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What am I looking for when hiring A Players for my team?
May. 30th, 2009 | 08:12 am
I love when candidates ask me the question, "so what are you looking for when you hire salespeople for your team?" While I have developed a benchmark for the Account Executive - Inside Sales job at Business.com that has 24 points to it, I always reply the same way.....
"DRIVE!"
I'm looking for salespeople with Drive. I don't typically hire salespeople that have a wealth of experience in my industry. Why? Because experience with no drive is a waste of a hire. Instead, I'd rather hire somebody who is "green" or has very little experience who has tons of Drive. To me, that's a winning combination. What is drive?
Thanks to the very enlightening book Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again by Dr. Chris Croner (who is a great author and one heck of a stand up guy by the way), I now have a good grasp of what Drive means. Straight from SalesDrive.info, Drive is composed of 3 parts:
- Need for Achievment: The intense desire to attain excellence and accomplish challenging goals, found in athletes like Tiger Woods.
- Competitiveness: The unquenchable thirst to outperform one's peers, and win the customer over to your point of viw, found in athletes like Michael Jordan (of course, Chris is from Chicago. I would say athletes like Jerry Rice or Joe Montana if I had my choice) and
- Optimism: The certainty and resiliency that will not be denied, found in athletes like Lance Armstrong. Boy oh boy have I learned the importance of this one recently when hiring salespeople. Having a high need for achievement, high competitiveness but low optimism can be really tough to manage and can lead to failure.
I'll take a team of highly driven individuals with no experience and stack them up, toe to toe with highly experienced (read "I'll bring a huge Rolodex of contact and customers to your company) salespeople and I'm confident the highly driven individuals will beat them out over the long term. No question.
Check out the video below. I'm hooked.
http://www.sellingpower.com/video/?date=5/7/2
Kevin Gaither is a highly motivated, seasoned, hands-on sales executive with a 15+ year track record of consistently exceeding sales goals, building highly motivated, energized and productive sales teams, and excelling at developing new business. Kevin Gaither is a highly independent, assertive, creative and confident self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced and entrepreneurial company. Kevin Gaither has the proven ability to recruit, hire, train, retain and develop top-ranked sales teams by clearly articulating objectives using analytical thinking, reference to facts and best practices. Kevin Gaither has excellent leadership, prioritization, communication and analytical skills. Kevin Gaither has the ability to develop and clearly articulate objectives using both analytical thinking, reference to facts and best practices.
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Kevin Gaither - Los Angeles Sales Executive
Mar. 13th, 2008 | 11:36 pm
Kevin Gaither
West Hills, CA 91304 Cell: 310-804-5223 Email: kevingaither@hotmail.com
Sales Leadership / Performance Management / Delivering Revenue Growth
A highly motivated, seasoned, hands-on sales executive with a 15+ year track record of consistently exceeding sales goals, building highly motivated, energized and productive sales teams, and excelling at developing new business. A highly independent, assertive, creative and confident self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced and entrepreneurial company. Proven ability to recruit, hire, train, retain and develop top-ranked sales teams by clearly articulating objectives using analytical thinking, reference to facts and best practices. Excellent leadership, prioritization, communication and analytical skills. Has the ability to develop and clearly articulate objectives using both analytical thinking, reference to facts and best practices.
CORE LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
v Compensation Creation | v MBO | v Sales Trend Analysis |
v Sales Strategy / Execution | v Sales Training | v Top Talent Recruiting |
v Customer Retention | v Contract Negotiations | v Coaching Systems |
v Performance Management | v Motivational Skills | v Sales Force Automation |
v Revenue Growth | v Project Management | v Lead Generation Strategies |
v Change Management | v Sales Org Creation | v Public Speaking |
Professional Experience
Hand picked by Vice President, Sales to lead and develop the Inside Sales team selling cost per click (CPC) advertising on Business.com and network partners to companies ranging from small businesses to Fortune 1000. Primary decision maker responsible for hiring over 43 salespeople since 2002. At one time, directly supervised 3 Sales Managers, 25 Account Executives and 4 Account Managers (from 6 to 32 people at various times). Responsible for hiring, firing, training, coaching, motivating, scripting, goal setting, designing compensation plans and incentive contests, setting, monitoring and managing to metrics. Instrumental in helping company through start up stages, turning first profits, hitting target revenue goals that eventually led to a successful acquisition by R.H. Donnelley for $350million.
Selected Achievements:
· Recruited and trained online team that produced double-digit sales growth each year — generating $12.2MM in 2007; $9.7MM in 2006; $7.7MM in 2005, $3.9MM in 2003.
· 224% increase in revenue per client due to new sales strategy and client segmentation implemented in late 2005
· Improved proposal closing ratios from 40.9% to 59.1% in 2008 in 2004 by implementing repeatable sales process.
· 140% increase in monthly sales from September 2002 until present due to improvements in compensation plans & performance management systems.
· 99% salesperson adoption of sales force automation system (Salesforce.com)
· Achieved 121% improvement in advertiser budget increases by implementation of Monthly Cap Increase strategy including workflow, scripting and reporting.
· Reduced salesperson turnover by single-handedly creating formalized on-boarding and training program where none existed previously.
· Improved proposal turnaround time by 5 working days by leading process improvement initiative.
· Achieved record 13 new accounts per salesperson per month by creating new compensation and incentive plans.
· “Above and Beyond” award winner in 2006 recognizing work ethic and achievement.
Hired to expand boutique equipment leasing firm’s presence in Northern California within rapidly growing Silicon Valley. Maintained frequent contact and followed up with prospective and existing customers to foster strong relationships by travelling into the territory once every three weeks.
Selected Achievements:
· Funded over $5M in new business FY2000 (annual quota was $3M).
· Successfully developed several Sun Reseller partnerships to leverage new business development.
· Negotiated with Chief Financial Officers, Treasurers and Controllers in person/over the phone.
· Fully responsible for independently developing new business (including sales strategy/business plan, lead generation, pricing, contract negotiation and account management).
· ď€ Largest lease contract negotiated was $2.1million with Pacific Gateway Exchange (PGEX).
Recruited to start up equipment leasing firm. Started by bringing in new business and quickly began assisting in hiring and training new Account Executives. Created performance management tools to help management assess contact ratios, closing ratios and approval ratios. Laid foundation for company that would be an Inc. 500 company two years in a row (2001 and 2002).
Selected Achievements:
· Earned Salesperson of the Year designation by originating $7.273M in 1998 new lease commitments with a 30% closing ratio ($5million quota) and was then promoted to Sales Manager.
· Responsible for training new salespeople.
· Successfully implemented and used ACT 4.0 & Gold Mine Software to track leads.
· Assumed hiring duties (resume screening, interviewing and on-campus recruiting).
Identified and captured new equipment financing opportunities and provided exceptional service to existing clients. Successfully prospected new customers by assessing equipment finance needs of C-Level decision makers of middle market companies ($20million - $500million in annual revenues). Responsible for all facets of the lease transaction including prospecting, pricing and structuring and account management. Helped train new Account Executives on the team.
Selected Achievements:
· Generated over $9M in new lease commitments in 2.5 years.
· Performed at President’s Club level that led to Senior Account Executive promotion.
· Earned over $2million of incremental revenue by developing several vendor partnerships.
· Largest lease contract negotiated was $1.2million with Standard Management Corp.
Education
Bachelor of Science in Architectural Design ♦ University of California, Davis ♦ Davis, CA ♦ 1993
Technology Proficiencies
Windows 2000/XP ♦ Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint ♦ Salesforce.com Expert ♦ Act! ♦ Goldmine