Sales DNA: Match Culture During Sales Recruiting
You may have already heard about the launch of one of my new ebooks – and hopefully have even had a chance to read –Measuring Sales DNA: A Fact-based Approach to Sales Talent Acquisition. I have had lots of questions about Sales DNA — notably, “Why do I need Sales DNA?” and “How do I identify it?”
Making the right Sales DNA match is not easy. New approaches to sales recruiting must be developed to match the right Sales DNA with the unique demands of your company culture and sales environment.
Why bother? When we make matches in life, whether in our work or personal domains, we often ignore the lessons that Mother Nature has already taught us. For example, the right Sales DNA can act like the chemical composition around a Sequoia tree, the giant Coastal Redwood tree that is known for its stature and longevity. This majestic tree’s chemical composition is ideally suited to survive in its environment. The Sequoia tree has naturally adapted to its environment with a chemical defense against insects and other tree pests.
The right sales person, or Sales DNA, for your sales culture naturally adapts to the unique challenges of your environment. It would be fruitless, for example, to put the Coastal Redwood in a desert. These awe-inspiring trees have a symbiotic relationship with the mild coastal climates it excels in. Similarly, a sales manager would not choose to place a seller of commoditized goods in a high-value sales territory. A Sales DNA match that makes a strong connection between symbiotic sales traits and sales climate must be identified in advance of the hiring decision.
The Sales Growth Question: How much clarity do you have around the Sales DNA needed to succeed in your company?
The Sales Growth Lesson: The Sales DNA of your sales team must have a strong symbiotic match with your company culture and your strategic objectives.
If you haven’t read Measuring Sales DNA, I invite you to do so. I appreciate your feedback and insights.
In addition, I’m a contributor to a chapter on hiring in Business Expert Guide to Small Business Success.
High Performance Sales Leaders are Persistent
When an idea fails, examine what you learned from the experience about your company, client, and competition … and then use that new information to craft a new plan.
When a client had a product that they felt would be a unique solution for libraries needing to expand to better track their assets, i.e., books, DVDs, and so forth, they took their new ideas to the market. No traction! Prospects weren’t interested. Rather than withdraw, the sales managers gathered their team together and began to brainstorm all that they had learned about their pain, target market and target clients. In addition, they listed all the things they learned about the competitors’ offerings, especially their weaknesses. Basically, they did a S.W.O.T. analysis. From this information, they crafted five powerful pain questions focused on the competitors’ gaps and the unique solutions. With these questions, the salespeople could quickly set themselves apart from the commoditized competitors’ solutions, and create urgency for their solutions.
Marketing a new idea in a tough market requires resiliency.The ideas that do gain traction in a challenging market, though, often soar above competitive offerings.
It’s like my favorite Sequoia and Coastal Redwood trees. 99% of their seeds may never germinate. However, when they do germinate, watch out! At the age of fifty, a Sequoia tree can be 100-feet tall, and at 250 years old, it can stand 350-feet tall.
The Sales Growth Question: What processes to you have that inspire creativity in the face of obstacles?
The Sales Growth Lesson: Sales Leaders set the pace of the team with their own persistence and resiliency. In other words, they exhibit Sisu!
For additional leadership insights, read my recent article in Upsize, To Lead Your Small Business, Transform Yourself. This article is based on seven leadership paradoxes that I discuss in Leadership Shift.
Find and Leverage Sales and Leadership Talent
When the business landscape changes, many sales leaders try and carry on as business as usual. However, this is the wrong move; it leaves you vulnerable. Instead, this is the time to reassess your sales leadership and your sales team. In both cases, your goal is to reposition both skill sets and mindset for the emerging marketplace. That’s where assessments can be a tremendous value. They help you get a grip on the unique gifts and talents of your leadership and sales teams that you need to leverage moving forward. In addition, they can reveal weaknesses hidden that have potential to sabotage your effectiveness.
A proactive president of an engineering company that had been particularly hit hard by the recession assessed his leadership team using Key Management Dynamics. Through the leadership assessment process, he discovered a hidden asset; a person on his team assessed as an Innovator. However, this employee was rather shy and so didn’t often share his ideas with the group. Once the president knew of the hidden talent, he was able to intentionally access it. In their first meeting, they explored innovative options to regain market share.
As Kurlan reminds us: “Today more than ever, Executive Teams and Boards need to run on all cylinders, being more resourceful, creative, interactive, high powered, disciplined, compliant and effective than ever before.” To achieve this, sales teams must have both strength and the flexibility to adapt.
This summer, my family trekked to visit the Coastal Redwoods in Northern California. It was an awe-inspiring experience. Like a high-performance sales and leadership team, the Coastal Redwoods draw on different strengths under different conditions. For example, Redwoods are hollow underneath and they have no taproot. Their largest roots, only one inch in diameter, grow horizontally as opposed to vertically yet the tree stands strong. The interlocking of roots from multiple trees forms a web-like support system – like a strong team that succeeds by creating the right synergy. This support system prevents the trees from toppling over!
As sales leaders, we need to ensure that, like the Coastal Redwoods, we gather all the strengths and talents from our team members.
