Are Your Salespeople Guilty of This Sales Sin

To quote from the Darby Bible translation of Judges 15:16, “And Sampson said …with the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men.”

Sadly, in the over 40 years I’ve been in sales, I’ve seen the same number of sales slain by the exact same weapon.

When a Gift Becomes a Sin

When it comes to selling, the gift of gab isn’t so much a gift as it is a sin. Too many people, including some salespeople, still believe in the old cliché that “telling is selling.” They feel that the number one criteria for being good at selling is that they are good at talking to people.

How many times has someone told you that you should consider a person for sales because he’s good with people, or that he has the gift of gab, or that he really likes people. While these are all endearing qualities, none of them are a prerequisite for being successful in sales. Indeed, they can be a detriment.

The Sin

Talking isn’t a sin. Talking too much is, particularly as a salesperson. There is a time for a salesperson to talk but that’s after he’s listened to the prospect to determine what he should be talking about.

There’s a big difference between talking with a person and talking to a person. When you’re talking with someone, the conversation is generally equally divided between the two people. When you’re talking to someone, the other person is doing very little talking, and ultimately, very little listening as well.

The Birth of a Misconception

Many folks think that good salespeople are good talkers. What they fail to see is that this “good talker” is good because he’s saying things that are of interest or of value to the listener. They forget the many times they were bored to tears by the salesperson that wouldn’t stop talking long enough to let them buy.

The myth that a good salesperson is someone who can sell an icebox to an Eskimo stems from being mesmerised by a glib individual who dazzles us with verbiage and won’t quit until we buy. I’ve always suspected that the Eskimo bought the icebox just to get rid of the fast-talking salesperson.

All Too Common

Of the 18 basic selling styles identified by our Sales Temperament Assessment, four, or over 20%, fall into the social or over-social category. This means that, unless you’re careful, you have a one in five chance of hiring a salesperson that probably talks too much and sells too little.

Here’s another piece of bad news for you. Another two of the 18 selling styles interview well but probably shouldn’t be in sales at all. That means that about 33% of the 18 selling styles are likely to produce marginal, if any sales results. These are not good odds when trying to hire a sales winner.

In fact, of those people who earn their living in sales, these folks fall into the category of the 55% who should be doing something else.

Why They Get Hired

You might be wondering how these people get hired in the first place. The answer is easy. These people are charming, likeable, and interview well. Once we give them the opportunity to sell themselves to us, they do an excellent job. Unfortunately, sometimes that’s the only thing they can sell.

I’ve lost track of the number of business owners who have minimal sales experience who get sold on these smooth-talking charmers and then work at trying to convince me that the person will make an incredible salesperson. In actual fact, the business owner got sold a potential bill of goods.

The Warning Signals

Sales managers, or business owners with good sales experience, make better hiring decisions because they can often detect the warning signals. For example, if you ask a candidate to tell you about himself, and he starts back at the age of six when he had a paper route, you’re in for a long answer and one that may indicate you have a talker on your hands.

Another sign of a potentially talkative candidate is the penchant for giving overly long answers to short questions. Many of these people don’t have the words “yes,” or “no,” in their vocabulary mix.

I’m not suggesting for a minute that you only hire salespeople who give monosyllabic responses to questions, but beware of essay-type answers to simple questions.

Your Existing Sales Team

The best way to find out if you’ve been blessed with a bunch of yackers is for you to go out on sales calls and watch and listen to their interactions with the prospect. Is there a good balance between the talk/listen ratios? Does the salesperson really hear what he’s being told and is he responding appropriately or is he simply waiting for his turn to talk next?

Here’s some more bad news. Yackers rarely learn how to shut up. Once a yacker, always a yacker. It’s part of their basic temperament. They’re hard-wired to yack.

So if you’ve got one, you’re stuck with him.

The Bottom Line

It’s best to find out before you hire, not after, whether you have someone who will talk more and sell less.

Will this Sales Dog Hunt?

Have you ever been stumped by a bad hire?  No, I am not talking about the professional interviewer that wooed the interviewing team or the resume that was fudged.  I’m talking about a strong resume where past sales numbers achieved were real and industry sales experience was deep.  Why doesn’t a new hire’s true success in the past transition to success in a new position?  The problem could be that success achieved in their past sales life isn’t lining up with factors needed for success in the new position.  Below are six areas to examine when determining whether past success can transition into a new sales position.

1. Branded vs. Non-Branded
In their past selling life, did the salesperson work for a well-branded company or product?  If so, the name brand might have opened the door for the salesperson, not necessarily their prospecting skills.  A salesperson from this background is great once the door is open but may lack the skills or behavior style necessary to get in without brand recognition.  A branded product can also help close deals in a close sales race.  An old saying states, “No one ever got fired for hiring IBM.”  The brand actually closed the business rather than the salesperson presenting the best presentation. 

2. Need to Have vs. Nice to Have Products/Services
This is also referred to as selling a tangible vs. an intangible product or service.  There are challenges in selling both.  The insurance industry is a good example of the different talents needed to sell and close business.  The “need to have” product, like car insurance, has advantages because the customer must buy your product – it’s just a matter of choosing the appropriate vendor.  The salesperson doesn’t have to work at creating a need, it’s already there.  Their sales ingenuity comes from creating and showing an image of difference in a crowded space.  On the other hand, the “nice to have” product, like life insurance, requires a different type of sales approach.  The salesperson must be excellent at creating a need.  The life insurance prospect often doesn’t realize they have a problem until the sales professional invests time in helping the prospect find the “undiscovered or unknown problem.”  The salesperson who has experience in selling “nice to have” services excels in critical thinking skills and quantifying the cost of a current or future problem.  They are good consultative salespeople who know how to sell value not price.  The salesperson with experience in “need to have” services may have great interpersonal skills, however, is often coming from a background where they sold on price not value. 

3. Age of the Company
In what stage of growth is your company?  A mistake many entrepreneurs make is hiring sales talent from the Fortune 500 world.  This salesperson often flounders in their new environment because they are not used to working without the many resources or structure found in a more established organization.  They are used to a sophisticated lead generation system or the latest technology for managing client relationships.  Young companies often do better with the “scrappy” salesperson.  This is the individual that looks under rocks to find opportunities and is capable of “‘making up stuff” everyday because a system or process is not in place.   They don’t rely on a brand because they are used to selling a product or service that has no recognition in the market place. 

4. Economy or Ability
The late 90’s were a great time to be in sales.  Many professionals agree we were making money, despite ourselves.  When interviewing a candidate, make sure they can pass the marriage test.  Has this salesperson sold “in good times and bad?” or was their past success the result of a flush economy?  Qualities such as persistence and creativity may not exist in the salesperson that started their selling career where the greatest skills required was picking up the phone and taking an order. 

5. Team or Individual Sales
It is important to check whether a salesperson’s past success came from individual efforts or if the success resulted from a team effort.  If the new position requires being a “lone ranger,” the team salesperson struggles without the help and support of teammates.  

6. Average Deal Size
Are your deals $1mill or $1,000 in size?  The salesperson who has succeeded in small account sales may struggle with major account sales for a variety of reasons.  The first is the size of the deal.  They may wrestle with the dollar size thinking companies don’t invest this amount of money in “stuff” and continually sell smaller deals.  The second area of struggle occurs in the type of sale.  Larger deals usually involve multiple decision makers and longer buy cycles.   The smaller account salesperson can struggle with the patience factor in meeting with all decision makers, understanding the politics behind the sale, and being persistent for six months to a year to get the deal done. 

Past behavior is the best indicator of future results.  Make sure your new hire’s past matches with your company’s future.