Part Two: How to Hire the Most Talented Candidate for Every Sales Role

In part 2 of this 3-part series by Mike Campanella, President & CEO of Prevue, he discusses and offers suggestions around building successful sales teams by identifying and hiring the right fit, every time.

It can be difficult to find truly resilient, talented salespeople in today’s workforce. And, when a bad fit is hired, it costs a company a great deal of time, money, and progress.

For one, a bad hire drains energy from an entire office. Not only will he or she eventually quit or be fired, but the process of training them will exhaust colleagues and leaders. People that don’t have the same workplace aptitude as the rest of the staff can take the whole team backwards. In fact, hiring the wrong individual has twice the negative impact that hiring a great fit does for success.

This is especially true in sales, where the environment quickly exposes who will and won’t last. Employees who can’t handle intense competition or a fast-paced environment will eventually burn-out. Similarly, those that lack the ability to read clients will find themselves constantly questioning where they went wrong.

There are a number of attributes commonly associated with an ideal salesperson; however, these traits are not suitable for all sales roles. In fact, different types of sales roles call for inherently different types of people. While this logic seems simple, the difference between these individuals may pass undetected in an interview or on a resume. In fact, most salespeople will appear similar in an interview. As a result, it is nearly impossible to select an ideal hire based on this process alone.

Identifying the Sales Hunter

Although sales roles call for similar types of people, there are crucial differences in what each position requires. Sales hunters, for example, are responsible for acquiring new leads. As such, they must be extremely outgoing and opportunistic; they mustn’t require constant support or supervision from colleagues. Moreover, they need to be extremely resilient. This role involves rejection, and that can’t deter them from moving ahead.

Indeed, many individuals feel drained in a high-stress environment; however, a sales hunter excels at this fast pace and feels energized by competition. Although they love working with people, they are also extremely independent and assertive. As a result, they artfully communicate their pitch and gain trust during the sales process, quickly closing the sale. Their delivery seems genuine, rather than forced. They also appear highly competent, which instils greater trust.

Identifying the Sales Farmer

Sales Farmers, on the other hand, don’t have such extreme personality traits. While they share some commonalities with hunters, they are ultimately quite different people. Moreover, they simply won’t flourish in a fast-paced environment in the way a sales hunter will. Rather than accruing new leads, a sales farmer nurtures and cultivates relationships with prospects and existing clients. Of course, they can still generate new sales; however, their strength lies in the ability to maintain important client relationships.

Like hunters, farmers are people-oriented. And, while they are also independent and assertive, they are much less so than hunters. Similarly, they are less spontaneous and outgoing, but still possess these traits. Ultimately, Farmers have far less extreme personalities. They are ambitious and highly intelligent, but much less reactive and emotional. As such, they won’t take as many risks and prefer to spend more time with clients. They are excellent listeners, and extremely detail-oriented. Therefore, they are excellent account managers and create long-standing, profitable relationships with clients.

Benchmarking

It is nearly impossible to identify a Sales Hunter or Farmer based on a resume and interview alone. Pre-employment testing allows employers to identify these profiles with confidence. In order to build a strong sales team, companies must ensure that they select the ideal person for each position. Performing a Prevue Assessment and comparing the candidate against the Hunter and Farmer benchmarks will indicate exactly how much potential a candidate has for a given role.

A Sales Hunter will have a very clear personality profile. Easily identified by a lightning bolt pattern, their assessment conveys very strong personality traits. In essence, there won’t be a grey area with these hires. If a candidate doesn’t have these strong traits, they will quickly burn-out. In order to reduce employee turnover, employers need to acquire extremely independent, assertive hunters that enthusiastically bring in business.

From here, employers require Sales Farmers that will develop and maintain these new clients. A Farmer’s personality assessment results will appear like a less exaggerated lightning bolt. The difference between these personalities is so subtle, that an interviewer would likely consider them the same.

If you would like to learn more about incorporating the Prevue Assessments into your hiring process, contact us today!

You can find Part One of this three-part series here: Identifying Sales Hunters is the Key to Building a Successful Sales Team

You can find Part Three of this three-part series here: Why Even Talented Sales Teams Fail