{"id":1489,"date":"2014-10-14T13:23:27","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T13:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.comblog\/right-sales-dna-vs-right-resume\/"},"modified":"2016-12-06T19:41:43","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T19:41:43","slug":"right-sales-dna-vs-right-resume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/blog\/right-sales-dna-vs-right-resume\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiring The Right Salesperson: Sales DNA vs. The Resume"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A few days back I was having a conversation with a B2B startup\u00a0exec who is in the process of building out a\u00a0sales team. The company provides a tech solution to a niche market and the primary trait the company is using to filter potential sales candidates is experience selling technology to the market being\u00a0targeted \u2013 the strategy being that such a salesperson would possess\u00a0a network of contacts which\u00a0enable them to generate sales very quickly.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Rolodex Sales Hiring Strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The desire to hire someone with a great network and \u00a0book of business is pretty\u00a0common. At Peak, this\u00a0requirement is\u00a0a part\u00a0of probably half of the B2B sales recruiting inquiries we receive. Can anyone\u00a0blame an employer\u00a0for wanting to hire someone who can generate sales immediately upon being hired? It often works. Particularly in industries where relationships are paramount\u00a0and there is limited turnover in buyer\u00a0organizations. Good luck\u00a0getting a construction company or a military supplier to hire an account exec without industry experience (I have learned first-hand it can be folly to try).<\/p>\n

But there are many sectors that are less static and\u00a0in which buyers change jobs and employers\u00a0regularly. How much value is a rolodex worth if \u201cfriendly\u201d buyers are regularly\u00a0replaced by buyers who may have\u00a0allegiances with alternative vendors?\u00a0The answer is not much unless there is concerted effort to maintain relevant contacts in every customer organization.<\/p>\n

Moreover, in many companies procurement processes\u00a0such as open tendering and selection committees\u00a0strive to select vendors based\u00a0on merits\u00a0and thus neutralize the explicit value of relationships. When a sales person changes from one vendor\u00a0to another, deep relationships with buyers may be useful for opening the door, but won\u2019t help in closing business unless the offering is superior to that of the competition.<\/p>\n

And perhaps the largest challenge inherent in hiring someone with a specific\u00a0resume and set of experiences, is that it considerably narrows the pool of talent upon which to draw, which in turn creates a sellers (as in candidate\u2019s market). Using the defense industry\u00a0as an example, Peak has been involved in\u00a0several searches for account executives selling into the defense sector where our customers needed us to find sales people who had\u00a0sold very specific products\u00a0and services to very specific customers. We successfully recruited the candidates, but when the number of sales people in the world who qualify for a specific position can be counted on one hand, the recruiting employer\u00a0is going to have little negotiating leverage with the candidate on matters such as compensation and may have to compromise on key issues such as culture fit \u2013 at a certain level the employer has to take what they can get, since the number of candidates simply isn\u2019t large enough to be picky. This may seem like an extreme example but it is not grossly out of line with the situation that many employers will face where there will be a total of 10 or maybe 20 sales reps who qualify with the right resume.<\/p>\n

Sales DNA Hiring Strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The alternative to hiring based on experience is hiring based on sales DNA and here\u2019s what I know from close to 30\u00a0years of sales and management experience: sales DNA almost always beats the resume. With the exception of rare instances, some of which detailed above, where domain experience and relationships are critical and hard to acquire, the right DNA, meaning personal character traits, find a way to get the job done.<\/p>\n

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Sales DNA almost always beats the resume<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When we study the character traits of top performing sales people across different industry sectors, we see traits such as ambition, competitiveness, sense of urgency, confidence, perseverance, optimism, resilience, ability and desire to influence others. These intangible, but highly critical traits are what drive high achieving sales people to be successful. They are what allow top sales people\u00a0to make good judgements, create good luck for themselves and capitalize on opportunities that average sales people miss.<\/p>\n

These are also the traits that allow a door to door dictionary sales person to beg their way\u00a0onto a software sales team and then become the number one sales person in\u00a0a matter of months. True story. These are also the traits that allow a person selling shoes come into\u00a0a company selling VOIP systems and become the perennial sales leader. Another true story. These are also the traits that enable a person with a tech sales background to come into a construction company desperate for new sales and drive new sales growth. Yet another true story.<\/p>\n

I have seen this story played out countless times. The right sales DNA finds a way to succeed. The right sales DNA acquires the requisite knowledge quickly, figures out who they need to know and makes the connections. While they may not have a rolodex in theory, they are able to get to the buyers and influencers and find ways to make themselves indispensable, ergo building the relationships they need.<\/p>\n

The biggest\u00a0upside of hiring based on sales DNA is that the talent pool is exponentially larger than if hiring based on sector experience. So rather than being limited to a small number of candidates that qualify, an employer is in a far better position to hire someone that fits the comp plan and more importantly, is a fit with the employer\u2019s values and culture, which is the primary basis for a long and successful relationship with a sales hire.<\/p>\n

DNA vs. Resume?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every sales situation is unique and each\u00a0sales manager will know whether their sales team members\u00a0really have to have the sector experience in order to be successful, but in my experience, more often than not, sector experience is not the determining factor in who is at the top of the sales team leaderboard.<\/p>\n

To your success!<\/p>\n

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