For a Winning Sales Team, Hire People for Their Heart, Not Their Skill

When it comes to finding fresh talent for your sales team, experience only goes so far. Understanding someone’s energy, what drives them, and their heart can help you pick out the most capable callers and mold them into hugely successful salespeople.

In this episode, we welcome a very special guest: Alex Noori, talent development specialist at ReminderMedia (the company behind Stay Paid). We first brought Alex on board as a caller despite having no background in sales, and he immediately hit the ground running, becoming one of our top callers in just five months. Because of his unique ability to pull the best out of his peers, we shifted his role to team lead. Once again, he rose to the top as the number one sales lead—and we knew we hit the jackpot.

Now, Alex helps shape new classes of callers into sales assassins. He has an uncanny ability to find people with grit and determination, and he helps them use those qualities to close deals at an incredible level.

This episode is chock-full of his best tips for picking out top talent and turning them into stone cold closers.

Effort outperforms skill every time

When Alex gets a new batch of sales callers to train every thirty days, something magical happens. Almost instantly, he can determine which callers have the heart for the job—something you can’t necessarily gauge in an interview.

Someone’s first days in a new role are some of the most nerve-racking, and they’re full of make-or-break moments. Pay close attention to their energy and demeanor in these first few days. By the end of the week, you should have a good sense of how they perform under pressure. Have they missed a few opportunities to close but are eager to pick up the phone and dial again? Do they get a little more defeated with every “no”?  Are they keen to clock out after their first win, complacent with their performance?

If you fill your team with the most energetic and positive people, regardless of skill, you’ll see their performance, and the performance of the people around them, skyrocket in a short amount of time. 

Train the person, not the caller

You should have a clear training plan in place for your sales team—otherwise, they don’t stand a chance. But you also need to take every caller’s unique learning style into account so they’re able to process the information you’re presenting to them the best way they can.

Take the time to figure out how your people learn best, and then develop resources that cater to these needs. For example, if you have a visual learner, a PowerPoint might be most effective for them. On the other hand, a hands-on learner may do better being thrown on the phone as quickly as possible. Have them take note of every objection, keeping track of what they could have done differently and what brought them success so they can improve their process on the next call.

A note about emotional quotient (EQ)

At ReminderMedia, we coach our callers through the process of memorization, internalization, and personalization, but the second one is ultimately the most defining factor of their success. The script you coach your callers on only works if they aren’t hyperfocused on the words they’re saying but on the meaning behind them. If they understand that, they can move prospects to where they want them to go and get them to believe in anything.

Alex tells every caller: “Don’t pay attention to what I’m saying; pay attention to how I’m saying it.” That’s an incredible piece of advice, because if they can pull someone’s emotional state out of the inflection of their voice, they can sell to anybody.

We hope you enjoy this episode and act on the advice Luke offers at the end. We’d also appreciate it if you took a moment to leave us a 5-star review and comment on Apple Podcasts. (We read them on air!) Thanks for listening!

Connect | Resources

• To explore sales opportunities at ReminderMedia, visit remindermedia.com.
• Use the predictive index assessment to find salespeople and employees with the traits you need to succeed. Get a free version at remindermedia.com/staypaidPI.

Are you interested in working with Luke and Josh to improve your marketing, get more referrals, enjoy more repeat business, and begin living the life of freedom you deserve? CLICK HERE and get a special offer just for Stay Paid listeners!