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69: Moving from reactive to proactive in hiring · Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth

• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Open territories could cost you between half a million and 1.5 million in bookings over two years.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Avoid this problem by being proactive and not reactive in your hiring.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bite-sized sales podcast, where we believe that you don't need to take time out of the field or off the phones, stuck in a classroom, in order to get great sales and sales leadership training, and that taking bite-sized steps each day to get better at your craft is the best way to improve your results.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Andrew Monahan, and I'm using my 20 plus years in B2B sales to bring you simple, actionable ideas that you can use every day to help you get better.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get to the tip for today, this episode is sponsored by Sales Bluebird.
• 1:30
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• 1:53
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• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode 69 of the Bite-sized sales podcast.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Today's topic is all about being proactive rather than reactive in your hiring.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think it's going to be new news to anyone on this on this episode that the number one factor in your success as a first-line manager is the team that you have.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Having great reps on board who work hard, they do the right things, they're intelligent about how they tackle their territory, they build great relationships, they challenge their customers to make changes and do big things, and they deliver on promises in terms of bookings.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's the start people that you want on your team.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: But hiring these people is not easy.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: They're not out there randomly looking for jobs.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we know that we need to go build a bench or get to know people over time.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So as territories become open and as they're ready to join, then we can make the move and hire these great talents.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So this episode is more of a reminder for everyone of three reasons why being proactive in your hiring is a lot more effective than being reactive.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one is open territories or down territories will absolutely kill your bookings.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of calculators out there.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't need to create one for you that show you if a territory becomes open and it's open for so long at certain average sales and quota levels, how much it can cost you.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at these and the worlds that I'm used to working in, in enterprise software sales, it can cost you between half a million and 1.5 million over a couple of years having these open territories out there.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the one thing that's going to mitigate that is being able to hire or upgrade the town that's in the territory.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if you had a C player or a B player that you either moved out or they moved on their own and you brought in a B plus or A player, then over a couple of years, you can make up that bookings amount because you've got a better person, a better talent in that territory.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first reason.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: There are territories won't kill you.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: The second one is being proactive actually increases your chances of being able to attract great talent.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: It allows you to have people ready to join the team and you're less reliant on being able to or having to take the best talent you can find at a point in time.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Going back to the early 2000s, I was working at a company where it seemed like every year, at least a couple of times a year, the company would go into a hiring freeze as they were trying to mismanage or manage the financials, depending on how you looked at it.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it was interesting because all the first line managers that were there, we all knew that it was a fairly good chance that at some point a hiring freeze would come into play.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And if you ever had a territory come open or you were looking to open up a territory for whatever reason, you're very conscious that you probably only had uh a few weeks to get that territory filled before you know you're worried that a freeze would come into place.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because if a freeze hit hit the company, then it might be months before we could fill that territory again.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it was interesting because it really embedded in us the idea of get the best you can get right now.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't try and get, don't wait for getting the best people out there.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Get the best you can get right now.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if you look back at that time, there was more than the people, more than a few people that came on board of the company who were, you know, decent reps, but you know, they wouldn't be classed as A players that if you just worked at it for a while or you had it prepared, you could bring these people on board.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: So not being proactive actually kind of sometimes forces you to take the best you can get just to get somebody in that territory.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the third reason why being proactive is so important is is something called lines not dots.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And let me explain what I mean.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: I for a few years, a few years back, I followed a venture capitalist called Mark's sister.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And he was an operator-turned venture capitalist.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And as he kind of got going in in his venture capital world, he talked about some of his learnings, what he was trying to do.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And one of them was this idea that he would invest in lines, not dots.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And what that meant for him was when he got introduced to a company or a company came to him to pitch on getting invested in, he very, very rarely was interested in investing on the first meeting.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: What he did most of the time was say, look, I'm interested in your company, I'm interested in what you're doing, I think you're great people.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let's keep in touch over the next few months and see how we do, and let's build a relationship so we're both comfortable with each other.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And what he would do then is to say, you know, let's say the first meeting was happening in January, he'd get back together with them in March and start understanding, okay, here's what you said you were trying to do in Q1.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: How did it go?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And what did you learn?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And did you achieve things and how did you move the business forward?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And as he was able to track these people, these founding teams and companies over months and quarters, he became a lot more comfortable with the people and saw the traction they were getting, the progress they were making, or they weren't making any progress, and they weren't making any traction.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe the people weren't so so good to work with, and he knew what to do with those ones.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And by the same token, the actual founders at these companies would get more comfortable with him and look to him as more of a partner and someone who could actually help them build a business as opposed to just give them money.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So he had his idea of you know investing in lines and not dots.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think in the sales hiring world, this is a very powerful concept.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's what being proactive is to me, it's the essence of being proactive.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, imagine a situation as you first get to know the top rep at a competitive company or even another vendor in your space in that territory.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they might not be ready to leave where they are at first meeting, and maybe you're not ready to hire for that territory.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: But if you keep in touch with that person over time, your excitement in them might increase as you see what they're delivering and what they're talking about and what they're all about, and you find them to be trustworthy and all your values are aligned together.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And for them, their excitement in joining your team, working with you, and working in your company might go up as well.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: So when suddenly things come together, when they're ready to move and you're ready to hire, it becomes a no-brainer then to bring them on board.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: You've de-risked it a little bit because you've got to know that person better.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to know what they're able to achieve and what they're they're doing in their current situation rather than what they might just promise at a one interview situation.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So lines, not dots, is a great concept to think about when you're thinking about what you can learn and build up with someone over time.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: So there's three reasons why being proactive and not reactive is going to help you out.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, having open territories for a long period of time will kill you.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, uh you're being by being proactive, your chances of of finding great talent and bringing them on board increases.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, you're getting to know these people to know their great talent over time when you're hiring lines and not dots.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So my challenge to you today is to think about how you can allocate time every single week going forward to try and get these people into your fold, to try and meet more people who may be on your bench.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the trick here is not to say, I'm gonna, you know, devote 10 or 20 hours per week to this.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because clearly you will never do that, despite your intentions.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be like a New Year's resolution.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Great for a week and then you'll drop it afterwards.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: But what if you allocated one or two hours per week for this activity?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: What effect would it have for you over time?
• 9:43
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• 9:51
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• 10:02
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• 10:04
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• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I need your suggestions, please.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a topic you want me to cover or just want to get in touch, simply email me at upside at unstoppable.do.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's upside at unstoppable.do.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And now to wrap up this episode, training without implementation is just entertainment.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if you heard something today that you want to use, take action right now and keep getting better every single day.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, I'm sending off as the great Joe Sexton would by saying, gone to sell.