A Discussion on hiring Field Sales Reps with Don Jasensky

January 17, 2019 by Don Jasensky

A common search for us is helping clients find experienced Field Sales Representatives. Here are 5 of the factors we consider and I want to encourage you to consider these too.

The Position : A Subprime automotive finance company hiring a Field Sales Representative to represent their financing products to automotive dealerships, with F&I Managers their main point of contact.

5 Factors to consider : Experience Work content match Contacts Ability Drive

In our 30 years of experience we have learned to incorporate a blend of these 5 factors .

Experience can be selling the same product to the same customers or general sales experience that is transferable such as a copier sales person selling to local businesses. The more direct experience the less time in training. With experience there also will be a trail of their performance – good or bad. It is very important that you take the time to verify their past performance. The best indicator of future performance is past performance. Check references and ask for sales performance validation.

Another very important aspect is making sure that the day to day work content is a match for the candidate’s abilities and desires. Do not discount the importance of their liking the daily work content. Some Sales Reps love the freedom of being in the field and thrive. Others flounder with the task of “initiating” sales. As an example, we have seen companies hire F&I Managers from automotive dealerships to be Field Sales Reps selling to F&I Managers. Makes great sense, however when we study the results we have found that most F&I Managers are terrific with closing but terrible with prospecting. Results are usually not good.

Ask yourself, is your position a “hunting” or “farming” position or some of both? In this example of converting F&I Managers to Field Sales Reps, it is noteworthy that most F&I Manager have no experience initiating sales and cold calling. Because of this, they may do better taking over an existing territory and managing it than building one from scratch. Do you think this way while interviewing ? I want to encourage you to !

A great fit for an automotive finance company is a Sales Rep with already established contacts in a geographic area. These contacts can save 12 to 18 months “ramp up time”. This is more important for smaller companies that can’t afford to pay a Sales Rep’s salary, expenses and benefits for months while deals are only trickling in. If you do not have a recognized name brand, such as CapOne, it can also be very beneficial to hire a Sales Rep with an existing portfolio of clients. The reason is that the Sales Rep will have the established credibility with the auto dealers and F&I Managers that a new company does not have . This makes it easier to introduce a newer company lacking branding clout.

And 5) Ability and Drive.

Ability means they are capable of doing the job successfully .

Drive means they have that internal push to be successful.

A lot of ability with no drive is wasted talent. The most common mistake made hiring Sales Reps is hiring someone with sales ability but little drive. These candidates may “blow you away” in the interview but fizzle in the field. Their sales ability shows during the interview, they communicate well, are glib, make great eye contact, ask closing question and get you all excited. But if they lack drive, they will be mediocre at best and need to be pushed to get them past their low comfort level.

The most common hiring mistake we see companies make is hiring people who have the ability to do the job but lack the motivation to thrive.

Remember: The best indicator of future performance is past performance. Check references and ask for sales performance validation. Don’t get “sold” during the interview, you need to verify performance.

Summary

To help our clients make successful Sales Rep hires we look for a combination of :

Experience

Work content match

Existing contacts

Ability

Drive

I want to encourage you to consider these 5 factors when making hiring decisions.

Don Jasensky is the Founder and President of Automotive Personnel, LLC and has been placing personnel for over 30 years with automotive finance companies, buy here – pay here and new car automotive dealerships. You can reach Don at 216-226-8190 Don@AutomotivePersonnel.Careers

Download my FREE Booklet to learn more about ending these common hiring mistakes : Intelligent Interviewing and Candidate Assessment by clicking here https://www.automotivepersonnel.careers/EBOOK/

Save thousands of dollars and much aggravation by presenting a pay plan the way we do!

August 28, 2018 by Don Jasensky

Candidates will turn down a terrific pay plan offered to them or ask for a lot more base salary if they don’t understand, or worse they misunderstood, the variable portion.

Present a pay plan like we do and you will end this problem !

Address variable compensation with:

Show candidate what the pay plan will yield based on the trailing 12 months .
Then let them know that you are looking for an improvement, (let’s go with 10%). With a 10% improvement your variable will be $X +
Over perform at 15% and variable will be $X ++

Now your candidate will understand the base and variable and can do accurate mental calculations. If they are a high performer they will see themselves performing at the higher level.

Donald Jasensky is Founder and CEO of Automotive Personnel, LLC 216-216-8190 Don@AutomotivePersonnel.Careers TWITTER@DonJasensky

How We Present A Pay Plan That Will Get Accepted

July 19, 2018 by Don Jasensky

In the early 1990s I learned how to present a pay plan that will likely be accepted by watching one of my very first clients present pay plans to my candidates. I sat in on several presentations from John Lance who was the owner of John Lance Ford in Westlake, Ohio. Mr. Lance later sold his large Ford dealership to Autonation and went on to become a very important executive to Autonation.

Mr. Lance summarized all the aspects of the offer on a sheet of paper for the candidates. In addition to the normal title, hours and salary Mr. Lance would break down the variable to make it clear to the candidate what they might expect. Over the years I added to this presentation to include 3 levels of performance and 3 possible incomes they would yield. Without this information, I found that candidates often didn’t understand or worse misunderstood the variable and would often plug in the wrong numbers based on their current position. Once a candidate makes this mistake and comes up with the wrong numbers and perhaps talk to their spouse, it becomes very difficult to change their thinking. Especially if you have to also change the spouses thinking too.

