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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/

Filed Under: Published Articles Tagged With: automotive aftermarket, automotive dealership, automotive finance, employee recruitment, executive search, personnel recruitment

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”

VIDEO : Don Jasensky on your  challenges finding qualified employees

 

 

Filed Under: Published Articles Tagged With: automotive, automotive aftermarket, automotive dealership, automotive finance, automotive personnel, dealership, employee recruitment, employment recruiting, executive search, finance, hirinf, personnel recruitment, recruiting

7 Components To Look For To Ensure You Are Hiring a Terrific Candidate Each Time!

April 10, 2017 by Don Jasensky

7 Components To Look For To Ensure You Are Hiring a Terrific Candidate Each Time !

Over the past 28 years in executive search and several years as a General Manager at a dealership prior, I  have found 7 components common to all terrific hires.  We focus on these components when we are evaluating candidates and I want to share them with you.  Hopefully  this helps give focus to your searches.   I will present an overview here and detail each in follow up articles.

Allow me to ask you to think of your best hires and then your worst hires .   Think about these components and see if your best hires had them and if one or more of the components were missing in your  worst hires.   

By knowing what you are looking for ahead of time your searches will have more direction and you will have much more 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.  Here is an overview:

First 3 components  :

          Competency  – is candidate a high performer? The best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. Winners show themselves early and consistently throughout their careers.

  • Capacity – do they have a high enough  ceiling for new position ? A “rock star” sales representative needs an additional skill set to be a sales manager. Often moving from a manager level to a  VP level  with a company means the candidate will need to go from focusing on tactical thinking to adding strategic thinking to be successful.  Are you looking  for this in your candidates ? 
  • Teammate Factor – Are  they naturally looking out for the overall good of the company and colleagues  or are they the one’s complaining at the water cooler about management, pay, working conditions, etc.  It is difficult to have a “bad attitude” and be a good team player.   Don’t overlook this component,  a technically competent employee who is always stirring the pot is a problem!

For leadership roles and high level single contributor roles add :

 Drive / Initiative – it takes enormous energy to grow and lead a team, department or a company. Low energy people can be competent but they will not  build or grow your company.

  • Motivate others to achieve higher results consistently? You cannot lead if you cannot motivate others.  Many mid-level managers are technically competent but lack the ability to energize their staff and drive higher results through them.
  • Vision / Judgement /Decision making – Are they consistently working on the right problems? Do they get to “root causes” of problems .  Are they looking ahead and anticipating future challenges and opportunities?  Do they understand how to both leverage and protect  the assets of your company?
  • Resolve – Can they consistently see very challenging projects  through conclusion?  Sudden changes in business, competitive field, economic factors are very challenging and personally impact team members and  can sometimes  take years to successfully resolve.    Initiating a large project and seeing  it through conclusion are 2 different personality traits.   Deciding to start a large project is more about  Initiative – seeing it to conclusion is more about Resolve.

We will explore these 7 key components in greater detail in future articles.

How does this compare to your list ?

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”

VIDEO : Don Jasensky on your  challenges finding qualified employees

 

 

Filed Under: Published Articles Tagged With: automotive aftermarket, automotive dealership, automotive finance, automotive personnel, employee recruitment, executive search, interviewing, personnel recruitment, recruitment

Deciphering a candidate’s employment record during the interview – made easy !!!

March 14, 2017 by Don Jasensky

Deciphering a candidate’s employment record during the interview – made easy !!!

 

The best indicator of  a candidate’s future performance with you is their past  performance .  But you have to know what to look for !!!

 

Employment behavior tends to follow consistent patterns. A low achiever has a record of low achievement and a high achiever has a record of high achievement.  The confusing part is deciphering a candidate’s employment  record during the interview  and evaluation process!

 

Low achievers are usually very good at “hiding” in successful departments.  As an interviewer it is your responsibility to find out the actual contributions, accomplishments and employment record of the candidate to determine if a high or low achiever is sitting in front of you. In 28 years of recruiting we have learned  that one of the most common mistakes employers make is hiring low performers from successful companies.

 

As the interviewer, you  must ask the questions that will yield the information you need to make a smart hiring decision.
During the interview, probe candidates about their accomplishments, their specific role, dates and time frames, awards, bonuses, promotions, attendance and good teammate traits. Then verify with references.  Do not miss the “verify with references “ part!   Learn from the automotive finance and banking industry – they do not just ask customers “how they pay their bills” do they?  No, they verify – so should you!

Don’t allow important questions to be answered with soft answers.  They provide you with no real assessment value.  Ask for facts, details and information to support their contributions and references who will verify them.  

