I gave my “Sales 101 for entrepreneurs” lecture to the entrepreneurs at DreamIT Ventures in Philadelphia last week. If you aren’t familiar with them, its a TechStars / Y-Combinator style incubator that helps launch great companies on a shoe-string. It does so by providing a great environment and access to top notch mentors and experienced VC’s and entrepreneurs. I was honored to be one of their speakers this year.
During my presentation, one of the entreprenuers asked me a great question: What should I look for when I’m hiring a sales candidate?
My immediate response was, “The first and most important quality that I look for in a salesperson is that they have expensive hobbies.” Of course, this evoked quite a bit of laughter, but then I started to explain my rationale.
Most people will tell you that when you hire a salesperson, you should look for confidence, persuasiveness, an extensive rolodex, the persistence of a 2 year old , and intelligence. I say, yes all of those things are great (although I am not a believer in the rolodex-theory), but you are talking to salespeople. We are not normal. By nature, we are trained at the core to manipulate conversations, control the direction of conversations, get you to feel good about what we are saying, and convince you that the things you are looking for are not what you are looking for – but you are instead looking for the things that are good in us. Our job is to close you – to get the deal done.