You Do Have Time

to upskill

Hiring your next

NZ’s e-mag for sales leaders

NZSALESOCTOBER 28Th 2009 / IssuE 31

Win?Are You prepAreD to

NetworkiNg Gems

Are You oNe of this week’s wiNNers?

NZsM / OCT 28Th 2009 / 2

OCTOBER 28Th / IssuE 31

this week’s Must reAD

hiriNg Your NeXt superstAr

Getting the most out of the interview

and selection process.

Are You prepAreD to wiN?

Why preparation is essential.

resourCe CorNer

eNDless referrAls

Bob Burgs perennial classic about

how to turn every contact into a

business opportunity.

NZsM CAleNDAr

You Do hAve tiMe to upskill

how to get 400 hours of additional

learning every year.

sAles trAiNiNg DireCtorY

QuiCk fiX

It’s not what you sell, it’s how you sell.

whAt's New NotiCeBoArD

the Close

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5

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Are You oNe of this week's wiNNers? see

iNsiDe!

NZsM / OCT 28Th 2009 / 3

how to identify and recruit

sales people who will

be successful is one of

the toughest challenges for sales

managers. It is tough for many

reasons, not least of which is that if you are new to sales

management you will probably have no recruitment

experience. I’ve yet to see an induction manual with a

section on how to recruit sales people either. (Let me

know if you have!)

A successful sales team requires the sales manager to

recruit the right people. It is possibly the most important

job for the sales manager or business owner to get right.

In this issue, in the first of a series of two articles, talent

development specialist steve Evans explains three steps

to take to reduce the risk of making a poor recruitment

decision.

Candidate selection and recruitment requires good

preparation. In fact, your sales success depends on good

preparation. We give some valuable tips and advice on

the winners approach to preparing.

sean D’souza wraps up our feature articles this week

with some sound advice on accelerating your learning.

Our prize draw winners names are on pages three and

seven – is it you?

happy selling!

ABOuT /

short and sharp, New Zealand sales

Manager is a free e-magazine delivering

thought provoking and enlightening

articles, and industry news and

information to forward-thinking sales

managers, business owners and sales

professionals.

EDITOR / Paul Newsom

ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson

GROuP EDITOR / Trudi Caffell

CONTENT ENQuIRIEs /

Phone Paul on 04 586 4733 or email

pauln@nzsalesmanager.co.nz

ADVERTIsING ENQuIRIEs /

Phone Richard on 09 523 4112 or email

richardl@nzsalesmanager.co.nz

ADDREss / NZ sales Manager, C/- Espire

Media, PO Box 137162, Parnell,

Auckland 1151, New Zealand

WEBsITE / www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz

MID STRENGTHFULL FLAVOURFULL LIFE

steve Evans of People Central helps businesses to attract, recruit, retain and develop talented

individuals and teams. Visit steve’s website at www.peoplecentral.co.nz

NZsM / OCT 7Th 2009 / 5

T h I s W E E K ’ s M u s T R E A D

When you look at the bottom-line of the revenue generated by a sales person hitting one

hundred percent of their targets, as opposed to someone

hitting just forty percent, then the need to make the most

from the imperfect art of staff selection becomes clear.

Hiring your next

getting the most out of the interview and selection process

By steve Evans

IBefore we get into the prickly subject of teasing out the

sales superstars from the ‘also-rans’ when hiring new sales

staff, we need to understand that the main tool that we use

to select staff is at best going to give a seasoned interviewer a

1-in-4 chance of getting it right. In the hands of an untrained or

inexperienced interviewer it will be little better than putting on a

blindfold and picking a CV from the pile in determining whether

a candidate is going to perform in the job.

It has been common knowledge for decades that the selection

interview is a very poor predictor of whether a candidate is going

to perform in any job. When it comes to sales jobs, the interview

becomes even less effective, as most sales candidates are able to

present themselves well at interview, are adept at brushing over

the areas they would rather you didn’t explore and usually arrive

with glowing references. Whilst some recruiting managers may

see these factors as evidence of sales skills, most will grimace

with pain in recalling occasions of hiring staff that were good at

interviews but precious little else.

When you look at the bottom-line of the revenue generated by

a sales person hitting one hundred percent of their targets, as

opposed to someone hitting just forty percent, then the need to

make the most from the imperfect art of staff selection becomes

clear. There are three practical steps that any sales manager can

take to reduce the risks of making poor selection decisions at a

time when strong sales performance is more important than ever.

