Welcome to week 5 of our blog series on the predictive demographic attributes of top competitive sales hires. For those just joining us, the four previous characteristics that were covered were: (1) Coming from a Warm Referral Source; (2) Being Employed at the Time of Applying; (3) Possessing at least 3 Years of Competitive Sales Experience; and Previous Job Stability.
Predictive Trait #5: WORKING > 45 HOURS PER WEEK
Our data clearly shows that sales rep recruits who are currently working > 45 hours per week with their current company, ultimately hit the ground running with a new organization and outperform production standards by the end of their first year.
Competitive sales positions oftentimes do not align with a typical 9 – 5 workday. They often involve travel, entertaining clients, off-hours presentations etc… which may compete with certain peoples’ personal lives or expectations. Consequently, people who are working a lot of hours currently are likely more comfortable assuming and integrating these aspects of a competitive sales career into their current lifestyle. Moreover, when we take this attribute in conjunction with the ones presented in week 2 (employed) and week 3 (previous competitive sales experience), the ideal new recruit is someone who is currently working in a competitive sales role and is already exposed to this type of workload each week.
The > 45 hour work week also reflects an indirect measure of work ethic. It demonstrates that the candidate already goes above and beyond general expectations, and thus, as an organization you can be confident they will do the same for you. It also suggests that they are currently in a self-initiated work environment, as compared to an externally controlled (9-5 punch clock) type of role. As the former, aligns more closely with a competitive sales position, the transition between roles should be relatively seamless. Self initiation is also the primary attribute of someone’s Self Management Potential, which is unequivocally the most predictive psychographic construct associated with success in competitive sales (Self Management Potential is the principle trait measured in the Predictor of Potential (POP) assessment offered by Self Management Group .
These are important factors to consider when recruiting sales people, as several of the primary reasons for early termination are because of the disconnect between what the candidate thought the role would be, and what the role actually requires. More importantly, jobs that significantly alter or impede someone’s lifestyle, typically have a short shelf life.
Stay tuned for next weeks installment where we will unveil the 6th predictive demographic trait.