How do you develop truly authentic sales people? (in this case, inside sales people)

Hi Craig,

One important thing is to look for people that "care" in the first place. I have had this discussion many times on what makes a good rep, and much of it boils down to how they view their relationship to the company and to their client. It is the difference of someone feeling like they put their name on everything they do. On the interview, ask them when they went above and beyond for a client or their company. Ask their references the same question. That will reveal so much about their character, and their commitment.

When you find people like that, you'll have people that you know have a personal investment in success of the company and your customers.

Harvard Business Review released a report a number of years back of what prospects look for in B2B sales reps, and what companies hire for. Here is a free copy of it I found online--http://www.infoteam-consulting.com/fileadmin/downloads/HBR_Article_by_Kreindler-RajGuru.pdf

The graphic on the second page shows the disconnect in hiring vs. what the prospect actually wants, which is an authentic sales rep.

I tend to agree with Ellen on this, I think authenticity is in our "DNA." We can hire for it, we can further develop it, but I don't believe we can train for it. In fact if the person is not wired this way, but is "trained" to be authentic, it tends to backfire and have exactly the opposite effect.

To be authentic, you have to be genuinely concerned about people and wanting to help them acheive their goals, You have genuinely want to see them be successful. You have to be curious, you have to be driven to solve problems.

Training can provide tools to sharpen the execution of these, but if you aren't wired this way, you just won't make it.

Tom, great point but so few sales managers know how to do it. Everyone wants to hire for talent but if we can't answer the five questions below with specificity, we can't hire for talent.
1. How do you define talent?
2. How do you measure talent?
3. How do you know a candidate’s talent?
4. How do you know what talent is required by each job?
5. How do you match a candidate’s talent to the talent demanded by the job?

The best salespeople I know--those I have worked with or bought from--have had two traits in common: 1) they love people, and 2) they have a genuine interest in helping others. I know many hiring managers are looking for candidates who demonstrate they are "proven closers," or "money-motivated," but selecting on those traits alone will help you hire a salesperson who might make his number in the near term, but can burn out, burn bridges, or both. It takes much more than a drive to make a high income to succeed in sales. For the top producers I know, high income is a byproduct of having empathetic characteristics. Some can be taught, but some are innate. I can't teach a salesperson to genuinely like people, but I can teach ways to demonstrate that affinity in selling situations.

Your question is timely, in light of all the advice about "how to become a trusted advisor," "how to gain rapport," and "how to build trust." It struck me as odd that people have to write about these things. It seems all of us have lost the forest for the trees.

So I wrote a recent blog, "Trust, Shmust! We Need a Sales Mensch!" http://www.customerthink.com/blog/trust_shmust_we_need_a_sales_mensch. I hope it will be helpful to you.

Everyone makes some good points. If you can glean one or two tidbits from each, you will have a nice outline that could serve as a nice guideline. Becoming Authentic is an interesting topic.

In the beginning of my 20+ year sales career I ran a 40+ seat sales call center (inside sales type) and eventually throughout my career have been responsible for hiring, training, HR, sales, performance and retention. One take away from the hiring standpoint is people can surprise you. Both ways - you can be disappointed in some hires you made, and pleasantly surprised in others. Through that trial and error you start to learn some things.

In the interview process if you can formulate 10-15 questions that speak to a person’s attitude you are half way home. Through their resume and experience you should be able to sense their knowledge, skills and aptitude, but one variable that is tough to see on paper is their attitude.

It reminds me of a favorite quote of mine by W. Clement Stone: "There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative."

From a foundational standpoint, you can have a solid education, work experience and accomplishment list– but it’s how you see these things and the attitude you show for yourself, others and circumstances that often will determine your integrity and charm – and in becoming truly authentic.

Most sales people (myself included) do not like to get what they need to make them successful - unfortunately - fear of success or something like that.
One of the things we hate to do but literaly need to do on a daily basis is - ROLEPLAY.
Roleplay roleplay roleplay everyday roleplay till it hurts.
Roleplay gentle at first for the new comers but as experience increases so does the harsh brutality of the roleplaying which helps everyone involved to keep increasing their skill sets.
If you can answer and field everything thrown at you during roleplay, what do you think will happen to phone obstacles.

I don't think you can train people to be 'authentic.' That's an oxymoron. What you can do is train people to be IN-authentic. This is a danger you've got to avoid at all costs. If you hire the right people in the first place (see Bob Gately and Matt Heinz) you're on the right track. BUT - if you then browbeat them into scripted responses, over-emphasize the appearance of authenticity (happy!happy!happy!) and incentivize or reward the staff for being relentless, you'll 'teach' your team that the reverse of authenticity is the "correct" way to behave.

