Do you know the difference between a "wonderful human being" and a "good salesperson?"

Knowing the difference between a good human being and a good salesperson is mission critical for any sales based organization. More often than not sales managers and business owners donning the sales manager's cap get the two confused and hire someone because he or she is a wonderful human being and then wonder, 'Why are my sales numbers down?" Women want beautiful healthy skin but buy skin care products because they smell nice and the packaging is so attractive! Business leaders will often hire a team made up of people that make them feel comfortable and actually look, think and talk like them even though they have been talking about the importance of diversity for innovation and new ideas. Universities hire academics with the best research credentials and put them to work teaching MBA students even though carrying out research and teaching the managers and leaders of tomorrow are two completely different skill sets. So, yes the problem is not confined to the sales department but I would argue that the problem is more prevalent in sales than in other places and also the impact of poor hiring practices in sales is higher than in other areas. This is because sales is 100% a revenue generating function; no selling no revenues and no revenues no profits and no growth. If your company has been guilty of hiring of hiring a lot of good human beings who are not really good sales people, do not worry. It is not too late and you can still do a lot about it. 1.The first step is to get the wrong people off the bus, get the right people on the bus and the right people in the right seats 2.Give your salespeople the right goals and the right incentives 3.In addition to individual goals and incentives create some team goals and incentives 4.Create a sales report that compares the goal vs. actual numbers for each salesperson and then publish it daily - salespeople see each others' numbers 5.Have a regular weekly sales meeting 6.Have a bi-weekly or monthly one-on-one with each one of your salespeople 7.Let everyone know that not meeting goals for three months in a row will make a salesperson immediately eligible for termination 8.Repeat step 1 until you have a solid team of A players who can perform to your expectation 9.Now do everything to retain these A players and see your revenues grow We still have not answered the question about how to get the right people on the bus. The answer is quite simple really - during your interview process ask the candidates to actually do right there, in the interview, the exact thing that you are hiring them to do i.e., SELL. •Ask them to sell you a bottle of water •Do some role play and ask them to handle your objections •Ask them to describe an ideal sales process •Ask them to come up with a high-level sales plan •See if they send a Thank You note after the interview and follow up •Ask them for help with something and see if they have a friendly helping nature •Tell them you don't want what they are trying to sell you and see how they take rejection The key to making this type of an interview work is to make it as close to the real situation as possible. And then remember, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck!