Fuentes Friday Edition #0061

This week, I had a lot of conversations with executives about their sales teams. The most common question was, “What’s their problem?”

To answer that question, I always ask for the following:

What I often find, and did find this past week, was that one or more of the above was misaligned with company expectations.

Job description – The most common issue I see with job descriptions is that they are not truthful. They paint a rosy picture of the job and don’t fully outline what the expectations are and how the company operates. For example, they often fail to mention the KPIs required to be successful, e.g., “Must make 250 cold calls a week.” And if they do, they say things like, “You will be responsible for having multiple conversations with leaders at some of the top companies in our industry.”

Another example. “We are a data-driven company that makes decisions on facts, not opinions.” This is actually not bad, but it should include, “Thus, our expectation is that your CRM hygiene is impeccable.”

Interview/Hiring Guide – The sad, cold reality is that most organizations do not have a guide or process to guide them. They assume the people who are interviewing/hiring know what they are doing and what to look for. Umm, most people don’t actually hire or interview that much, so being good at it and knowing what to look for are nearly impossible without some guidance. Thus, the interview process turns into a mish-mash of random conversations without pre-defined intended outcomes. The candidate gets the impression that flying by the seat of your pants for important meetings is ok in the company. So, if your salesperson’s first real taste of the company was that people were underprepared and not organized, why are you surprised when the salesperson operates that way when they get the job?

Onboarding Document/Calendar – Great! You like the candidate; they like you. You think they can do the job because they have a great personality and are likable (since you didn’t have an interview guide, you didn’t test for curiosity, grit, coachability, writing, and presentation ability). Now what?

If you are like most, you will give your new hire their computer and logins and a bunch of assets and then check in with them periodically. Hey, at least you were truthful in your Job Description when you said, “The candidate must be a self-starter who can achieve goals with little guidance.”

The reality is that if you want your new hires to succeed, they need a structured onboarding experience built around the things that are most important to the company, role, and you. If you feel that everyone in the company should be able to demo the product inside and out, then your onboarding better include a way for them to learn how to demo and for you (or someone else) to assess.

What most organizations fail to understand is that how you bring someone into the organization determines how they view what is and isn’t acceptable within the organization. If you want a sales team that is honest, prepared, and process-driven, then you need to have a hiring and onboarding process that is reflective of that culture.

If you want to know “What’s wrong with your team,” you need to do a deep assessment of how they got to be your team. You may find out that Dave Chappelle’s assessment of the Incredible Hulk applies to you.

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Let me know what you think about this week’s edition of Fuentes Fridays. Which section was your favorite? How can I make this better? Shoot me a message on LinkedIn @willfuentes.

Until next week!

Thanks,