This is an interesting philosophical question. We are born authentic. Many of us lose our authenticity or get "off-track" just like the way we lose our ability to "play" the way we did when we were children.

Training authenticity involves spending more time rediscovering who you really are. If you "work" at the rediscovery, you will be able to incorporate more authenticity into your daily rhythms.

And yes, there are exercises (training exercises) one can do to bring out more of your innate authenticity. Perhaps re-reading "The Artist's Way" and incorporating some of those training exercises into your role-play & training sessions may add value for your team.

I think a person has to have that trait already. That’s a characteristic that’s part of that person's personality. And, if that person has a passion for sales, train him/or her in sales. I don't think you can train a person to be authentic, you're either authentic or you're not.

There are only two things I know to do: hire them and lead them. The folks you refer to we call Service Naturals and they are going to deliver authentic service no matter what the circumstance. We figure only about15% of the population are Service Naturals. Your other task is to lead the way. When confronted with an opportunity to wow the customer the sales person is wondering if they are going to get clobbered for stepping out of the box... that won't be a concern if they see the boss delivering that same level of service day in and day out. (I consider sales and service to be one and the same in most cases.)

For me, when sales folks are able to accept the responsibility to be servant leaders, and help buyers navigate through the buy-in journey to get everyone and everything on board to make a purchase. The sales model itself teaches sellers how to listen for, and position, content; it forgets that buyers live in a system of people, rules, roles, relationships, and is so focused on finding out what's possible to find out so a solution can be 'pushed' or offered, leaving sellers to sound manipulative even when well-meaning.

If we can break the 'job' into 2 parts - facilitating the behind-the-scenes systems/change management/decision issues that buyers have such a hard time figuring out (it's the length of the sales cycle) first, and THEN discussing need and solution choice - then we can develop sellers who care, serve, and facilitate. When sellers are merely focused on placing a solution, communication ends up potentially being manipulative.

Adults are different from children and that is a good thing. Children's brains lose 30% of their synapsis by the time they are young teenagers which may explain why they seem different, they are. Also, after 12 years of asking questions, I hope they ask questions, they have learned a lot and need to ask fewer questions. I see this in my 4.7 year old great nephew who used to ask question after question and as I answer each question his questions are fewer but the complexity of the questions have increased.

Employers would waste valuable resources if they try to find out who the person was when she was 7 years old--that person is now an adult. Employers should invest their resources in learning who the person is as an adult.

If there are three or more very successful employees doing the same job for the same manager for 18 months or longer and they are very good employees, it is not hard to hire more of them provided you take the time to find as many as 6 qualified to be hired job applicants for each position to be filled. It does put extra work on the recruiters but the pay back is huge for both the employee and the employer.

The processes identifies the pattern of success traits of the current employees who are successful then compares that trait profile to job applicants' tart profiles to see if they have the same profile.

Employers need to hire for talent, see the process I described above, but train for skills.

Talent must be hired since it cannot be acquired or imparted after the hire.

You must develop a Recruiting Criteria for each and every position... The #1 criteria on everyones list must be that qualified recruits must match your Brand Personality Traits.

Once you have found your Sales Team, you must invest the time to train them on your Brand Strategy and Sales Process, And provide good Sales Management.

www.fawcttgroup.com

In 30 plus years of sales, I've met every kind of salesperson. The only ones that survive and thrive are the ones who have an innate desire to please the customer as well as the boss. These people get a charge out of meeting the customers' needs, and earning a profit for the business.
To find these people, you must check references, and watch their faces during the interview process. As Matt and Mari said, they are caring people. If it does not come through to the hiring manager, it won't come through to the customer, either.
Once hired and trained, lead by example, as mentioned by Mr. Gross, and reward the salesperson for going the extra mile. All salespeople are motivated by recognition as much as or more than money, in spite of what we often hear. It's worth noting that people who only want money are not often invested in helping others get what they need.

A great start is to hire an individual who has the best individual characteristics for sales success, then perpetually empower them with the knowledge to be successful.

If we screen out applicants who are unlike our successful salespeople, we will increase our chances of hiring future successful salespeople.

Many excellent points here and good perspective! Authenticity is extremely important and something you can't fake. Listening skills are probably equally as important. A thing I have found that always seemed to add conflict was how the sales or customer service people were appraised(what are their objectives?) and how they were bonused. If how they are judged or how they are bonused is NOT connected is a tangible way to the skills you are looking to have expressed, it falls apart quickly. Even if the goals or objective are good yet they appear to the rep as a conflicted in their minds, you will run into issues. Example of these could be payment terms, minimum orders, orders per month, etc . Management needs to address directly any goals or objectives that may appear to be in conflict with customers so sales folks can genuinely address issues as well as opportuniities in the field.

