Topgrading for Sales: World-class Methods to Interview, Hire and Coach Top Sales Representatives By Bradford Smart and Greg Alexander
Published this month by Penguin’s business imprint, Portfolio, Topgrading for Sales takes Smart’s popular topgrading principles and applies them to the hiring and retention of sales reps. Sales has too long been an art, say authors Smart and Alexander. The unfortunate result is that 40% of sales reps fail to meet their stated annual sales goals and 40% leave their current job each year. Businesses incur staggering financial costs to replace under-performers and those who move on.
If you don’t believe me, there is a simple worksheet provided in the book that will quickly provide all the proof you need. Just plug in your own numbers and prepare to be horrified.
Topgrading, a term coined by Smart, means packing your sales team with high performing “A-players”. These individuals meet and exceed sales goals. They are innovative, easy to coach, function well as part of a team, are talent magnets, sell products and services at higher prices, and keep customers happy. Most businesses have no more than 25% A-players. Smart and Alexander promise that an organization applying topgrading principles will increase the A-player ranks to 80% and even 90%. Along the way, they will save time and money in the hiring process, and increase shareholder value.
The steps a sales manager or VP is instructed to follow seem simple. Carefully profile the job you are filling, an exercise the authors call creating a “job scorecard”. Next, conduct a talent review to assess and rank your current sales team. When it’s time to hire, use your networks and contacts to establish a “virtual bench” of candidates (this is a long-term, relationship-building exercise), as well as using other means to find potential hires. Pre-screen your top 30 candidates by emailing them a Career History Form. Based on the responses received, further screen eight of the candidates by conducting 30-minute phone interviews. Finally, conduct intensive face-to-face interviews with three or four final candidates. “Topgrading interviews”, which can last up to three hours, are done by a two-person interview team. In addition, Smart and Alexander recommend conducting up to five “round-robin” interviews with panels made up of various teams who have a particular interest in the new hire. Each round-robin interview focuses on one core competency that is critical to the sales position.
A key to securing A-player new hires, Smart and Alexander assert, is ensuring that your three or four top candidates are asked to arrange reference calls with each of their supervisors from the past decade. Since candidates are told early in the process that they will be asked to arrange reference calls, they are encouraged to be honest. More important, however, is the authors’ belief that only A-players will risk having you speak with their previous supervisors. It’s a way of eliminating inferior candidates without doing much at all.
The most useful parts of this book are the helpful appendices, which provide the forms and list the questions to ask a candidate during each stage of the interview process. While some of the questions refer specifically to sales rep positions, most of the sample questions would strengthen any job interview. Smart and Alexander have provided readers with a ready-to-go interview kit, complete with a Career History Form for the email component, a phone interview template, and the “topgrading interview” form, which is full of interesting, insightful questions.
The book seems a little light in its guidance on elements outside of the screening and interview process. There is scant information on creating the “job scorecard”, conducting the talent review, and coaching existing employees and new hires. Luckily, where Topgrading for Sales drops the ball, Sage Portfolio Group picks it up and runs with it. We offer job profile, talent audit and coaching programs that will make sure you are looking for the right people and can support them once they’ve come on board. Smart and Alexander provide you with the interview questions; let Sage Portfolio Group help you do the rest. For more information on Sage Portfolio Group’s hiring and coaching products, contact us at info@sageportfoliogroup.com.
