Patrick Ropella

Patrick Ropellahas a global perspective and extensive experience with Executive Search and Talent Management, covering Sourcing, Marketing to, Assessing, Recruiting, on-boarding, Retaining, Training and Transforming top talent. For over 25 years, he has worked across all roles and functions, cascading from the top levels of Board and C-suite management to also placing apprentices coming straight out of college.

Patrick also writes for a wide variety of trade publications, newspapers and business journals on subjects related to the topics covered in his latest book, The Right Hire.

“…gives us proven principles and focused strategies to identify, attract, motivate and measure talent in any field …If you need relief fast, read and put into practice what’s in this book.”

Gerry Roche, SR. Chairman, Heidrick & Struggles

“With over 30 years of experience in C-suite executive recruiting across industries, I would recommend this book to any organization serious about finding and hiring the best talent in the market…”

David Hoffmann, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of DHR International, a Top 5 retained executive search firm

“…It is startling then that there has never been a truly comprehensive business book on how to go about the process of hiring. Pat Ropella is filling a big void with The Right Hire – a must have handbook for effective hiring.”

Sylvia MacArthur, President - IRC Global Executive Search Partners

I am currently… A Sales Person A Sales Manager A Director/VP of Sales In transition Retired

Years of professional experience… 0 to 5 years 5 to 10 years More then 10 years Don’t ask – don’t tell Retired

“With an excellent team of motivated sales people, the bottom line of any company can be made to show a strong profit – month after month – and oftentimes even when the economy is not very strong.”

Warren Buffett, Chairman Berkshire Hathaway

While you already know about the need for top-notch sales professionals, what you may not know is how to ensure that you attract, hire and motivate the right sales people.

That’s the “ART FORM” we are going to explore most in this webinar.

Hiring the “Right” People Is Essential to

Success and Profit

Why Focus on Hiring the Right Sales People? 1. According to the Rain Maker Group:

Top sales producers outperform lower end producers by 4 to 5 times as much profit.

In most companies, the top producers only equal about 20 percent of the sales force.

How does this compare for your business?

What does this mean for your business? – The bottom line…Retraining and/or Replacing the other 80 percent would make a drastic difference in the amount of annual profit that your company could make.

So… identify your Low, Middle & High Producers. Then spend 50% of your time with the High,

25% retraining the Middle, and 25% replacing the Low Producers.

What is the Potential Difference if All Your Salespeople were Top Producers?

Start with 20% Top Sales Producers = 80% Profit

Replace 80% Mid & Low with Top Producers 100% Top Producers = 320% Profit Growth (4 more 20%’er groups x 80% = 320% more PG)

The downside of retaining low producers in your company“Low producers are actually costing you between two and three times their annual salary – that’s a serious loss that you cannot continue to afford in this, or any economy for that matter. If, for instance, they are being paid $50,000 annually, then it is actually costing your company between $100,000 and $150,000 to keep them – each year.”

Mike Stewart CSP, in white paper Pre-Hiring Assessment of Salespeople.

With such a high cost involved with hiring the wrong people, can your company afford to keep making the same hiring mistakes?$100,000 to $150,000 per low producer!

“By eliminating the guesswork in your hiring practices, over time you can develop that winning sales team that will dynamically change your company in terms of profit, motivation, and growth.”

What the “Right” Sales People Look Like

“Selling is rewarding for people who are outgoing, ego-driven, empathic, confident, reasonably conscientious and willing to take risks. If you are managing salespeople, you want to make sure that you’re starting with those qualities.

Because you can’t give them to anybody.”Herb Greenburg, Harold Weinstein, Patrick Sweeney – Caliper, Fish Gotta Swim

“It’s not a job match made in heaven until all four of the motivational reinforcers are firing on all four cylinders.

Nobody likes feeling like they’re at a dead end job. Not even people who are nearing the ends of their careers.

We all have a need to feel that there’s something more to be had.”

Herb Greenburg, Harold Weinstein, Patrick Sweeney – Caliper, Fish Gotta Swim

“A really good job match for both parties is one where individuals are doing what they’re best suited to do, the money is good and the material incentives are focused.

Also there is recognition and status provided for the contributions being made and there is a mutual investment in retaining, developing and promoting the talent pool.”


Why it’s important to get the “Right”

salespeople… in the right seats on the bus.

“Changes at all the world class sales forces are continuously in process.

Customers did not credit these top sales forces with perfection… just being closer to it than their competitors.”

HR Challey, How to Select A Sales Force that Sells

HR Challey’s interviews with more than 1,000 corporate customers established three major needs that customers expected vendors and sellers to address:Narrow their own focus and outsource the rest – without additional cost of supervising their suppliers.Expect suppliers to understand their business well enough to create products they could not design or create for themselves.Proof (hard evidence) that suppliers have added value in excess of price.


Critical Salesperson SkillsTo fulfill the above needs, corporate customers judged sales forces on seven factors (In order of importance):Personally managing our satisfaction.Understanding our business.Recommending products and applications expertly.Providing technical and training support.Acting as a customer advocate. Solving logistical and political problems.Finding innovative solutions to our needs.


Sales professionals can clearly be divided into two groups: hunters and farmers.

Hunters Do what it takes to seek out & make new contacts Aggressive, Pioneers, who love challenges.Great at generating new customers and developing new business prospects.

