Values & Culture

August 3, 2023

Emotional Intelligence – the Secret sauce of Sales

Emotional Intelligence – essential both to Lead and to Sell! 

 

Those with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70% of the time; this strange statistic was not fully explained until the concept of emotional intelligence became widely known in the mid-90s. This discrepancy severely impacts the widely held belief that intelligence alone is sufficient for attaining one’s goals. Years of studies have established that emotional intelligence is the primary differentiator between top and average performance.

 

For example, a study conducted on sales professionals found that those with higher emotional intelligence were able to build stronger relationships with clients, resulting in increased sales and commissions. These individuals were able to effectively understand and address the needs and concerns of their clients, leading to higher customer satisfaction and repeat business. Conversely, sales professionals with lower emotional intelligence struggled to connect with clients on an emotional level, resulting in missed opportunities and lower earnings. With the right training and development programs, individuals can improve their emotional intelligence skills,

 

Brief History

 

Emotional intelligence is not a novel concept. Edward Thorndike explored three categories of intelligence about 100 years ago, including social intelligence, which is concerned with a person’s capacity to connect with others. Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer coined the phrase “emotional intelligence” the early 90´s  to describe an individual’s capacity to understand and control their emotions, as well as their social abilities.

However, it wasn’t until Daniel Goleman wrote his book Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ in 1995 that the phrase became popular. In the decades afterwards, the concept has evolved from a passing novelty to an everyday word that is now a key factor in many firms’ recruiting operations.

Understanding Emotional Intelligence in a Nutshell

 

Each of us has this “something” called emotional intelligence, often called EQ. It influences our ability to control our actions, deal with the complexities of social situations, and make good choices for ourselves. This is described by various authors over the years, in countless articles and publications. Best selling author Travis Bradberry explains this well in his book “Emotional Intelligence 2.0”, (see Forbes Article “Emotional Intelligence: EQ” from 2014 for an introduction” )

 

The two basic competencies that make up emotional intelligence are “personal competence” and “social competence,” each of which consists of two sub-competencies.

 

 

Personal competence is made up of self-awareness and self-management skills. These focus on you individually, rather than on the interactions you may have with other people. Essentially, this is about your ability to become aware of your emotions and to use this awareness to manage your behavior and tendencies. 

  • Self-Awareness is your ability to sense and understand your own emotions and be aware of them when they happen.
  • Self-Management is your ability to use this self-awareness to react to and positively direct your behavior.

 

Social competence, on the other hand, is made up of your social awareness and relationship management skills. Social competence is all about your ability to understand other people’s moods, behaviors, and motives and to use this in order to improve your relationships. Its two components are:

  • Social Awareness is about how well you “tune in” to other people’s emotions and understand the social web that helps you understand what is really going on.
  • Relationship Management is your ability to use this social awareness in a good way to manage interactions successfully.

 

 

Explaining the concepts – What’s the main difference between IQ and EQ and … isn’t that just “Personality”?

 

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is an important aspect to consider in sales management. While IQ measures cognitive abilities and personality traits define our individual styles, EQ focuses on our ability to understand and manage our own emotions, as well as empathize with and connect with others. Developing emotional intelligence can greatly enhance a sales manager’s effectiveness in building relationships, resolving conflicts, and motivating their team. However, IQ and emotional intelligence have no connection or interdependence. It’s impossible to predict emotional intelligence based on how smart this person is. 

 

IQ, or just intelligence, is a purely cognitive trait—your ability to learn and understand your physical context and surroundings and it’s the same at age 15 as it is at age 50. 

 

Emotional intelligence, on the other hand, is a skill that you can learn and improve with practice. Some people are naturally more emotionally intelligent than others, it certainly seems you can develop high emotional intelligence with practice and over time, even if you were not born with it.

 

Personality is another term that is related to these. It’s the “style” that defines us and is the combination of hard-coded tendencies we have, for example, how introverted or extrovert you are. Similar to IQ, personality traits can’t predict emotional intelligence. The personality doesn’t change over time. 

 

IQ, emotional intelligence, and personality each cover different dimensions of us and help explain what makes us move forward and be motivated.

Is Emotional Intelligence Linked to Performance?

 

How influential is emotional intelligence for your own professional success? Travis Bradberry´s firm, TalentSmart, tested emotional intelligence as compared to other workplace skills and discovered that emotional intelligence is by far the strongest predictor of performance, explaining a full 58% of success in all types of jobs. 

