atmosphere where it’s safe and comfortable to share these types of goals. Tools like the Individualized Management Questionnaire will help to ensure you ask all the right questions. Did You Lose Sleep before the Hire Rather than After? or Are You Losing Sleep Now? You can build strong relationships with your salespeople, train and coach them to the best of your ability, and expose them to the best company culture possible, but if you made the wrong hire – that will only take you so far. You have to start with talent for any other investment to do any good. You can help people become their best selves, but you cannot change who they are. Have you made the wrong hire before? Con- sider it from their perspective: Your new hire has a lot of energy and motivation when they start, love the company culture, and take full advantage of your coaching and the mentor- ship opportunities available. But they con- tinue to fail to meet certain criteria or goals. It’s not that they aren’t trying – they work hard and put in the time necessary to do the best they can. Eventually, this becomes frustrating, then exhausting, and ultimately it hurts their morale. In turn, this can impact your whole team, especially if one or more people tries to pick up the slack. They’re not a bad employee, and it’s not a difficult envi- ronment. So, what’s wrong? They aren’t the right fit for what you’re try- ing to make them do. On top of that, you’re wasting their real talents. This doesn’t nec- essarily preclude their ability to fulfill a role on your sales team. However, you need to recognize the error and work to utilize them and their abilities in a way that’s going to op- timize their results. If you find yourself in this situation, your first step should be to connect with a CSS Talent Analyst in order to discuss their per- formance and get a good handle on your struggling seller’s strengths and weakness- es. You will walk away from this feedback call with a clear plan of priority strategies to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Your targeted coaching may be enough to make a difference. Or you may need to consider making a change to the role they play with your company. The Continued Importance of Company Culture As we’ve discussed in the first two articles, your company culture plays a big role in whether or not a candidate is interested in your company or accepts a job offer. Once