Several months ago Objective Management Group began to identify hirable candidates that are ideal - they will ramp-up more quickly than a normal hirable candidate. A normal candidate should ramp up according to this formula I devised many years ago:  

Normal Ramp Up = Length of Sales Cycle + Length of Learning Curve + 30 Days.

So an ideal candidate's ramp up time would be shortened in proportion to their score on a finding we call the Figure it Out Factor.

I thought it might be time to look at the data and see what it turns up. 

To date, exactly 6% of the candidates for non entry level positions have been ideal.

Last month we began to identify hirable candidates that are perfect - they will perform in the top 6% of the North American sales population.  In a few months, I'll look at the data for that and report back to you.

Keep in mind that, as reported in my book, Baseline Selling, our data shows that there is a small group of elite salespeople that performs at a significantly higher level than all the rest.  The size of this group is.....6%. 

What would you do if you could be patient enough to wait for only ideal or perfect candidates and you knew, without a doubt, that they would be among the elite?  how many would you hire?

(c) Copyright 2009 Dave Kurlan