Hiring the wrong people wrecked my life... but was also my best business lesson
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As my new start-up starts to take flight I thought I’d share some of my lessons from nearly 20 years of growing businesses, and how I’m applying them now. They’re taken from my free book which you can request here.
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When it comes to hiring people, I’ve made some of the worst mistakes going.
How could I – or anyone – resist someone that…
- Looks great on paper
- Oozes self-confidence
- Talks GREAT talk
Well, I definitely got this one wrong…
I thought the person I had hired was one of the best salespeople, with all the attributes above, from one of the biggest protection insurance brokerages.
He had even won holidays for being their top salesperson.
But it was bad, really bad
Within the first 2 weeks of him joining our team, I very quickly realised my mistake. He asked across the floor which insurer he could use to get “standard rates” for a customer… with angina!*
*for non-insurance people that is a very, very bad thing indeed and NOT something you could ever expect in any salesperson, let alone a top one. Says as much about the broker he was working for as him!
Could you really sleep at night knowing such things were happening in your business?!
I made sure he was back out the door as quickly as he had entered. But this scenario is a great example of just how easy it can be to hire the wrong people, and for the wrong reasons.
The ones to watch out for, the most dangerous salespeople, are the ones that sell themselves better than anything else.
They typically put on an intriguing act of bravado, arrogance or perhaps even charity; but underneath they’re just out for themselves.
What’s worse, you may ask?
Well, more often than not, they are VERY good at cheating the system – including yours! Something you’ll discover soon enough, should you not deal with it as swiftly and quickly as you can.
Trust me. You DEFINITELY don’t want these kinds of people involved in your business.
And just be very aware. If a salesperson like the ones we’ve been talking about reach a MANAGEMENT position, then you’ve really got your work cut out. I’ve made that mistake before too.
My worst mistake of all…
…was to allow one of these types of sales people to run my business after my son had passed away unexpectedly. To be totally honest looking back I wasn’t of sound mind; I had found my 11 year old boy dead in his bed and was really struggling to keep going each day, let alone run a business!
All seemed to go well at first, but as time went on with hindsight it seems he found it harder and harder to deliver according to pre-agreed standards and processes. He could have admitted to me that he couldn’t hit the mark, but of course honesty never plays with these types of sales people.
Who are they selling to? Your customers, or you?
Instead he lied through his teeth to me, making the numbers “on top” look good and putting on a good “front”. But underneath he was pulling out all the systems and controls just to hit sales, and allowing the business to rot.
When I discovered this, he admitted it at first but then proceeded to work against me at trying to turn the business around. I worked harder than I ever have to turn it around but ended up losing my business, my livelihood, my home (for the 2nd time in three years) and every penny I had ever earned.
My best business lesson – trust your gut!
Now I think back, I always knew in my gut he wasn’t right from the first day I hired him. I should have trusted my gut, but I prioritised my desire for sales.
It’s best to nip these things in the bud as quickly as you can if you pick up an issue. Most importantly, trust your gut! Act swiftly and decisively if you feel there is an issue. If you feel something is amiss, then act on it.
Start hiring – and firing – based on values, and not just someone’s ability to sell.
Some salespeople (not my kind of salespeople, and probably not yours either, if you’re reading this post) are prepared to gamble with a customer’s financial security and prospective future for a chance at increasing their commission cheque.
Salespeople that find it easy to lie to customers are not the kind of people you need in your business. How you do you know they’re not lying to you?
So skills and experience are not usually the problem. It is a fundamental difference in values and ethics.
Think about WHO you are looking for when hiring, as well as WHAT.
Skills can be taught, and experience gained – but values are a defining part of someone’s personality and almost impossible to change or un-teach.
It was a very expensive lesson for me, and I hope you learn it before it really hurts!
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Luke Ashworth is the founder of Adviser.ai. For more information on how to build a great protection business, request his free book, the 16 biggest mistakes protection distributors make.
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Telesales isn’t dying, it’s just evolving
Back in the day…
The hey-day of telesales was during the 1980s and 1990s. Back then, people picked up the phone and telesales delivered and incredible ROI.
Roll forward 30-40 years, the traditional telesales model isn’t having the same results it used to and the term ‘cold-calling’ sends a shiver down the spines of most of us…
Success precedes a fall…
Telesales was rocking it in the latter part of the 20th century. Unfortunately, we all know what usually comes after great success, as the law of gravity sets in.
Success is an open invitation to take advantage. Those who want a slice of the action but aren’t willing to put in the work see the opportunity. Fraudsters and scam artists are born in this way.
Have you ever picked up the phone to a robot or an aggressive salesperson that you’ve had to hang up on, leaving neither of you feeling good? So have the rest of us!
As the popularity of telesales increased, the quality of the workforce also decreased with many joining to make a quick buck but not focusing on the skills and connection with the customer that it took to make it work.
What was once a legitimate, booming industry was then surrounded with an air of mistrust.
Times change…
Traditional telesales requires people to pick up the phone and people started to ignore the phone when it rang, pre-empting a robot or pushy salesperson on the end of the line. I cover this more in my blog on ‘Why does no one answer the phone anymore?’.
Telesales also requires patience and persistence. Not always in abundance in today’s world of quick-fix and immediate gratification.
Survival of the fittest…
It’s not all doom and gloom. We’ve seen the worst and now it’s time for the best to come through.
Telesales isn’t dying, it’s just evolving.
You need to find the sweet spot…
I’m talking about customer engagement… The cream of the crop are succeeding by focusing on this engagement and moving with the clients’ needs, as well as fostering that human connection, something that can be so lacking as we move through the digital age.
We can’t deny that phone calls are becoming less popular and the preferred form of communication is moving online. But what if you could meet your customer there and yet still develop a human interaction with them on their terms?
This is where the future success of telesales lies – texting and messaging have become the customer’s preferred mode of contact but this doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice customer engagement because of it.
One of the key benefits of traditional telesales is that you are able to develop a relationship with the customer and to really discover their needs and tailor your services or product towards this. This also results in more success in up-selling and cross-selling – something that can be lost when connecting purely online.
Win-win…
I’m here to tell you there’s another way.
Here at adviser.ai we have developed software that enables you to develop a relationship with your customers and to engage with them in a very human way but via technology instead of phone calls. You then have all the advantages of traditional telesales, with the disadvantages removed.
– No need for your customer to pick up the phone
– A human interaction and connection
– The ability to up-sell and cross-sell
– Building greater trust with your customer for future sales
– Higher retention on telesales agents as their success rate increases
– Meeting compliance as the scripts are all pre-approved
Find out more about Adviser.ai