Sales Drive—Do You or Your Clients Really Have It?

November 9, 2007

What really makes a good salesperson versus a bad one? How can you tell going in? How do you rate if you are doing the selling for your practice? How can you help clients with their hiring and development in the sales area, even if this outside your normal practice?

This session will show you a process for avoiding the financial headaches and frustrations caused at clients by unmotivated, underperforming salespeople. Christopher Croner, Ph.D., co-author of Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again, will show you how to select only those candidates with the drive to become top producers.

Sales leaders and CEOs know the pain and financial burden of hiring underperforming salespeople. Few business challenges are as heartbreaking as hiring a sales candidate who talks a good game, but eventually fails to meet expectations. The cost of a poor producer can reach 6-7 figures in annual salary, training, lost customers and missed opportunities. Although most sales leaders readily admit they want salespeople with "fire in the belly," very few know the scientific formula for finding those who have this level of intensity.

Over 80 years of sales research have shown that the most critical trait is drive. Drive is the ambition, dedication, and resiliency found in top-producing salespeople. Drive is especially critical for salespeople who must "hunt" to find and open new accounts. However, drive is also one of the most difficult traits for interviewers to rate and among the easiest for sales candidates to fake. Furthermore, drive cannot be learned or developed.

Extensive research, detailed in Dr. Croner's new book, shows that there is a way to identify drive in sales candidates. Sales managers who understand and use this hiring process are effective at weeding out pretenders and identifying potential top producers.

Back to Previous Page