 

 Revealing Questions:

In a quarter of a century of recruitment we have found certain questions can be very revealing.  Of course many question will be asked, but keep the 80/20 rule in mind when it comes to revealing questions!  Following is an  example that I use when interviewing Sales Managers.  Whether  your position is a National Sales Manager over the entire US, or a Sales Manager for an automotive dealership, a few intelligent questions reveals so much from the interview.

 

 Now watch as I drill down for specifics and remember that  the devil lies in the detail !

After a general discussion about our client’s sales staff and its strengths and weaknesses

I ask : Now that you know the issues our client has with its sales staff tell me how you will   help their  sales staff perform much better for you than they are now.

Candidate answer : I will motivate them to sell 

My follow up – Walk me through the details how you have done that in the past …

 

Candidate answer : I will train them to be better, I’m a great trainer

My follow up – Share some significant details about your training program and walk me through your  ” from-to “results …

 

Candidate answer : I will hold them accountable for their results 

My follow up – That sounds great, let’s talk about your current system to hold your people accountable …

 

I do not allow for soft or generic answers to specific questions.  You shouldn’t either.  The high performers will have specific answers and be able to support their “from – to” results. 

You as the interviewer must lead and ask the questions that will yield the information you need to make a smart hiring decision. Become great at developing these revealing questions and pursuing details so that you can decipher a candidate’s true employment record. We have a separate article devoted to “Intelligent  Interviewing “ that goes into more detail.  

 Please keep in mind we are not trying to stump a candidate, we want to learn about them so we can make an astute judgement on how they will perform in the future with our client.

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 since 1989”

 

Filed Under: Published Articles, Uncategorized Tagged With: automotive finance, automotive personnel, employee recruitment, employment recruiting, executive search, finance, interviewing, recruiting

Executive Recruitment Quiz – Test your recruiting knowledge

May 27, 2015 by Don Jasensky

Prepared by Donald Jasensky Founder and CEO Automotive Personnel, LLC

1) The best indicator of a candidate’s future performance and success with your organization is:

1.       How well they present themselves during your interview?

2.       They say all the things you were looking to hear?

3.       Strong record of successful past performance?

4.       Aced your corporate testing?

2) The best indicator that a Sales Representative candidate will be a great hire for you is:

1.       Blows you away during the interview?

2.       Toss a stapler in his lap and ask him to “sell it to you” and he does very well selling it to you?

3.       Past record of high performance?

4.       Aced your “Profile Assessments”?

5.       If they can “sell you” during the interview they will sell to your clients as well?

3) Which point is often overlooked by employers when creating a winning job posting to attract a superior candidate?

1.       Very detailed job description covering the duties and responsibilities of the opportunity?

2.       List of stringent qualifications to ensure the best candidates will reply?

3.       A description of your company and what a person can accede to in this position?

4) The best method to delegate responsibilities to hiring committees is:

(Example is 5 people on hiring committee deciding between 4 candidates interviewed)

1.       Majority rules?

2.       Unanimous or keep looking?

3.       All committee members have a say, but final decision rests with the member who the candidate will report to?

5) When you are interviewing a Sales Rep or mid-level manager, the best sign that you have a good candidate is:

1.       Willing to start right now with you?

2.       Cautious, asks a lot of questions, needs time to think about it?

3.       Blows you away during the interview?

6) Which is correct – What a candidate wants from a career move, ( candidate’s mindset ) is:

1.       Just as important as their education and experience?

2.       Not your problem and should be left to the candidate to sort out?

7) Which is more reflective of a Career Seeker Vs a Job Seeker?

1.       Come to your interview enthused and willing to jump through any hoop for you?

2.       Willing to commit to your position during 1st interview?

3.       Wants time to reflect on your opportunity and where it will lead them?

8) Check each that apply – When interviewing candidates in-person:

□   You are able to spell out a compelling reason why any candidate should consider leaving their current position to join your company.

□   You can explain “what the candidate can become” by taking your position.

□   You tell her about the team she will be joining

□   (If candidate is from a different industry) You have compelling reasoning for him joining your industry.

□   Provide literature for candidate to take home to review and share with spouse/mentor.

9) To save everyone’s time, do you prepare a list of “knockout factors” when beginning a search such as:

– Candidate’s ability to commute to your office daily or relocate?

– Non-compete exists that may affect their current employment

– Specific knowledge necessary such as “EXCEL Expertise”

– Needed licensure  (driver’s license needed to do job, CPA required?)

