The critical importance to measure the will to sell

Imagine. You have a serious illness. Or at least an illness that worries you enough that you need to have an operation. You know that your body is not functioning at its best. You have indications of what to do for treatment. A treatment that costs time and money. But you don't know where. What do you do?

1- You apply the treatment to the whole body.

2- You have an MRI to find out where to treat?

I guess you choose option two, don't you? It would be stupid not to know exactly which part of the body to treat. And what exactly the problem is. And therefore where to invest time, energy and money.

Well, it's the same thing for managing sales teams. When there are problems within a sales organisation, it is important to analyse where the problems lie before implementing a solution for a sales team to transform it and, at the same time, transform the results obtained. Three reasons come to mind:

1- Mistakes in recruitment: First of all, and at the risk of being blunt, there has often been poor recruitment. Too often I see individuals in sales teams who are not cut out for sales. Nothing wrong with that. But these mistakes cost time, money and can even impact other team members. It is therefore necessary to identify the team members who are part of the team's past. And those who are part of the team's future.

2- Mindset before technique. There is a certain perception that, in sales, what is important are the techniques. This is a fundamental error. Of course the techniques are important. But these are not as important as the mindset, the attitude of the individuals and the habits that are put in place. Too many times I have observed salespeople to whom I explained certain techniques but who were in fact unable to implement them. Because they had too many problems of belief or a lack of willpower. For example: a refusal to change - ‘I've been operating like this for years’ - or a difficulty in articulating things in front of their prospects - ‘I can't say this to my prospects’ -. Without knowing the sales DNA of individuals, without measuring in particular the willingness to sell of future salespeople and existing salespeople, it is not possible to put in place the necessary and personalised action plans to get the most out of a sales or account management team.

[video width="1590" height="868" mp4="https://curio5ity.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/video-Brad-Pitt-science-of-recruitment.mp4"\]\[/video\]

When a coach introduces 1 scientific approach, far from human biases, to maximise results

Once a month, tips and strategies to drive sales excellence: 

[convertkit form=6890803]

3- A-Player / B-Player / C-Player: In sport, not everyone has the same abilities or the same potential. There is no Federer or world number born. But there are aptitudes. And well, sales are similar. It's a sport. So there are people who are B-Players but have the potential to be A-Players if they are well coached with the right approach. Others who already are. And others who don't have the capacity. As a sales manager, it is important to focus on the B-Players who give the greatest ‘bang for the buck’, the biggest return on investment of time, energy and money. However, how can you be sure who is in each category? It may be that someone perceived as an A-Player is in fact someone who knows the organisation's system and ‘game it’ to get the right leads (I've seen it). Or there are false positives or false negatives. Only a rigorous and unbiased analysis can help you avoid these mistakes and know where to focus your development efforts.

That's why, before starting to work with a sales team, I work with OMG to evaluate a team or avoid costly recruitment mistakes. Established for more than 30 years and a world leader in the evaluation of sales teams and the predictive recruitment of sales representatives and other sales professionals, OMG provides predictability and a scientific approach to the skills of existing sales representatives or candidates. And to measure 21 key skills of each individual.

And THE MOST important skill to measure that is difficult to quantify by a traditional approach (interview) is the will to sell. The two main components of which are the person's desire to improve their conditions and their commitment to do whatever it takes, as long as it's ethical of course!

I have indeed stopped counting the managers who say to me: ‘Some of my salespeople don't have that hunger!’.

Pre interviewing sales competencies evaluation dashboard 

I can't help but think of that film with Brad Pitt. The parallel between putting together a selection of basketball players ‘by feel / experience’ or a data-based approach and that of recruiting salespeople is striking. So you, your recruitments and your team development plans, do they go ‘by feel’ or do you have a rigorous and scientific approach? To paraphrase Brad Pitt:

"Measure (the individuals in your sales team) or don't get as much results as you deserve."

Image credit: Manos TS