The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

At The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), our mission and reason for being is to Turn Talent into Performance. Talent is foundational, but it’s not the only element.

It starts with talent, but you must also develop. After you’ve selected the person, you must commit to growing and developing them if you really want to turn talent into performance.

How do you grow someone?

When you focus on a natural strength, magic happens. They say that when you spend time practicing and honing a strength you have, you can grow in that area by as much as 10xs!

Investing that same effort in an area that’s not a natural strength pays little return.

Imagine the improvement that a salesperson could see if they had the innate ability to ask probing questions and uncover meaningful information—and then spent time practicing and developing that ability! The potential would be huge!

But what if they were too busy to spend any directed time or energy developing that talent? Or even worse, what if they were simply unaware of their incredible potential for growth? That is a wasted opportunity that keeps us awake at night.

30% of job seekers have left a job within 90 days of starting.

Staffing and HR experts say onboarding new hires at an organization should be a strategic process that lasts at least one year because how employers handle the first few days and months of a new employee's experience is crucial to ensuring high retention.

Beyond the basics, what else does a new hire need?

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.

To successfully manage and lead others, you must understand what makes each of your team members unique and individualize your approach. It’s important to understand the innate talents of each person and consistently coach them to maximize their strengths, work around their weaknesses, and turn talent into performance.

Gallup's research in the bestseller It's the Manager proves that this strengths-based approach to being a coach, not a boss, is essential to leading a high-performance team.

At The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), we offer the most effective talent instruments available on the market to help you accurately identify the best candidates for the right roles and guide you to develop strategies and coach them in a way that will maximize their individual strengths.

Our clients have seen a direct Return on Investment (ROI) in the following ways:

• Reduced costly turnover
• Recruited better hires
• Increased new business development
• Improved client retention

It's time to take the guesswork out of hiring and coaching.

Do you have salespeople on your team that enjoy routine and structure? What about reps who have contagious enthusiasm?

If you answered yes to one, or either, of these questions then take a closer look at this article as we help you coach and develop the people with strengths of Discipline and Positivity. 

Do you want to conduct better interviews and ensure you make smart hiring decisions? Preparing better interview questions to determine talent and fit will help you improve this step in your selection process.

The first, and most important, step is to have your candidate complete a validated talent assessment specific to the role you are filling before you meet with them.

Throughout season 2 of the Improving Sales Performance Series, we’ve focused on the data and analysis of the newly released Media Sales Report.

In this episode, Beth Sunshine, VP of Talent Services, joined Matt Sunshine to discuss the Sales Department Structure section of the Media Sales Report, specifically looking at data on hiring and talent.

You can stream it now to hear their insight, advice, and initial thoughts after analyzing the data that was just published. Or keep reading for a brief overview.

We all have strengths, and we all have weaknesses — and like fingerprints, each of our talent combinations is entirely unique.

Human nature drives us to focus on our weaknesses, so as individuals, we expend a lot of energy trying to master behaviors that will never become natural. Managers get stuck in that trap as well, wasting much of their time coaching in a way that feels like teaching a fish to climb a tree. These futile efforts greatly lower employee engagement and only result in marginal improvement (about 10%).  On the other hand, when people focus that same time and energy on their strengths, their level of engagement shoots up, and they can improve by as much as 10 TIMES!

We help managers understand their people's unique strengths so they can apply the right coaching strategies and improve their performance. That leads to a strong return on investment for both the individual and the manager!