I once met a rather hard core sales dude who was mentored by another hard core sales dude. One day he shared a philosophy he felt to be appropriate with regard to hiring sales reps.
“Paulie (my maiden name) you bring them in by the masses, put them through classes and if that doesn’t work . . . you fire their asses!”
This was shared with me back in a far away time called “1996” which makes me want to ask you, Sales Playbook community . . .
Does this mentality still exist today and if so . . . is it a good thing or a bad thing?
Over to you!
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There are a lot of insurance companies who do this. Perhaps that is why I receive 5 to 10 job alerts per day from insurance companies and from financial planning companies.
The recruiters know most of the people they hire will try to sell their friends and family first. When running out of people they know, they exit the business. In the meantime, the insurance company has more insurance customers on the books.
If you had $250,000 to $1 million to invest and to be managed, would you hand your hard earned money to a financial planner with less than a month’s experience? I rather doubt it. Sales people need to think about this before they try the financial planning industry.
On the surface, I would disagree with the statement. Getting down on a deeper level, when does it become a student mentality issue? If you keep someone around who clearly isn’t a good fit for sales, you’re doing everyone a disservice. That said, anyone that is clearly trying and putting in the effort, deserves a fair shot. In my first sales job, I was sent on 7+ “re-trains” to mold me into the salesman I am today. I’ve never forgotten that, or what it feels like when someone who is KILLING it in the field takes time out to show you what works for them.
Yes we have to hold them accountable but there aren’t “masses” of qualified candidates to replace the “asses” who can’t cut it. Not to mention the time and expense invested in a new hire. Bottom line is we have to make better hiring decisions. Please share your thoughts.