Hiring and Trainingthe Strongest Originators

Presenters:Brad Harmon, CLP – First Star Capital

Scott A. Wheeler, CLP – Wheeler Business Consulting

Recruiting, Hiring & Training (RHT) Quality Talent

All size organizations, all markets, all segments of the industry are

faced w/ the challenge

Organizations must have an executable RHT plan in place to

succeed in the market

The Number #1 Challenge

How Do You Find Eagles …

Eagles: strong originators that will take your organization to the next level

When all applicants (and even some of the current staff) are Turkeys?

Turkeys: originators that never fly, makes lots of noise, and are being prepared to be eaten (by the competition)

Metaphor is compliment of: Mel Kleiman of Humetrics

Positives• May bring a portion of

their business to your company

• Less ramp-up time• Less training required• Provide new expertise to

the organization• Immediate returns

Negative• Usually higher up-font cost (salary, head hunter, commissions)• The % of book of business transferred is usually smaller than hoped.• May disturb internal culture• Company’s products don’t truly align with originator’s marketing • Often hard to train old veterans• You may hire someone else’s TURKEY

Hiring Experience (with a book of business)

Positives• Usually less up-front cost (salary,

head-hunter, commissions)• Can mold into the culture of

organization• Train to the company’s capabilities• The ramp-up time is back to a

manageable period (6-12 months)• Have potential to become long-

term, great employees

Negatives• Difficult to hire correctly• Requires up-front and cont. training• Significant investment of time, money and internal resources • Typical high turnover rate (ongoing process)• After you train, these employees become attractive candidates for your competitors• Companies with poor RHT processes continue to develop internal TURKEYS

Hiring New Entries

Is a continuous process Best hires are when you aren’t looking

Referrals from existing employees are optimal

Companies have a well defined profile of attributes necessary to succeed

(They don’t make exceptions)

Hiring is a two way street(both employee and employer must be enthusiastic – no

surprises)

Hiring is one of the most important responsibilities of a strong manager (owner)

If you hire “Right” - managing, training and retaining is EASY

Successful Hiring

• Large lessor hires 16 seasoned sales reps. around the country. All have 10+ years of experience in the specific sectors and markets that the lessor hires them for.

• 15 months later - only 3 of the 16 are fully meeting or exceeding company’s desired goals (not a good ROI).

• 75% of the Company’s other sales professionals are meeting their goals.

What is the Solution?1) Hiring process needs to be revamped. Great professionals may be mismatched. 2) Additional up-front testing for alignment of employee/employer’s capabilities, products, value proposition and culture.3) Even experienced professionals need initial direction and training.4) Goals, expectations need to be detailed and a plan derived up-front.

Extreme Situation

Always be looking for your next superstar.

View the interview process as a test and don’t hire anyone that doesn’t ace your test.

Require any candidate to spend time observing your operations.Then ask what they liked, didn’t like and what did they learn.

Highly recommend personality testing. They work and people don’t change. Know what personalities work within your operation. (There

are most likely many different ones.)

Right when a candidate is ready to accept the job – tell them the toughest part of the position. If you can talk them out of the job at this

point - then they are the wrong hire.

Don’t ever hire a warm body. Always be excited about the potential that the candidate will offer your

company.

Always strive to hire people smarter, more experienced and better than you are.

They will be your eagles.

A Few Hiring Tips

• Tell me what your primary responsibilities were in your last position when you started? And what are your responsibilities currently (or when you left)?

• Successful professionals attract (create) additional responsibility over time. (Turkeys continue to do the same thing day in and day out.)

• The ability to increase responsibilities reflects self-starter professional who delivers results.

A Favorite Interviewing Question

Best performing companies offer an environment to grow and succeed

Best employees embrace personal development both internally and

externally

If individuals aren’t growing professionally then they and their

companies are becoming less effective

Why Do Companies Provide Ongoing Training?

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11 Five Attributes to be a Well Positioned Sales Professional

Total customer knowledge

Broad and complete understanding of structures and pricing

Equipment knowledge

Financial analysis and credit knowledge

Ability to consistently prospect and market to the “Right” vendors and end-users

Rank each of your existing sales professionals on a scale of 1-5The process will quickly indentify strengths and weaknessesTrain in each category to improve individual and group performance

Training includes:

Initial training for professionals new to the business.This training should be highly structured and last weeks -

not days or hours.

Daily coaching and encouragement. Some professionals need more coaching than others. Not all professionals

are the same - great coaching is individualized.

Routine specific training to address new challenges, new products, new niches, new equipment and industry types.

Training and coaching should be facilitated by internal and external sources that support one another.

Annual planning and expectation meetings.

Training for New Hires to the Industry

Most successful companies have a well defined training regimen -

that includes all aspects of the internal process

New hires should work in different departments:Credit, Documentation, Funding, and Sales -with actual hands-on tasks & responsibilities

Sales professionals should have daily engagement with customers from day one

It’s important that new hires understand the industry - and where their company fits

It is always best to hire groups of professionals ( 2 to 3) to encourage group learning, competition and support

Training for Industry Veterans

In 2014 many veteran sales professionals are in need of executive coaching to help them move to

the next level of production.

Marketing and sales requirements have been significantly changed in past few years, especially

related to automation and efficiencies.

Some veterans, who were highly successful in the past, are falling behind. Individual attention need to be provided to these professionals. Their Personal

Value Propositions need to be updated.

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Example: Training for a small ticket co. - young sales staff

Marketing Staff - all with less than 3 years experienceCurrent introductions weren’t working

(begging for business)

Changed introduction to a Value Proposition Trained as a group and individually to sell PVP

Developed a specific program to encourage up-selling on every transaction – Company provided daily encouragement to effectively sell program

Training & Results re-energized entire staffCompany used internal and external training to support

efforts

Daily applications nearly doubled in less than 90 days Application size has increased significantly in 120 days

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Example: Training for a large ticket co. - veteran sales staff

Marketing Staff - all with 10+ years experienceIneffective in developing NEW LARGER RELATIONSHIPS

Trained to create self- directed campaigns to penetrate specific accounts and 30/60/90 day accountability plans

2/3 of staff submitted detailed 30/60/90 daycampaigns with specific accountability benchmarks

90 days into the program - Company is seeing real results

Best feedback is that campaigns have encouraged better penetration into existing accounts and Team can point to

specific new transactions as a result of the attitude change

The potential in the commercial equipment leasing industry is growing for those companies that are well positioned in the industry.

Industry leaders are constantly RECRUITING top talent.Industry leaders are HIRING the very best professionals with the “right” attributes.

Industry leaders are “properly ” TRAINING all of their sales professionals.