Episode 8

Essential Attributes Every B2B Tech Sales Rep Should Have

Summary

Dr. Jim discusses the formula for hiring and building a successful sales team. He emphasizes the importance of certain attributes in sales candidates, such as strong listening skills, curiosity, problem-solving skills, collaboration, resilience, adaptability, and drive. These attributes are crucial for sales reps to excel in their roles and consistently meet or exceed targets. Dr. Jim's blueprint for building an elite sales team has consistently paid dividends in his experience.

Take Aways

Strong listening skills are a crucial attribute for sales reps.

Curiosity allows reps to uncover the core issues that customers are facing.

Problem-solving skills and collaboration are essential for developing ideal solutions.

Resilience and adaptability enable reps to handle rejection and navigate changing landscapes.

Drive and motivation are key indicators of a successful sales candidate.

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Connect with Dr. Jim: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

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BEST Intro

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Transcript
Dr. Jim: [:

Unfortunately, the reality is that most sales organizations aren't performing at this level. In fact, the recent data shows that it's typical for most US sales teams. To have a quota attainment that's somewhere in that 30% range, that means seven out of 10 of your reps are not meeting expectations or meeting goals, and that's a problem.

an't afford to have. Members [:

What are the attributes that you should be looking at?

Here are the things that I would look for. Having built several elite sales teams across multiple industries. The things that I look for, provide a blueprint. For a lot of folks to apply in their environments. First and foremost, one of my highest priorities is to determine if the person that I'm considering hiring has really strong listening skills.

If somebody doesn't demonstrate good listening skills that's gonna be a warning sign for me.

erent layers of what they're [:

The core issue that the customer is dealing with, that leads into strong problem solving skills. So once you've actually done a good job of diagnosing your best sellers need to be able to collaborate with the people that they're working with, both on the client side and internally to develop an ideal solution for the issue that the customer is having.

The next two attributes that I look for, or you should be looking for when it comes to hiring that ideal sales candidate are resilience and adaptability. Resilience, because the nature of the job is that you're gonna get rejected over and over again. That ideal rep doesn't take that rejection personally.

and resourcefulness, so that [:

If you're looking at building a team or hiring a team of high performers, they have to be driven. So you have to have a good way of understanding what motivates this rep that you're considering hiring. They can't demonstrate a drive or a motivation, a bigger purpose that they're striving for.

in common or largely had in [:

They've had great listening skills. They've had great amounts of curiosity. They've been resilient. Their strong problem solving skills are adaptable, and they have drive. When you're looking at what's the formula for that ideal rep, look for as many of those attributes,

Obviously everybody. Who is leading a sales organization wants to build elite teams, wants to build a quota crushing machine. You have to start with the basics, and you have to look at the foundational aspects of every person that you're hiring, and ask if they fit the profile from an attributes perspective.

Of what a successful rep looks like

About the Podcast

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Building Elite Sales Teams
Secrets to Sustaining Success for Sales Leaders

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About your hosts

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Lucas Price

Lucas Price has nearly 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and executive leader. He started his career as a founder of Gravity Payments. Later, as a senior executive, he built the sales team that took Zipwhip from less than $1 million to over $100 million in ARR. He has shifted his focus to solving the waste and loss of failed sales hires.
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Dr. Jim Kanichirayil

Your friendly neighborhood talent strategy nerd is the producer and sometime co-host for Building Elite Sales Teams. He's spent his career in sales and has been typically in startup b2b HRTech and TA-Tech organizations.

He's built high-performance sales teams throughout his career and is passionate about all things employee life cycle and especially employee retention and turnover.