When it comes to talent management, it’s critical for organizations to bring the best talent into their sales forces.

We know from our research on high performing rep skills that companies’ best bet is to bring more Challenger Reps into the sales force – Challengers are four times more likely to be high-performers than Relationship Builders in complex selling environments.

But we’ve seen most sales organizations continue to use traditional relationship-based skills and competencies to screen and select new hires. After all, conventional wisdom tells us that the likable candidate who charms interviewers is bound to be a successful salesperson.

This hiring approach inevitably brings an unpleasant surprise, though. Why? Because if a rep relies on the same relationship-building behaviors they used to close a deal as they do to approach an interview, they’ll soon find that their long-term likelihood to succeed is bleak.

So how do companies actually find sales rep candidates with the Challenger skill set in the marketplace? Read More »

By Kirsten Robinson

India and China have two of the fastest growing sales labor markets, and it comes as no surprise seeing as many companies are focused on expansion into these countries.

Executives continue to be optimistic about top-line growth in Asia, as well as the economic outlook for the region. In recent research, we found that 91% of polled executives expect their revenues in Asia to be higher in the next 12 months, and most also expect higher GDP growth in China and Asia.

Not surprisingly, senior executives also are anticipating higher sales and higher sales headcount in Asia, especially in China and India.

But, finding sales talent in these markets is easier said than done. Because the markets are vastly different, it’s critical for organizations to understand potential employees’ value drivers, such as—What are they looking for in a job? What does individuals’ job search behavior like?

We recently conducted an analysis of the sales labor market in India and China, through which we discovered several interesting talent and value proposition trends, including:   Read More »

By Kirsten Robinson

So, you’re looking to build up your team of sales reps. You know you want high-quality reps. You also know that the best reps are being courted by other companies, too. What do you do? You throw your efforts and resources into piquing the interest of and then hiring that sales talent.

But, this is where many companies take a wrong turn. After spending tremendous amounts of money to hire new talent, they underinvest in onboarding those new staff.

This can cause several problems: higher washout rates, missed opportunities to engage top performers, and extended time horizons for reps to reach full productivity.

We recently spoke with Christine Wolff, VP of Sales Development at Dimension Data, and Jim Williams, Director of Learning and Development at CertainTeed Corporation, about how their companies have been onboarding new hires in ways that speed up time to full proficiency and decrease turnover.

SEC members, learn more about how Dimension Data and CertainTeed execute onboarding by reading excerpts from our Q&A with Christine Wolff and Jim Williams.

(This post was originally written by Tim Stafford of our Finance and Strategy Practice.)

Most managers approach an interview in the hope that their search for someone is over. No one voluntarily extends the time or cost of the recruitment process.

This is good news for interviewees – it means that if they shine, they’re in with a shout – but for interviewers it means that, first, they must be solidly prepared before going into the interview and, second, they must have a process for comparing one candidate to another as objectively as possible.

Most readers of this blog likely work in sales functions at large companies, and so you must take one extra step for a smooth interview process: effective collaboration with the corporate recruitment team.  Beyond this though, there are four skills that interviewers can learn to make sure they get the right person in seat.   Read More »

By Andrew Kent

The other day I was talking with the Head of Sales L&D for a major technology company who told me an absolutely fascinating story.  As most of our members know, SEC research across dozens of companies and thousands of sales reps has found that the best performing reps fit a particular profile, which we’ve dubbed the Challenger™ Sales Rep.  But when we ran the same analysis for this particular company, they found something shocking: their best reps weren’t Challengers at all!

What was going on here?  Were they some kind of anomaly?  Or was the research wrong?

Far from it.  After a follow-up analysis, it turns out that something much more troubling was going on: the company was actively driving its top performers away—and these top performers were Challengers.  Read More »

By Kirsten Robinson

It’s not easy to come across the right combination of technical skills and personality that make a successful Sales Ops employee. There isn’t an obvious talent pool to recruit from, as many different fields provide employees with skills that come in handy in a Sales Ops role. And as an emerging function, in many organizations, Sales Ops often lacks a compelling career path to attract and retain this talent.

