Two better questions to ask in assessing past performances of salespeople are

1. How did you compare to your peers?

2. Which percentile was your sales performance in each year?

You also should get specifics on how they overcame challenges. Take the groomed references they give you and ask for referrals to other, unsolicited references and teammates who may have worked with the candidate on deals. Their perspective on the rep’s contribution and competency is usually very enlightening. Often their silence or faint praise speaks volumes.

Another important question to ask is what percentage of the reps at your past employer made quota every year? Many salespeople made their quota from 1995 to 2000 because they were reacting to demand in a hot market. If you didn’t make quota, you were considered a failure. In other companies, only 50 percent of the salespeople made it every year. Having this metric gives you some sort of a benchmark to compare quotas.

Different industries also have different sales rhythms — the size and number of deals in a year. Some salespeople are used to a deal a day, some one per week, some one per month, and with some organizations, it’s only one deal per year. Knowing what percentage of their business came from repeat orders vs. new name or competitive sales can indicate whether they are a hunter or a farmer.

Another challenge is taking transactional salespeople and putting them in a long sales cycle. Some salespeople are better at more frequent sales rhythms, whereas others are better at working on bigger deals over long periods of time.

Are Great Salespeople Born or Made?

I am often asked if great selling ability is something that people are born with or whether training is necessary. Without a doubt, there are great intuitive salespeople with innate abilities (see Figure 4–2).

Dave Sample, a long-time client of ours, now at Blackboard, summed up the problem like this: “Heroics don’t scale.” Yes, there are people who can do this intuitively, but there aren’t enough of them. You have to find them and you have to grow them.

Not only that, but intuitive salespeople are unconscious about their competence. If your sales model is different from their experience, they may not be able to adapt because often they are good but don’t know why.

So both hiring and training are important. But what can we change in a person, and what is in a person that is too difficult or time-consuming to try to change?

The nature versus nurture question has been the subject of many stories over the years, as in the movies Wall Street and The Firm, for example. In both stories, the main character was tempted to actions outside their basic principles, with grave consequences, only to find their true character in the end.

In Figure 4–2, it can be seen that there are things in a person’s DNA and in their early development—intelligence, personality, core values—that are very hard to change. And a person may change behavior a little for a little while. But if that change is at odds with the person’s inner fiber, eventually, they will snap back or be ineffective because their heart is really not in their actions. Thus these inner core traits are what you should really focus on in your hiring. In my experience, people usually have to bring these things with them.

The next layer out—goals, habits, and principles — are drivers of action and daily choices. If these are to be changed in a person, they need to be changed within the first 90 days of when the person is hired. The company may set a goal or principle for a person on the outer ring of the figure, but if that goal or principle is not owned in the person’s heart, the result is usually a weak or false effort and ultimately, replacement.

Knowledge, skills, experience, and attitude are the things that enable a person to accomplish his or her goals or job. Obviously, these can be trained and managed by rewards. The rest of the figure includes the many areas management can address to direct short-term behaviors.

Notice how far inside we have placed habits. This is where the subconscious overrides the conscious. Changing organizational behavior often means changing individual behavior, which often takes time and consistency.

Based on experience, I have identified 10 different elements that need to be considered when hiring a successful salesperson, sales manager, or anybody for that matter. Most of my first interviews last either 30 minutes or two hours. Before I hire a salesperson or principal for our firm, I meet with him or her for at least eight hours—two of which are outside the office at dinner.

In the United States, HR managers are very nervous about the types of questions asked in interviews for fear of litigation. In reality, lawsuits probably are cheaper than bad hires. (A statement such as this usually sends HR managers right through the roof.) The problem is that the cost of bad hires is invisible and the cost of litigation is very visible. The truth is that bad hire costs, as we have discussed, are very expensive.

Each one of these elements has a number of questions that will help you to drill down past the standard questions to find the right things you’re looking for. We have to get through what they’ve done and what they seem to be to who they really are.

Personal Accountability

This may be the single most important element in hiring successful people. Some people would rather fix the blame than fix the problem. How do you uncover this tendency? First, it’s always “them,” never “me.” “It’s the product”; “It’s my manager”; “It’s support resources”; and so on. In all behavior modification—from 12-stepping to weight loss—you have to own the problem. Some people find an excuse, whereas others find a way.

Life is a grindstone. Whether it sharpens you up or wears you down depends on what you are made of.

My favorite interview question is, “When did you become an adult and how did you know?” This will tell you when the person took personal accountability for their life.

Most successful people have an answer for this question. For some, it was a memorable event, such as the death of a parent. For others, it was a series of events, such as when they went away to college, when they got married, or when they had their first child. Or it may have been when they got their first job or when they took charge of their spiritual life.