Farmers Are more laid back – great team playersPrefer to work with contacts they already haveDevelops long-term relationships and maintains them

Attract the “Right” Sales People

Through Employment Branding

How can you use employment branding to attract the right people?Three things are needed to make it work for you:An in-house reputation that matches your career web pages is crucial. Then, when potential candidates meet your employees, see your ads, or visit your tradeshow booth, they will be attracted – if they match.During interviews, meeting staff… hearing a uniform message of how good it is to work there – it will attract some and repel others.

What happens when you do not have the right hiring systems in place and a good employment brand?

Employers end up spending more money and time to get the right potential candidates.

It takes longer to fill empty positions - right. More frequent turnover of sales positions.

Bernard Hodes Group: Recruitment Process: Keys to Success

When developing your employer brand, D. Mark Hornung suggests hiring a third party group to evaluate your messaging because…

Employees may not say what they really feel to their employers.Company personnel may not ask the right questions of employees.

You must have the right information to build the brand you need!

White Paper: Employer Branding as the Foundation for Organizational Success

How to Find Incentives That Actually Work

The right incentives can powerfully motivate your existing sales force – but you must find the ones that will motivate your “individual” people.

In other words… one size/type/program does not fit all.

Do you know how to determine which incentives will work for Bob vs. Sue?

Because of dramatic differences in personality (Hunters vs. Farmers) and goals (Revenue vs. Profits) , the incentive (Cash vs. Recognition vs. Education) that works for one would be almost meaningless to motivate the other.

To make an incentive work, it … Must be geared to drive the results for the type of individual that you want to motivate. For new hires, you must gear the incentives so that they will attract the type of new sales people that you want to hire.

The Benefits of Having the “Right” Incentives

The right incentives will accomplish four things…Provide your company with a constant flow of new people – employee referrals.

Enable you to retain your top people.

Cause you to receive more resumes from top people – even competitors wanting to work for you.

By asking, you can also learn what other companies are using for incentives.

What makes a good incentive package?Includes long- and short-term goals.Should be aligned with individual and business performance. Long-term goals should be aligned with

Shareholder interests… &Retaining your people

“When a well-structured incentive program is established, the revenue will ultimately increase to between three to ten times as much as the cost of the incentives.”

Ed Galonek at Selling Power.

When the right pay & incentives are aligned with the right type of people, the Hay Group found that the best two benefits were:

Better alignment with business strategy - 61%.

Improved company or team performance - 40%.

Four other benefits of using the right pay incentives were:Reinforced specific business priorities - 25%.Improved individual performance - 25%.Ensured retention - 15%.Higher compliance with regulations or governance requirements - 6%.

A word of caution from the Hay Group:“Financial awards may have some potentially serious limitations. One of these is that it may tend "to disengage the majority of employees, who are motivated by more than financial success and who want to be part of an enterprise, goal or employment brand they can believe in."

Your results will be different when motivating an individual – or a team:

Motivating an individual may enable you to increase performance in a group by 22%, says a SITE survey.

However offering an incentive to a team, or to the company as a whole, can bring about synergy and drive an increase of 44%.

Here are some other incentives that are commonly used to motivate people today:Family gift items or gift cards.Additional annual leave.Special organizational benefits.Vouchers for further education, childcare, parental heath care, maid service, etc.

More incentives:Special trips, cruises, sport event tickets, spas, and special weekends.Electronics, or certificates for electronic stores.Jewelry – watches, rings, crystal, clocks, etc.

Two unique incentives:Cars – drive a Lincoln for a year, do good next year – keep the car. Or a two-day tour at Road Atlanta – driving a Grand Prix racer. Recognition – at annual sales meetings. Showing people where they stand in relation to others – quickly and easily can be a powerful motivator. So create a day in their honor, offer special parking spot, access to country club. (About 75% of employees expect recognition these days.)

One really special incentive:“Run Through the Warehouse,” – Maritz Enterprises, winners get 2 minutes to run through a 400,000 sq.ft. consumer products warehouse – grabbing as much merchandise as they can carry.

Surveys Say… The most valuable incentive is…Based on multiple surveys done by: Monster.com, Workforce Management Magazine, and the SHRM Association…

Younger employees consider the most valuable incentive to be continuing education, mentoring, personal growth & self development. Like: on the job training courses, online education, seminars, retreats, team building, ex. coaching, etc… When they say “my company doesn’t support me” – often this is what they really mean.

Ideal Sales Career Motivators“People who are most successful and content in their chosen profession have managed to satisfy all of their different motivators:

ActivityMaterialSocialGrowth.” *


In Summary - How to hire the right people?Design your employer brand and continuously develop it.Then carefully assess talent to make sure they line up with your employment brand and personality type needed.Then carefully choose your incentives so that they will match the sales goals and individuals circumstances and personality type you are attempting to motivate.

Are you currently seeking new sales representatives? Yes - actively searching and ready to interview Yes - semi-active and open to interviewing Not looking - but willing to take calls and listen

to presentations of top sales talent No, am very happy with my team - have zero

interest or time to consider making any hires

* If you are active in your search.Has the improving economy, over the last 4 to 6 months, affected your sales hiring activity? Yes - I have been conducting many more sales

interviews. Some – I’ve seen a small increase in occasional

interview opportunities. Not really – it seems about the same as the

past couple of years.

Have you worked with recruiters in the last couple of years? Yes, at least once No, it’s been more than 3 years No, I’ve never had the opportunity to work

with recruiters I won’t work with recruiters – had a bad

experience

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Patrick Ropella