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71: Why you should hire lines not dots (and what the heck that means!) · Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth

• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: We should be hiring lines and not dots.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: What the heck does that mean?
• 0:42
  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.
• 1:02
  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.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get to the tip for today, this episode is sponsored by Sales Bluebird.
• 1:22
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• 1:29
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• 1:45
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• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode 71 of the Bite-sized sales podcast.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're talking about hiring.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to emphasize something that we covered in a little bit on an episode, I think, two or three ago now.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the idea that we should be hiring lines and not dots.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And where this comes from is there was there is a venture capitalist called Mark Suster.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And when he moved from operating companies into being a VC, what he did was uh institute the idea in his process to say, I'm not going to invest in companies I just meet.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: If they come to me and they pitch me, I'm almost certainly not going to invest right there and then.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: What I want to do is get get to them over get to know them over time, get to see how they execute, get to build up my knowledge and trust about how they do things.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the same for them.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: They can build up knowledge and trust about me, they can get to know how I operate, my styles, so that when the timing is right and they're looking to raise money, then it's a very easy process to go through.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is something that we can apply to our biggest asset, which is our people.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And too often we don't hire lines, not dots.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: We hire dots and not lines.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're in that situation where we have an open territory and we get the first person or the best person we can find in a short period of time.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: We turn to recruiters, either external or internal, and they come at us with resumes and we pick a few and we go this one, and then through a process, we we find someone we quite like.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we're lucky when we find a great person.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we find someone that we feel is pretty good for the role, and we go ahead and hire them.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So here's three reasons why we need to shift to being in a situation where we're able to hire lines and not dots.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one is this is our path to finding and attracting great talent onto our team.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's very rare the great talent is just out there looking all the time and hopefully stumble across your job description on LinkedIn or wherever it might be posted and go, yes, let's go and apply for that, right?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Often these people are at companies that are doing really well and they're often themselves doing really well as well.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, they're not out there looking.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to go get to know who they are and start interacting with them and building a relationship and building trust with them.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So when the timing is right on both sides, it's a much, much easier decision for them to make and for you to make to say, Yep, I'm gonna get this person to join our team now.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first one.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: The second one is you can get to know them so much better over time.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of think about this as possibles and probables and then certainties, right?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So in your funnel of people, there's gonna be a bunch of possibles that you might bump into, might get introduced to, might meet with, whatever it might be.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And some of those become probables, right?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, yeah, I kind of like this person, and you get to know them a little bit, and then you realize actually this person is a certainty.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this is someone I want to have on my team as soon as it makes sense for them to be there.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because you get to know them over time, you get to know how they operate, you get to hear more about them in the different territories in your region.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: You get to meet with them and talk to them and see what they're achieving and the big deals are closing and things like that, and you just get a sense of what they're all about much more effectively over a matter of months than you do over two or three interviews in a short period of time.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you they build up trust in you as well.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: They see how you you interact with them.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: They might hear about you from other teammates, or they might hear about you in the territory as well, and their excitement for joining over time increases.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So much so over time you get to know each other so much better.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the third one, and the one that really where the rubber meets the road in terms of you know why the ROI is there on doing this this exercise is you're gonna reduce your open territories both now and in the future.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you look at the calculators that are out there about how much open territories cost you, it's a lot, right?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And imagine you're in a situation where rather than an average open territory for three months, you get it down to one month.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: What effect that might have on your bookings and your productivity for the team over the next year or two?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you can even just half it from three months to one and a half, but even go from three months down to one, the effect is is is incredible.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, but you're you're actually putting someone in in a much shorter period of time who is more likely to succeed because you know them a lot better, right?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: You've done that lines, not dots approach, and therefore there's a lot of trust and and knowledge on both sides.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So this this approach of doing lines, knots, dots will pay off immensely over time.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great habit to get into to say, I'm gonna get to know these people, and they're gonna get to know me.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when the time is right, they're gonna be able to join us.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: So the action for you is how can you shift around your mentality, first of all, to not thinking about dots, but thinking about lines, and then what actions can you do every week to get to know, find and know the right people in your region that might be these reps that are A players who are lines and stay on the line for a long period of time and then join your team.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you like this episode, the single most useful thing you could do to support this podcast is share it with your sales network.
• 7:33
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• 7:36
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• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: It will mean the world to me and it could make a difference to those you share it with.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I need your suggestions, please.
• 7:49
  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.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's upside at unstoppable.do.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And now to wrap up, training without implementation is just entertainment.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And pretty poor entertainment when I deliver it.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure you take action on what you learn today and keep getting it better and better each and every day.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Also, this world does not need more sales BS.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: So please don't create any more.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Be great at the fundamentals, be honest, be real, be yourself, just do not BS.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, I'm signing off as the great Joe Sexton would by saying gone to sell.