By Chris Young - The Rainmaker, Mar 24, 2016 6:00:00 AM

Bob was my third and worst hire ever.

In 2000 I was responsible for building the sales team for an online learning start-up.

Bob was my third hire. He was a referral from a trusted and respected friend. Bob interviewed well, said all the right things, and had glowing references.

As we grew the business over the first six months, Bob did absolutely everything I asked of him and more. 

Everyone loved Bob.  

There was just one problem. Bob could not sell online training software. He had the same sales training and far, far more coaching than the rest of the sales team. 

Bob had tenacity in spades but lacked talent. He was not credible with key decision-makers.

Unfortunately, I hired Bob before I discovered the power of multi-science sales personality testing. In fact, my failure in hiring Bob is one of the reasons why I began my quest to identify the best sales personality testing available to improve the sales hiring process.

I know you are wondering... If Bob had just hung on a little longer, would he have redeemed himself.The truth is if Bob continued to try to sell online training software for the next 100 years, he would never ever catch those that actually could.  

By Chris Young - The Rainmaker, Mar 1, 2016 5:45:00 PM

"May I speak with the business owner?"

The number on my cell phone screen suggested the call was local. When I answered I was met by a long period of silence. Just as I was about to hang up I heard, "May I speak with the business owner?" 

The call was definitely not local.

Click. 

I was so gone. The cold caller had no chance to respond. They didn't deserve my time. Every ounce of my being was behind my pointer finger as I immediately hung up.

I thought to myself how sad as a salesperson it must be to have a:

• Sales job that allows this kind of mindless approach to prospecting.
• Sales manager who does not care to or does not have the skills to provide better script coaching.

Perhaps I should have allowed the call to continue long enough to ask the caller if they have access to LinkedIn in their country.

I wondered how disappointing a sales manager must feel if they are unable find the kind of salespeople capable of thinking beyond such a futile cold calling script.