Hiring for High Performance

Research shows that up to 37% of employees stay with their company because of a great team. Yet, when it comes to sales teams, moving from average to high-performing often eludes businesses.?Identifying people with the ideal mindset, attitude, and cultural fit is not just good for business – it's a game-changer for talent retention and team motivation. This blog will explore the tactics and actions required for employing high-achieving people in sales roles.

The High-Performance Mindset

There are a few vital traits that signal high performance. Here are the top three traits to look out for in your hiring process:

Resilience to bounce back

No one is immune to rejections and failures. It’s how we handle these moments that matter. High-performing sales teams will experience more failure than lower-performing ones. How quickly they bounce back sets them apart from their underperforming counterparts. In the hiring process, ask your sales candidate how they anticipate failure and deal with it when it inevitably happens. According to research by invesp, 44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up call. Yet, it takes an average of eight follow-up calls to close a deal. Your job in the hiring process is to find someone in the 56% with the resilience to follow through and keep motivated even when they don’t win.

Honesty as default

When a deal doesn’t go the right way, it can be easy to become too invested in it and allow emotions to take over. You may try to bargain with the customer or make last-ditch promises you can’t keep. It is imperative that your salespeople drive themselves with transparency and honesty. Here are 4 examples of how a salesperson might show honesty:

1. They can accurately?communicate?your product or service in its entirety. Covering?not only?its advantages but also any potential restrictions and downsides.
2. A trustworthy seller is forthright when discussing the delivery schedule or any additional steps that may be required.?If there are any delays, these will be communicated to the customer.
3. Should the offering prove to be an inadequate?fit, an honest?salesperson is willing to walk away or offer appropriate alternatives.
4. Everyone makes mistakes. A trustworthy?salesperson will accept accountability and quickly resolve the matter. Consumers value honesty when mishaps occur.

Continuous learning attitude

We've highlighted that great teams lead to better retention as suggested by research from Gusto and LinkedIn’s 2022 Workplace Learning Report. LinkedIn also indicates that 8 out of 10 people surveyed say learning adds purpose to their work, and 7 in 10 say learning improved their sense of connection to their organisation. When you hire someone who is adaptable and willing to embrace new ideas, it not only benefits them as an individual, but also your wider sales team. Ask your candidate how they adapt to challenging times and learn from their mistakes.

Creating a High-Performance Sales Culture

Now that we understand how beneficial it is to foster a strong learning culture, how can we create it?

According to a study by Aberdeen, companies that have effective sales enablement programmes outperform their rivals in sales performance. Sales enablement is the series of activities that provide resources, training, collateral and technology to the sales function to boost performance. Bottom line - sales enablement can do a world of good for fostering a strong culture within your sales team.

Knowledge sharing between all levels and competencies of your sales force can shed light on how top performers interact with customers, allowing for a culture of transparency. Here are four benefits of integrating sales enablement into your team culture:

1. Fosters an environment of openness in which individuals feel comfortable sharing positive and negative experiences.
2. Avoids working in silos to benefit from cross-pollination of knowledge that enables reps to learn from a variety of viewpoints.
3. Drives a growth mentality by motivating representatives to continually investigate new strategies and tactics from their peers.
4. Establishes a positive feedback loop where shared knowledge leads to better performance.

Overcoming the Sales Talent Gap

The first step in overcoming the sales talent gap is by recognising the challenges you face. Here are the top five challenges business leaders face in finding and retaining top sales talent:

1. Identifying the right candidates: If the result of a skills assessment of your candidate isn’t as strong as you initially thought it was, you risk hiring a salesperson that is lacking in important qualities such as relationship building, self-motivation and resilience.
2. Attrition and high turnover rates: Our 2022 sales skills report found that the average sales cycle is 1-3 years, yet the average tenure of a salesperson is 18 months according to research by Hubspot. Often times, salespeople won’t stay long enough to see a sales deal through to the end, resulting in poor sales performance and low win rates. It’s crucial that you overcome this by implementing a strong culture.
3. Training and development: As mentioned above, without a strong learning and development programme, your salesforce risks becoming stagnant and falling behind the curve. Our 2023 report’s findings showed that smaller SMEs (<100 people) often do not have internal training programmes and have a limited training budget, ranging from only ￡500 to ￡5,000 per person.
4. Compensation and incentives: Your salespeople should feel valued and rewarded. Waiting too long to have a conversation about incentives can result in demotivated salespeople. That being said, money and material benefits aren’t the only motivating factors for sales teams. As a manager, you should know if your salespeople are extrinsically or intrinsically motivated.

While creating a high-performing sales team is no easy feat, businesses stand to gain significantly from it. A consistently productive sales team may be the difference between stagnation and sustained revenue growth.

After all, maintaining great performance requires dedication and a readiness to continuously evaluate and improve your strategies. Encouraging a culture of knowledge sharing and ongoing skill development will enable your sales team to succeed. The growth and success will be unparalleled for those who embrace this challenge.