Here is our formula to present a pay plan that will get accepted:

Title
Duties / Responsibilities / Authority
Expected start date
Days / Hours of work
Exempt or non-exempt
Paid time off
Benefits begin
Other
Base salary or Hourly wage
Variable / bonuses / commissions based on ….(example: Line T7406 of the Toyota Service DOC)

Variable

Underperform: If your work produces no change from company’s performance last year’s your variable compensation will be $________
Perform at target: We are looking for a 10% increase in (performance, sales, profit, etc.) and your variable compensation will be $__________
Perform above target: Reach a 15% increase in (performance, sales, profit, etc.) and your variable compensation will be $__________

I encourage my clients to use a presentation like this to make it crystal clear what the candidate can expect. Note, I have found high performers always feel that they will be “above target range”. Many ask what will a 20% improvement pay them?

An added plus, with this pay plan presentation the majority of your offer letter is written!

Donald Jasensky Founder and CEO of Automotive Personnel, LLC Don@AutomotivePersonnel.Careers 216-226-8190

One Sure Sign That You Are Interviewing A Future High Performer Is …..

February 15, 2018 by Don Jasensky

Over the past quarter century of interviewing candidates and following up on their careers, we have noted one factor that all top performers share. It is also easy to find out if your candidate possesses it – if you know what to look for. If they do possess it, they are very likely to be high performers for you!

So what is this single magic ingredient that can predict future success? It’s been proven to us through thousands of interviews that employees who work hard to develop their professional skills and increase their industry knowledge away from work, at their own expense and time nearly always develop into high performers in their careers!

Examples include:

Sales personnel who practice their presentation at home and record it on the smart phone to review and look for ways to improve
Managers who practice meeting at home and record it and look for ways to improve it
Reading books on management practices, leadership, customer service, sales , etc., to excel in their job
Enrollment in online or weekend classes related to work
Join LinkedIn Groups to stay current on their industry
Joining clubs like Toast Masters to hone their speaking skills

So what do we ask candidates ? Our wording will vary depending on the level of candidate, generally here is what we ask:

“What are your career aspirations in the next 5 years?” Listen to their answer then ask:

“What are you doing – away from your work place – to get to that level?”

After listening to their answer I may be prompted to ask “Do you think that is enough to get there ?”

I may be impressed with their answer and confident that I have a high performer. If their answer is lacking I may wonder why they are not putting more effort into developing their skills / knowledge the way high performers generally do.

In summary: Employees who put effort into their career improvement – on their own time and dime – are very likely to be successful with you – so make sure you ask !

Donald Jasensky is the Founder and CEO of Automotive Personnel, LLC

216-226-8190 Don@AutomotivePersonnel.Careers TWITTER@DonJasensky

29 Years Ago I started Automotive Personnel, LLC !

February 7, 2018 by Don Jasensky

I remember that first morning like it was this morning.

I remember sitting down at the dining room table – my new headquarters. I had a phone, phone book (remember yellow pages?), a tablet of paper and a dream. No clients, no files, no leads, no computers, no employees. My dream was to bring a higher level of professionalism to the hiring practices of the automotive industry.

So much has changed in the industry since that morning. Hiring practices have improved. Technology has affected every area of the automotive industry. One aspect that remains the same and always will , and it is my lesson from the past 29 years: people are the greatest asset of every organization. Never lose sight of this !

I want to thank all the people who have been such a tremendous honor to work with including candidates, companies and most of all the terrific employees that make coming to work each morning so worthwhile.

Thank you all

Donald Jasensky

Part 1 of 7 components of all top candidates:

April 26, 2017 by Don Jasensky

The 7 components we look for in candidates are :

Competency
Capacity
Teammate Factor
Drive
Ability to motivate
Judgement
Resolve

In today’s edition let’s focus on Competency .

In 28 years of executive search, no one has ever asked us for an average candidate. Client’s come to us when they are looking for a “high performer”. The higher level the position the more important their competency is. As an example, a Director of Credit impacts a company much more than one Credit Underwriter. The high up the food chain the more critical competency becomes.

The best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. Human behavior is fairly consistent throughout our adult lives. Winners show themselves early and consistently throughout their careers. Laggards do too !

Learning about competency is part of the interview, evaluation and reference checking process.

Keep these factors in mind :

Interviewing questions can include:

What are your performance standards with your current position?
How are they measured?
How are you doing with them?
Show Me : awards, commission checks, reference letters, etc.
References – trust but verify

Knowing what you are looking for at the start of your search will add direction and confidence in your decision making. Review our article on Deciphering a Candidates Employment Record Made Easy and

Intelligent Interviewing Produces Intelligent Hiring Decisions to help you discover if your candidates have these components.

Donald Jasensky

CEO / Automotive Personnel, LLC

216-226-8190

don@automotivepersonnel.careers

www.automotivepersonnel.careers

Twitter : @DonJasensky

“We Find The People Who Drive The Automotive Industry”

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