Every entrepreneurial manager knows the importance of effective selling. Most also understand that effectiveness revolves around talent and the ongoing challenge is to locate talent and then keep it. Integral to the keeping part is the compensation program which we covered last week with the compensation continuum. The best designed compensation program is useless, however, if it's not connected to a talented individual.

Surprisingly, when you ask many entrepreneurial managers just what they are looking for regarding sales talent, you get a wide range of very fuzzy, nonspecific traits.

Their selection process then uses this very porous filtering system and the results are predictable.

Poor choices in hiring salespeople result in negative and multiplicative consequences for the organization. So how might an entrepreneurial manager go about “tightening up” the filtering system? What are a couple of specific traits that you should look for when hiring a salesperson?

In countless conversations and contacts I’ve had over the years with salespeople, two traits emerge that clearly distinguish the good from the bad.

The first is the ability to handle rejection. Even the very best of the best salespeople do not close every sales opportunity. But one of the main reasons that they are successful is that they do not let the rejection ruin their next call.

I once chatted with a top performer about handling rejection and he shared an interesting insight. He never heard rejection. What he heard when a customer told him “no” was “an unfortunate mistake,” one that a customer was making in choosing a competitive product instead of his. He then tried to figure out how he could best help the next customer avoid making a similarly unfortunate mistake.

I once employed a person for a sales position who had virtually no experience in selling. But this individual had just returned from doing missionary work on the docks of Liverpool, and I figured if anyone could handle rejection, this young man could.

We could teach him about our products and we could teach him the mechanics of selling, but we could never teach him about handling rejection. He went on to become one of our consistently top performers.

The second trait to look for is work ethic. Sales is hard work. The image that some folks have of the lazy salesperson just sitting back and reaping significant financial benefits while working minimal hours a day is simply not true.

Top-performing salespeople view selling as almost an avocation and as with any calling, normal work hours do not apply. Whether the effort is spent in learning, training or the performance of the mechanics, there is always more to do than there is time to do them. Only individuals who are comfortable with this high degree of discipline and commitment will be successful in sales.

So next time you are interviewing prospective salespeople, give them a scenario that involves a sales rejection and then ask them to write up a response.

Pay particular attention to insights on personal identification with the sales failure and what they plan to do about it. With this information you’ll be better positioned to make an informed and potentially more successful decision.

John F. Riddell Jr., director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth-Hamilton County, writes each Tuesday about entrepreneurs and their impact on companies and the marketplace. Submit comments to his attention by writing to Business Editor John Vass Jr., Chattanooga Times Free Press, P.O. Box 1447, Chattanooga, TN 37401-1447, or by e-mailing him at business@timesfreepress.com

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