 

Specifically, in Sales, emotional intelligence is even more strongly linked to performance. Individuals with higher levels of emotional intelligence are often more successful in their sales performance, as they are able to effectively manage relationships, navigate difficult situations, and adapt to changing environments. By understanding and effectively utilizing their emotions, individuals with high emotional intelligence can connect with clients on a deeper level and build strong rapport, ultimately leading to increased sales success.

 

Your emotional intelligence is the base for a whole system of important skills you possess and impacts pretty much everything you say and do. This makes Emotional intelligence the single biggest factor for performance in your job and the strongest motivator for leaders to develop personal excellence.

 

In their study, TalentSmart found that 90% of top performers have high EQ, while looking at the bottom performers, only about 20% of them do. You can be a top performer even if you are not so strong on emotional intelligence, but you have much less chance of succeeding.

 

Consequently, people with high EQ make more money—and according to the study, an average of $29,000 more per year than people with low emotional intelligence (2014). The correlation between emotional intelligence and earnings is in fact so strong that we can see that for every point that EQ increases, this adds another $1,300 to an annual salary. These findings hold true for people in all industries, at all levels, and in every region of the world. 

 

Good news! – Emotional Intelligence Can Be Developed.

 

Emotional intelligence originates physically in the two-way dialogue between your emotional and logical “brains.” Emotional Intelligence starts in the lower brain, close to the spinal cord. This is where your basic sensations arrive, making their way to the front of your brain so you can process the information logically. But still, they must first pass through the limbic system, the seat of emotional skills. So, our initial response to situations is an emotional one rather than a logical one. Connecting your head’s logical and emotional processing systems is crucial for displaying emotional intelligence. 

 

Neuroscientists refer to the brain’s ability to change as “plasticity.” As you learn new skills, your brain forms new connections. The transformation is gradual, as your brain cells form new connections to help improve the effectiveness of newly acquired skills.This plasticity naturally applies to emotional intelligence. By actively practicing and developing emotional intelligence, we can strengthen the connections between our rational and emotional centers, allowing for more effective communication and better overall emotional well-being. 

 

 

 

The billions of tiny neurons that connect your brain’s intellectual and emotional centers can branch off into tiny “fingers” (similar to the branches of a tree) to connect with neighboring cells, and this process can be enhanced using techniques to improve emotional intelligence. There can be thousands of connections made for every single brain cell. This exponential growth makes it simpler to put this new behavior into practice in the future. 

 

With consistent practice, individuals can cultivate a greater sense of self-awareness and develop stronger relationships with others, ultimately enhancing their overall emotional intelligence. 

April 11, 2023

Nailing your OKRs – write productive Objectives

Introduction to Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

 

As Sales Directors we are always looking for ways to improve the team’s ways of working, increase revenue, and stay ahead of the competition. One way to achieve these goals is by implementing the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) methodology.

 

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a way of defining goals for your team. They’re used by some of the world’s most successful companies, including Google and Facebook. OKRs were first developed by Intel in the 1980s as a way to align their employees around specific goals, and then popularised by investor John Doerr in his book “Measure What Matters” . According to Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel: “We had tried many other approaches before arriving at OKRs–but none worked as well.”

 

In this article, we will explore how sales organizations in medium-sized companies can implement OKRs to improve their sales processes and increase revenue.

 

 

 

Definition and Components of OKR’s

 

Objectives and key results (OKRs) are a simple yet powerful way to set direction for your team. They help you focus on what matters most, align around priorities, and drive results.

 

OKRs have 3 principal components:

    • Objectives are high-level statements that define the purpose of your business or project. An objective could be “increase revenue by 10%” or “improve customer satisfaction ratings.” It’s important for objectives to be measurable so that you can track progress against them over time.
  •  
    • Key results are specific behaviors or outcomes needed from each person on your team in order to achieve an objective–for example, “Achieve 90% success rate on all projects” or “Grow social media followers by 20%.”
  •  
    • Tasks: The activities that you undertake to get you the Key Results, which in turn leds you to the Objectives. By evaluating our ability to perform the tasks, you can coach, train and prepare yourself better to reach the objectives. 
  •  
    • Weighting is an optional additional component of OKRs that helps prioritize which key results should receive more attention than others; this might be based on importance (e.g., revenue generation), difficulty level (e.g., increasing customer retention rates), urgency (e.g., launching new product features before competitors do), etc..

