The fact of life is that we see and find the opportunities that we believe exist. Everyone develops a worldview in the same way. First we look inside ourselves to find our view of the world and then we project that view on our outside world – the result is life is always what we expect it to be!
Salespeople come in all shapes and sizes but success in selling is overwhelmingly determined by the internal view of the world held. Salespeople who look for and expect success will, for the most part, find that success in the world – these are the sales winners! Then there are the salespeople who expect and find failure. These are the people who anticipate problems, complain about customers and consistently fail to find success – these are the sales losers!
Now, everyone can have a difficult year but a very quick look at any CV/résumé will show clearly if the candidate in front of you is a winner or a loser. Don’t hire a loser! They are toxic and will fail in your business like they have failed (or at best delivered mediocre results) in every sales role they have held.
Why do companies hire losers?
There are three main reasons companies hire losers:
1) The manager gets taken in by a smooth talking salesperson that can sell but for whatever reason or combination of reasons will not sell for their employer.
2) The manager is one of those nice people who believe in giving people chances mistakenly believing that we can give luck away. The only way to get lucky is to earn luck! If someone deserves a break, if they have earned a break then give them that break. Giving a loser a break doesn’t help anyone.
3) Greed! Sometimes the manager just doesn’t want to pay for quality. Talent has a price. It does not matter whether we are talking football players, actors, accountants or salespeople – every industry has its ‘going rate’ if you want to pay less you’re going to get less. You think you got a deal but what you really bought (for a discount) is a waste of your own time.
Do your business a favour and take the time to know the going rate for a quality salesperson, and recognise losers and hire only winners! Doesn’t your business deserve the best? Doesn’t it?