The Sales Growth Question: What sales and leadership talents are hidden, that if found and leveraged, could provide a needed competitive edge?
The Sales Growth Lesson: Tap the talents of your team.
If you’d like to find out more about our suite of sales assessments and leadership assessments, go to here.
Tackle Your Sales Leadership Fears
At the invitation of my friend, Jim Early from Trailblazer Coaching, I’m test driving a Club Fearless coaching program with Steve Chandler. A recent eMail reminded me of an important quality of all sales leaders–the ability to operate wisely, even in the face of fear. Here’s the eMail coaching I received from Steve:
“I learned a fascinating thing about fear: it has its own fear! If I move toward my fear, not away from it, it will start to lose its nerve.
If I am afraid of confronting a co-worker, I can confront him without at first confronting him. I can move toward him and ask questions. I allow him to pour his heart and soul out to me. If I am afraid of jumping out of an airplane, I can sneak up on it by jumping off a chair, then jumping off a roof, then jumping a few times off a tower, so that I’m doing it but not yet really doing it. When I feared public speaking I practiced my talk to one person, then to three people, then to a team meeting, then to the mirror 20 times, so I was doing it without doing it. If I’m afraid of dogs I can buy a puppy, which is not really a dog yet, and raise the puppy.
With fear, I need to outsmart the fear because fear gets embarrassed easily. When it has to live inside the infinite energy field of the human spirit, fear gets very embarrassed and feels inferior. My clients who have supposedly astonishing, horrible fears are often surprised to see that there are ways to approach their fear by moving toward it, not running away from it. Ways to completely embarrass the fear, make the fear look stupid, make the fear feel ridiculous, and have the fear just diminish little by little, and shrink down in utter shame into nothing. You have to practice this, and sometimes someone has to be there to help show you how capable you really truly are of doing that thing that you’re afraid to do.”
The Sales Growth Question: What’s something that you’re afraid, a bit nervous, about tackling? Is there an employee that you need to talk with? Is there a situation that needs your attention, but you’ve been putting it off?
The Sales Growth Lesson: Face your fear by sneaking up on it.
I look forward to hearing your success stories! And, if you’re looking for a speaker on your next meeting or convention on how to build courage to tackle your fears, let’s talk.
Strategic Sales Planning
I worked with a dynamic group of presidents in an Enterprise MN CEO Roundtable table. As we brainstormed and strategized about how to achieve this quarters sales quota and next years goals, I was reminded of this poem that one of my favorite sales managers sent to me. It’s appropro as we look at how to Make It Happen next year.
Don’t Quit
Strategic Sales Planning
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you are trudging seems all uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must – but don’t you quit!
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometime learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow –
You might succeed with another blow…
Success is failure turned inside out –
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt –
And you can never tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you are hardest hit –
It’s when things get worse that you mustn’t quit!
By Edgar A. Guest
The Sales Growth Question: Where are you giving up and need to build your resolve in succeed?
The Sales Growth Lesson: Don’t give up!
Sales Teams Leverage Accountability I.Q.
I’ve been reflecting on the similarities of the awe-inspiring sequoias and the Coastal Redwoods in Northern California and high-performance sales teams that leverage adversity into record-breaking results. They all exhibit characteristics of high Accountability I.Q.
One of the key characteristics of a sales person with high Accountability I.Q. is that whenever they begin to feel helpless or get that out-of-control feeling, they brainstorm what they CAN CONTROL. This is how to create the effective protective shield against harsh competitive elements.
The unique economic and market challenges we’re facing take increasingly levels of resiliency. A client of mine that sells hardware and services to banks was strategizing a comeback after being hit hard at the beginning of the recession. The team began examining what they could do to gain deeper and broader access to their client base. They devised a plan to reposition to take market share. This team demonstrates resiliency. When competition is running away or “hunkering down,” they are purposefully, intentionally, and strategically penetrating accounts.
This sales team’s strength became even stronger when the elements were the harshest. Like the Sequoia, fire is necessary to release the seeds from their cones, exposing the bare, mineral rich soil in which seedlings, or new ideas, can take root. Fire also generates gaps and allows sunlight through, which is needed for growth. The team’s synergy is like the bark that acts like the Sequoia’s protective heat shield. The fire gets close enough to motivate the team into action but the team repositions before the competition can get too close.
The Sales Growth Question: How are you inspiring your sales team to leverage adversity and to increase their Accountability I.Q.?
The Sales Growth Lesson: Don’t let your sales teams cave into economic and marketplace pressures. Challenge to brainstorm about what they Can Control.
To read more of this series on what sales leaders can learn from the Sequoias and Coastal Redwoods, read the following:
- Build Sales Teams on Strength
- Sales Effectiveness: The Source of Your Problems May Be in the Roots
- Sales Leaders Know Both Strengths and Vulnerabilities
- Sales Teams and Accountability I.Q.
Sales Teams and Accountability I.Q.
I’m a deep admirer of the ability of the Sequoias and the Coastal Redwoods to thrive in the midst of adversity. In fact, they leverage adversity to strengthen their systems so that they can outpace their competition.