NZsM / OCT 28Th 2009 / 6

kNow whAt You Are lookiNg forGoing into the

interview process

without having clear

goals on what you

want to measure is as

ineffective as selling

without clear goals for

prospecting, call cycles

or sales plans. how will

you select the right candidate if you don’t know what you are

looking for?

The reliability of the selection interview rises dramatically when

the interviewer has a clear picture of the behaviours, skills and

competencies associated with success in the job. For those of you

with a strong HR function in your business, your first port of call

should be the job description and competencies for the specific

vacancy. For those without on-tap hR support, we take a look at

the core sales competencies and interview questions in the next

issue of NZ sales Manager.

rAise Your gAMe iN iNterviewiNg The next step to increase

the effectiveness of

interviews is to ensure

they are conducted

by someone who

knows how to do it.

Interviewing is a bit

like driving a car in

that you hardly ever

meet someone prepared to admit they aren’t very good at it. It

seems to suggest that we are not a good judge of character or our

interpersonal skills are somehow incomplete; both of which are

admissions few sales managers would feel comfortable making.

The reality is that selection interviewing is a prized skill

developed through practice and training in effective interviewing

methods, most notably behavioural or competency based

interviews. If you don’t interview very often or are untrained, then

bring in a seasoned and trained interviewer to help you reduce

the risk of making a poor selection decision. If interviews are

likely to become a significant part of your job, then get trained in

Competency Based Interviewing.

BACk up Your seleCtioN DeCisioN with reliABle supportiNg iNforMAtioNThe greatest improvement that can be made to the process of

selecting the right candidate is to add other criteria to back up

your decision. Most recruiters make superficial in-roads here,

usually in checking references, but few take sufficient steps to

make a strong selection decision.

We already know there is no perfect correlation between the

selection method used and performance in the job, but the more

steps we take to assess the candidate, the more we reduce the

risk of getting it wrong.

References are as notorious as interviews when it comes to

making selection decisions. how many of you have been on

the brink of firing a useless sales person when they flounce

into your office and announce they are leaving? What kind

of reference are you going to give them to help them on their

way? Also, remember that many separation packages reached

outside of employment tribunals include ‘a good reference’.

I’m not suggesting that recruiting managers should stop

checking references, but I would advise that they use the

same diligence as they apply to the selection interview

by asking the same competency based questions and

insisting on specific examples. References should always

be checked by phoning the referee as people will tell

you much more than they are prepared to write down. In

sales, it also pays to get a reference from a key client of

the candidate as well as the employer to get a sense of

how their customers see the candidate.

The reliability of the selection interview rises dramatically when the interviewer has a clear picture of the behaviours, skills and

competencies associated with success in the job.

NZsM / OCT 28Th 2009 / 7

sales Aptitude/Psychometric Tests bring objective, independent

and unbiased information into making the selection decision.

They will help identify sales superstars, people unlikely to cut

it in sales environments and the personal development plans

required to get a good candidate to be a great performer before

the Employment Agreement gets signed.

Just ensure the test you use is from a reliable test publisher; a

freebie downloaded from the internet is unlikely to deliver.

sales simulations and Role Plays are little used in New Zealand,

but bring valuable additional information to the selection process

on how the candidate is likely to perform in the job. Choosing

simulated role plays that have been tried and tested to ensure

they measure what they claim to measure is the first step

to ensure you don’t fall into the trap of choosing a tool that

won’t do the job. Secondly, ensure that the role play fits the

sales job you are assessing. A relationship sales role where

long term business is generated through sales presentations

to panels of decision makers requires a different role play to

one-off high-volume retail sales.

Following these three steps isn’t a quick or easy process, but

the time and financial investment in getting a clear picture

of the person you want to recruit, acquiring the skills to

interview effectively and backing up the shortcomings of the

selection interview with additional measures of candidates

effectiveness will reap huge dividends in increased sales

volumes by effective sales people.

In Part 2 of this article in the next issue of NZsM, steve

explores the core sales competencies, and suggests interview

questions to evaluate them.

The time and financial investment in getting a clear picture of

the person you want to recruit, acquiring the skills to interview

effectively and backing up the shortcomings of the selection

interview with additional measures of candidates effectiveness will reap

huge dividends in increased sales volumes by effective sales people.

NZsM / OCT 28Th 2009 / 8

Paul Newsom is the editor of NZ sales Manager and helps sales professionals and sales managers to

compete and win in complex sales. You can visit Paul’s website at www.salespartners.co.nz

Are You prepAreD to wiN?why you must sharpen the axe before heading for the woods. By paul Newsom

Abraham Lincoln once said “if I was given nine

hours to cut down a tree, I would spend six hours

sharpening my axe”. We have all arrived at meetings

with a blunt axe, usually because we have run out of time

to prepare in advance. A ‘blunt axe’ meeting is full of

ineffective questions and meaningless conversation. The

client takes nothing from the meeting, and nothing advances

for you, the sales person.