 

 

 

Benefits of Using OKRs for Goal Management

 

  • Improved communication: OKRs are a clear way to communicate goals and progress, which helps teams stay on the same page.

 

  • Better collaboration: When everyone knows what they are working toward, it’s easier for them to collaborate effectively.

 

  • More effective goal setting: OKRs help you set goals that align with your organization’s larger strategy so that you can achieve more impactful results–and have fun doing it!
 
 

 

Creating a Culture of Accountability with OKRs

 

The goal of any company is to create a culture of accountability. This can be done by focusing on OKRs, which are the key results that you want your team to achieve.

 

For example, if you’re working in sales and your objective is “to increase our revenue by 20% this year,” then one key result would be “increase sales leads by 10%.” Each employee has their own set of objectives and key results so they know exactly what they need to do each day in order for the company as a whole to meet its goals.

 

OKRs are not just an HR tool. They’re a way for the entire company, from the CEO down to the newest hires, to work together towards a common goal. When everyone is working towards an objective and knows exactly what they need to do each day in order for that objective to be met, then it’s easy for them to feel engaged in their jobs.

 

This is why OKRs are so effective. They give employees a clear idea of what’s expected of them, and they help everyone involved with the company to understand how their daily tasks fit into the larger picture.  Studies show that organisations, just by working with clear, agreed and challenging goals increase productivity by up to 15%. With a feedback and measure structure that continuously tells us how we are doing, that effect is nearly doubled!!

 

 

 

Basic Rules for Writing Effective Objectives and Key Results

Some key learning around objectives and OKRs 

 

      • Set SMART objectives. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

 

      • Use the cascading approach to set goals at all levels of your organization or team. This means that each level has its own set of OKRs that cascade down from higher level objectives (i.e., a departmental manager’s OKRs cascade down from his/her company’s annual goal).

 

      • Make sure your key results are realistic–you don’t want them to be too easy or too difficult; they should be challenging but achievable within the timeframe you’ve allotted yourself for achieving them.

 

      • Key Results must be Actionable – i.e. the person responsible must understand and know what to do with them! Consider being more activity oriented and detailed when the person is less skilled with the specific task at hand, and allow yourself to be more result oriented when the person already possess that skills and knows perfectly what to do.

 

 

Note: Change Management by definition requires people to do something new. This means that no matter the seniority of the person, he or she will be helped by more activity oriented KRs than higher level results. Can we help? Let us know!

 

 

 

Tools that help you write and achieve your OKRs

The first step to achieving your OKRs is setting them. You can use the following tools to help you do so:

 

  • Objectives and Key Results (OKR) template
  • Google Docs template
  • Microsoft Excel template
  • Purpose specific softwares, some examples
    • Quantive – connecting high level with individual contribution
    • Leapsome – Performance Management & Personalised Learning Platform
    • Culture Amp – Performance Management and Employee Engagement 
    • profit.co
    • etc etc 

 

 

Examples of Well-Written Team OKRs

Here you will find a few examples of Sales team OKRs, the web is full of examples and suggested OKrs that you can find inspiration in. Just remember to make the KRs really SMART, and actionable.

 

  1. Objective: Increase our sales department revenue by 15%.

Key Results:

        • Maximize pipeline value to $250,000 every quarter
        • Improve closing rate from 15% to 30%
        • Implement a Activity Based performance system for evaluating performance
        • Increase scheduled calls per sales rep from two per week—to seven

 

  1. Objective: Reduce the average time it takes to close a sale from 9 months down to 6 by March 31st.

Key Results:

        • Reduce time from initial contact to demo by 30%
        • Reduce time form demo to WIN by 30%
        • Improve our sales process by implementing a new sales training program

 

  1. Objective: Improve the efficiency of our sales team

Key Results:

        • Conduct monthly training sessions for each stage of the customer lifecycle
        • Increase conversion rate from 10% to 30%
        • Receive positive feedback from 90% of our customers about the efficiency of our sales team

 

You may want to find more inspiration in the “What Matters” page  

 

 

 

Common Pitfalls When Setting and Achieving OKRs

 

In addition to understanding the basics of setting and achieving OKRs, it’s important that you avoid common pitfalls. Here are some things to keep in mind:

 

        • Make sure your goals are realistic. If you set unrealistic goals, they may be unattainable and cause frustration or disappointment when they aren’t met.

