T2. Always Be Recruiting
Recruiting is the Answer
Every company wants closers, but how can you tell a closer from a poser? If someone tells you they can always pick a winner, ask them why they don’t go to Vegas. Because all you have to do is win 51% of the time and you would literally own the planet.
Most sales aptitude testing is worthless. While I was the number one rep out of over 300 reps at one company early in my career, they asked me to take a test, to create a baseline. The test said I couldn’t sell. So much for paper tests. What the test didn’t show was that I was hungry and absolutely had to sell. I had no choice. So I did.
I have been in this game a long time and I’ll let you in on a little secret. Nobody can tell for sure which rep will succeed (closer) and which will fail (poser). Is this bad news? Not really. The answer is simple as this: Always Be Recruiting
You need to hire reps faster than they can die. The trick is to hire those that have the basis for success and then let them prove it. Hire fast and fire fast. This speeds up the time when you will stumble into a true closer.
Consider a similar situation – a gold mine. Who knows where the gold is? Nobody. If you did, you’d simply dig there first. If you had a gold mine, I would advise you to dig as fast as you can. Throw away the rocks and keep the gold. The faster you dig, the more gold you get.
And how do you hire fast? That’s my game. I know where to find reps and how to attract them. It takes a closer to know one and to talk to one. At heart I’m a commission-only closer and always will be. I like them and they like me.
I can sell them the dream. Your dream. But only if I believe in it myself. If I don’t, I won’t take you on as a client. If I can’t sell it, I won’t ask someone else to.
If you want to catch fish it pays to know where they live. And what kind of bait to use. I can get you 1 rep or 1,000. The process is totally scalable.