招聘顶级销售的三大秘诀

亲爱的安妮：您最近一篇关于实现2016年销售目标的文章，吸引了我的注意，因为我认为我们可能达不到自己的目标。主要原因在于，团队中的两个人在过去几个月中的表现极其令人失望。我感觉我怪不了谁，只能怪我自己，因为是我雇佣了这两个人——其中一个还是替代我的，因为我在今年3月被提拔到了现在销售经理的位置。（实际上，我聘用他，是因为他让我想起了自己年轻的时候，但是，看来是我搞错了。）现在我在寻找这两人的替代人选，可能还会再增加一个销售岗位，不过这次我承担不起犯错的代价了。关于这一方面有许多文章，我也正在研究它们，但是我还是想听听您的意见。——“踢我自己”

亲爱的“踢我自己”：首先做个深呼吸，不要再自责了。出色的销售人员没有道理自动转变成出色的销售经理，尽管各公司总是不断试图把前者变成后者。《销售流程的背后：以客户为导向的世界里的12条金科玉律》（Beyond the Sales Process: 12 Proven Strategies for a Customer-Driven World）的作者戴夫·施泰因表示：“销售和管理，包括招聘，需要的技能天差地别。”施泰因有着30年培训销售团队和销售经理的经验，他表示，不管是谁，让你在没有经过足够（甚至没有经过任何）管理培训的情况下提拔你，都得为你现在的困境“负至少一半责任”。他指出，研究显示，像你一样作为“奖励”获得提拔的销售明星，失败的概率高达惊人的85%。

不仅如此，即便是经验丰富的销售经理也会雇佣许多不够出色的员工。施泰因注意到：“根据研究的不同，企业对企业的销售人员每年的淘汰率为25%至40%。部分原因在于许多销售人员十分擅于在面试中推销自己。”他还补充道，那些让你回想起年轻时的自己的人，“可能很擅于巧妙地模仿你。”因此，不要太自责了。施泰因表示，相信本能，或“直觉”，是许多销售经理在招聘时最常犯的错，即便是有多年经验的经理也不例外。

那么你应该怎么做？施泰因给出了三种方式，帮助你提高找对目标的可能性；

•不要一个人做决定。想要搞清楚应聘者多么契合机构的文化，多么了解机构的目标，有一个久经考验的方法，就是请几个同事来参加面试。施泰因推荐由三个人组成面试小组，不过其他两个人不必每次一样。例如，如果原来招聘你的经理还在，你可以邀请他/她，再加上一个你现有销售团队中表现突出的员工。这样做的目的，是对每个应聘者有不止一种看法。施泰因认为，即便是有多年经验的销售经理，也建议这么做。

•不要改变招聘流程。施泰因见过许多销售经理试图即兴修改流程，这是错误的。他表示：“你需要仔细考虑清楚，根据接触你客户的最有效的方式，你最优秀的销售人员拥有哪些技能和特质。一旦你掌握了这个情况，就能据此列出一系列有着绝对正确答案的面试问题——没有例外。”他补充道，这要预先做出大量思考，但是这是值得的，因为依靠“规范、有着明确雇佣标准的流程招聘的销售人员，每年的淘汰率为5%至15%” 。

•要求应聘者模仿现实情境打推销电话。如果没有亲眼看到应聘者的表现，就很难推测他/她究竟有多好。所以，施泰因推荐让应聘者进行角色扮演，他把这称之为模仿。他表示：“据我所知，有许多销售经理带着他们刚招聘的员工第一次见客户时，感到了害怕或者尴尬。这种情况出现的概率比你想得更高。”你可以看看施泰因博客上最近的一篇文章，其中有设计情境模拟的简短指南。

引申一下：除了你提到的正在学习的内容，施泰因还推荐了三本关于销售管理的“出色”读物，你有必要看看。他们分别是《销售经理的导师》（The Sales Manager’s Mentor，杰夫·雷曼著）、《销售经理的生存指南》（The Sales Manager’s Survival Guide，大卫·布洛克著）和《简易销售管理》（Sales Management Simplified，麦克·温伯格著）。