 

        • Don’t manage expectations by setting low expectations for yourself or others in order to make them look better than they actually are. This can lead people down a path where they feel like their work isn’t good enough or worthy of recognition because it doesn’t meet this new standard that was set artificially low by management (and thus not aligned with reality).
        • Writing Key Results that the person don’t know how to act upon. Key Results should be specific, measurable and time-bound. If you don’t know how to act on a goal, then it’s not really a goal; instead it’s just a wish that might come true by chance. For example: “I want to lose weight” is not specific enough, but “I will run for at least 30 minutes three times per week” is specific because it specifies the activity and the frequency with which it needs to take place in order for you to reach your goal of losing weight.
        • Too long between reviews: OKRs are guidelines for action, not annual bonus objectives or laws set in stone. Hold frequent performance reviews, that you keep light and short – 30 – 45 minutes ever 2-3- weeks is better than a 2 hour quarterly session that becomes everything else than dynamic and creative. If an OKR is not achieving its desired results, don’t wait until the end of the quarter to course correct.

 

 

 

Comparison of OKRs to Other Frameworks and related Terms

 

Since the introduction of objectives and management by objectives in the 50’s many models and frameworks have been developed and used. We will have a look at some fundamental models that you will come in contact with. A brief comparison of OKRs with other goal management frameworks:

 

Balanced Scorecard is an effective tool for measuring organizational performance across four perspectives: financials; customer metrics; internal business processes; and learning & growth opportunities. While both tools use a similar approach to measuring performance across multiple dimensions of an organization’s strategy, they differ significantly in how they define success: Balanced Scorecard measures outcomes whereas OKRs measure progress towards achieving those outcomes over time 

 

MBOs: Management by objectives (MBO) is another well-known framework that functions similarly to the others. Aligning objectives, creating a plan of action, and measuring performance are key components in MBOs—as they are elsewhere. However, MBOs differ from the other frameworks in that they first define objectives and then measure performance against them. This differs from balanced scorecards and OKRs, which focus on measuring outcomes instead of progress towards those outcomes. 

 

SMART is not really a framework, as much as it is good advice on HOW to write objectives in any framework. When we write goals we shovel always make them Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. OKRs also have these characteristics. 

 

KPIs – stands for Key Performance Indicators and depicts quantifiable measures that track performance over time. You can select KPIs for multiple organizational domains, including project, individual, departmental, or business objectives.

 

BHAG goals stand for Big, Hairy, and Audacious goals. These refer to challenging, long-term strategic or business goals that your organization uses to guide it. Comparable to the vision of the company, and the mission it has put for itself. They are far ahead n the future, but still help direct employees toward effective action.

 

4DX –  4 disciplines of strategy execution– a framework developed by firm Franklin Covey. It proposes four core disciplines for helping individuals and teams reach their goals. These disciplines include:

            • Focus on the wildly important:Teams and individuals should narrow down their focus to no more than two Wildly Important Goals (WIGs)

            • Act on the leading indicators (lead measure):focus on activities that drive the best results, where lagging indicators describe what you’re looking to achieve and lead measures describe the activities that drives toward the goal

            • Keep a performance scorecard: teams should have access to a visible scorecard that lets them know whether they’re successful or not

            • Create a chain of accountability: People at all levels are held accountable for their goals through weekly WIG sessions where they discuss commitments, performance reviews, and improvement plans

 

 

Conclusion and Resources for Further Learning

 

OKRs are an effective way to measure progress and hold yourself accountable. They can be used for both personal goals, as well as company-wide objectives.

 

They are a simple framework that can be used by anyone in any field. If you’re interested in learning more about OKRs, here are some resources:

 

 

February 1, 2023

Why does my boss wants me to sell 10 times my own salary?

This discussion often comes up in our “cost of sales” workshops, and we believe it is a great idea for any manager or director to thought through these cases so that you can provide a simple and straight forward answer to the question when it comes.

 

Why is it that companies ask their teams to sell for so much more money than their own salaries. One could think it would be enough just to sell to cover your own cost, couldn’t you?

