If you’ve been in sales for a long time, and maybe even been in the position of hiring, training and managing sales staff, then you have probably figured out that there is something intangible in a really good salesperson. Something you can’t interview for. It’s a crap shoot really. No matter how hard you look, it’s almost impossible to see. That unique quality that makes a great salesperson.
I have interviewed thousands of individuals for the position of salesperson, and I can say with a reasonable level of confidence that I have figured out what I like in a new salesperson. I always look for three ingredients. Someone who has a strong personality. If they bore me in an interview, they are probably going to bore the customer right out of the showroom. Someone who has a brain. It really helps to be smart in sales. You don’t need a degree and besides, a degree doesn’t make you smart. The smart I’m talking about is a different kind. Call it street smarts, call it intuitiveness. Whatever you call it, it is the ability to read people and situations and modify behaviour to achieve the best results. Strategy if you will. The final ingredient is drive. Self-motivation. Ambition. Hunger. Whatever you call it, you need it. You can get by without a personality and survive. You can even get by if you’re not the sharpest pencil in the box, but if you don’t have some self-motivation, eventually you will fail. And it’s tough to identify, because everyone thinks they are motivated, or at least says they are. But very few really are.
If you don’t have some self-motivation, eventually you will fail.
There is some invisible ingredient in sales that makes it all fly. Some invisible energy that is very tough to find, even tougher to create, but if you look, you can see it happening. Think about the end of every sales month. At least at the busy stores! There is that rush to get everything out, make bonuses, close that extra deal or two. The month end push. It’s there. You can feel it. The energy, the drive, the hunger. Then on the first of the next month, poof, it’s gone. Where did it go? It’s the human element. Hard to define. The same thing month, after month, after month.
What about hiring that new eager salesperson? I’ve experienced this hundreds and hundreds of times. You have a solid sales staff. Well trained. Meets expectations. Perform well every month- well almost every month. Then you hire a newbie and in their first month they are either at or near the top of the board. Outselling most of the other staff. You think, man… hired a good one there, and maybe you did, but just as often they crash and burn, falling back to reality and sometime before their probationary period ends, they’re toast. What happened? What was that? How does a brand-new salesperson come on board and outsell most of the other staff, and then ultimately fail?
How does a brand-new salesperson outsell most of the other staff, and then ultimately fail?
And that’s where it is, that magic salesperson God particle. It arrives near the end of every month in the form of an invisible energy that motivates sales staff. It’s often present in that new hire who basically only knows one thing: I need to sell. I need to perform. I need to listen to my manager. I need to follow the process. I need to work my butt off and do everything right. It's motivation.
There are two types of people in sales, maybe in life. Those that are self-motivated, and those that are not. The difference is in what that person is doing when nobody's looking. That self-motivated person has it. That special ingredient that makes it all work. The need to perform for yourself, not someone else. The desire to earn well, because you don’t just want it, you need it. You have to have it.
You can see it if you look hard enough. The person is tenacious, even when applying for the job. The person arrives early to get an extra up or lead. They don’t need to be told to follow up a prospect at three in the afternoon, they have already called them three or four times that day. That person needs to be at the top of the board, needs to hit that bonus, needs to succeed and is willing to put in the work to do it. Month after month after month. So, the next time you’re looking to hire someone, or maybe even promote someone, look hard for that special ingredient, that God particle of sales: self-motivation. The need to succeed, not just the desire. Good luck and good selling.