I think having empathy is key in individuals. Those who take on advocacy within the organization on behalf of the customer make the best account managers and customer service related sales people because they are able to identify with what a positive experience can do for the customer. I think they are the type of people who thrive on physic currency or the good feelings of making things right and are rewarded in part by the comments and reactions of the customer.

Andrew, "It takes much more than a drive to make a high income to succeed in sales" is an excellent observation.

Another excellent observation is, "For the top producers I know, high income is a byproduct of having empathetic characteristics" followed by, "Some can be taught, but some are innate. I can't teach a salesperson to genuinely like people, but I can teach ways to demonstrate that affinity in selling situations."

About 20% of qualified to be hired applicants become successful employees if they are hired without regard to their job related talent. If we apply it to sales positions, we can see why the 80/20 rule applies. Measuring sales talent is easy, the hard part is getting sales managers to ask "how do I measure sales talent?"

Read my response of Dec. 8, 2010, on the following web page.

http://www.focus.com/questions/sales/do-you-have-large-gap-between-top-perfor...

Wendy, excellent comments. Years ago a hospital studied their nurses to find out why some of the nurses were very good with their patients while others were not so good. They were surprised to learn that the best patient care nurses were the most empathic. You make a persuasive case for hiring people who have the characteristics of successful employees.

Tim, new hires need not surprise their supervisors. We find it takes over 300 questions to effectively screen out the qualified to be hired job applicants who will not become successful employees if hired. Managers often presume that their successful direct reports have a good attitude therefore unsuccessful direct reports must have a bad attitude. Perhaps if we hired for job performance, attitude would not be a concern?

Incorporate the ideal characteristics of your best sales performers and replicate their best practices within the sales team, allowing for appropriate individualization

Tom, we identify the characteristics of the best sales performers so that more can be hired.

The answer is simple.
Genuine Salespeople are people who has the natural ability to sell things.
They are people who naturally care about the products and services that they are selling, and are knowledgeable about them. They are naturally good listeners to what
others are saying to them, and they naturally try to fill the needs of their listeners.

To give an example, when we think about genuine cowhide, we are thinking about
the natural stuff. The hide that has all the bumps, bruises and chafing of the animal
in the skin. No matter how much you polish it up, the ridges just do not go away.
That's genuine!

So to develop truly authentic salespeople, they must first have the above traits.
Secondly, they must be motivated by some incentive that captures their attention.
Thirdly, management must set measurable goals to be achieved in a reasonable time;
and fourthly, the process of selling must be repeated over and over and over again.

The interview process is very telling in determining authenticity in potential sales rep candidates. Overall, listening skills and a positive attitude are key!

I liked to ask interview questions that require a longer answer, so I can observe the candidate and how they communicate. If I've asked the candidate to tell me what it is that their previous company does, I look for them to not only tell me, but to ask me questions about my understanding of what they are saying. They are patient, even if they have to explain it several times in different ways. An authentic salesperson wants to help solve a person's problem, and generally has a very positive attitude about doing so.

I also ask a lot of questions about customers that candidate has worked with. I want to hear that they have had ongoing relationships with customers, or that customers have even written them LinkedIn recommendations. I look for evidence that the the candidate knows more about their customers than just the $$ amount of the deal.

Lastly, when checking references on a candidate, I ask the references for examples of how the candidate has "exceeded expectations" (trying not to lead the witness) and listen for examples that include going the extra mile for the company or customers.

I assume by "inside sales" you mean phone-based salespeople.

Hold the first interview with them on the phone - before you meet each other - since that is how they will interact with your customers. After a few minutes, stop the interview saying you have another call to take and ask them to get back to you; that lets you see how they handle that. The idea is to see them as they will function, not in their "interview best".

Jeff Krawitz

You will not know truely until you hire them. You must put into play once you have hired the sales people including ones that have been on board for a while a new policy. The policy is that the employee is to pay for a membership to HelpingUSucceed.com. This is a self-help system that will eliminate the fears a salesperson has. It also will help the individual remove the baggage of what has been collected in their subconscious mind that is holding them back. The Self Help library allows for 24/7 access to the removal of negative attitudes, replacing or re-align of beliefs and measuring until one is 100%. The test results took individuals in the middle or lower group standards and make them stars as well as promoted these individuals because of the results of a positive attitude. You must try it yourself and feel the difference as others will see it.