 

Let us take the Software example: You are working for a great start up B2B SaaS company, the team is great, you believe in both the company and the idea, but  … they ask you to sell for a million, but your on-taget-pay is less than 100k. How can this be, seriously??

 

As you will see, there are many obvious and hidden costs to consider, and by being transparent with your team about where the money goes, you will save yourself potential problems. In this article we will take you through two different examples, one SaaS company and one traditional industrial equipment manufacturer, and compare. 

 

You may also want to download our excel calculator that you can plug your own numbers into the two scenarios. 

 

 

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Cash is king. Let us consider two different cases:

 

  • Software have very high gross margins, but cash comes in slow nowadays with subscription and pay-as-you-go schemes.
  • Traditional things, such as industrial machinery are often paid at delivery buton the other hand the internal margins– gross margin– after costs of goods are much lower. 

 

Many recent companies, startups and scaleups, don’t have California-style financing and unlimited resources (you are in Europe). Your company need to be profitable or close to profitable – EBIT wise. This means that your sales need to carry both your own cost and part of the rest of the company’s cost. What is your reasonable quota?
Profitable companies cover costs – a rule of thumb


 

A rule of thumb that often is used to keep a SaaS company profitable is to at least let the value of new contracts cover the sales cost. Or in SaaS terms, the new annual subscription revenue rate (first year ARR), should be higher than the customer acquisition cost (CAC) – (new ARR > Cost of Sales, CAC).

 

This means for the company any new customer must be paid for already during the first year contract (from signing). Otherwise, the company will need external financing to cover while waiting for the second and future years payments.

 

If first year contracts cover CoS, the company can grow with limited external financing, and not be restrained by a systematic cash flow problem for its growth.  

 

A software example

So, what is the reasonable quota, or sales target you should carry?  Lets look at the cost of sales and the money we can expect initially. 

 

For those of you who were in business in the 2000´s – Subscription software – SaaS, has completely changed the game plan. What used to be a 100.000 € initial deal, with annual maintenance of 20.000€ has now become a 3-4.000€ monthly subscription. Over time this is great, but Saas companies struggle to become profitable as payments are pushed int the future.  How do you cover costs with subscriptions only?

 

Looking at the cost of sales – CAC

 

In a software company most cost is personnel related. To sell your product you are using company resources to close your deals .. such as techsales, new features/development, management and admin.  We don’t include some parts – The customer retention or “customer success” team manages customer service and support, and drive usage of your product so they carry their own cost.  

 

Without going into any great detail on what may the case in your company, it will probably be a good rule of thumb to think that you carry yourself and 3 – 4 more people in the company – so If you sell for about 4-5 times the average employee cost you are all right.

 

The real cost for any of us employees, is around 1,5 – 2 times our salary, we end up with a reasonable quota at roughly 10x the base salary. This includes social security fees, indirect taxes, the office space you use up, medical insurance, meal tickets etc.

 

Example

 

Let’s have a look at the following example, if your salary is 60kEUR, your total cost is around 100kEUR, and the reasonable quota is 450kEUR-600kEUR . If your salary is 100kEUR, you should not be surprised if your quota is 800-1.000kEUR. Why?

 

Why is 4-5 times your cost, (or 10 times your salary) a good rule of thumb?

  • One (1x) is to cover your own cost to the company (100k)
  • One (1x) is to cover other direct new sales costs, Presales activities, free Consultancy, proofs of concept, development adaptations etc
  • One (1x)is to cover other overhead and indirect sales costs, your sales director, your marketing personnel, a part of admin, all more or less involved in new sales. 
  • The final (1x to 2x) is to ensure some margin for the Company and to cover risk. (the risk that not all colleagues make their quota)

 

Needless to say, we are oversimplifying the matter. In the companies I have worked it made sense for me and my team, under the circumstances I described above. The ratios can vary.

 

For example, if the company is investing heavily in sales and marketing quotas are higher. If the company is spending you job gets a lot easier, but at the same time your sales need to cover a higher cost.

 

In your company the logical figure may be anything from 3,5 times to 9 times cost, or 7 to 18 times your salary. It is normally stable, so when you figure out what the logical ratio is for your company, then you can use that as a benchmark for the future.

 

 

 

An example for Industrial Products

In our traditional B2B example, we apply exactly the same reasoning. In this case the product has an internal margin that can vary, and this margin is what need to cover the CoS plus any extras. 

