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 Dave Kurlan and OMG were featured on World Business Review, hosted by General Norman Schwarzkopf. Click above to view this 3 minute segment.
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Understanding the Sales Force
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I have a single rule that I ask our sales development experts and their clients to follow: When assessing sales candidates, if for whatever reason the assessment says, "Not Hirable", then the candidate must not be hired. If the assessment says "Hirable", a candidate may still be undesirable for a handful of other reasons, but a "no is a no". Many clients push back. They talk about track record, the interview, how much their managers loved a candidate, etc. And we push right back at them. After all, our sales candidate assessments are the most accurate predictor of future sales success. Period.
I interviewed the sharpest candidate I have ever seen - in thirty years - in early October. I had some coworkers interview him too. We all came to the same conclusion - can't miss. He had it all. Except for one little detail that I failed to share with anyone. The assessment said, "not hirable".
Did I dare to violate my own rule? Did I dare to override the most accurate assessment - the one I created and enhanced and fine tuned every day for the last sixteen years? Did I dare to risk the consequences? Our own statistics show that 75% of the candidates who were not recommended but were hired anyway, fail, usually within 6 weeks. If I risked it, I would be as guilty as the sales development experts and their clents that use our assessments.
I did it anyway. He started on October 16 like a house on fire. Today, right on schedule, six weeks into his new challenge, he resigned, discouraged, broken down by his inability to meet his own unrealistic expectations. He failed. I'm embarassed. The only one who knew this would happen was my wife, the very talented marketing guru, Deborah Penta. She met him once, early on, and predicted it.
There's a moral to this story, a lesson learned right in my own back yard. If the OMG Express Screen - the Sales Candidate Assessment says, "Not Hirable", do not, under any circumstances, hire the candidate.
© Copyright 2006 Objective Management Group, Inc.
COMMENTS
You were lucky, Dave. Most of the times I've either gone against the results or had a client go against the results it takes a lot longer than 6 weeks for the end to come. Just today I had a client call who had hired against the recommendations of the screening results (they hadn't told me they did this). Nearly 1 year later they fired him and have to start over again. My client called saying he finally believes in the screening... but wouldn't this all be better if we didn't have to get burned first? Good Selling!
Exactly Kevin! That's what this assessment is for - to prevent mistakes, to prevent management from using gut instinct when the empirical data shows that using gut instinct is inconsistent at best.
Thanks for being honest Dave. Buying AND hiring are emotional processes justified intellectually. Once you get that right "feeling", the temptation is irrestible. And for those naysayers out there: Yes, it's possible a non-hirable candidate might actually work out. But the odds are almost as bad as buying a scratch-and-play lottery ticket. A $10,000 or $50,000 lottery ticket... Care to share any insights on what to say to an exec or manager that is making the hiring decision but not investing their own money? Especially if they are getting frustrated by the number of non-hirable recommendations?
Dave, Thanks for the encouragement to read the post. My first thought is: Wow, Dave is human after all. You have done a great job keeping the bar high for all of us, distributors and clients alike. We all have had to learn the lesson: A no is a no and a yes = move forward to the next step of the hiring process, but is not a guarentee. It took me three times to learn it, but what the hell, I'm a slow southern boy. Thanks for all the sacrafice you've made to make us better. Good Selling, Rocky
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