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If you’re like many of the business owners, presidents, or sales leaders I’ve worked with over the past 25 years, a review of the “numbers” at the end of each month, quarter and year leads to two questions.

• What do I do with the weak performing sellers who don’t make goal? Should they stay or should they go?
• How do I hire more top performers so I’m in a better position next period?

For agency sales reps, add these additional questions:

• If they are independent reps, what influence do I really have over their performance?
• Who should I give my time and attention to?

There are no easy answers when it comes to the most challenging part of business: the people part. Wouldn’t it be easier if selecting sales reps was as predictable as the manufacturing process, where specific input equals reliable output?

Whether you are hiring direct reps, vetting out rep firms, or trying to extract the most from your own sales team, you’ll find people with the highest probability for sales performance possess two characteristics: skill and will.

Skill: competence in the necessary selling abilities and expertise.

Will: confidence or personal drive, and internal factors that reflect a “can do” attitude and beliefs.

The skill and will factors are the foundation for long-term sales success. It’s what top performers have, build, and use to succeed. Skill and will are the key factors to use as your standard when hiring sales reps.

The necessary skills will depend on the specific type of selling role, your industry, and what you sell. Identify the specific skills for selling your product or service and use assessments, presentation, and references to verify that your potential reps are skillful.

Once their skill level is established, then look further, as will is more challenging to spot. Though will’s impact can be seen and observed, will is the internal drive and focus of the rep. To aid your discovery of will, we’ve identified a short list of specific attributes that can be screened for and coached to. We call these the success drivers — the components of the will factor.

The Four Success Drivers of Top Performing Sales Reps

1. Goal Transparency: Defined goals that are written, specific, and measurable. The goals are visible and detectable by others in their words, writing, and actions.
2. Initiative: Self-directed personal energy which leads to proactive action.
3. Emotional Intelligence: The awareness of and ability to manage one’s emotions in a healthy and productive manner. Rolling with the ups and downs of selling.
4. Integrated Beliefs: Three personal beliefs that affect activity level and confidence.

• Belief in Self — Belief in one’s own skills and ability to be successful.
• Belief in Role — Belief the current profession provides value to others.
• Belief in Value — Belief that what they sell provides value and is worth more than the cost to secure it.

There are several things I’ve learned the hard way over the past 20 years as I’ve interviewed and trained thousands of salespeople — skill can be trained; willcannot. The will can only be strengthened through consistent coaching, observation, and feedback with someone who is receptive to your influence and willing to work hard to develop these components. That’s why it is important to hire sales reps who have a strong will to begin with.

When deciding which is most important, skill or will, select will. Then commit to providing world-class training that sticks to ramp up the skill quickly.

Now you may find yourself wondering what to do with those sales reps who are not performing at goal and how to hire top performers.

For your current sellers who are not hitting goal: first weigh the return of their production to the cost of employing them: salary, benefits, as well as a very expensive cost — the time and energy needed to help them to achieve company goals.

Next, objectively evaluate their skill and will. If they have an appropriate amount of skill and will, the capacity to develop further, and you have the time and commitment to coach them, keep them.

If they lack skill, find the right training opportunities. If your experience shows that they lack will, perhaps a reassignment or removal is in order.

To hire top performers, increase your probability of a good hire with a selection process that is well-executed:

1. Benchmark the role for experience, skill, and will.
2. Use objective and subjective review activities:
   1. Behavior-based interviews over at least two meetings to see how they “show” on multiple days; past behavior and mindset remain a great indicator for future performance.
   2. Objective assessments that measure skill and will.
   3. At least one subjective assessment activity such as a sales presentation, development of a plan for how they will ramp up and approach their market, or a writing sample.
   4. Evaluate their communication skills. One simple evaluation: We have applicants complete a questionnaire in advance of the second interview. This gives us a great sample of their written communication style and their ability to interpret questions.
      
3. Compare candidates to the benchmark, not to each other — choosing one of two poorly fit candidates cannot give you an all-star.
4. Require proof: If they can’t provide proof for their claims of achievements, beware. Effective reference checks provide valuable confirmation of their claims, or a springboard for new questions to be explored.

Willful people get it done, and a whole team of willful people make your job easier and enables your company to grow. If you really want to build and hire top performers, evaluate your current team and any future hires for skill and will.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].