Sales is traditionally a high-turnover field. Just look at the numbers:
- The average annual turnover rate among salespeople is estimated at 27%, double that of the larger U.S. workforce, according to the Harvard Business Review.
- For software companies, LinkedIn reports that the tech sector has the highest turnover rate of all industries measured, outranking both retail and media.
- According to IBM’s Institute for Business Value, 1 in 4 workers are considering changing jobs in 2021, if they haven’t already.
With this much talent movement, hiring managers must know what to look for as they navigate employee turnover and compete for the best candidates to join their revenue operations machine.
Sales team leaders must quickly identify, recruit, and retain top performers who can handle the sales pressure cooker with grace—before their competitors do.
At Generation Revenue 2021, Clari’s virtual conference for the next generation of revenue operations professionals, sales and revenue operations leaders from top technology companies—Dell Boomi, Nutanix, and UserTesting—discussed how they build high-performing teams.
Grit: Determination and resilience
Will Corkery, chief revenue officer at Dell Boomi, says one shared characteristic across his high-performing team is grit.
“They're gritty, they're determined, they're competitive, they’re consistent,” he says.
With over 25 years of experience leading best-in-class tech sales teams, Corkery knows that top performers don’t get distracted by minutia. Instead, they focus on the bigger picture and their long-term goals.
“Technology [sales] is a roller coaster,” Corkery says. The best reps “don't ride that roller coaster up and down. They’re not sweating the small stuff, and they keep their eyes on the prize. The biggest things are that consistency and that gritty resilience to keep moving.”
To understand how candidates stay the course, hiring managers can ask these questions from Glassdoor:
- Tell me about a time when you had too much to do, but not enough resources. How did you achieve goals?
- Tell me about a time you made a blunder on the job that cost your company time or money. How did you handle the aftermath?
- Tell me about a time where you failed or felt defeated. How did you respond to the adversity?
Agility: Pivot and adapt
The pandemic and the associated market volatility only served to underscore how vital agility is for successful sellers.
Withstanding instability takes both grit and flexibility, according to Brian Colin, vice president of sales at Nutanix.
“Over the past 14 to15 months, we’ve seen how people found ways to augment and evolve,” he says. “You're really starting to see that [sellers] are far more agile in their approach.”
Ultimately, the ability to handle change and uncertainty is an evergreen skill.
Interviewers can ask the following questions to gauge how candidates approach new challenges:
- What’s an example of a project that didn’t go according to plan, and how did you pivot?
- What’s an example of a time when you had to adjust your working style in a team project?
- What’s an example of a time when you had to do something that you’d never done before at work—how did you handle that request?
Growth Mindset: Ready to learn
According to Harvard Business Review, someone with a growth mindset “believe[s] their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others).” A growth mindset is at odds with the concept of a fixed mindset, which is the belief that abilities are static, innate, or unchangeable.
By definition alone, a growth mindset prioritizes action and opportunity, while a fixed mindset focuses on limitations.
Katie Harkins, director of sales at UserTesting, says this emphasis on active growth makes candidates and new hires stand out in a revenue operations organization.
“Obviously, we look for over-producers and someone that can contribute to our growing organization,” says Harkins. “They're creative problem solvers who are deeply rooted in a growth mindset. I want to hire somebody who’s listening to closed-won recorded calls at 8 a.m. and getting better at their craft.”
Harkins also sets her sights on candidates who view new challenges as opportunities, or as she says, “problem-tunities.”
“I look for someone who knows that, in sales, you can give yourself a raise any day,” Harkins says. “It's about bringing that hard work and awesome attitude to every single call.”
These interview questions can give managers more insight into mindset:
- Can you give me an example of a time when you received coaching or critical feedback on your work, and how you responded?
- Tell me about a time when you didn’t understand a project or concept. How did you approach that challenge?
- How would you approach a new project that is something you’ve never been before?
Diversity: Different backgrounds and experiences
If you want to build a high-performing sales team, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) must be part of your hiring strategy. Diversity can be many things, in part depending on the makeup of your current team.
Diversity includes people of different ages, races, ethnicities, genders, orientations, religions, abilities, and cultures—as well as socioeconomic backgrounds, education levels, and work experiences.
Diverse teams benefit from new perspectives, creativity, and approaches to problem-solving. According to the University of Berkeley's Greater Good Magazine, research shows that firms with higher gender and racial diversity reported increased financial gains, as compared to their competitors.
Hiring managers can use their position of power to build inclusive teams. They can proactively learn about communities other than their own and explore new ways to identify qualified candidates from different backgrounds and experiences.
You can build a more diverse and inclusive team by recruiting from historically Black colleges and universities, for example, or engaging with candidates who have non-traditional, but transferable work experience, such as bartenders, retail associates, and service industry workers.
Clari, for example, has worked with Pakistani Women in Computing supporting women in tech, and , #GirlsClub and Women in Revenue for women in sales and revenue. There’s also People of Color in Tech for BIPOC professionals, Out & Equal and Trans Can Work for LGBTQIA+ professionals, and Après Group and The Mom Project for parents returning to work.
CEO Mindset: Radical ownership and accountability
Regardless of their official job title, a salesperson should take ownership of their work, and take responsibility for outcomes.
Corkery at Dell Boomi says this C-suite leader mindset is imperative as your company scales. Corkerystarted leading a team of six at Dell Boomi, and today leads a team of nearly 500.
“I like to say that I’m the producer of 43 different businesses. If you think I’m going to set your strategy, then I’ve hired the wrong person,” says Corkery. “It’s up to you to own the business. I have several folks on my team who literally think they own a state, region, or partnership, and I say ‘perfect.’ That’s exactly the right answer.”
Empowerment is a key aspect of building teams that see themselves as CEOs of their work. Managers have the power to delegate and enable their teams with both the authority and resources their teams need to lead. Colin at Nutanix shares that sentiment.
“It's absolutely important to create that level of autonomy and accountability, while also acknowledging that many of our organizations are providing a level of resources that are unparalleled in sales, whether it’s data, tools, or carte blanche with marketing dollars,” says Colin.
Questions to ask candidates include these from Glassdoor:
- Describe when you had to make a tough decision that your boss normally makes.
- Tell me about a time when you had to convince another staff member or leader to buy into a new idea or project.
- Tell me about a time when you went the extra mile instead of doing the bare minimum.
Part Scientist, Part Artist: Balance creativity with data
Great salespeople are masters of combining hard skills, like data analysis, with soft skills, like building a rapport with prospects and cross-functional collaboration.
“Most people come into this occupation because they're really good artists,” says Colin. “When you take someone that's fantastic at the artistry, and you give them the science to allow them to make better decisions and uncover risk, then you’ve got the type of person that I want to go to battle with every single day.”
One way to bring more science to the sales process is to leverage Clari and the revenue operations data it delivers. With Clari, revenue operations leaders can harness accurate forecasts to drive predictable revenue across their teams.
“There is no better source of data that I have in our business than Clari,” says Colin. “The data is key. I would love to tell you that my gut is never wrong. But the data is often far better than my gut.”
For more customer perspectives, check out Clari’s customer stories here.
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