Sales Recruiting Blog

Reducing Sales Force Turnover

Over time I am going to devote alot of attention to the subject of how to reduce turnover amongst your sales force.  I have a client that was averaging 30% turnover with their new sales hires and we were able to reduce that to below 10% annually.  In fact, at this point, we have placed 48 sales reps going back over 3 years and 41 of those are still with my client.  Some of how we have accomplished this is quantifiable and some of it art.  In my opinion, fully half of the reduction can be traced to one factor - expectations.

Having listened to thousands of sales reps explain why they have or want to leave a position I realized that nothing upsets sales reps more than making them promises that aren’t kept.  When developing your talk track about the sales job that you are hiring for it is imperative to live by the rule of under promising and over delivering.  My client and I write out and give to our potential sales candidates all relevant facts and expectations that would be of interest to them.  This includes - activity levels required to exceed sales quotas, comp plan and how it works, earnings histories of current sales reps, potential challenges in the position, growth plans for the company and growth history, etc.  I can imagine that many a sales manager after reading this is thinking that they don’t have a compelling story to tell.  That is the subject of another article.

Posted in Hiring Top Sales Performers | No Comments »

Doing your homework for an interview

When you show up to any sales job interview there are 2 questions that you should fully prepared to answer - why are you interested in the sales job and what do you bring to the company?

Your research of the company should begin with what you would need to know to sell their product or service.  What is the competitive landscape like? What are the strengths and weaknesses of their offerings? I have seen candidates track down a current sales rep for the company and interview them.  Treat the interview like a sales call.  The employer has a business problem (open sales job) that needs solving.  Do the homework prior to showing up for the interview so you can ask the right questions to uncover what it is going to take to perform at a high level with this sales job.  Be prepared to speak to your abilities and track record in these areas.  If this is a high-level account management sales job calling on F100 clients bring sales wins to the table at similar sized companies.  Have letters of recommendation from these clients and be able to show the revenue growth that you achieved.  Ask the recruiter representing you what you can research or do to seperate yourself.  If you aren’t being represented by a sales recruiter then ask HR. 

Beyond being able to articulate your ability to help solve the Sales Manager’s problem be prepared to articulate why you have an interest in this position and the company that you are interviewing for.  Go to Hoovers.com and research company growth.  Google the company and find awards won, new products being launched,etc.   Before I go on an interview I pull out a piece of paper and write down the numbers 1-5 and proceed to write down the 5 reasons why I am interested in the company.  If I can’t come up with compelling reasons I know that I need to do more research or perhaps this isn’t that compelling of a job. 

Posted in Interviewing | No Comments »

Cold Calling Techniques That Really Work

Eleven years ago when I got into sales recruiting I worked for a company called Culver Careers that had 20 offices and 150+ recruiters.  It was my burning desire to become the Rookie of the Year and get promoted to Branch Manager in short order.  I knew that all I had to do was sell more than anyone else but that was easier said than done.  Since I didn’t want to have to work 70-80 hours/week I knew that I had to go about business differntly than the other sales recruiters and do activities that no one else was doing.  At this company that meant cold-calling.  The only problem was that beyond an internship at Merrill Lynch where I received no formal training I had never cold-called via the telephone before.  After a trip down to Barnes & Noble I came home with the book Cold Calling Techniques That Really Work by Stephan Schiffman.  This began my career as a bonafide head hunter.

All of 125 pages or so this is the perfect book for the rookie starting out in copier, telecom, payroll or other hunting sales job.  Stephan’s writing style is clear, succint and impactful.  That first year at Culver, 25% of my candidate placements and several clients came from the techniques that I learned from this book and yes I won Rookie of the Year and was promoted 2 months later to Branch Manager.  Without that extra 25% of activity I definitely wouldn’t have won the Rookie of the Year award and probably not have been promoted so fast.  Eleven years later, we still use this as our foundation for head hunting candidates.  Highly, highly recommended to those sales reps in their first sales job or the experienced sales rep who struggles with cold-calling.

