Last week a customer of mine who owns and runs a company gave me a little insight into his hiring practices for finding motivated salespeople. I found it to be an interesting twist on HR, one that my friend Charmel, a local recruiter, may disagree with.
My client told me that he likes hiring sales people who are hungry to earn money. That seems pretty common, but he can sometimes take this a step further. He goes so far as choosing a candidate who has a tendency to extend himself or herself financially. He believes these salespeople, given difficult but realistic quotas, are more likely to achieve and often exceed them. They attain high goals because they need to earn higher commissions and bonuses due to the lavish lifestyle they enjoy. They have given themselves no choice but to succeed.
At first this seemed brilliant to me. But somewhere deep inside me there were caution lights & sirens going off. This salesperson is either going to be a complete success or a disastrous failure; there’s not much middle ground for them. One or two bad months and this person could be in a financial hardship situation. All of a sudden, instead of concentrating on work they are trying to sell an extra sports car or they are worried if they can refinance their home. Or worse, they are doing shady things in your business to inflate numbers or overcharge customers. Ouch.
There is something to be said for having people on your sales staff who are money motivated but care always needs to be employed. Some people say that 'money is the root of all evil.' They are misquoting the Bible. It states ‘the love of money is the root of all evil.'
One exercise to use with new salespeople is to have them complete the sentence: I work in order to.... When I first answered this question in 1994 I said 'to earn money.' My salesmanager asked me what I would do with the money. At the time I talked about the car I wanted, where I wanted to live, places I wanted to travel, etc. As I talked it out I began to catch my own vision of why I was working.
Now I am fortunate enough to love what I do but also to work so I can afford all the things my family deserves, give back to the community and help others by practicing my craft.
My Best,
Jeff Collins
Professional Haberdasher
www.MyHaberdasher.com
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Jeff, I think that statement works with all careers, not just salespeople. I think even seasoned professionals need to ask themselves that question. It also needs to be asked at different points in the stages of your life because your monetary needs change as you get older.
One thing I've discovered with sales reps. I know several companies that hire great negotiators and awesome relationship builders in their sales force. In this consulting field, it's the relationships that bring in the sales. While revenue is an obvious motivator, the relationships have brought in more revenue and increased recurring business. You don't see that a lot in this industry.
Also, about shady sales reps - I can smell one a mile away. When I was the HRIS manager for a regional pizza company in Ohio, I would easily kick them out of my office.