When managers want to hire sales superstars, they tend to hire people with stereotypical sales personalities – people who are outgoing, talkative, personable and gregarious.  And because sales managers – for a host of reasons – prefer this personality type for their teams, they convince themselves that customers will prefer them as well.

Unfortunately, the traits that make up the “sales personality” have little to do with success in the game of sales.  It doesn’t hurt, of course, when a salesperson has a pleasant, extroverted personality, but there are lots of outgoing, talkative, personable and gregarious people in the world with pleasant, extroverted personalities.  Some are teachers, some are physicians, attorneys, plumbers and circus performers.  But just because these folks share some pleasing personality traits doesn’t mean they have the talent or competencies to succeed as sales professionals.

Anyone who has ever hired a salesperson can cite an example of a “sales personality” who failed.   Hiring Mary, “Miss Personality Plus”, was a sure bet.  Talk about quintessential sales personality traits!  Mary had them all.  Everyone loved her, especially her customers.  Mary could stroll in to see any of her customers, almost anytime, for a casual conversation.  No one would think of treating Mary unkindly.

There was only one problem with Mary – she never closed a large order.  Mary was a terrific schmoozer.  She talked in great detail about her company’s products with her customers, and most customers revealed valuable, “inside information” to Mary.  Despite these good relations, Mary’s customers always awarded their largest orders to her biggest competitors.

Mary is a classic example of the disconnect between personality traits and success in the sales profession.   Although Mary’s company believed in skills training for their salespeople, the training never helped Mary recognize sales opportunities or close those opportunities.  She had a great personality, but she lacked the innate talent, competencies and tendencies to sell a warm blanket to an Eskimo who is wearing only a T shirt in an ice storm.

The manager who hired Mary, unfortunately, used an “off-the-shelf” personality test as the primary methodology for evaluating Mary as a new hire.  It is rapidly becoming clear among prominent personnel psychologists that personality tests, while useful in describing personality traits or emotional intelligence, are poor predictors of job performance.

These psychologists concluded that “the validities of personality measures are so low that using them for selecting employees should be questioned.”Instead of measuring Mary’s personal characteristics, the hiring manager could have used a tool to measure the competencies, conduct, traits and temperament that predict actual job behavior.

It is critical to know whether Mary can do the job, and to predict with a high degree of accuracy whether or not Mary will do the job.

A statistically validated performance assessment could have given the manager visibility into Mary’s work DNA.  How is Mary wired?  Does she have high potential for job success as measured against the performance of proven, successful sales professionals?  Is she a potential leader?  How would her strengths and weaknesses affect performance of the job?  To maximize her potential, how should Mary be coached?

A statistically validated performance assessment would have revealed to the manager that Mary, a very nice person with a charming personality, did not possess the innate talent to perform the job she was hired to do.  It would have revealed that Mary’s temperament and natural work conduct were incompatible with the on-the-job behavior required for success.Mary’s failure at her job could have been predicted with 85% accuracy by a performance assessment designed to measure narrow job-related competencies.

In Mary’s case, belief in the myth of the “sales personality” caused an unfortunate hire and poor job performance by someone with talents, work behaviors and temperament that were better suited to another job.

Don't Bother Me!

Our business development director, Gary Tarolli, recently told me a story that reminded me of a cartoon I had seen on a customer’s wall over twenty years ago:
 

The army leader in this cartoon is so focused on fighting a battle, and so unwilling to allow any distractions, that he misses an opportunity to grasp the decided advantage a machine gun would give his army against an enemy carrying swords and shields.

Gary ’s story involved an executive named Bill who must have been a medieval general in a previous life.  Overwhelmed by phone calls, voice mail messages and emails, Bill decided to erect a fortress around his office and slam his office door shut. He appointed his trusted, capable assistant Mary as gatekeeper to guard his time against all intruders, including customers who might want to talk to him for any reason.

Armed with a short list of people whose calls or emails Bill would accept, Mary developed a routine designed to discourage even the most persistent callers who were not on Bill’s list.  When someone would phone to speak to Bill she would ask, “Who is calling?”  This was of course followed by “What company are you with?”  And that question was followed by the inevitable “May I ask what this is about?”

It quickly became clear to most callers that getting past Bill’s gatekeeper would be a formidable, if not impossible task.  Most callers gave up the attempt, and many were annoyed and offended by Mary’s intrusive grilling.

Bill’s new fortress protected him from interruptions, just like he envisioned.  Except for his boss, his wife and a few other business associates, no one got through the gatekeeper to distract Bill from his important work.  Bill was one happy camper.

One day while Bill was having lunch at his favorite restaurant he ran into Dave, an old customer.  After exchanging the normal pleasantries, Dave mentioned that he was sorry Bill couldn’t bid on the largest order for product Dave’s company had ever placed.

Shocked, Bill said “What order?”  Why didn’t you tell me about it?”  “I tried to contact you,” said Dave, “but I couldn’t get past your assistant.  She didn’t know me, or my company, and she didn’t think you’d be interested.  I would have called you at home, but I didn’t want to bother you.”

“But why didn’t you call someone in our sales department?” asked Bill.  “I tried,” Dave replied.  “Navigating their voice mail system was almost impossible, and when I finally reached a secretary she wouldn’t let me talk to anyone.  She told me someone would get back to me, but no one ever called.”

Visibly shaken, Bill offered Dave a meek, embarrassed apology, vowing to get to the bottom of why his people failed to respond to a great business opportunity with Dave’s company.

Is there any way for busy executives like Bill to keep distractions to a minimum while ensuring that they don’t miss out on great opportunities or ideas and solutions that might help them manage their businesses better?

We think there is a simple solution:  Busy executives can arm their administrative assistants with a tool that allows the assistants to efficiently mange solicitation calls and voice mail messages without disturbing their bosses.

When the executive assistant answers a call from a salesperson, the assistant could forward the caller to a recorded message that provides instructions for leaving a voice mail message.  The simple recorded message might sound something like this:

“Thank you for contacting us.  We are always interested to hear great ideas and learn about solutions that can help us manage our business. Because there just aren’t enough hours in a day to talk with everyone who calls us, please feel free to leave a voice message if you have an idea or solution that might help us 1) increase revenue, 2) reduce costs, 3) improve efficiencies, 4) impact our business strategy or 5) enhance our brand.

If your idea or solution can help us, please clearly explain how your idea or solution might impact one of these key areas.  Be assured that we will respond to all messages that offer ideas or solutions for which we have an immediate or future need.  If you aren’t able to help us at this time, please feel free to contact us again when you have information you would like to share that might help us with our business.”

A competent, trained administrative assistant could sift through voice mail messages, forwarding only those messages that might impact issues of concern to the executive.  It is possible for busy executives to limit outside distractions while reducing the risk of missing out on the next, great idea or solution that might help them better manage their businesses.


S.T.A.R. Sales Team Assessment Report

Our Sales Team Assessment Report Survey will be available on our Website this month.   Visitors can spend less than 10 minutes taking a survey that will help them benchmark their selling organizations against the best in the world, as measured by customers.  Look for an email announcement soon.