Posted in Book Review, Sales | No Comments »

Hug Your Customers

Posted in Book Review | No Comments »

Documenting sales performance

If you have done much interviewing in medical sales or pharmaceutical sales you have probably been asked for a copy of your brag book or documentation of your sales success.  Unfortunately for alot of sales reps, they aren’t given stack rankings or formal printous of their sales performance.  As a recruiter, I understand this and advise you to find other ways to document your sales success.  Often, your manager will send you an e-mail congratulating you for a job well done.  Perhaps you receive plaques and trophies for your sales accomplishments - simply take a digital photo of these and have them printed out at Kinko’s on one of their laser color printers.  If you don’t have anything at all you still are not without hope.  Provide w-2s that show income history.  These can be especially powerful if you have a copy of your pay plan which shows how much you should make at 100% of quota and you have earned higher than that.   Another way to document performance is through a letter of recommendation from a previous hiring manager.  Instead of having them write about how motivated you are have them document what you accomplished while at the company.  They can spell out each year’s accomplishments, promotions, rankings, contests won, etc.  In addition, have them spell out how you were able to accomplish these feats - activity levels, creativity, etc.  When I have a candidate that can’t provide any of the above when given some time I really become suspicious about their sales performance.  Don’t let a hiring manager have the same concern - document everything!

Posted in Interviewing | No Comments »

Job Hopping

Having recruited sales professionals for 10 years I have seen how the best have gotten ahead and raised their income levels.  With few exceptions, it wasn’t from changing jobs every 1-2 years.  In fact, with too many jobs on your resume the best and most sought after positions will be closed to you.  As the difficulty and selling cycle (and earnings ability) increases the time it takes an employer to break even on you also increases.  With some of our clients, it takes 18 months for them to break even.  They simply cannot take a chance on hiring someone who has shown a pattern of leaving after 2 years. 

My advice is to work at companies that provide opportunity and learn the nuances of your profession.  Most likely, you will probably will make a move every 3-5 years unless you come across a company that can continue to challenge you after that time.  On the flip side, I see reps that have earned a similar amount of money for several years in a row.  That is a sure sign of stagnation.  Hey, if you are super happy with that amount then good for you.

 If you do have an unstable work history then perhaps you may need to learn how to stay at a company for a stretch - say 3 years.  I think it begins with doing your due diligence on the front end to make sure that the company has the ability to challenge you and will continue to grow for that amount of time.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Selling To VITO

I have read Selling to VITO and seen Tony Parinello live.  The essence of his approach is to go straight to the top person in an organization ( VITO = Very Important Top Officer) and get their backing to shorten your selling cycle and increase your sales.  Nothing really new there excepting that he promises to teach you how to get the CXOs attention - the vital first appointment.  

His concept is solid and can work very well if you have a solid story to tell.  What the book breezed over is how to pinpoint what it is that your business or product does much better than the competition and how to convey that message to the CXO.  Essentially, if you don’t have compelling stories of how you have helped other or similar businesses save money, make money, save time or increase marketshare all of the VITO letters in the world aren’t going to get you an appointment.

If you are new to higher level sales or to cold-calling on the C-level I would highly recommend this book.  Once your done reading it, start by honing your value statement and uncovering examples of how you or your company have helped other business achieve and exceed their objectives.  Sales reps that have strong written skills will enjoy this sales approach.

Posted in Book Review, Sales | No Comments »

Brag Books

If you go to the resources part of our website you can see examples of how to put together a brag book.  What I want to talk about is what to do with one.  Essentially, if the sales manager absolutely loves or hates you the brag book is going to be irrelevant.  Where they become useful is when the sales manager has to decide between two equally strong candidates and is having a difficult time deciding.  In that scenario, if you have left your brag book behind they will certainly read your brag book to help them make their decision.  If the other candidate hasn’t left one behind you are at a huge advantage (assuming that your brag book documents strong sales performance).  My philosophy is pretty simple when it comes to interviewing or sales.  Do all of the homework and preparation so that the outcome is already locked up.

Posted in Interviewing | No Comments »

Due Diligence

Nothing is worse than getting a new sales job and finding out that you have been misled or lied to about the opportunity.  Sometimes, everything that was directly told you was true, only they left out a few important facts.  For example, maybe 20% of the company’s sales reps earn over $250k and that is a cold fact.  What they didn’t share with you is that all 20% of them live in New York (and you are in California). 

As you are interviewing with a company use every resource available to you to verify the information that is most important to you.  Talk to 2 of their current reps and ask them pointed questions. 

I do want to caution you that to not come across as guarded or wary.  Let them know that you are looking for a home and not just a new sales job and you want to get a feel for the day-to-day challenges and rewards.  Mix in some solid, curious and positive questions with the 2 or 3 make or break ones.  When I really want to know something that is important to me I try and ask them in a “by the way” manner.  Come across like you are just curious.  When you ask someone point blank about something you are putting them on guard and letting them know how you want a question answered.

Posted in Interviewing | No Comments »