Picture this: Kevin was beyond panic. October was approaching and the CEO/owner of a small tech company in Southern California had just watched his fifth newly hired Sales Rep walk out the door. The 4th quarter was the key to the year as many customers would be buying capital equipment. He just couldn’t understand it. Sales was easy. He had been doing it for years. Two of the new hires had come from direct competitors; two from ads and were readily available and the fifth came from one of their suppliers he had known for years. Now the year hung in the balance and he had no one to deliver on the business they desperately needed.
The Unicorn Hunter is someone who is looking for perfection in a new hire that doesn’t exist in any single person. They are stuck in old habits that limit their success. You will hear “I know it when I see it.” What if they’ve never seen it before?
Contrast the first story with the approach of Tony Biel who is a Sales Director at The Nerdery (they create really cool mobile and web applications). Tony looks past the people who boast a giant rolodex (old school for contact list,) and instead probes candidates on their “process”. One of the best said, “I would search for the CIO on Google and Social Media to find out what they have spoken about recently. Then I would approach them and ask for their help on that topic and that I would like to get better at public speaking. It has gained me a lot of meetings and a good number of clients.” Guess which one moved on to the next round.
Try This:
- First seek to understand your culture. A great sales person at another company might be a big disaster at yours. Write down the top 5 things that make you company unique and a great place to work.
- Next get a grip on what is most important to your business for sales. (Lots of new accounts even if they are small; a few brand name accounts that can be referenced; one giant account that will carry the day.)
- Determine who will train them. Everyone needs something. If you don’t have resources inside the company, look outside for trainers. Budget it in at the start.
- Finally, get your pitch down so that someone from outside your industry could spot the talent too. Make it short and use plain language that your mother could understand.
At Dynasty, I teach a unique process to my clients called The Dynasty Hiring Filter. We boil everything down to a simple and effective scoring system that allows the hiring team to make quick and effective decisions. It pulls out all of the good and the bad from their history and untangles the mess. That way you never lose a great candidate from moving too slow. If you want to learn more about how to hire great talent that may not be on the open market, call me at 612-845-2076 or email me at [email protected].
