Is Your New Sales Hire Coachable?
DR. EVE GRODNITZKY IS a research psychologist and works with organizations all over the world. I had the good fortune of hearing her speak. During her presentation, she asked the audience a provocative question around hiring.
“Are you in the behavior-modification business or in the behavior-selection business?”
That’s a great question. Sales leaders often get stuck in the role of psychologist and psychotherapist because they didn’t hire coachable salespeople, individuals who are comfortable with performance feedback.
Have you ever noticed that everyone says they want feedback—until they receive it? I’ve observed more than one CEO and sales manager waste valuable time and energy trying to coach a non-coachable salesperson. This type of salesperson has a high need to be right, difficulty admitting mistakes, and gets defensive when receiving well-intended feedback.
Managing a non-coachable salesperson is exhausting. And unfortunately, many sales managers give in to exhaustion and stop giving feedback. They slowly allow unacceptable selling behaviors and attitudes to creep into their sales culture, creating status quo and mediocre sales teams. Non-coachable salespeople cost sales organizations thousands of dollars.
The Corporate Executive Board conducted a study showing that companies that fostered honest and open feedback produced a return over a ten-year period that was 270 percent higher than those that didn’t. That number should motivate all of us to get serious about hiring coachable salespeople, ones who seek out feedback rather than push back on feedback.
In my years of working with hundreds of sales organizations, I have found important emotional intelligence skills to look for in the interview process to determine if your sales candidate is coachable.
#1. Self-Regard and Self-Esteem
In the emotional intelligence world, this is defined as “an inner confidence.” A salesperson with true confidence has the ability to accept and admit strengths and weaknesses. These individuals refuse to participate in the blame game. They’re responsible and accountable for their actions and outcomes.
Sales organizations employing high self-regard individuals move fast because these are “raise your hand” cultures. Confident salespeople raise their hand, admit mistakes, and ask for advice on how to prevent or solve problems. CEOs and sales managers can immediately focus time and energy on improving a situation rather than scrambling to find a solution because they discovered a problem too late.
Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, authors of The Orange Revolution, How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization, share a great example in their book about the power of “raise your hand” cultures. They interviewed Scott Beare, a pilot who flew with the elite Blue Angels flying unit. Scott explained that after the live demonstration of daring maneuvers, the entire group of pilots got together to debrief. They went over every mistake and miscommunication in an environment of total honesty. Here’s what really caught my attention. Beare said, “If I was flying too low or a half-second off my mark, either I tell the group or they tell me.”
That is a coachable culture. You have some of the most talented pilots in the world who are open to admitting mistakes and learning. They don’t hide mistakes or wait for someone to discover errors. They raise their hands.
Patty McCord, author of Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, shares stories of her fourteen years at Netflix as chief talent officer. Patty said that open sharing of criticism was one of the hardest parts of the Netflix culture for new employees to get used to. Patty calls it radical honesty. Netflix continues to grow at an astonishing rate and I contend one of the reasons is because of their culture of feedback, coachability, and making necessary changes quickly.
#2. A Growth Mindset
Carol Dweck is the author of Mindset: Changing the Way You Think to Fulfill Your Potential. In her groundbreaking research, Dweck shared the difference between people with a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. People with a growth mindset believe they can learn and change. These individuals welcome feedback because they see it as a necessary tool to continue on their path of personal and professional improvement. They are coachable.
Avoid hiring the fixed mindset salesperson. As you might have already concluded, this salesperson exhibits the opposite traits. They are not used to failing (or admitting they’ve failed) so they avoid challenges. These individuals spend most of their time confirming their intelligence rather than improving their intelligence. Their focus is on making sure you know how smart they are, which limits their desire (or ability) to ask for coaching. The smartest people in the room quickly become the dumbest people in the room.
#3. Humble and Coachable
I’ve found that the most successful sales leaders are humble leaders. You’re probably one of those sales leaders because you’ve picked up yet another book to learn how to be better, do better. Humble sales leaders don’t subscribe to their own press releases. They give credit to others easily and limit the attention directed toward their accomplishments. Humble sales leaders are great team players and build great sales teams.
