The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

If you have ever coached a seller who struggled to adapt to changing situations and circumstances and just kept doing the same thing over and over because they’ve always done it that way, you likely understand the importance of hiring people with adaptability.

It can make or break a salesperson’s success.

An adaptable salesperson has the ability to adjust and thrive in various situations and environments, making them a valuable asset to any sales team.

As the new fiscal year approaches, sales managers should evaluate and leverage their teams' unique strengths. Recognizing and nurturing individual sellers' talents can lead to improved performance and better results.

Our strengths are hard-wired in us from a very early age, and people notice and appreciate them when they are strong. To develop these talents over time, we need to practice using them.

Many of us learned the value of practice through sports, dance, music, or academics, realizing that we got better with consistent effort. The same principle applies to developing strengths in a professional setting.

You want to hire great people, but it’s harder than it sounds. I get it! How are you supposed to know whether your candidate is right for the job?”

Let’s start with how you are screening your candidates. What are you looking at to determine whether they may be right for the job? Even if you don’t have a formal screener, you are currently using something to screen candidates.

Most likely you gather intel from a few different sources, but I bet you lean pretty heavily on their resume. Great start, but be careful. Resumes are notoriously biased, only showing the candidate’s assets.

It won’t help you understand their limitations or weaknesses at all. Also, today’s resumes are built using AI, graphic templates, and professional services, all of which can make even a bad candidate look like a superstar.

You have found the perfect candidate with the right blend of talents, skills, and experience. You have reviewed their assessment with a talent analyst and know what to expect.

It’s time to have them hired and jumping right in, right?

Not so fast. Now it’s the time to take those talents and create an onboarding plan customized to your new hire.

Succession planning isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the cornerstone of survival. Identifying and developing future sales leaders ensures an organization's long-term health.

Remember, effective succession planning is not just about filling positions but also about fostering a culture of growth and preparedness that aligns with the company’s long-term strategy and goals. It’s a strategic process that ensures leadership continuity, preserves organizational knowledge, and contributes to overall business resilience.

Unfortunately, succession planning is also often set aside or even forgotten. Makes sense. It’s easy to get caught up in the here and now and fail to put plans in place for the future when your leaders leave. But it’s a big mistake!

Electronics come with user manuals, food packaging comes with cooking instructions, furniture comes with assembly instructions, and clothing comes with care instructions. People are much more complex than the items you buy, yet people don’t come with instructions on how to get the best out of them.

What if you knew how a person was wired before hiring or coaching them?

We know that top-performing salespeople are extremely driven to meet and exceed their goals. With that drive also comes the desire to continue to move up the ladder.

As a leader, it’s natural to have these salespeople “next on this list” to move up when a position becomes available. But are all top-performing salespeople destined to become top-performing managers?

Scenario: A team member comes to you, excited because a former coworker, a Top Performer, has just let them know that they are looking for a new position.

They are perfect for an opening on your team! You become excited because that opening has been hard to fill. Finding quality candidates has been hard and the competitive job market brutal.

So you can’t wait to hire this person. But before you meet with them, you have them take the Sales Talent Assessment, confident that their talents will match the glowing description by your AE.

Then comes that email. Not recommended to move forward in your process.

What?! How can this happen? And what do you do next?

Wouldn’t it be lovely if each sales candidate that you interviewed came holding a sign? “I’m Coachable.” “I’m a Hard Worker.” “I’m disorganized.” “You can’t trust me!”

Think of the time savings if everyone summed up their best strengths and their worst weaknesses for you and handed them over before an interview. You could come prepared with questions to find out how those strengths work for them (or trip them up) and if/how they work around those weaknesses.

Too good to be true? It’s not. All you need is a validated talent assessment like the Sales Talent Assessment (STA) and a conversation with a Talent Analyst.

Have you ever met a kid and know what kind of career they were made for?

I bet the answer is YES if you really think about it.