I think all HR pros should recruit. It's part of the future DNA of the HR pro. Talent agent, salesperson, etc., all rolled up into one. Recruit or die. If you don't want to recruit on any level, you're probably an administrator. Why wouldn't you want to be involved with bringing talent into the organization?
But, I digress. Chasing openings on the sales front has made me think about the candidate flow that I have seen over the past week, and more importantly made me think of an age old question – are sales pros (good ones) born or made?
When I think sales, I immediately think of Glengarry Glen Ross – it's just the natural thing to do. When I think born or made, I think of Eddie Murphy in trading places. With those images in mind, I went out to see what people were saying recently about great sales pros being born or made, and found the following nugget of wisdom from sales training guru Dave Kahle over at the Marketing Minute:
"Are successful salespeople made or born? It is the eternal question: the sales manager's version of nature versus nurture.
Since I spend most of my time teaching salespeople how to become better at their jobs, I'm 100 percent in the "made" camp. A good salesperson acts in the right way. His or her behavior is ultimately what determines his degree of success.
Thus, I believe that anyone can be taught the principles, processes and practices of effective sales. I like to characterize it like this: On a 1 – 10 scale, I can take 7s and make them into 10s. I can take 4s and make them into 7s. I can take 1s and make them into 4s. But I can't take 1s and make them into 10s.
But, from one person's perspective, here are my observations of the essential character traits of a successful salesperson.
1. They truly want to be successful.
2. "The ability and propensity to learn."
3. Successful salespeople deal successfully with adversity.
4. "the ability to focus."
Click through to the article for more detail regarding Dave's thoughts on the character traits. What I got from Dave's article is the following – he believes that Sales Pros are usually made, not born. He feels he can coach anyone to the next level, which is really a demonstrated skill I should be looking for in our VP of sales. That being said, he's not going all the way – he's looking for character traits that are actually behavioral characteristics that a candidate either has or doesn't have.
My take – you should believe the candidate can be coached to maximize their effectiveness, but from a behavioral interviewing standpoint, you've got to look for anchors that have made them successful. Are those behaviors they were born with? Maybe not, but if they don't have the behavioral history you're looking for, you're probably going to pass since you don't feel like you have the time/ability to teach someone to focus, deal with adversity, etc.
Enough with the heavy talk. Here's some Trading Places to get you into the born/made thought process (warning – some race, socio-economic, etc. themes in this one.)
KD:
I too think great sales people can be “made”. That being said sales people that are “born” with a natural outgoing personality have a tendency to ramp up faster and are usually able to handle rejection better. I also feel that great sales people follow a defined sales process and don’t just try to “wing it”. In the end sales is all about metrics and numbers. Sales people have to make enough sales calls to make rain – because relying on the market to come to them is just a dream. I’m just sayin’.
Hi Kris, I agree great sales people can be made. To use the movie analogy, I would go to the real life story of Chris Garner who was a salesman but not a great one. Circumstances and the 4 essential charachteristics are exactly the things that made him so successful. In fact a recent Bollywood movie “Rocket Singh- Salesman of the Year” espouses the same values. In case you are game for a good hindi movie with strong lessons in HR, go for it.
Really like the Trading Places example. You could talk about sales pros born, recruiter pros born or other job functions. It’s case-by-case with each potential employee. I think skills can be learned without question. The behavioral piece is another thing. I’ve personally brought on new sourcing talent to my company in the past, and training them on processes, strategies and techniques for finding talent was the straightforward part. These hires were virtual so the behavioral piece was very hit and miss. Some people responded to working with little to no supervision, as they were self-motivated, etc. Others required much more hand-holding or didn’t respond to the environment and worked their way out of a job. With time, a company can develop a proven game plan based on previous hiring experiences.
I think I can boil those 4 points above down into a single one.
ATTITUDE
If they have the right attitude the 4 points Dave makes flow from that one item. Even work ethic and passion are part of attitude. The rest can be learned, they are skills. Of course there are basic skills you need as building blocks, but beyond that it’s attitude and doing the work to learn it.