But here is where I see a big disconnect in sales organizations. Humble sales leaders seem to think it’s okay to hire self-absorbed, arrogant salespeople. I’ve heard more than one CEO and sales manager state that top salespeople are high-maintenance prima donnas. “It just goes with the territory.”
I am going to vehemently challenge that belief. Do self-absorbed, arrogant salespeople build great sales cultures? Will high-maintenance salespeople create a work environment where other people want to show up to work every day? No and no.
CEOs and sales managers recognize and preach the importance of team. They list core values on the website or on office walls. Unfortunately, the message on the website or office walls never hits the halls because companies don’t test and interview potential sales candidates for humility. This results in hiring arrogant, non-coachable salespeople who wreak havoc on the sales culture.
Hogan Assessments, a leading maker of workplace personality tests, is launching a new twenty-item scale designed to measure humility in job seekers and leaders. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Sherman, chief science officer for the company, shared, “Most of the thinking suggests leaders should be charismatic, attention-seeking, and persuasive. Yet, such leaders tend to ruin their companies because they take on more than they can handle, are overconfident, and don’t listen to feedback from others.”
Hmmm, sounds like a common problem that also occurs in hiring salespeople.
Here’s another great reason to test and interview your candidate for humility. Every sales consultant, sales speaker, and trainer teaches the importance of active listening. But deep listening requires humility. Arrogant salespeople think they know everything so they don’t listen to anything!
Humble salespeople are open to learning from peers and customers. They have a willingness to hear diverse views and suggestions. This openness leads to innovative thinking, disruptive thinking, and thought leadership thinking. Humility drives revenues.
A Little Humble Pie Goes a Long Way
Many years ago, I was working with a business owner and he shared with me a recent misfire on a new salesperson. The salesperson was smart and hardworking. The resume was a solid track record of year over year success. She had earned all the award trips and clubs. His business was a new industry for the salesperson, which required learning new selling skills and approaches to winning the right type of business.
During the first one-on-one coaching session, the owner sat down to give the salesperson feedback and advice on a couple of deals that didn’t close. He was patient, knowing that the losses were due to lack of experience in the industry. He quickly learned his new hire was lousy at receiving feedback. The approach didn’t seem to make a difference. The business owner tried the “sandwich method.” You know, the approach of sharing something positive, an area of improvement, and wrapping up the conversation with something positive. He quickly discovered his new hire didn’t like sandwiches of any sorts. She would immediately place the blame on the business owner for her lack of success. Or respond with each piece of advice given with, “Yeah, but . . .”
My client quickly realized he lacked the time—and therapy skills—to develop this salesperson. I was not involved in the hiring process so I asked my client what he missed in the hiring process. “I ignored my gut. There were red flags that told me that this salesperson was a little arrogant. I chalked up the arrogance to youthfulness when in reality it was a serious character flaw.”
Emotionally intelligent sales teams are humble teams and competitive teams. And don’t think you can’t have both qualities, because we work with these types of sales organizations every day. We disqualify arrogant companies and people because we can’t teach them anything!
Go back to chapter three. Every candidate you hire has their “something.” When interviewing, get very clear on your nonnegotiables and what you are willing or not willing to accept. Ask the really tough question. Is this candidate coachable?
Sales EQ Interview Questions
1. Tell me about a time when you really screwed up. What did you learn? How did you apply the lesson learned moving forward? (Confident and humble salespeople have plenty of stories to share.)
2. What do you attribute your success to? (Listen to see if they give credit to mentors, peers, parents, or colleagues—or if they attribute all success to themselves.)
3. Share with me your biggest weakness. (Listen to see if the candidate gives you an arrogant answer, one that actually positions their biggest weakness as a strength. “I’m just too organized.”)
4. Give me an example of the toughest feedback you’ve ever received. What did you learn? How did you apply? (You are looking for past experience of this person receiving criticism. Did they deny the feedback or do something positive with it?)
5. Tell me about a time when you proactively sought out feedback or coaching. (Confident and humble people seek out feedback—they don’t just wait for it.)
Make your life easier as a CEO, sales manager, or business owner. You didn’t sign up to be a psychotherapist; you signed up to be a sales leader. Hire salespeople with self-regard, self-esteem, humility, and a growth mindset. Hire salespeople who value coaching and feedback because it is the breakfast of sales champions.