 

Example 

 

You sell industrial equipment that is produced elsewhere. The cost when delivered to your warehouse is 65% of List Price, leaving you with 35% to pay for your team’s cost of sales. 

 

Let us assume that the sales effort is the same, which means that for every sales person you need one Presales engineer, and on average one Backoffice position. To this we add one for management Overheadand office etc. Finally, we add one to cover for the internal margin, and risk that any territory fails.

 

In this example your pay remains 60k€/year – that give a total cost 100k€ per person. That makes 300k€, plus internal extra of 1-200k€.

 

  • This 500k€ must be covered by the internal margin after cost of Goods.
  • Total cost/internal margins from factory =  400k€/0,35 = quota of 1.143 k€
  • The pure cost is 300k€, so if you sell for less than 300k€/0,35 = 857k€ your local unit will present losses! 

This means that you probably should have some mechanism that starts paying at 850k€, and pays full On Target Earning at 100%.

 

Conclusion

 

You have seen two examples, with similar input, but with sales expectation that become different due to the cost structure that supports sales.

 

When you look at the minimum quota it is helpful to use the cost perspective to discuss around when and why the company would lose money from selling, to avoid this from happening. In buoyant markets, and when you have strong financial backing your criteria and therefore the calculator may be completely different.

We have developed the two examples in the simplified calculator you are free to download here. It is provided as is, and with no guarantees, but use it and inspiration froryour own calculations and methods.

Let us know if you want help building a similar case for your own company and we will be happy to create a customized tool for you.

 

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September 16, 2022

Trust is a must – Personal styles, DISC, and matching in sales

 

In other posts, we discuss sales techniques and methods on selling value. To sell value, and be able to charge extra for that value, the value must be fully perceived… felt.. by the customer. Whether we get across with our message or not is influenced by our styles, our behaviors in different situations, and how well we fit.  Sometimes this personal fit is simply referred to as the personal “chemistry” between people. Let’s have a look!

 

Trust – a must

 

When we meet new people, our brain reacts by asking two questions immediately and subconsciously. The first is about how we will communicate – considering openness, warmth, and trustworthiness, and the second is about competence and knowledge. “Is this someone I will get along with and trust?” and “Is this someone I can respect and understand?” Entering into a personal relationship with the person, the first always trumps the other. If we don’t feel we will get along with the person, the competence dimension becomes irrelevant.

 

In sales, it is generally the customer side that determines the level of trust that is needed in the relationship for the sale to take place.

 

To generate trust, we need to do the following:

  • Understand how others perceive and appreciate our behavior
  • Know how to read the behavioral style of our customer
  • Learn how to adjust our style to the customer

 

There are many models and tools that help us understand styles and behavior. But few are as simple and as well documented as the DISC model. The reason why the DISC model is so suitable to apply on sales is because DISC simplifies the reality and allows us to take quick decisions.

 

 

The DISC model

 

It is out of the scope for this manual to provide all the details of the model, but we encourage the reader to learn more about the theory and the tool to gain a good understanding of the personality styles and how to adapt our behaviours.

 

The DISC model dates all the way back to the 1930s and is based on William Moulton Marston’s findings and thinking. Although far from complete, it provides some basic insights into our ways and how it is likely that we react and behave in certain situations. It is one of the most used instruments, and while it does not really measure or evaluate personalities, it does describe basic human behaviors.

 

 

 

 

The DISC model identifies four different behaviour styles (D. I. S. and C). Too make the model simpler and more accessible, it uses individual color codes for each style, and tells us four different ways in which we usually react to a given situation.

 

D – DOMINANCE STYLE (RED) :

 

People with a dominant style in their base behavior will see themselves as strong in a non-friendly (e.g., professional) environment. This is why they tend to try to dominate the situation and the meeting. They are straight forward in their ways, not afraid to speak their mind, and find it easier than many to see how to overcome different obstacles. They are challenge driven and goal oriented. They are willing to change, but normally only if they think it can help them to get what they set their mind on. A dominant style person will perceive himself as powerful, energetic, innovative, goal oriented, and resolute. By others they are perceived as arrogant, pushy, aggressive, and insensitive.

