The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

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.

In a tight job market, finding candidates, qualifying them, conducting interviews, and hiring are all rushed and stressful.

Many managers are in the position of having open positions on their teams that they're desperate to fill and having candidates enter and leave the job market quickly, so having a well-thought-out interviewing plan is vital. Equally important is learning to look and listen for the talents necessary for success in sales.

Trigger Warning... If you get easily offended by brutally honest feedback that might seem harsh and mean, you might want to skip today's blog post.

Ok, now; that we've gotten that out of the way, here's that brutally honest and possibly mean content:

You should NOT invest resources into poor-performing salespeople!

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

You’ve probably heard that wise Chinese proverb before. In the business world, the best time to start recruiting was before you had a job opening, but the second-best time is now.   

If you're a hiring manager, recruiter, or HR professional tasked with recruitment and selection for a sales team, your number one priority involves making sure you have the most talented people in the right places on your team. There is no doubt that matching talent to a task in this way will determine the success, or failure, of your sales organization.

During the first 90 days at a new job, the relationship between a new hire and their employer is as vulnerable as it gets: 20% of all employee turnover happens during those crucial three months.

Leaving a job before things really get going is becoming increasingly normal, especially for younger workers: Jobvite’s oft-cited annual “Job Seeker Nation” survey reports that 34% of them have, at some point in their young careers, left a job in the first 90 days.

An interview can make or break a company’s relationship with a new hire.

A thorough interview process, using a validated talent assessment, looking for strengths, talents, and fit for the position, and examining fit to culture, can provide a strong jump off to a successful and lucrative career.

A desperation hire where a “warm body” is hired with no thought to their success can only lead to frustration, bad feelings on both sides, and repeating the process when the new hire quits. So, what are the secrets to a strong interviewing process and successful employer/employee relationship?

To thrive, an organization needs to be able to attract, hire, and retain top talent.

Top talent are the people that are going to take the team to the next level. They’re the ones who instinctually want to be the best and are the best. They serve clients in a way that no other can. They uncover client needs, close and grow your key accounts, and solve problems in a way you wish everyone could.

In fact, superior talent is up to 8xs more productive than typical talent!

Have you ever heard music that was so brilliant, you couldn’t even carry on a conversation while listening? 

I had a friend in college who played like that. Her audiences would be nearly silent as she played, mesmerized by the sound, until her last note when they would go nuts!

She practiced both the piano and the guitar often, simply because she loved it, and she often played for us upon request. I’m not much of a musician myself, and I don’t know a lot about the business, but those who did were certain that she could be one of the few who actually made a career for herself in music. 

You already know that turning talent into performance requires a true understanding of talent. Spotting talent, hiring talent, developing talent, and coaching talent. . . it’s mission critical.

Talent assessments are an excellent tool for understanding the way your candidates and current salespeople are wired. The difference in approach with each group is key to productive new hires and successful coaching.