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Everyone wants the
best and the brightest.
But are the best and the brightest right for
you?
Tony is brighter
than the average salesperson. During sales training
and orientation, while Tony was already focusing on applying
what he just learned, his sales mates were still processing
what was said and wanting more information. Tony “got it” quickly
and was ready to move on.
What excited you
from the start about Tony were his phenomenal references. His previous sales
manager couldn’t stop talking about his ability to adapt
quickly and his fast-thinking, creative approaches to solving
customer problems. He also had a keen
sense of anticipation, recognizing the most subtle
consequences from a wide range of alternate
solutions.
In previous sales
positions, Tony identified new ways to sell established
products and increase market share. His enthusiasm was
contagious and customers generally responded favorably to
him.
Tony is intensely
competitive and strives to be the best he can be. He is also a
skilled closer.
When he sees an opening, he asks for the sale - and
asks for the sale - and asks for the sale again until he gets
a “yes” or a firm “no”. You just wish you had more
Tonys.
If Tony applied at
your company today, he’d likely be on your payroll before the
ink was dry on the job offer. But what if you knew
about the “other” Tony?
Personalities are
like a two-edged sword.
What cuts like a surgeon’s scalpel through certain
situations only shreds and tears in another.
Tony’s above
average ability to learn and reason means he will get bored
hanging around with the rest of his average sales team and
customers. Since
he can see so clearly where he is going tomorrow, he
underestimates the challenges and obstacles of today. Tony leapfrogs over the
details that he assumes everyone knows, which leads others to
believe he is impulsive and not very logical.
He
is also turned off by the “slowness” of the
other members of his sales. In fact, he refers to
many of them condescendingly as a
“few bricks short of a few load”
and “their elevator stops short of the
top floor.” Tony’s competitive spirit
keeps him from sharing his best sales ideas
with other members of your team. In fact, talk about “we’re
all a team” turns Tony off and actually de-motivates
him. Tony fears that he’d lose his edge if
he would share his selling secrets or leads. Secondly, he doesn’t
believe his team members are smart enough
to understand his approach.
Tony’s
presentations are enthusiastic and creative but rarely are
presented the same way twice. His success depends
more on enthusiasm than content and unfortunately, talking is
a much greater strength than listening. He gets so wrapped up
in presenting that he “buys back” more sales than he sells
because he didn’t know when to stop talking. His mind moves so
quickly that he is more worried about what to say next than
what the prospect or customers is saying at the moment. His
drive to achieve and gift of gab, however, has enabled Tony to
close sales but make him unaware that he is seen as pushy,
confrontational, argumentative and disorganized.
Your highly
successful corporate selling process and scripts are rarely
followed. More
times than you care to count, Tony sells customized orders,
requiring costly changes and all but wiping out any
margins. Tony
constantly complains in sales meetings that you need newer
products and more services and more variety in them to be
competitive.
What impressed you
at the interview was Tony’s intensity and passion for
selling. What
frustrates you the most about Tony now is that his emotions
take you on a roller-coaster ride and the amount of time and
resources that it takes to manage him. He hates to lose and
takes rejection personally. Instead of riding out
the ups and downs of sales cycles, his motivation rises and
falls with his success. When he is on a high,
he rejects coaching and criticism because “you don’t mess with
a star”. When he
is falling short of quota, he’s temperamental, defensive and
impatient.
Personality
is incredibly complex. While first and second generations of
assessments like DISC and Myers-Briggs Temperament Index do
an excellent job of helping understand how
an individual might prefer to communicate
with others, fifth and sixth generation assessments
actually can predict job performance with
a high degree of accuracy and reliability.
What’s more, many assessments like
TotalView™
and FirstView™ not only provide insights into productive
behaviors but those traits that might lead
to counter-productive behaviors like those
we described with Tony.
Personality tests
are based on the behaviors of “normal” people,
while psychological tests are used to diagnose
the causes of abnormal behaviors. Tony’s behavior was not
abnormal, just excessive at times. He overused and overextended
his strengths and eventually they became his
weaknesses.
Fifth and sixth generation assessments
identify strengths and weaknesses as well
as the strengths that can become weaknesses
and the weaknesses that can undermine strengths.
CriteriaOne is the blueprint that
is helping organizations to acquire an unfair
share of the best talent in the labor market.
The next Level 1 training workshop is scheduled
for August 22-23, 2002. Learn when and
how to use first through sixth generation
assessments.
For more information about CriteriaOne, see
below or click here.
Success Performance
Solutions works with businesses from the small
employer to the Fortune 500 and provides
convenient, cost-effective solutions that
quickly and effortlessly sifts out unqualified
candidates and matches, manages and motivates
employees. For more information, click here.
Related Articles:
June 2002 Business2Business - The
High Cost of Work Deficiency Syndrome
July 2002 Business2Business
- How One Company Said "NO" to De-motivated and Unskilled
Candidates
Visit our library of past
articles and newsletters
- click here.
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