The importance of measuring the will to sell

Picture this. You have a serious illness. Or at least one that worries you enough to require an operation. You know your body isn't working at its best. You have indications of what to do to treat it. A treatment that costs time and money. But you don't know where. So what do you do?

1- Apply the treatment to the whole body. 2- You do an MRI to find out where to treat?

I suppose you choose option two, fair? It would be stupid not to know exactly which part of the body to treat. And exactly what the problem is. And therefore where to invest time, energy and money. And risk your life!

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

1- Casting errors: First of all, and at the risk of being blunt, there have often been recruitment mistakes. All too often I see individuals in sales teams who are not cut out for sales. There's nothing wrong with that. But these mistakes cost time, money and can even have an impact on the other members of the team. 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, techniques are what is important. This is a fundamental error. Of course techniques are important. But they are not as important as the mindset, the attitude of the individuals and the habits that are put in place. Too many times I've observed sales people to whom I've explained certain techniques but who were actually incapable of putting them into practice. Because they had too many problems with their beliefs or a lack of willpower. For example, a refusal to change - ‘I've been doing it this way for years’ - or a difficulty in articulating things to 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 sales reps and existing sales reps, it is not possible to put in place the necessary personalised action plans to get the most out of a sales or account management team

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3- A-Player / B-Player / C-Player: In sport, not everyone has the same abilities or the same potential. No Federer or world number is born. But there are certain aptitudes. Well, sales is similar. It's a sport. So there are people who are B-Players but have the potential to be A-Players if they're well coached with the right approach. Others already are. And others who don't have the capacity. As a sales manager, it's important to focus on the B-Players who give the biggest ‘bang for the buck’, the biggest return on the investment of time, energy and money. However, how do you not make mistakes about 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 ‘games it’ to get the right leads (I've seen it). Or there are false positives and false negatives. Only a rigorous, 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 over 30 years and the world leader in sales team assessment and predictive recruitment of salespeople and other sales professionals, OMG provides this predictability and a scientific approach to the skills of existing salespeople or candidates. And to measure 21 key skills of each individual

And THE most important skill to measure that is difficult to quantify using a traditional approach (interview) is the willingness to sell. The two main components of this are the person's desire to improve their conditions and their commitment to do whatever needs to be done, as long as it's ethical of course!

I've stopped counting the managers who tell me: ‘Some of my sales people aren't that hungry!

Sales competencies evaluation pre-interview

I can't help but think of that film with Brad Pitt. The parallel between selecting basketball players ‘by feel/experience’ or using a data-based approach and recruiting salespeople is striking. So are your recruitment and team development plans based on ‘gut feeling’ or do you have a rigorous, 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