Four Things I Learned From My Interview with Brad Freyer – How to Hire, Train, and Retain Top Salespeople

One of the most common questions we receive from Murray Resources’ clients is around how to hire, train, and retain top salespeople. 

The fact is, for most companies, salespeople are notoriously challenging to hire, but it’s a role that’s critical to get right for any company looking to grow.

That’s why I was excited to interview Brad Freyer, of Sandler Training. Since joining Sandler in 2003, Brad Freyer has successfully trained and coached hundreds of salespeople, business owners, and executives on improving sales effectiveness to achieve both individual and company goals.

(You can watch the full interview here)

Whether you are an employer wanting to attract and hire top salespeople, or a job seeker interested in a career in sales, there’s a lot to learn from Brad’s experience. 

Here are my top four takeaways from our conversation. 

1. Define your ideal sales candidate before hiring.

Before writing your sales job description, invest the time upfront to create an ideal candidate profile or persona (aka a semi-fictitious representation of your ideal job candidate).

Freyer emphasizes this step because, without it, you could run through an extensive interview process and still not be able to identify a candidate who really fits the job functions you need.

Defining your ideal sales candidate involves more than just simply pulling out a scrapbook and jotting some notes of what you're looking for.

Start by identifying the job functions. "There are many different kinds of sales roles from pure hunters to farmers to inside sales to outside sales to account managers,” Freyer says. “And there's a lot of different names and titles that go along with it. And so you've got to first identify what it is that your company and team needs.”

Within each job function, it’s key to understand: 

• The skills that are needed
• The experience that you'd ideally like to see
• The attitude associated with the job function
• The cognitive skills that you want
• The habits candidates have illustrated in the past, or that they currently have, to show that they can do that job function on a regular basis

These qualifications can be placed in a grid to not only create a visual representation of your ideal candidate, but can also be used as a tool to objectively measure candidates against.

2. Challenge the candidate with role-playing and follow-up questions. 

Candidates come into an interview polished and prepared. 

Shake things up with unexpected questions and the opportunity to act out a realistic sales situation. Role playing can quickly demonstrate which candidates are able to back-up the skills claimed on their resume.

“If I need someone who's a prospector, and I ask an interviewee “Hey, tell me about your prospecting experience.” And they say, “Oh, I love making cold calls. I make them all the time.” That’s the first red flag, right?” Freyer says.

“Because the only people who like making cold calls are people that don't do it. So when someone says that they like making cold calls, I typically will challenge them.” To put a candidate on the spot, Freyer picks up his phone and pretends to be a prospect. 

*Ring* *Ring* “Hello, this is Brad...thanks, but I’m already happy with my current provider.”

He doesn’t care if candidates have a great script or approach, but he wants it to sound like they’ve cold called hundreds of times before and can handle objections. “What I want to hear is that they have an idea of how to respond and don’t panic. Prospecting and sales is a pressure cooker environment,” Freyer says.

Brad Freyer training clients at Sandler Training. 

Freyer also has advice for questions to assess candidates. One question that Freyer asks candidates is “If you were in my shoes and you were hiring a sales candidate, what are the top five attributes you’d be looking for?”

Once the candidate answers, Freyer digs deeper into how those attributes result in success. Because a candidate’s first response is often their well-rehearsed, stock answer, the true insights often come from the follow-up questions.

Another tip? Candidates will often say that they are very stringent with how they manage their time. To qualify this info, Brad asks if they mind sharing the calendar on their phone.

“A quick look at the calendar tells you if the candidate is being truthful about time management. I want to see if they’ve got time blocked for follow-up meetings, prospecting, and other sales activities,” Freyer says.

3. Hold your salespeople accountable to behaviors and activities. 

Companies that are trying to build a sales team often fail because they want to hold salespeople accountable to results. But results are a lagging indicator. By the time you realize there are no results, you're 6-18 months behind. 

Instead, behaviors and activities should be the leading indicators of success. And while salespeople are completing the right behaviors and activities, make sure they’re executing them well. For example, what do their cold calls sound like? Are they recording their cold calls? 

It’s one reason why Freyer uses performance plans. “We’ve got to be in constant communication with our salespeople to let them know if they’re on or off track, as well [to share] any adjustments that need to be made,” he says.

Performance plans also help you weed out salespeople who aren’t willing to do the job right. 

If a salesperson isn’t performing, have an honest conversation and create a performance plan. Say something like, “I told you what was expected when you began this role. You’re not doing the minimum that’s expected to be successful. For the next 30 days, one of two things are going to happen. You’re either going to begin to do those activities to a level that’s acceptable. Or what you’re telling me is that you’re not committed to success in this role.”

These performance plans can then help some salespeople realize that they’re not cut out for the job, saving you from having to lay people off. 

Another tip: according to Freyer, “One of the biggest mistakes I see companies make is that they will tell a new salesperson, “Hey, this is a rough industry. Sometimes it takes six to 12 months to get up to speed. 

“That’s a horrible practice because what you have just told them is, “Hey, for six months, I don’t expect anything from you. In fact, you have 12 months.””

Freyer has a different philosophy. “There’s no reason why a new hire can’t book appointments within 30 days, deliver proposals within 60 days, and close business within 90,” Freyer explains. “I want to create expectations of tempo, of activity, of success, right out of the gate.”

4. Incentivize good behavior with compensation.

Companies sometimes make the argument that if someone is such a good salesperson, shouldn’t they be willing to work for less?

The answer is no. “If you have a successful salesperson, you can have a large portion of their income be at-risk, but you also have to compensate them for being successful. It’s a mutual investment,” Freyer says.

According to Freyer, the base salary is a number that should be dependent on the job, your industry, and the salesperson’s experience. The at-risk portion typically falls into two buckets:

• Commission. Determine commission based on the cost of sale for your product or service and come up with a percentage. For example, if your service costs $2,000, but it takes $1,000 in costs to complete the transaction, your salesperson would earn a percentage of that $1,000. Learn more about how to calculate commission rates here. 
• Bonus. Bonuses might be MBO (managed by objective) like key sales objectives (or SKOs). They are intended to incentivize good behavior such as prospecting or attending networking events. Just remember that the bonus pool needs to be based on activities completely within the salesperson’s control.

Freyer takes a specific approach with bonuses. “I often encourage people to make bonuses an addendum to the compensation plan. Bonuses can change from year to year based on what you need the salesperson to do differently such as meeting new company objectives or initiatives,” he says.

As an example, if your company is trying to break into a new industry vertical this year, the bonus could be based on the amount of calls or appointments the salesperson makes within that vertical.

“We want to drive that direction,” Freyer adds. “We want to incentivize good behavior.”

Advice for job seekers interested in a career in sales…

Do you want to pursue a career in sales? According to Freyer, people have common misconceptions about the industry. 

The biggest misconception is that salespeople have an easy life and are always successful. People who work in an office often never see the salespeople, but hear about them having a nice lunch or playing golf. Sales sounds like fun and entertainment.

But salespeople are typically doing a lot more work than what it appears on the surface. It takes time and conversations, for example, to get a prospect to lunch. “Salespeople aren’t born on third base. For many companies, sales is a 24/7 job,” Freyer says.

For more sales hiring and career advice, check out the webinar and my full interview with Brad Freyer here. 

You can also connect with Brad on LinkedIn here.

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