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talent. Successful companies use all available resources to improve the skills of their sales team-including academic classes. As one might expect, the interview process (both internal and external) in these organizations is grueling.

For example, Andersen Consulting actively participates in information sessions that offer it the opportunity to explain the career opportunities within the organization to groups of students at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. These sessions help students learn not only what it takes to be successful in the business world, but also what it takes to be successful at that particular company. Besides Andersen Consulting, the 200-plus companies that participate include Procter & Gamble, Motorola, ExxonMobil, Ernst & Young, Bank of America, E & J Gallo, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Eli Lilly, and CDW, to name just a few.1 Some of these companies select recruiters with personal ties to Indiana University (or whatever university they are recruiting at) in the hope that these recruiters will relate better to students, thus enhancing the companys chances of attracting the best candidates.

One way in which some top sales companies recruit top-notch candidates for sales positions is through Baylor Universitys Center for Professional Selling. Under the direction of Terry Loe, Ph.D., Baylors Center for Professional Selling conducts an Academic World Series of Professional Selling that is open to qualifying students from colleges and universities around the country. In role-plays, the students who qualify get to conduct real life sales interviews with professional buyers. These role-plays help the participating students to develop their selling skills. Recruiters from well-known companies like EDS, Wilsonart International, and Xerox observe these sales role-plays. This puts them in a position to preview the sales stars of the future and get a head start on their recruiting efforts.2

DEVELOPING PEOPLE

Recruitment is one way in which companies can get the best people. Top sales companies also network within their own organizations to find the best people, as well as never losing sight of the need to develop their own salespeople. One Fortune 50 corporation took the development of its people to a higher level when it transferred a manager with ten years experience in its service organization to the sales division to conduct the training of new hires. The premise for this type of cross-divisional or cross-department training is that the more business perspectives people have, the better they will be able to serve the customer.3

There are several sales traps that, if not avoided, can cause talented recruits to be less than successful once they begin to sell professionally. For example, some recruits believe that they are a failure if customers reject them or believe that academic classes dont help in the real world. They believe that the evidence supports the theory that you either have it or you dont. However, these three mistaken beliefs are traps not only for the salesperson, but also for the company that stubbornly believes that stars are born, not made.

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sales trap 4: Rejection Is Failure

When I was manager of training and development at the Xerox International Training Center, I was asked to work with Ellen, a new sales rep who had a territory in the rural area of a Midwestern state. Unfortunately, she was struggling to achieve her sales quota. Heres what happened:

Ellen wanted to become a top sales performer. This was not surprising, since she had always excelled in sports, school activities, and academics. During one of my visits, her manager asked if I would meet with her, tag along on her field sales calls, and give her any necessary feedback and advice.

The next day I traveled with her on her sales calls. I sat back, observed, and kept my mouth shut. Ellen was charming, charismatic, and dynamic. She appeared to be an excellent hire. She was strong on interpersonal skills. All her customers and prospects liked her. After the fourth sales call, however, I began to see an emerging pattern of sales-skill inefficiency. Ellen shied away from asking customers about their problems, difficulties, or dissatisfactions.

Later, I suggested to her that she begin to ask more problem-focused questions, questions directed at discovering problems, difficulties, or dissatisfactions. She said that she didnt mind gathering situational and background information from the customers, but she was hesitant about delving into their problems. Since the company training program at the time was based upon a probing model, it was easy to give her specific suggestions for improvement.