– Credit  and criminal background checks needed before offer letter

– Ability to travel as required

□   Yes

□   No

10) Post interview – Check all which you do regularly in your post interview meeting with your hiring committee:

□   Ask what concerns exist for each candidate?

□   Ask how candidate will fit into your corporate culture?

□   Ask if candidate can duplicate their past success in your position?

□   What obstacles will candidate have in achieving the same level of success with your opportunity?

□   What help – training – investment will candidate need from you and can you pay that price?

□   Does candidate have a compelling reason to take your opportunity?

□   What concerns does the candidate have and can you overcome them?

Suggested Answers

  1. Answer is #3.   In this question we are asking for the “best indicator” not just  a positive sign. After 26 years of executive search and following several thousand candidates,  it is clear that the best indicator of one’s future performance is their past performance.  People’s behavior follows distinct patters most of their adult life.   If they are a “hard charger” they will likely be a hard charger for you.  If they were a low performer in past positions you are not likely going to turn them into a hard charger.
  2. Answer is #3.   The biggest misconception about hiring – especially hiring sales people – is if they “blow you away” in an interview they are going to great selling for you.  We have found no positive correlation with blowing you away in an interview and being  a day to day, bell to bell consistent high performer.   They may possess sales talent, but sales is hard work and a great deal of self-motivation.   After interviewing thousands of sales personnel , (high  through low performers),  we notice that the top sales people certainly possess a lot of energy but they have a very high work ethic and are very driven.  This shows in their past positions.
  3. Answer 3 is correct.  Most job postings are a boring job description and list of qualifications.  They  only attract that 5 to 10% of people currently looking at that time.  Unless you are a marquee company like Wells Fargo, Ford Motor Credit, etc. you have to tell people who you are, what you do and what they can become by taking a position with you.  The best candidates are not looking for a “lateral move” they want a position and a company that will enhance their career.
  4. Answer #3 is correct.  I have a long winded philosophy on this but keep these points in mind. One person will be managing the new hire and that person needs to take ownership of the hire.  I have frequently seen other  committee members vote down a very strong candidate because he or she seemed felt threatened by the candidate’s experience, education, drive etc. “ Majority rules”  and “unanimous or keep looking”  often provided for vanilla hires.
  5. Correct answer is # 2.   I have seen many Sales Executives and Managers fall into the trap of hiring a candidate who “blows them away” only to see the Sales Rep fizzle in the field.  Wanting to start right away means they are looking for a job not a career – bad sign.   The best Sales Reps are smart, thinkers and will only move for a better opportunity and will need time to review your opportunity – good sign even though it is counterintuitive .
  6. Correct answer in #1.   In the past 26 years, most of calls to us from people who are doing very well, in a good position with a good company. However the position is lacking something such as interesting day-to-day work content  or  career opportunity . The superior candidates are looking to increase their knowledge, challenge themselves, take on more responsibility etc.  Learn what you top candidates are looking for and show them how that can be met with your position.
  7. Correct answer is # 3.  A Job Seeker will is looking for a job now and will jump through any hoop, commit to position very early on.  They are likely to leave you just as easily in 6 to 12 months! A  Career Seeker is looking for career growth and will take time to reflect on  your position and company, talk to a mentor and want more information.  Give it to them!
  8. I hope you checked all.   You should be able to tell the candidate about your industry, company and specific opportunity and where this can take them.  Candidates should research your company on the internet and call colleagues to learn about your position to prepare for the 1st interview. However you know your company much better and you need to “connect the dots” for them and put your opportunity in a positive light.   You need to do this to attract the best candidates  – assume your completion will be!
  9. Correct answer is Yes.  Preparing a list of knockout factors will save you time, aggravation and professional embarrassment .  I know of a search a company, (not us ), did hiring a CFO.  They met a candidate they really liked. Had multiple interviews, met with members of the Board of Directors, important investors. Negotiated an extensive and detailed employee agreement only to find that the CFO had a non-compete that his current company wasn’t going to let him out of! Yikes, heads rolled on that one.   We always asked upfront  if there is a non-compete .
  10. Answer is again all.  Take the time to meet with the hiring committee members .  Don’t just ask who they like best .  Take the time to figure out if candidate will fit into your culture.  Are your processes similar enough to help the candidate succeed or will they impede their success? What will be cost to get each candidate “up to speed”, who will be responsible and how long will it take?

Filed Under: Published Articles Tagged With: automotive aftermarket, automotive dealership, automotive finance, automotive personnel, dealership, employee recruitment, employment recruiting, executive search, finance, interviewing, personnel recruitment, recruiting

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