Welcome to the Club. It’s a club of Hiring Managers and recruiters who are desperately looking to hire a new breed of Sales Managers.
I attended a networking event yesterday morning with other company and HR leaders. Asked by the meeting host what is currently the biggest challenge in their companies, 9 of 10 agreed it’s to get business development and sales going again.
Questions were asked how you identify candidates who can develop business in the new normal and in the new digitalized world that we all live in during these COVID times.
How do you know for sure if your candidates are more Hunters than Farmers? If you hire salespeople, you know what I mean with hunters and farmers.
How can you measure if your new Sales Manager is more introvert than extrovert?
Or who is shy with strangers and would be better in a supporting sales role (farmer) and absolute hate networking (hunting)?
Would it not be fantastic if you knew from the outset (before hiring) if the person responds well to pressure, adapts easily to constant changes (COVID just one example), and who sees risks as opportunities?
3 most common Reference Profiles for sales managers
More than 3,000 hiring managers and corporate recruiters set a Job Target for the Sales Manager role through the PI Job Assessment feature.
When we look at those Job Targets set by the company hiring people, we see that a few Reference Profiles show up time and again. These three most successful Sales Manager profiles are outgoing and well-liked, they have influence and are enthusiastic in their communications.
If thousands of companies agree, why do you not use this knowledge?
If thousands of hiring companies, from all over the world and in different industries, agree on what is the most wanted Sales Manager profile, would it not be nice and incredibly relevant to access your Sales Manager candidates against these profiles?
I mean, if thousands of company leaders seek these Sales Manager profiles, would it be fair to suggest that your company should learn from this Artificial Intelligence?
Erin Balsa, Content Marketing Manager at The Predictive Index puts it this way in one of her blogs when describing the three Most Wanted sales manager profiles:
Persuader profile
Persuaders are the Most Wanted in any sales leadership. That’s the person you want more than anything.
Charming, extroverted, and warm, they inspire devotion from their team and customers.
Persuaders will teach reps how to take the disappointments that come with sales and always come up swinging and ready to take new risks.
They have a real empathy for people on their teams and that makes them excellent coaches and mentors.
And while they are happy to make decisions themselves, they love to work by managing and mobilizing other people.
Captain profile
Captains are highly focused on quotas, numbers, and goals. More metric-driven than other social Reference Profiles, the Captain is a strong communicator who understands process and structure.
Captains are constantly pushing their teams to raise the bar by improving numbers.
They often take on a leadership role quite naturally even before they are promoted by leading groups.
They love an energetic team environment, and love driving their team to take the sort of risks that win new business.
Maverick profile
Mavericks lead through example and from the front. Success is a huge motivator for them and they have reserves of energy that push them to excel.
They are also more willing to take risks than many other Reference Profiles.
They tend to set ambitious sales goals that inspire their employees to excel in turn.
A Maverick may cultivate a high-pressure team, but it also tends to be high reward.
Mavericks understand that failure is part of the job and are highly resilient to day-to-day rejection. They instill that resilience in their employees.
Use science and smart hiring practices
The PI Behavioral Assessment™ identifies candidates’ natural behavioral drives. After someone takes the assessment, PI assigns them one of 17 Reference Profiles. These show what drives the person’s workplace behaviors and help ensure job fit.
The PI Cognitive Assessment™ measures a person’s ability to learn new things. If someone’s cognitive score doesn’t fall within the range you set in your Job Target, they’ll likely struggle to succeed. And when someone isn’t successful in a role, they disengage and can even become toxic.
About The Predictive Index™
The Predictive Index offers talent optimization software, workshops, and expert consulting.
The Psychometric and Cognitive Assessment tools from PI come from The Predictive Index® that was founded more than 60 years ago in Boston, USA. The PI head office is still located there.
Some 10,000+ organizations have used The Predictive Index® in nearly every job and industry around the world.
With more than 35 million people assessed since the launch, a validity vault of 350+ studies, and EEOC adherence, PI® assessments add scientifically validated objectivity to your subjective judgement.
Tom Sorensen is an Associate Partner of Humanostics, a PI Certified Partner authorised to use the science and assessment software of The Predictive Index®.
Contact me now to learn how your organization can benefit from the fastest growing assessment tools company in the world. My contact details.