This lack of preparation usually leads to an unsatisfactory

outcome for you, or even worse, your client. Three things

usually happen:

You chop all day and the tree never falls down (the client •

doesn’t buy)

The tree falls down the wrong way (the client buys •

elsewhere this time)

You are not invited back to chop wood in that forest •

again (the client has such a bad experience)

Lack of preparation is probably the biggest mistake sales

people make. some time invested upfront will be far less

than the time wasted pursuing useless leads, talking to

the wrong people, going back to ask the questions you

never thought of asking at the last meeting and all the

other time wasting activities the unprepared sales person

staggers through.

There are three reasons why you should prepare:

It raises your confidence, which will have a positive •

influence on your customer.

It improves the quality of the conversation, for both you •

and the customer.

It demonstrates that you are customer focused, organised •

and efficient. This is essential for your credibility.

Your preparation should equip you with an objective for

the meeting, a desired outcome, a questioning strategy and

the information you will need to get from where you are

to where you want to get to. When I hear sales people are

calling on customers for a ‘catch up’ it is usually a sign that

there is not much preparation going on.

so how do we prepare?For a new opportunity the key question to ask yourself is:

“What do I need to know to do business with this company?”

For an existing prospect, you will be asking yourself: “What

do I need to know to progress this opportunity?”

We are lucky in this information age that a quick look on the

web will invariably turn up valuable information about the

company and their industry. Don’t just look on the company

website though, Google the company name, their products,

services and employees and see what other information

you can find. Networking, industry associations, media

sources and publications, and their own sales people can be

excellent sources of information.

This will give you a start. Your ongoing client-focused

questioning during the meetings is vital to fill the gaps in

your knowledge. You can never have too much information.

NZsM / OCT 28Th 2009 / 9

The perennial bestseller that helps you turn every contact into a

solid business opportunity for record growth and profits, through

Endless Referrals. Bob Burg has taught tens of thousands of sales

professionals and entrepreneurs how to dramatically increase their

business using powerful relationship-building techniques to build a

referral business and gain clients. In this updated edition, Burg introduces

his Attraction Marketing system, a potent new tool that brings the market

for a product or service to the business through targeted initiatives using

direct mail, email, telemarketing, websites, and other channels.

Endless ReferralsBy Bob BurgPublished by McGaw hill Professional

$32.97 from

R E s O u R C E C O R N E R

so what do you need to know?This list is not exhaustive, but if you gather this information

in the early stages, you will probably know a lot more than

your competitor.

what business are they in?Their size, revenue, employees, geographical spread, •

branches or any other relevant metric

Your trading history with them•

Their business performance – what does the annual •

report say?

stage of evolution – new entrant or mature company, in •

growth phase or decline?

Their position in marketplace •

Their competitive advantage •

Who are their customers? What markets do they serve? •

Who are their key suppliers? •

The key people – who might you need to get to know? •

You will be able to add to this list…..

Note that learning your products is not included in

preparation – this goes without saying. Customers expect

you to know your own business, but what really makes a

difference is when you know their business and have an

informed opinion on the issues they face. If you can have

conversations at this level, you will uncover all sorts of

opportunities if you are talking to the right people in a well

qualified opportunity.

A word of caution – before you chain yourself to the desk

to spend all day preparing and have the sales manager

wondering if your car has broken down, the 80/20 rule

applies with preparation. You will often have 80 percent of

what you need within half an hour. spending another two

or three hours to find the extra 20 percent is probably not a

good use of your time.

Preparation is not just for the face-to-face meeting either. The

need for preparation is just the same before you pick up the

phone – you are prepared for the conversation, and prepared

to leave a voice message that is good enough to warrant

returning your call.

