You may use this image in your ezine or website if you choose to publish my article. Click here to see the picture full-sized.--- Alan Rigg

Another key reason why companies suffer from 80/20 performance is 
their processes for hiring, training and managing salespeople 
rely almost entirely upon SUBJECTIVE information. Think about it:

 * What are resumes? They are an individual's subjective 
   portrayal of their capabilities and experiences.

 * What occurs during an interview? Interviewees attempt to 
   package their responses to questions in a manner that will 
   make the best IMPRESSION. Meanwhile, interviewers are 
   forming PERSONAL OPINIONS about candidates' qualifications 
   for the position.

I'm not suggesting that subjective information is useless. 
Subjective information is a valid and valuable component of any 
"people decision". However, if decisions based solely upon 
subjective information produce an undesirable result 80 percent 
of the time, doesn't it make sense to consider making a change?

One way to introduce OBJECTIVE information into the sales 
recruiting process is through specialized sales assessment tests. 
I'm not referring to personality or behavioral tests like Myers-
Briggs or DISC. Those types of tools can be useful for learning 
how to communicate more effectively with someone. However, I have 
not found them to be useful for predicting whether someone will 
succeed in sales.

The specialized sales assessment tests that I'm referring to 
identify an individual's strength or weakness in the following 
areas:

* Sales Drive: Does the individual enjoy presenting, persuading, 
  negotiating, and motivating others?

* Emotional Toughness: How rapidly does the individual rebound 
  from rejection and sales cycle roadblocks?

* Reasoning Ability: Does the individual ask good questions? 
  Can they dissect answers and pick out the pieces that will 
  help advance the conversation toward a desired end result?

* Service Drive: How interested is the individual in building 
  relationships and helping others?

* Assertiveness: How self-assured is the individual? How 
  effective are they at convincing others to take action?

* Attitude: Does the individual perceive a glass to be 
  half-empty or half-full?

* Communication Skills: How precisely does the individual 
  communicate, both verbally and in writing?

* Competitiveness: How competitive is the individual?

* Energy: Is the individual always "on the go", or do they need 
  to be prodded into action?

* Independence: How readily does the individual accept direction 
  from others?

* Learning Rate: How rapidly does the individual learn new 
  information?

* Tolerance for Administration: How willing is the individual 
  to perform administrative activities?

Specialized sales assessment tests can also help EXISTING 
salespeople that are struggling. How? First, they can be used to 
determine whether these individuals SHOULD be in sales. If an 
individual doesn't have the talents required for sales success, 
there may be other roles in your organization where their talents 
and interests can be applied to mutual benefit. If no such 
positions are available, the kindest thing you can do is let them 
go. Why? Because it is no fun to continue to struggle in a job 
that is a poor fit!

Second, specialized sales assessment tests can help identify each 
salesperson's unique training needs. Here is an example:

Two salespeople, Beth and Bill, work for the same company. Beth 
is weak in Sales Drive, which makes her reluctant to ask for 
orders. Bill is weak in Emotional Toughness, which makes him 
sensitive to rejection and limits his prospecting effectiveness. 
If Beth and Bill go through the same sales skills training 
course, how much improvement in performance should their employer 
expect to see?

The answer is LITTLE or NONE. Why? Because Beth and Bill have 
completely different training needs that will not be addressed 
by basic sales skills training.

Beth would benefit the most from attending an assertiveness 
training class. She also needs coaching to help her recognize 
that failing to ask for orders denies her customers valuable 
solutions to costly business problems.

Bill needs to learn to not take rejection personally. He could 
also benefit from training that teaches positive thinking and 
other motivational techniques.

Unfortunately, unless each salesperson's unique training needs 
are identified, and targeted training is supplied to address 
those specific needs, there isn't much reason to expect the 
individual's sales performance to improve.


Conclusion

Many "80/20" sales performance differences result from relying 
too heavily on SUBJECTIVE information when hiring and managing 
salespeople. Adding OBJECTIVE information (gathered by 
specialized sales assessment tests) to these "people decision" 
processes can dramatically increase the proportion of top 
performers on your sales team and improve the performance of 
existing sales team members. 

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to 
Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don't 
Perform and What to Do About It. His company, MySalesTest.com, 
provides specialized sales assessment tests that help business 
owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by consistently 
hiring top sales performers. For more information and a FREE 
special report, visit http://www.mysalestest.com.