Business owners ask me this question all of the time.  The answer is because the majority of sales candidates are simply NOT GOOD!  There are sales superstars out there, but you need to know how to find them and attract them.

At Z/Three Performance Development, we’ve been conducting objective sales assessments on candidates for over a decade.  Objective Management Group, Inc., the company that developed our assessment, has recently published statistics based upon the 350,000 sales candidates who have taken the assessment to date.   The objective data has been consolidated and the excerpted results are sobering:

24% of all candidates will not prospect - at all!
Only 1% of all hunters have the complete Hunter Skill Set.
Only 8% of all candidates could even be considered Hunters. 

Did you want your new salespeople to hunt for new business? 
The typical sales candidate will have between only 27% and 52% of hunter attributes.

Why?  Salespeople who dislike prospecting dislike it for a reason.  They have beliefs and fears that cause anxiety and physical reactions to even the thought of prospecting.  Some won’t do it at all, many will have difficulty getting started and others will have difficulty finishing.

45% of all candidates will not close - at all!
Less than 1% of all candidates have the complete Closer Skill Set.

Are your salespeople having trouble closing?
The typical candidate will possess less than 23% of the attributes of a closer.

Why? Salespeople confuse asking for business with getting it.  Many salespeople know how to ask for the business.  However, very few know how to finalize profitable transactions in the face of resistance.  As with hunting, there are beliefs and fears that negatively impact their behavior.  When salespeople aren’t comfortable saying the words you’ve taught them, they substitute words that make them more comfortable. 

What makes them comfortable?  Presenting features and benefits.  These are the actions that don’t put their prospects on the spot, that don’t create objections, stalls, put-offs  and excuses.   Most Salespeople will avoid doing anything that will make prospects behave in a way that takes them out of their own comfort zone.  Only GREAT salespeople will behave in this productive manner.

The bottom line is that salespeople who can provide your company with a strong and consistent ROI are very scarce.   The good news is there is a remedy!  It does not require you to be a Sales Guru or magician.  All it takes is a commitment to adopting a structured, time tested, sales recruiting process using objective data to separate the candidates who can and will sell from the masses.

Happy Hunting!

© Copyright 2009 Joe Zente

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