An executive in our SEC Sales Ops Discussions Forum asked how other organizations source and develop Sales Ops employees. Here are a few takeaways from the ensuing discussion:

Where to Find Them

• Sales Process Consultants. Typically armed with strong project management skills, the ideal candidates from this group often have selling backgrounds—which help them establish credibility with the field.
• Product Management. One SEC member finds that people attracted to this area are generally process-and detail-oriented and are able to hit the ground running on data and reporting activities.
• IT. Business Analysts with roots in IT have a solid foundation for building processes. At the same time, they are prone to stay on top of how the latest technology can facilitate efficiency.
• Finance. One member has had the best success with former Finance employees who often bring a lot of analytical firepower to the Ops team. Those trained in Financial Planning & Analysis are uniquely qualified to take on leadership roles.

How to Keep Them

• Diversify experience. Rotate Sales Ops talent between tasks—e.g., tool development, incentive management, etc.—until they find the best fit for them.
• Create a career ladder. Make sure your talent has the opportunity to advance. One member’s Sales Ops team was hurt by not having enough management levels, and a number of high performers fled to other departments within the organization.
• Support success. Set clear expectations and goals for Sales Ops talent, and link those to rewards. These could be monetary, or include recognition programs.

SEC members, to view the rest of this discussion, click here. You may also be interested in checking out our compilation of Sales Ops job descriptions or our Sales Ops Organizational Profiles study.

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Table stakes. You’ll hear it at nearly any poker table—it’s the minimum amount of buy-in required to simply have a seat and play. You’ll also hear it in the business world to describe the basic fundamentals needed to enter a market or execute a transaction. In the Sales world, we’ve discovered a set of table stakes skills that are often overlooked in sales managers.

And here’s the kicker of it…this set of table stakes is something you’re likely taking for granted, and here’s why: 25% of total sales manager effectiveness has very little to do with Sales.

We’re all familiar with other traditional assumptions that don’t apply in Sales. Compensation principles (what other functions have to create a President’s Club to ensure sufficient motivation?) and promotion patterns (a star frontline performer does not necessarily translate to a star manager) are just two examples.

Perhaps we’ve become so comfortable assuming Sales is different we forget to look for places where it’s actually not different. Take a look at the first graphic to the right:

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What this shows us is that the skills we traditionally assume managers have—the ability to listen and reliability—need to be elevated to “must have” status.

The second graphic to the right shows just how non-negotiable these skills are in sales managers. Without these fundamentals, these table stakes, your sales managers are leaving revenue on the table. Period.

We’ll be exploring these manager fundamentals this week in our upcoming webinar, but here are few considerations:
Read More »

With an increasing number of indicators suggesting that the world economy is slowly heating up again, many sales leaders are facing a very different talent market than we had in 2009.  And this could be a very big problem.

Here’s the way I see it:

1.) We’ve trimmed our sales teams down to the bare minimum, asking salespeople to deliver the same results with substantially fewer resources.

2.) We’ve let go of many of our low and average performers, leaving a talent bench that is comprised of a greater proportion of stars than ever before.

3.) Meanwhile, the stars in our sales force are precisely the ones most difficult to engage and retain.

Indeed, the statistics suggest that many of our stars in fact do not intend to stick around. Ongoing research by the Corporate Leadership Council, our sister program for HR execs, suggests that one in four top-performers plan to walk out the door within the next 12 months. Sales specific data cuts show that 10% of salespeople were already making phone calls and sending resumes to other employers as early as September of last year. As one member summarized to us, “We’re sitting on a powder keg of sales personnel churn, and the only thing keeping it from exploding is a weak labor market.”

Our guidance? Keep close tabs on your employee churn numbers, particularly for your stars. As I suggested in my previous post, double-down on efforts to engage high-performers by providing them with continuing stretch opportunities. And avoid these common mistakes with your stars:  Read More »