In the words of All Black coach, steve hansen, ‘Winning is

the result of how you prepare and if we prepare well we give

ourselves a big opportunity of doing something quite special’.

so go and do something quite special this week. sharpen

the axe, prepare well, and don’t just prepare for the first

round. Prepare every step of the way and you will be in

the final.

hit The Road RunningTop Achievers sales Training,Auckland

Essential sales skills,ZealmarkAuckland

Negotiating skillsscotworkAuckland

sales DevelopmentDavid FormanAuckland

sales BasicsRichard GeeAuckland

sales ManagementDavid ForemanChristchurch

Cold CallingTop Achievers sales Training Auckland

Key Account Management David FormanAuckland9-10 November

sales Development David Forman Wellington9-12 November

Professional selling skillsAchieve GlobalAuckland

Negotiating skills scotworkWellingtonAdvanced sales DevelopmentDavid Forman Aucklandhit the Road Running Top Achievers sales TrainingWellington

hit The Road RunningTop Achievers sales TrainingWellington

sales ManagementDavid ForemanChristchurch

Negotiating skillsscotworkAucklandAdvanced selling Richard GeeChristchurchKey Account Management,ZealmarkAuckland

Telephone sales skillsEMAAuckland

sales DevelopmentDavid FormanAuckland16-19 November

Advanced sales DevelopmentDavid Forman Auckland

FRI 27 NOV

MON 23 NOV

TuEs 17 NOVMON 16 NOV

WED 11 NOV

Negotiating skillsscotworkAucklandsales skills 1EMAAucklandhit The Road RunningTop Achievers sales Training,hamilton

sales DevelopmentDavid FormanAuckland

Professional selling skillsAchieve GlobalAuckland

sales BasicsRichard GeeAuckland

Negotiating skills scotworkWellington

TuE 10 NOVMON 9 NOVFRI 6 NOV

FRI 20 NOV

suN 22 NOV

sAT 21 NOV

suN 15 NOV

sAT 14 NOVThu 12 NOV

suN 1 NOV

sAT 31 OCT

suN 29 NOV

sAT 28 NOV

NZsMCALENDAR

MON 2 NOV

Thu 29 OCTWED 28 OCT FRI 30 OCT

Thu 5 NOVWED 4 NOVTuE 3 NOV

sales ManagementDavid ForemanChristchurch

Professional selling skillsAchieve GlobalAucklandhit the Road Running, Top Achievers sales Training ChristchurchTelephone salesZealmarkAuckland

Negotiating skills scotworkWellington

sAT 7 NOV

Thu 19 NOV

TuE 24 NOV WED 25 NOV WED 26 NOV

suN 8 NOV

FRI 13 NOV

WED 18 NOV

NZsM / OCT 28Th 2009 / 11

Imagine I told you I could give you 400 hours of time.

Time you could spend doing nothing but learning.

Learning a new skill. Or getting relevant information.

But where could you get 400 hours of undisturbed time? In

your car, that's where!

Take the time to learn while you're on the road, rather than

just sitting down and listening to the idiotic dribble on radio.

You don't need to hear the latest news. You don't need

to hear Chopper Dave as he gives you the traffic report.

You don't need to listen to the blathering of yet another

politician. What you need to do is improve your skills, while

on the move.

You may consider yourself a ‘non-audio’ person. In

fact, it's more than likely that some of you don't really like

to listen to information on audio. You'd prefer to read a PDF,

or a book, or watch a video. You like to take notes while

learning. And if you're driving, you can't possibly do that,

can you?

And here's my answer to your question. You don't have

to write down a word. You just have to listen. And then play

the audio back on the next trip. And the next trip. And as you

guessed, the next trip as well.

When I started out in business, I'd listen to the same audio

as many as fifty times. Yes, that tape (we had tapes back then,

remember?) wouldn't even flip to Side B. Side A would play

on and on endlessly.

there's a reason for this endless loop. You used this

concept when you learned a language as a child. You heard

the word 'carbon' for instance, and you had to hear it several

times, and then with reference to several other objects and

situations, before you could accurately associate the word

'carbon' with its right meaning and usage.

Every time I was listening to the same tape, I wasn't

necessarily hearing the same information. I was creating new

associations. I hear things I missed the first time. I'd hear

things I'd misunderstood because I couldn’t take in all the

information all at once. The more I listened the better I got at

understanding the concepts of business.

You DohAve tiMe to upskillhow to get 400 hours of additional learning every year. By sean D’souza

T W O M I N u T E T O P u P

sean D’souza is a marketing strategist, speaker, author and the creator of principle of psychotactics. visit sean’s website at www.psychotactics.com

NZsM / OCT 28Th 2009 / 12

Every person on this planet who drives, or goes for a walk, or

spends his/her time huffing and puffing should improve their

skills by listening to audio.

But guess what? All I ever hear are excuses. People tell me

why they can't do this, and can't do that. Well, I've heard

all the excuses. And if you're driven enough, you can put

those excuses in the trash can, and make sure it goes out on

garbage day. Because the excuses are costing a lot.

so how much is 'a lot?' Consider that a full day live

workshop is often no more than six hours long, and most

people drive about two hours every day. This means they're

driving about 12 hours a week. That's two workshops a week.

