The DNA of Peak Performers

According to Peak Sales Recruiting, a sales recruiter with focus and subject matter expertise, there are certain characteristics or "DNA" to look for when trying to hire a top performer. In their white paper, Hire to Win, Recruiting Peak Performing Sales Reps, (September 2007), Peak Sales Recruiting identifies these "winning" attributes as: results-oriented, positive in outlook and disposition, competitive, systematic, and extremely focused on the customer.

"Companies that can recruit and screen for these traits will be much more successful in hiring top salespeople than those that focus on past experience," states the white paper.

So, how can you recruit for these specific attributes? "There are two key strategies when searching for peak performers," explains the paper, "looking in the right places and recognizing gold from a distance."

Strategy One: Look in the right places.

The first thing to realize is that most of the candidates you seek to hire aren’t actively looking for a new position, says Peak Sales Recruiting. You need to find them and the best way to do that, they assert, is through offline, not online recruiting.

"The majority of peak performers are not found on job boards, and do not generally respond to postings (unless a posting is forwarded to them by someone in their network)," states the white paper. "The most effective searches for peak performers are through offline networking. This is where recruiters, especially a domain-specific recruiter, can accelerate the search significantly. Recruiters’ networks are bigger, and they invest in maintaining and expanding them."

If a company decides not to use an outside recruiter, Peak Sales Recruiting offers these words of wisdom:

"Ensure [you] leverage the networks of [your] existing sales team and others, through employee referral programs and other means," states the paper. "If staffing enough sales roles, companies should be proactively populating and maintaining candidate databases and using the people in these databases as the starting point for searches."

You can supplement this recruiting effort through online sources such as Linkedin, Google, ZoomInfo and SalesLadder, but know that the majority of your recruiting leads will come "word of mouth."

Strategy Two: Recognizing gold from a distance.

"Keep in mind certain elements in a sales resume that very quickly tell the story behind the story," states the white paper. Here are the suggested elements:

• Numbers. A salesperson has one goal, generating revenue. The results should be spelled out explicitly in a resume.
• Winners. Awards, achievements, big wins.
• Value proposition. Peak performers always know why you should hire them, and they tell you why right up front.
• Pedigree. While some companies lend too much weight to "experience" there is still value in hiring from companies that hire well. If you know of a company that hires well in sales, and cultivates a winning attitude, consider any candidates whose resumes demonstrate they have been successful in that environment.

Finally, stack up all this against the reps’ past experience, says the company. Consider the offering, path to the market, sales approach, sales cycle, deal size, territory, sales responsibility, market stage and company stage when analyzing experience. Follow these guidelines and you’re on your way to hiring your next peak performer.

To download and read the entire white paper, visit www.peaksalesrecruiting.com.