Why You’re Not Hiring the Right Salesperson

Why You’re Not Hiring the Right Salesperson:by Zeke Sexauer
By now we should all know what to look for when hiring new salespeople. We want the high performers, the Challengers—the salespeople who can teach for differentiation, tailor for resonance, and take control of the sales interaction.
But there’s a difference between knowing what you want and getting what you want.
Some members have expressed frustration with their new hires not performing at the level expected of them. They put Challenger behaviors in the job description and told Recruiting what to look for when screening applicants, but still no luck.  If your new hires are not performing as well as you had hoped, perhaps it’s time to take a deeper look at your competency models.
An ineffective competency model will not only hinder your ability to hire the right people for each role, but it also makes it difficult to diagnose skill gaps and target training and coaching investments for everyone on your sales team. Read on to discover the three reasons competency models are often ineffective and what you can do to overcome these challenges.

1. Overly generalized models. Many times, sales competency models borrow too heavily from existing, organizational-level models. While these models are effective at determining overall fit within a company’s working environment, they are often much too generic and place little emphasis on Challenger-specific sales skills and behaviors.
   The fix: Match skill sets to roles. Look at your most successful people in each role. How are they spending their time? What techniques are they using to pitch and close business? By customizing the sales competency model based on the unique demands of specific sales roles, you can emphasize the most important traits needed for each. See how IBM customizes competency models for each sales role.
2. Vaguely defined behaviors. Many sales competency models do not sufficiently distinguish between effective and ineffective behaviors. Sometimes ineffective behaviors are simply defined as a “lack of” preferred behaviors, which makes it difficult for sellers and managers to know “good” behaviors when they seem them.
   The fix: Link competency models to key business processes. Define behaviors associated with a given skill area as specifically as possible, making sure to include both effective and ineffective behaviors.
3. Rigid models. Models are rarely revised to reflect evolving customer buying behaviors, leaving an emphasis on skills like relationship-building that may no longer be sufficient.
   The fix: Gather multiple inputs to develop competency models. Review your organization’s strategic objectives and conduct interviews with senior leadership and the frontline to assess current and future needs. Regularly review competency models

It is also important to communicate any changes made to competency models across the sales organization, from senior executives, to their direct reports, to HR managers and front-line sales managers, to all other sales employees.
SEC members, see the Sales Competency Model Development Workflow for step-by-step guidelines for developing a sales competency model. And for more tips and resources on developing effective sales competency models, see our Defining Sales Capabilities topic page and be sure to check out our guide on developing Challenger-specific competency models.