Recently I made the trek to Northern California. Standing in the foggy coastal belt at just the perfect angle, adjusting the lighting meter, I snapped the photo of my model sales person – the majestic coastal redwood, the most massive of all living forms. Great fortitude, what I call Accountability I.Q., has helped this tree endure for 2,000, even 4,000 years.
Sales teams that can take market share even during difficult times are likewise hardy and resilient. The Sequoia’s longevity is due to its ability to stand up to adversity. They have special capabilities to fend off fires, pests, termites and most any challenge from the elements. They access their strengths, exhibiting great resilience in the face of adversity. I call this characteristic, Accountability I.Q.
Question: How well do your sales reps stand up to adversity? What are you doing to increase the resiliency of your sales team?
Lesson: Develop your own Accountability I.Q.
To learn more about the lessons we can learn from the Sequoias and the Coastal Redwoods about sales and leadership, see the following:
- Transformational Leadership: In Praise of Hardship (article)
- Leadership Shift, Paradoxical Wisdom for Transformational Leaders during These Times of Change
- Build Sales Teams on Strength (blog posting)
- Sales Effectiveness: The Source of Your Problems May Be in the Roots (blog posting)
- Sales Leaders Know Both Strengths and Vulnerabilities (blog posting)
Sales Leaders Know Both Strengths & Vulnerabilities
Today, as sales leaders face harsher competitive elements, the emphasis is on strengths. Management and sales consultants tell us to strengthen our sales team, client relationships, product positioning, sales territory, and so on.
However, in addition to strengths, for sales leaders to excel in this market, they need to not only know their strengths, they also need to vulnerable.
Patrick Lencioni is one of my favorite authors. Therefore, when he talks about “vulnerability” in his new book Getting Naked, it’s time to listen.
What sets successful and not-so-successful leaders apart, says Lencioni, is the intelligence to surround oneself with those who fill in ability and limitations gaps. But first, sales leaders must have the strength of character to explore and acknowledge their vulnerabilities.
That’s one of the reasons that I’m in awe of the Coastal Redwoods, which I recently visited. The world’s tallest and most resilient tree survives hundreds of years because of its vulnerability. The giant redwood has no deep root system. Instead, its horizontal roots interlink with other trees, forming a strong web that prevents the tree from falling over. Rather than going it alone, the giant Redwood builds a stronger foundation by linking with other root systems.
Similarly, sales leaders need to take inventory of both their strengths and weaknesses, asking for support in areas in which they are weakest. Even the best of sales managers will have a hard time going it alone in today’s market. When times get tough, there is a tendency for leaders to walk around looking like an austere, impenetrable fort, conveying strength to the troops. This tough guy attitude only isolates leaders further by making them less approachable. Real leaders let the guards fall and open up in tough times. They acknowledge and appreciate that they need support.
Solutions to problems in your sales network must be rooted in a team effort.
Lesson: We cannot survive alone, we need to interlink and form strong bonds with others to prevent us from toppling over.
Question: When was the last time you took inventory of your vulnerabilities? How strong is your support network?
To learn more about how Sequoias inspire high performance sales and leadership, see the following:
- Transformational Leadership: In Praise of Hardship (article)
- Leadership Shift, Paradoxical Wisdom for Transformational Leaders during These Times of Change
- Build Sales Teams on Strength (blog posting)
- Sales Effectiveness: The Source of Your Problems May Be in the Roots (blog posting)
Build Sales Team on Strengths
The numbers are surprising. Only 12% of workers are drawing on their strengths, according to strengths expert and leadership guru Marcus Buckingham. Put another way, 88% of your sales force’s sales potential is untapped. In today’s do-more-with-less marketplace, it is even more puzzling. Truth is, if you ask a sales leader to draw up a list of the sales team’s resources, the word ‘strengths’ will not appear. Sales organizations are very good at measuring revenue and sales ROI but not so good at defining strengths.
We take strengths for granted, says Buckingham, who emphasizes that individuals and teams who play to their strengths outperform the rest, the weaklings. How do you tap the other 88% of your sales force’s strength. If you can answer this question through sales evaluations, the high potential return on strengths-based sales assessments is evident.
I recently visited the Coastal Redwoods and learned a valuable lesson from the the long-living Sequoias in the importance of strengths identification. These majestic trees live for hundreds of years because they are built on rock, not sand. Their longevity is due to their strengths – heat shielding bark to stave off fire, poisonous chemicals to fend off termites and other tree pests and a networked root system that draws on the strength of other Redwoods.
Sales assessments are an important tool to identify the strengths of your sales team. It is important to assess and the strengths across the sales organization. In so doing, you’ll find your Achilles Heels-vital information to know when you’re in a growth track and taking market share.
Lesson: To ensure the longevity of your business, build your sales organization on rocks – the strengths of your sales force – not sand.
Question: How do you measure the strengths of your sales force? sales team? How do you find the Achilles Heels?
To learn more about how Sequoias inspire high performance sales and leadership, see the article Transformational Leadership: In Praise of Hardship and my eBook, Leadership Shift, Paradoxical Wisdom for Transformational Leaders during These Times of Change.
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