The 3 Things Companies Want In Salespeople

Are you the type of salesperson that companies want to hire?

If you had an interview for your ideal job with your ideal company and they said, “You have just 90 seconds to convince us why we should hire you”, what would you say? Would you even know where to begin? Are you fully prepared right now for the most important sales call of your life, which is selling yourself? Even if you are totally happy in your current position, how do your management and your peers perceive you? Are you someone they can always count on and view you as a leader? And this has nothing to do with where you are against your quota, by the way, but rather, how do others perceive your potential for greatness.

Why Great Salespeople are Rare Gems

If you aren’t happy with where you are professionally right now as a salesperson, here’s some good news: There is a dramatic shortage of great salespeople! Show me any company that you can go to and ask, “Do you need any great salespeople?” and they say ‘No thanks, we have too many of them already!’ That just doesn’t exist anywhere in the world.

The Potential for a Sales Revolution

If I could invent a product or program or service that would guarantee companies would only hire great salespeople, I would be the richest man in the universe. There wouldn’t be a close second because everyone would want some of that drug.

So, knowing all of this, why are most salespeople completely clueless about what companies really look for when hiring great salespeople? And why do most salespeople spend little to no time even thinking about these important questions? Ask yourself - How much time did you spend last week, or even last month, really evaluating some of these questions and working towards making some improvements?

If by chance you met someone this week who could help you get your ideal sales job and they asked you the simple question, “So tell me about yourself,” do you have a prepared, rock-solid killer response?

The Self-Evaluation Every Salesperson Needs

First, let’s look at how you are perceived by others today. When most companies evaluate their salespeople, they first go to the latest stack rankings of where people are against their quota. The top 5% are usually the same people year after year. These are the proven performers who consistently deliver and outperform everyone else by an average of three to one.

You then have the next tier of people who are around 75-100% of quota. Not all the people on this list, however, are consistent performers. Some are usually right at quota all the time, not killing it, but right there, where the others are usually up and down, and have managed to be good, fairly dependable performers. They aren’t going to be leading the parade, but they will be in the parade.

The rest of the salespeople are split up into two groups. There is bottom 25% who isn’t performing for whatever reason. Companies aren’t going to invest any time in trying to get these people better – they will just replace them. Then there is the group - which is the biggest in every company by the way - that is always 26-74% of quota.

It’s this group that sales managers spend the most time with every week, and if you are in this group, you CANNOT rely on your company or your manager to make you better. Chances are that you have received the exact same training and support from your company as the salespeople who are performing better than you, and whether or not you are fairly new or have been there awhile, it is up to YOU to start making improvement. In order to be self-made, you MUST be Self-Taught.

What Companies Really Look for in Salespeople

All great salespeople never rely on just their company for the skills, training and knowledge they need to be successful. One of the questions I get asked most often is what companies look for when hiring salespeople. Should they have industry experience? How much longevity should they have with previous companies? What should be their educational backgrounds?

Smart, Hungry, Humble: The Trilogy of Sales Excellence

A resume can give you a simple snapshot of where they have been. What I look for is proof of 3 things. Are they Smart, Are they Hungry, and are they Humble?

Smart has nothing to do with whether or not they went to college, have a degree, or what they scored on their SAT.

It has everything to do with how quickly and how well someone ‘connects the dots’. Do they always think of their ultimate outcome they want to achieve in every situation, do they weigh the pros and cons and the consequences of taking or not taking action?

Some people refer to it as being ‘street smart’; I just call it being smart. Do they think for themselves and spend most of their time thinking about the outcome they are trying to achieve?

Second - Are they Hungry?

One of the simplest ways I find out if a salesperson is hungry is asking them to share their goals with me. If someone hasn’t written down their goals, then they aren’t hungry – period. I ask them to tell me their income target for the year.

If they don’t have a very specific number - $142,000, $87,000, $435,000 whatever it is – and why it is important for them to hit that number, then they aren’t really hungry. If they give some general answer, ‘Oh, around $125,000’ then that indicates to me that they will get non-specific general results.

The third is being HUMBLE – not being afraid to recognize and acknowledge that they don’t know everything – regardless of their previous experience and success – and that they always strive to learn and improve. Some people in sales look at being humble as a sign of weakness. Those people are idiots. Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others. Humble people are so focused on serving others, they don’t think of themselves.

And how do you think that personal characteristic trait would be perceived by your upper management, your prospects, and your customers? So if you focus on those three things – how you can demonstrate that you are smart, that you are hungry, and you are humble – the 3 things all companies want in their salespeople, then you will have the foundation for determining to answer those simple but critical questions – “Tell me about yourself” and “why should we hire you?” In just 90 seconds you can convince anyone that you are their next potential rock star.

All the answers will be right there and the power to do so is within you right now. So start by blocking off just 15-30 minutes every other day to answer these important questions, because selling yourself is the most important thing that you can do.