If you were to work only 35 weeks out of 52 weeks in a year,

you'd be doing the equivalent of 70 whole days of workshops.

You see, you do have time. But your excuses are bigger than

your time. And if you can sidestep that mountain of excuses

you'll have more time than ever before, and here's why!

1. You'll make use of all that time you've been wasting.

2. You'll learn so much, that you'll run your business using

smarter techniques, thus saving even more time.

If you're serious about becoming an expert, here's what

you need to do. Move to audio. And do some activity while

listening to audio. And watch how you become an expert

while doing something else.

Every person on this planet who drives, or goes for a walk, or spends his/her time huffing and puffing should improve their skills by listening to audio.

NZsM / OCT 28Th 2009 / 13

http://www.rsn.co.nz/webfiles/Revv/files/Rev_Sales_Network_Founding_Member_Info_Pack.pdf

W h A T ’ s N E W N O T I C E B O A R D

sAlesstAr AND sAvio tAke two-proNgeD

ApproACh to DriviNg reveNues iN sAles teAMs

CRM solutions provider savio has partnered with Auckland-based sales

training, recruitment and development company salesstar.

SalesStar runs a monthly Management Briefing for sales managers looking for ways

to boost the performance and results of their teams.

“Laying a good foundation by developing a water tight sales process, hiring top

performers, training and ongoing development is key

to having a high performing sales force” states Paul

O’Donohue, Director and Co-founder of salesstar.

“The Management Briefing gives sales managers an

insight into what they could be doing to drive their

sales team to success!”

Adam Johnson from savio agrees with

O’Donohue: “Laying that foundation is crucial,

and reinforcing this over time with the use of

customer relationship management technology

is a sure way to ensure the value of training

done is maximized in a repeatable fashion.

“The two very different offerings

compliment each other nicely, and

we look forward to an ongoing

relationship between savio and

salesstar to ultimately assist sales

managers and their teams to

success.”

The next Management Briefing will

be held on November 5. More

information here.

CAN You help? Sales Qualifications Scoping Project

The Retail Institute (The Industry Training Organisation for retail, wholesale and sales) are conducting a scoping project to look at the possibility of introducing selling qualifications onto the NZ Qualifications Framework. There are aspects of selling included in

other qualifications, but at the moment, there are no specific sales

qualifications.

Qualifications would need to meet the needs of retail sales, but the scoping goes beyond retail into other disciplines of selling – B2B field sales, business development, account management etc and sales management.

The decision to introduce sales qualifications will be largely determined by what industry says is needed.

If you are a sales manager or owner of a business employing sales people and would like to contribute to this study by completing a 30 minute questionnaire by phone or in person then please contact the Project Manager, Paul Newsom, on 04 586 4733 or email paul@salespartners.co.nz by Friday 20th November.”

NZsM / OCT 28Th 2009 / 15

NZsM / OCT 28Th 2009 / 16

have you subscribed to New Zealand sales Manager? It’s free!simply visit www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz to get a copy of New Zealand sales Manager delivered

straight to your inbox every third Wednesday!

I have found that being honest is the best technique I can use. Right up front, tell people what you're trying to accomplish and what you're willing to sacrifice to accomplish it.

Lee Iacocca. Ex-president of the Chrysler Corporation, and one of the most

famous business people in the world.

Q u I C K F I X

“ “

QuiCk fiXYou are at a networking function. Do you ever find yourself in

those awkward situations where you can’t think of anything

to say? having some questions ready to ask will increase your

confidence to go and start a conversation. The golden rule is to

focus on your prospect, not tell your prospect about yourself.

Bob Burg, author of the book Endless Referrals, lists these

questions as some of his favourites:

how did you get started in your ‘widget’ business?

What do you enjoy most about what you do?

how can I know if someone I am speaking with would be a

good prospect for you?

This last question will really set you apart from the networker

who is only interested in finding their next client. There is no

surer way to quickly build trust than to ask someone how you

can help them.

WIN A LAsER POINTER PEN FOR YOuR QuICK FIX!

If you have a favorite ‘quick fix’ that you would like to share

with our readers (without giving your winning secrets away!)

then email the editor at pauln@nzsalesmanager.co.nz

You will be in to win a high-powered laser pointer pen,

courtesy of the great guys at Brand storming Promotions.

It's not what you sell, it's how you sell

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Networking Gems