In my opinion, the best "sales people" are not truly sales people at all. The best sales comes from the customer doing the selling. In order to accomplish this, we must be VERY good listeners. If we mentally put ourselves in the "customer's shoes", we will listen without trying. If you can learn to speak in questions (open ended other than when you are looking for a yes or no), the sale comes easy. Previously, I've done sales consulting/training, and there are plenty of exercises in which this can be practiced. Role playing is o.k, but I prefer practicing in the real world as an actual customer. We all use sales everyday, and usually don't even realize it. I really like books by Robert Cialdini and Kevin Hogan.

I have nothing else to really add except to say that from my experience you need to hire someone who is genuinely interested in people - not himself/herself - AND you need to find out what motivates them and make that work for you by regularly knowing what that is and managing to that driver.

Decide what your own authentic self is and let them know that so that you can both can build and grow together.

Authenticity is not taught - you either are or you are not as many have said.

Cheers!

Kath

I have nothing else to really add except to say that from my experience you need to hire someone who is genuinely interested in people - not himself/herself - AND you need to find out what motivates them and make that work for you by regularly knowing what that is and managing to that driver.

Decide what your own authentic self is and let them know that so that you can both can build and grow together.

Authenticity is not taught - you either are or you are not as many have said.

Cheers!

Kath

Interesting that so many comments centered on the need to hire those who are the best listeners, etc, but were they actually listening to the question Craig posed?

Craig asked how to DEVELOP truly authentic sales people, not how to hire them. Of course one should hire well, but Craig further clarifies with asking how do you INSTILL authenticity in especially your younger and inexperienced sales staff?

The answer to authentic selling is actually quite simple and often overlooked. What actually makes a young or inexperienced salesperson inauthentic? A Lack of Confidence.

Yes, you can hire confident ssles people, but what you are actually hiring is maturity. True sales confidence is developed through proper and ongiong training - especially in product knowledge.

Having a full sense of your product features and benefits automatically instills a greater sense of confidence, thereby increasing the authenticity imparted to the customer.

Authentic selling cannot be attempted without the best possible knowledge of the product being sold. Otherwise, one has to "wing it," even BS the customer to save face and hope to make the sale. It's like singles meeting in a club who have to wing it and play a part until they get to know each other well enough to be able to release their authentic selves...

recruit the person who love you customers and share his gift which is useful to your customer

Dear "Hania" (Anna) Whitfield

Thank you for responding to my comment on the above-mentioned question.
You DEVELOP truly authentic sales people by making them to practice selling, over and over and over again. Role playing with their peers is a part of the process, so role play, over, and over and over again. Pay your staff well, over and over and over again. Keep your staff motivated over, and over and over again. Selling is an art and a science. The sales tactics that works on one customer will not work on another. It may NEVER work again, and so you have to constantly build on those tactics, over and over and over again.

You INSTILL authenticity in especially your younger and inexperienced sales staff by treating them as ROYALTY. Show them that you care, keep your environment clean, and your atmosphere should ALWAYS be conducive to sales and your reward will be great!

Dear Chen min,

Please see my response to Hania (Anna) Whitfield!

The assumption that young people need to be trained to be authentic is faulty. The problem resides with hiring managers who hire sales people who are not authentic. The same information that allows hiring managers to hire authentic sales people will also help them coach existing sales people to perform their jobs as required by the sales manager. All new hires are not equally likely to become successful if we hire them without regard to their job related talent; hire for job talent and train for skills.

Craig, hire salespeople who are predisposed to be authentic.

Mark makes a number of great points. Not sure what Craig means by 'inside ' sales - maybe insourced folk or maybe employed salespeople rather than contract sales.
Anyway, I've been in sales and marketing for over 20 years and early on I was told that for my careers sake I'd have to make the decision: sales OR marketing? So I looked at the career structure in B2B IT and saw that marketing was very little more than admin, and that sales did the needs analysis, proposed solution, tender and presentation through to winning the clients business. The biz division manager (strategy) pretty much always came from sales. Money has not driven me, interest in a quality solution has .. and through this I reckoned the money would come! I was an authentic salesperson.
However, a typical sales environment eventually produced typical sales people with the more 'authentic' sales people leaving for management consulting etc (a form of sales granted but with a focus on knowledge and contacts than just raw sales ability).
The sales people you need are determined by your business model. The best advice for young people is to get as close to the budget-holders as possible (building your network) and build your expertise in certain domains. The best advice to organisations is to hire these people as with the right contacts in place they will always be seen as authentic 'cos that's what relationship-sales is all about.