There is a saying in sports; “You can lose with great people but you cannot win without them.”  This theory applies to business, and winning in business starts with a winning sales team.  

Let’s return to the sports application first.  Theo Epstein was the general manager for the Boston Red Sox.  The Chicago Cubs hired him away from the Red Sox and his first item of business to address is the hiring of a new manager for the club.  

Below is an excerpt of a recent article about the process he is going through to get the right person for the job.  Earlier in the week, he had made it clear that one of most important criteria for the job was that the candidate MUST HAVE major league managerial or coaching experience.

One media person inquired what type of attributes Epstein is looking for in a manager.

"In the real world, it's hard to find a candidate that has everything you're looking for," Epstein said. "What you do is you weigh your variables and make your sacrifices where you have to. Often times, if you're going to take a candidate without previous managerial experience, even at the minor league level, he has to represent real upside in other areas. In that case, you have to do even more due diligence than you normally would because you're projecting him into that role."

One of the talked about candidates early in the selection process was Ryne Sandberg.  Below is his stellar baseball resume. 

Ryne Dee Sandberg (Ryno)

Positions: Second Baseman and Third Baseman 
Bats: Right, Throws: Right 
Height: 6' 1", Weight: 175 lb.
Born: September 18, 1959 in Spokane, WA (Age 52) 
High School: North Central (Spokane, WA)
Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 20th round of the 1978 amateur draft.
Signed June 15, 1978. (All Transactions)
Debut: September 2, 1981 
Teams (by GP): Cubs/Phillies 1981-1997
Final Game: September 28, 1997 
Inducted into the Hall of Fame by BBWAA as Player in 2005 (393/516 ballots).

I won't list his stats - induction into the baseball players Hall of Fame speaks for itself.  The one thing that is missing is managerial or coaching experience at the major league level.  He was never interviewed for the position. 

The point here is that Epstein had a profile for the position and he stuck with it, regardless of the star qualities of Sandberg. 

The lessons in this story for senior sales executives include:

• You must know exactly what qualities the candidate must have
• You must communicate this to likely candidates
• You must not be swayed by other experience "outside" your profile
• You can consider other experience but consider the downside
• You must be prepared for a "project" if you hire outside your profile

Finding the exact right candidate is a long shot no matter what the position.  As Epstein points out, you have to weigh all the information and consider what you are willing to sacrifice.  As you prepare to "upgrade your sales staff", follow these steps for Sales Talent Acquisition and improve your probability for success:

1. Build a profile for the IDEAL Candidate
2. Communicate that profile to "attract" the right candidate (in ads, etc)
3. Screen (assess) the candidate before interviewing the candidate
4. Create screening and interviewing processes that simulate the environment in which the candidate will have to perform
5. Make the candidate sell you, DO NOT sell the candidate on the position
6. Have a detailed communication process in place so that once hired, the candidate knows "exactly" what the objectives and expectations are.
7. Have a very tight and detailed on - boarding process that ALL candidates go through regardless of their experience.
8. Inspect what you expect for the first 180 days of their employment

Following these steps will improve your probability for recruiting and sales success.  To help you begin, try this Free 3 Day Express Screen Trial (select the "Sales Candidate" option).

                                  

It's been a while since I used a sports analogy and in the middle of college football I had to write a post sooner or later and about sports and sales.  This particular post is about what to do when you are behind in the sales game and time is running out.  Here you go.  These 4 sales practice steps will get you back in the game and get you ahead in the next game.

1. Stick to the fundamentals.  The fundamentals are what drive consistent sales results. The fundamentals are what you can count on to get back on track.  Prospect, qualify, communicate next steps, present great and unique solutions, ask for the business.
2. Work hard.  My dad was a foreman on a blueberry farm.  His motto was:  When all else fails hard work works.  Worked on the farm. Works in selling.
3. Prioritize.  This is critical all the time in selling.  What we teach in our sales training classes is the following:  "Go to Activity".  When you are behind it becomes even more important to focus on those go to activities that create and close sales. 
4. As you work to get ahead of the game you will be tempted to take on any prospect you can find.  don't do it.  Stick to your ideal prospect.

There you go.  Stick to fundametnals, work hard, prioritize and stick with your game plan.  Keep to this game plan and two things will happen.  You will finish the year with a great flurry of results and be off to a great start next year.

Here are five sales benefits of calling at the top when you prospect:

1. You will have the attention of the ultimate decision maker of the sale
2. You will shorten your sales cycle as a result of being with the decision maker
3. When you run into problems with people that manage or administer your program, service or product you have a relationship with someone that can fix the problem.
4. If the problems you uncover are real problems you will be in front of the person that will find the money to fix the problem and complete the sale
5. When you call at the top you will know if a current relationship will derail you from getting the sale.

Your decision when you are prospecting is to decide:  How important is it for you to have these 5 sales benefits.  If these benefits won't help you sell more business, more quickly at higher margins then keep calling on those that can only tell you know, limit your budget, and limit your abililty to effectively implement a plan, program or service the exceeds the prospects expectations.

In our world of sales training and sales development much is made of sales techniques:  Opening statements, value proposition, closing techniques, open ended questions etc.  And I'm sure that if you've attended training you had all you can handle concerning the 10 best ways to close more deals more easily.  Or the 5 best ways to see the unseeable prospect.  And yet after all of that training little has changed in your results.  Oh sure you've made some incremental changes but is that what you are really after. Aren't you trying to get to a point where you can describe your sales practice as extra-ordinary?  Certainly anyone that has been in selling long enough wants more that average and wants more than incremental improvement when investing time and money in 'training' or development'. To quote one of our sales development experts, Mark Trinkle, "To what extent do you think that maybe the training you've gone to is the problem?"

How much time have the training programs spent on the root causes of an ineffective selling system?  How much time have they spent on discussing the importance of understanding the impact of 'need for approval' or a 'non-supportive buy cycle"?  You see until you get to the root cause of a problem all you can do is treat the symptom.  All you can do is run faster to get more results.

 Try finding out what the root problem is and treat that as an infection. Get rid of the problem - get better sales results.