For several years now, Dave Ulrich has made many Human Resources managers become sensitive about the “new mandate” for HR professionals. In his book “Delivering Results” he writes:

 

“In order to achieve that HR’s work contributes to employees, customers and shareholders’ investments, it must encourage organizational capacity development, turning strategies into actions. This book uncovers the power of HR strategies to influence individuals and corporate performance, by offering doable strategies that provide results from the production line to the Council room”

REFLECTIONS OVER THE SALES ROLE.  

 

• Even though every role in a company is important, Sales tends to be the most notorious as its results are like oxygen for an Organization. Without sales, a company may cease to exist, despite the fact that every other area works properly.

 

• For several years now, when certain people cannot get a job after several attempts, their last resource (besides informal employment) is to work as a seller, achieving results that are not always positive neither for the employees nor for the employers, regardless the elevated economic and emotional costs for both parties.

 

• A good Seller’s profile is different in every company. It cannot be established that a seller who is successful in a certain Company will achieve success in every other company. What are the reasons? Every organization has different features. For example: market position, brand prestige, a particular sales cycle, culture and organizational structure, and, also, specific services or products, to mention a few characteristics.

 

• Brian Tracy, expert on commercialisation, wrote in his book “The Psychology of Selling”, in a reference to the Pareto Principle (also known as 80/20): “20% of sellers earn 80% of commissions… while the remaining 80% only earn 20%—and the same principle applies to the group of outstanding sellers, as 20% of them earn 80% of commissions”.

 

Regardless of the fact that these percentages are an estimate, there is no doubt that among sellers, outstanding sellers are a minority.

 

The important questions are:

 

• Is it important for a company to have an integrated salesforce, with highly productive sellers?
• How can we know, during the recruitment process, which candidates will be sellers that can achieve excellent results for a company?

 

The logical answer to the first question is that it is, of course, important to have a powerful salesforce. The second question, about how to hire them, is explained in this article.

 

We will share with you a process used by Consultants of Personal Development Analysis (PDA), a tool designed to strengthen companies’ Talent Management, based on the studies that William M, Marston conducted during the first half of the XX’s century. The reference process focused on defining the ideal seller’s profile for an important company.

 

During the first stage of the process, a group of Sales and Human Resources Executives, who really knew the activities to be performed by sellers, was invited.

 

Once they were gathered, the meeting started with a conversation about their “view” on the kind of seller their Company needs today, considering skills available in the market, shifts in management and control systems and the requirements of technical knowledge a seller must use and that were not needed before.

 

The PDA consultant gave each executive a form that describes typical behaviour (85 kinds of behaviour) that members of a company have, so that they would, individually, choose what behaviours are the most important for their ideal seller. Then, executives were asked to choose what behaviours were most frequently applied. Once they had all finished writing their forms, a group analysis was started in order to reach a general opinion and establish a ranking of the behaviours chosen. The result was a ranking of ten vital behaviours that a seller must apply in the company.

 

Later, the PDA Consultant asked the executives to carefully select among their current sellers two representative groups, using as a guide the results on sales and performance evaluations. One group was of outstanding sellers and the other of regular or below expectations sellers. Sellers selected under such criteria were asked to answer a self-evaluation PDA form, in order to correlate their profiles with the ideal profile defined by the group of executives. The amount of time it took the sellers to answer the questionnaire was from 15 to 20 minutes. Some of them answered printed forms while others used the Internet forms.

 

Finally, the PDA Consultant loaded in the system the 10 behaviours the group of executives had agreed on and the system established, in a clear and objective way, the “Star Seller’s Profile” for each company: a combination of “PDA items” that show the “profile” of the kind of person who has natural behaviour to be a great seller for the Organization. The combination of the “5 PDA items” is the base to “select and manage your salesforce talent from now on”.

WHAT DOES EACH OF THE 5 PDA ITEMS OF THE PDA PROFILE MEAN?

 

The five numbers that can go from 0 to 100, are related to the intensity or level required for each of the 5 PDA Items. In a few words, they measure:

 

RISK

 

High: a person strongly oriented towards goals, willing to take risks, oriented towards power and control, and keen on taking responsibilities that come together with risks, energetic, always willing to take the initiative. They are motivated by power and prestige.

Low: a person who would rather not take risks, little tolerance to pressure, someone with a steady pace, though introverted, cautious and more conservative. They are motivated by harmony and consistence.

 

EXTROVERSION

 

High: a sociable person, oriented towards interpersonal relationships. Who likes being noticed by others, persuasive, convincing and who makes an effort to make other people comfortable. They are driven by social exposure and recognition.

Low: a person who would rather work alone or in small groups, self-sufficient and focused towards problem solving. They clearly differentiate dealing with “friends” and with “acquaintances”. They are driven by privacy and by having their own personal space.

 

PATIENCE

 

High: a patient, analytical and consistent person, with a tendency to follow a routine, who gives more importance to quality than to quantity. They are driven by consistence and by having enough time to do things right.

Low: a person who feels uncomfortable with the state of relatively stable things. They are driven by diversity, constant change and multitasking.

 

RULES ACCEPTANCE

 

High: a person who follows rules, policies and established procedures, which given them certainty due to the feeling of structure and leadership. They are driven by a clear leadership and by having proper information in order to act.

Low: a person who prefers freedom of action, Independence, a high level of participation and global focus. They are driven by acting freely, following their own ideas and goals.

 

SELF-CONTROL

 

High: a rational, mature, person, who weights the consequences of his actions and executes control over strong emotions or impulses.

Low: a person who is spontaneous and sometimes behaves in an impulsive way, with a low level of tolerance and who may act or speak without really considering the consequences.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF KNOWING A PROFILE DEFINED BY PDA METHODOLOGY?

 

This method is vital for recruiting and managing Salesforce Talent (using a scientific basis). In other words it provides a strong support for Human Resources in the following tasks:

 

• RECRUITING SELLERS.  In an automatic way, the company may filter candidates who   have fulfilled the requisites of experience and training and who are closer to the PDA profile defined. .
• REGISTER THE POTENTIALTALENT OF CURRENT SELLERS IN THE COMPANY.   Identifying the differences between their profile and the ideal profile.  Knowing who has the potential to do the job properly and who, due to their distance would find it very difficult to properly work as the currently needed seller.
• PLANNING TRAINING AND NEEDED DEVELOPMENT for those who have potential and planning substitutions.
• MONITORING RESULTS AND EVALUATIONS versus POTENTIAL….  this can implicate and impact on leadership as a variable.

 

Therefore, it is also important to know what the requirements for leaders of Sellers from the “new generation” are and to define their PDA profile as the following process after Sellers.

 

POSIBILITIES TO GO BEYOND

 

Witnessing this process grants valuable possibilities, as the methodology is not limited to Sellers positions. Any position, particularly those who have many people working on, can be adjusted to this method. In addition, it is useful to use the method for jobs with one or a few persons, such as executive positions, as it is possible to match candidates’ natural behaviour with the behaviour demanded by the job, improving staff’s performance in every organization.

 

We refer to natural behaviour as, according to PDA, one of the main goals is to reach labour success by having fully satisfied and motivated employees, placing them in jobs that allow them to behave according to “their nature”.  Success, in PDA standards is having people being “who they naturally are”, taking advantage of the behavioural strengths at work… and even in their personal lifes.

 

This focus coincides with an expression from William Reddin, a scientist on organizational effectiveness who used to say: “effectiveness increases as people focus on doing what they do easily and well. When this is achieved, individual flaws disappear and good qualities stand out”.

 

 

http://blog.pdainternational.net/2011/04/agigante-la-productividad-de-su-fuerza.html?m=1