 

I – INFLUENTIAL STYLE (YELLOW) :

 

Individuals with a strong influential style will see themselves as strong in a naturally friendly environment. In general, they feel they have nothing to fear from the environment and people around them. Therefore, they want discuss things, have others share their opinion, and try to influence them through friendly persuasion. Their primary goal in any situation is to be understood, accepted, and involved. A person with high yellow will see himself as convincing, confident, generous, inspiring, and open. By others, this person can be seen as selfish, superficial, egocentric, and unserious.

 

S – STEADY – STABLE STYLE (GREEN) :

 

People with a predominant stability style often see themselves as weaker than others, and when given the choice, they prefer to be in a friendly and conflict-free environment. They are concerned with not upsetting or changing this environment, and they want to preserve it to continue to feel safe and good about themselves. On the other hand, to change, they must first be convinced that they don’t risk losing anything at all. As a salesperson, this style is often perceived as a bit passive with difficulty getting to a close with the customer. A stability-style person will perceive themselves as loyal, a good-listener, encouraging, and calm. But at the same time, others can see them as stubborn and reluctant to change.

 

C – COMPLIANT STYLE (BLUE) :

 

A strong compliant-style person tends to think that their surroundings are generally hostile and thus they feel weaker. Because of this perceived weakness, they don’t exercise much influence. They tend to prefer working by themselves and take great care to fit into existing and predetermined structures and rules to reach their goals. To avoid risk and conflict, they will analyze each situation carefully before deciding to do anything that would change the given structure. A person with high blue will see him/herself as fact-seeking, knowledgeable, systematic, diplomatic, and reflective. On the other hand, this person can be perceived by others as pedantic, avoiding, indecisive, and reserved.

 

 

May 13, 2022

Interview candidates with a purpose – free template

If you are a bit new to recruiting and interviewing, and feel you could use some basic tips and tricks, continue reading. As with most things in sales management, putting a little structure and thought behind your recruiting will enhance your chances of selecting the right person and getting off to a great start as a manager.

In this article, we have put together some general guidelines and tips to help you prepare for your interviews.

 

 

Who do I want to work with?

The first area to spend some time on is to define what is truly important for the role.

 

HARD SKILLS

We all understand the importance of understanding your advanced technology, or that the candidate has a great network, is extremely experienced, and is young, hungry, and full of energy. We can call these the “hard” skills. They are often tangible, more easily measurable, and 9 times of 10, they are what managers I talk to mention as the most important criteria when recruiting.

On the concrete or “hard” competencies, you will want to evaluate the candidates

  • market knowledge and network in the territory
  • product and technology understanding
  • sales skills/technique competencies

 

SOFT TRAITS

Very often the “soft” abilities are passed to a second plane. They are more difficult to define and measure, or even to talk about. Yet, they are key to a successful transition into your team and to reach productivity.

In the LinkedIn State of Sales Report 2020: U.S. Edition, 500 buyers and 500 salesreps/managers were asked what 10 characteristics buyers desire from salespeople compared to the characteristics sales managers look for in the sales reps they hire. Buyers ranked active listening, problem solving, confidence (trust), relationship building and communication skills as the top 5 traits. Technology understanding, years of experience, and industry expertise came lower.

During your interviews, pay special attention that the candidate:

  • will adapt to the context and support network you have in your company
  • will learn well and can adapt to ways of working
  • is open to change
  • will fit in your culture, making it easy to work together
  • shares similar values, and will subscribe to the corporate values

 

Recruiting the right person to the wrong place

 

There are only too many examples of great salespeople – absolute top performers who are recruited into a different context but selling something very similar to the same people – who still failed to succeed or even get close to the previous success. The “hard” competencies all fit. Product/technology, market/industry, contact network, and demonstrated sales methods and techniques were all “check!” yet they failed. Why?

 

What happens is that the soft abilities and cultural fit just don’t align with how your team and company work. This is everything from your internal team dynamics, culture, and jargon, but also misalignment with the expected surrounding support, HR, pre/tech sales, support, services, marketing, etc.

 

 

Two classical scenarios:

  • The medium sized company who decides to open a new sales office in a new country/market, and hires a top manager from the incumbent competitor for the job. This is always a bad idea, as the first person in the market needs to do all the work themselves initially, and there is no support network yet.
  • A large corporation that hires people from startups often finds it difficult to accommodate the new hire’s appetite for creativity and room for own decisions, and the employee often feels hindered and suffocated under all the processes.

