Increase Your Chances of Hiring a Challenger

In my last blog post, I covered how most sales professionals fall short on delivering insight and exercising judgment in the sale. I also posed the question on how companies can find sales talent that has high levels of IQ and EQ, both of which are necessary to succeed in the Insight Selling era.

In most organizations, the existing sales talent predominately possesses high EQ skills, leaving companies to now find new ways to source qualified sales professionals that have both high EQ and IQ ability.  Instead of continuing current hiring strategies of looking for talent with past sales experience, companies should consider widening their recruiting net. By looking outside of Sales, organizations can increase their chances of sourcing Challenger talent that possess both EQ and IQ traits.

This idea brings about a new question worth considering:

Should you hire Challengers who can sell or Sellers who can challenge?

In our research this year, we found that 83% of current sales talent does not have the skills necessary to succeed in the Insight Selling era. As we all know, finding and attracting Challenger reps has become increasingly difficult as the competition for sales talent increases. To find an alternative to competing for this small pool of talent, we studied whether or not Challengers exist outside of Sales.

We found that the concentration of Challengers in Sales is 1 in 6, compared to 1 in 8 in the general population. These numbers alone speak to the fact that large numbers of Challengers exist outside of Sales, and considering candidates without prior sales experience merits consideration.

The number of Challengers outside of Sales becomes even more striking when absolute numbers are considered. In the U.S., there are over 15.6 million Challengers outside of Sales, which dwarves the 500,000 Challengers in Sales. By broadening the recruiting net cast and considering candidates without prior sales experience, organizations can begin to tap into this vast reservoir of Challenger talent.

That said, there are several considerations that organizations thinking of hiring talent from outside of Sales must take into account. In particular, four major questions must be addressed:

Where can I find Challengers outside of Sales?
Do they want to work in Sales?
Are they willing to ask for money?
Are they willing to put a significant portion of their compensation at risk?

Stay tuned for follow up posts that explore these questions in depth.

CEB Sales Members, to learn more, visit our new key findings page on the topic, Hiring Challengers in Today’s Sales Environment. Also, take advantage of our upcoming webinars on How to Hire Challengers, and learn about 3M’s experience in building a better sales talent pipeline.