Better Hiring Today

Sometimes it feels like companies make a concerted effort to drive their top-producing salespeople out of the organization and into the welcoming arms of the competition.  If you read that line and chuckle, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

After all the time and effort expended to locate, hire, and train top producers, why in the world do most companies do things that make their top salespeople quit?  In my opinion, companies don’t pay attention to the basic drivers/motivators for top producers.  If your company has a hard time holding on to salespeople, it’s probably for one of the following reasons:

• You’ve changed their compensation structure.  And not for the better.  The #1 cause of a disgruntled top producer is negative modifications to their compensation structure.  With salespeople, the comp plan is a sacred covenant - everyone agrees that these are the rules.  Top producers inevitably knock the ball out of the park, and management says, “Uh-oh.  These guys are making too much money.”  So they change the comp plan.  The usual suspects are caps on commissions (ludicrous), reducing overall commission payouts (kills trust faster than anything), and taking away clients to give to other salespeople (all that hard work, stolen away).  Please, don’t do this stuff.
• They have an unhealthy relationship with their manager.  This usually happens when the top producer’s previous boss - who was awesome - gets promoted and is replace by a less-than-awesome boss who feels like they have to prove their worth by tinkering with everything that was working.  I call this, “New Boss Syndrome.”  It goes something like this:  (1) New boss enters the picture, (2) new boss fails to take the time to build relationships with the top producers, (3) new boss says or does something to piss the top producers off, (4) new boss’ involvement actually starts to hinder the top producers’ ability to produce (read:  mandatory attendance at excessive and pointless “sales meetings”), (5) top producer starts accepting headhunter phone calls, (6) they leave. 
• You’ve increased their risk.  This risk may be caused by poor company financial performance, a merger or buyout, or an overall macro decline in the size of the market for the product or service that they’re selling.  This one’s a bit more difficult to counter, and I mention it only because you need to pay twice the attention to top producers when a broad-based decline hits your industry.  They begin to consider that move to Career X that they’ve always dreamed about.

These things are what headhunters are trained to watch for when calling your salespeople.  If they perceive that one of the above is going on, they’ll zero in on your top producers like a missile.

The truth about top producers is that if their ego is sufficiently stroked, if they are fed with good marketing support, if their comp plan is solid, and if you get the heck out of their way, then they’ll be happily making your company money for as long as things stay rosy.  If, however, you’d like to make you top salesperson quit and go work for a competitor, you’ve been taught how to do so.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with a number of bank executives on the topic of recruiting investment advisors, and thought I’d share with you, in the words of these bank execs, the specific traits and experiences that top-producing investment advisories look for when hiring representatives. 

The list, in no particular order:

• “The rep is a hunter, not a farmer. ” And not even a combination of the two, as many would suggest as a good fall-back plan if a pure hunter cannot be found.
• “The rep isn’t afraid of the phone.”  In fact, the rep loves the phone.  They use it as the business tool that it is.
• “The rep didn’t necessarily have financial experience when they joined.” But they had a track record of delivering above-quote sales numbers in a hunter role.
• “The rep was perfectly comfortable with a low base / high commission structure.”  Because they know what they’re capable of.
• “It took months to lure them away from a great book of business.”  Always the hardest part of luring them away - getting them to leave their book.
• “The rep had a list of outstanding references a mile and a half long.”  Important, because salespeople are great at selling themself in an interview, but, sometimes, that’s all they’re good at selling.

If you’re considering hiring an investment advisor for your bank, or if you currently have one or more investment advisors working for your bank who can’t seem to make it happen, then refer back to this list.  Go with what’s worked for the best shops in the US.

If you’re a local or regional bank and run an in-house investment advisory practice, chances are that you’ve struggled with finding good talent.  You’re not alone.

What are some things we know about recruiting investment reps? 

• For starters, we know that there aren’t enough of them out there.  Scratch that.  There aren’t enough good ones out there.  Sure, banks have been jettisoning Series 7-certified advisors for months now…but they’re keeping the top producers.  This dynamic keeps the supply-side constraint as strong as ever.
• We know that only 5-10% of these reps are “lifers.”  Performance and retention issues make this skill set a tough one to navigate.
• We know that care and feeding are critical, because these folks live on adrenaline and praise from their manager.
• Bottom line - Low supply +  high wash rates + high maintenance = “let the Trust Department deal with it” Read the rest of this entry »
  

Leading online job board Careerbuilder.com mailed out their Q2 Employment Outlook this week, and although it’s about a month late (it’s mid-May, after all) there are some good nuggests of data that I’d like to share with you.

At at a high level, Careerbuilder’s survey reveals that US employers are “holding off on staff expansions in the second quarter of 2009.”  The report states, “Instead, [employers] are focusing efforts on keeping current headcount as they navigate a tough economy.” Read the rest of this entry »

It’s no secret that US immigration policy is a train wreck.  The country has millions of undocumented workers performing jobs that Americans won’t fill, and these workers fill a critical gap in the US labor pool.  The agriculture and hospitality industries are particularly dependent on this workforce, and employers in these industries are perpetually on pins and needles with regard to government enforcement of immigration and labor laws that are ineffective and, some would say, contrary to basic economic principles.

The game is changing for employers yet again.  I’ll share with you an article posted on May 4th, 2009 by the American Staffing Association regarding the new administrations shift towards prosecution of employers who “knowingly hire undocumented workers.”  What about the fact that workers have no way of determining whether or not documents produced were bona fide?  Looks like the courts will sort it out.  Read the rest of this entry »

Pick up a copy of the May 11, 2009 issue of Business Week, and on the cover you’ll see a Hermann Miller chair with a gigantic sign perched on it that reads, “Help Wanted.”  The caption declares, “the US has 3 million job openings” and goes on to tease us with the line, “why that may not be good for the [US] economy.”

All in all, the article (available here) was fairly tame, and suggested that the three million job openings in the US remain open due to these  key factors: Read the rest of this entry »

Business owners and managers are tasked with getting the most possible productivity out of their team - it’s all about motivating and inspiring people to do their absolute best.  The Talent Review is a  tool that managers can employ to ensure that they’ve got the right people in the right jobs, and can really make an impact on performance when done correctly.

A Talent Review is a process by which a business owner or manager takes stock of their current staff by asking two questions:

1. Is there anyone on this team who is (or appears to be) struggling with consistently hitting their performance objectives?
2. Do I have the best possible hire in each position in my company or organization? Read the rest of this entry »
   

Talk to anyone in the professional search business lately, and you’ll be speaking with someone whose outlook on their profession ranks just above “middle manager at Chrysler.”  In other words, it ain’t lookin’ good.

In the contingent search industry, times are downright desperate.  While this segment of the professional search marketplace has been under pressure for years, 2009 will be a watershed moment for the entire industry. 

Here’s why: Read the rest of this entry »

Being from Chicago, where venturing outside during 7 out of every 12 months can give you hypothermia, it was a welcome relief this week to be in New Orleans for the Fortune Small Business Conference, where the weather has been fantastic.  The focus was on sales and marketing, and several of the speakers honed in on issues relating to the hiring and selection of salespeople. 

Naturally, I was all ears. Read the rest of this entry »

Companies that consistently produce top recruiting results never do so by accident. That these firms tend to outperform their industry peers is the end result of a journey that began with putting the right people in the right seats. How do the successful managers of these leading companies build high-performing teams? By staying true to these five recruiting habits: Read the rest of this entry »