Note that we are not saying one is better than the other, but as hiring managers, we must be conscious of our own ways, culture, and values, and we must be sensitive to which candidates will fit in our context.

 

 

The Process

 

DEFINE KEY EVALUATION CRITERIA

 

Make sure to complete the “hard” job descriptions with the most important “soft” characteristics you are looking for. Then design an interview template that helps you evaluate the candidate in all these dimensions. You can download a simple template by clicking the button below.

 

USING TESTS

The more important you deem the values, culture, and other “soft” skills for the role, the more you may want to consider a personality test. Make sure you prepare your interview well and focus on these areas. If you are using an agency, they can often set up a DISC test or something similar for you.

If the job requires technical skills, set up a test that your candidate needs to solve, or ask them to prepare a convincing sales meeting if recruiting telesales.

 

MULTIPLE INTERVIEWS

Have at least 2 people apart from yourself interview the candidate throughout the process. Let them meet with different personalities and roles to catch possible moments where non-desired behaviours come up to the surface. You will get a much more complete picture of the candidate. After each round, set up a debrief with the interviewers, and run through the evaluation criteria.

 

 

Interview template

To help you structure the interview, we propose a simple template that you can follow. It should not be a questionnaire, but list the key competencies and personal traits you will want to evaluate.

Use it as a support to help you formulate questions and conduct the conversation so that in the end, you feel confident all areas were covered to your satisfaction. The questions in all cases being:

  • “How well/badly do I think the candidate will be doing……?”
  • “Will the candidate be strong enough in ……..?”
  • “Is the candidate motivated and able to learn this ……. quickly”

 

 

Download template

 

Prepare by thinking through each area, and note what specifics you want to know, and how to formulate the question to get the answers you need.

Remember to ask for relevant references, and complete the interview by contacting those references.

 

May 6, 2022

Onboarding for scalability & growth

The importance of a great Onboarding

 

Studies show that employees give their new companies about 6 months on average before they decide whether to go all in with their new employer. At the same time, other sources point to a learning curve and time to full productivity of a year or more and at least one full sales cycle. In a culture where success often is made synonymous to revenue and sales numbers, new salespeople risk losing interest and enthusiasm long before success and hitting their numbers.

 

The combination of high expectations, a long ramp up/time to sales, together with short patitence of both the new employee and the organization becomes an explosive cocktail of high attrition on new hires, with stagnated growth as the most severe consequence.

 

The onboarding program helps mitigate the effect by

  • Shortening the learning curve and time to productivity.
  • Redefining and widening the term success, since activity metrics, competence development and personal growth are also considered successes along the way.
  • Keeping people interested and motivated from the first day and throughout the learning process.

 

A great onboarding program helps new hired individuals perceive and appreciate the company’s effort to develop and grow them so they are more likely to return the favor by staying on and being more motivated.

 

 

Defining what is important

 

We have prepared a template for a 12-month onboarding plan, where we have selected some standard areas for sales reps in a complex technology sales context. Use this as inspiration to create  your own plan. Consider what is truly important in your company and context.

 

Some things you may want to include are listed below:

  • Market and ecosystem understanding
  • Contact network
  • Customer understanding
  • Product and technology
  • Personal traits
  • Values and cultural fit
  • Sales technique
  • Sales process and strategy
  • Tools and methods

 

A structured approach to competence management is helpful throughout all phases, from recruiting to the periodical evaluations. What you do the initial evaluation, already in the recruiting phase, and construct a initial training program to cover any weakness you discovered, we call it our Onboarding Program.

 

a simple onboarding plan based on competence areas helps providing structure

Onboarding program for a Sales Person

Below is a template to use to create your own onboarding program. Fill the boxes with the training, meetings, and activities that your new hire should plan to do within different time horizons. To help you organise your thoughts, go area by area, one by one, and fill in the boxes. You may be surprised at the end by the quantity of activities the new hire needs to do to get up to speed. Keep this is mind when you set the expectations for sales and productivity for the fist couple of months!

 

Many of the activities, sucha as “getting to know the company,” need to happen early on, and others will be more evenly spread out over the year. We suggest you stage the learning in the following time categries:

  • Immediate (< 2weeks)
  • 1stmonth
  • 3 months
  • 6 months
  • 12 months

In each area, you may also want to add success criteria or milestones that you can check off and celebrate with your hire as they make each one. Click below to download our onboarding template.

 

 

Download template