施泰因补充道：“让你的雇主出资开展一些个人指导和培训课程。除了招聘以外，管理还需要一系列专门技能”——无论你有没有达到2016年的销售目标，“你在新岗位上能够取得多大成功，取决于你学习它们的速度。”

祝你好运！（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

Dear Annie: The recent article about meeting 2016 sales quotas caught my eye because I think we’re about to blow ours. The main reason is two members of my team whose results over the past few months have been extremely disappointing. I feel like I have no one to blame but myself, since I hired both of them — one as my own replacement, after I got promoted to this sales-manager job back in March. (In fact, I hired him because he reminded me of myself at a younger age but, boy, was I mistaken about that.) Now I’m looking at replacing these two, and possibly bringing on one more person, but I can’t afford to get it wrong this time. A lot has been written about this, and I’ve been studying up on it, but I’d welcome any suggestions you might have. — Kicking Myself

Dear K.M.: First, take a deep breath and stop beating yourself up. There’s no logical reason why talented salespeople should automatically make strong sales managers, yet companies persist in trying to turn one into the other. “Selling and managing, including hiring, require very different sets of skills,” notes Dave Stein, co-author of Beyond the Sales Process: 12 Proven Strategies for a Customer-Driven World. Having spent the past 30 years coaching sales teams and their bosses, Stein says that whoever promoted you without enough (or perhaps any) management training “deserves at least half the accountability” for your current pickle. He points to research showing that the failure rate among star salespeople “rewarded” with promotions like yours is a startling 85%.

Not only that, but even seasoned sales managers hire plenty of people who don’t work out. “Depending on whose research you read, annual attrition rates among business-to-business salespeople average from 25% to well over 40%,” Stein observes. “That’s partly because so many salespeople are excellent at selling themselves in an interview.” Someone who reminded you of your younger self was “probably really skilled at subtly imitating you,” he adds. Again, don’t kick yourself too much. Relying on instinct, or “gut feel,” is one of the most common hiring mistakes sales managers make, Stein says, even after years of experience.

So what should you do instead? Here are three ways Stein says you can increase the odds of hiring the right people this time around:

•Don’t go it alone. A time-tested way to tell how well someone will fit into your organization’s culture, and understand its goals, is to invite a couple of colleagues to sit in on meetings with candidates. Stein recommends a three-person interviewing team, but they don’t have to be the same two people (besides you) every time. If the manager who initially hired you is still there, for instance, you might ask him or her, along with perhaps a high-performing member of your current sales team. The point is to get more than one set of insights about each applicant, and Steinrecommends it even for sales managers with years of experience.

•Stick to a consistent hiring process. Stein has seen many sales managers go wrong by trying to wing it. “You need to think hard about precisely which skills and attributes your best salespeople have, based on what’s been most effective in reaching your particular customers,” he says. “Once you have that profile, make a list of interview questions with definite right and wrong answers — no exceptions.” This takes a lot of thought ahead of time, he adds, but it’s worth the extra effort, since relying on a “disciplined, black-and-white set of hiring criteria cuts sales-staff turnover to an annual rate of 5% to 15%.”

•Require candidates to simulate real-life sales calls. It’s hard to guess how well someone will perform without seeing him or her in action, so Stein recommends role-playing exercises he calls simulations. “I’ve known many sales managers who have been horrified or embarrassed during their first customer meeting with a new rep they just hired,” he says. “It happens more often than you would guess.” For a short guide to designing effective simulations, take a look at a recentpost on Stein’s blog.

One more thought: Along with the studying you mention that you’ve already been doing, Stein recommends three “terrific” books about sales management you should be sure to read. They are The Sales Manager’s Mentor, by Jeff Lehman; The Sales Manager’s Survival Guide, by David Brock; and Sales Management Simplified by Mike Weinberg.

“Get your employer to foot the bill for some in-person coaching and training classes, too,” Stein adds. “Beyond hiring, managing takes a whole set of specific skills” — and, whether or not you hit your 2016 sales targets, “your success in your new role depends on how quickly you can learn them.”

Good luck!