Would Your Sales Team Come in First Place?

Revolutionize your talent pool with job benchmarking

Have you ever hired sales person who didn’t meet your expectations?

Are you short on resources, money and time to spend identifying qualified candidates?

Would it positively affect your bottom line if your recruitment process consistently delivered qualified candidates that have been strategically matched to the job?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, you will benefit from a job matching approach that benchmarks a specific job, not the person, in an interactive process. A recent case study revealed that by using a DISC job benchmarking process, two different sales teams were positively transformed:

Company A

Company A’s sales manager was having a major problem with his sales force -- 74% turnover. That high rate of turnover came at a great cost to the company’s bottom line. In fact, it’s estimated that it can cost upwards of twice an employee’s salary to find and train a replacement, not to mention the damage to morale in remaining employees. To address Company A’s sales force issue, the job itself was benchmarked using Vantage's, job-related process. The sales manager was then able to compare all current and new salespeople against the benchmark. Each and every salesperson was put on a personalized development and management plan based on the job benchmark. The results? Company A’s sales team experienced 0% turnover for the next 24 months.

Company B

At Company B, a new sales manager inherited a sales team that ranked No. 22 out of 22, or dead last. The new manager immediately benchmarked the sales position using Vantage's process, and he compared his current salespeople to that benchmark. He quickly discovered that a massive 75% of his sales force did not match the sales position benchmark. By replacing that 75% with superior salespeople who did, in fact, match the benchmark, his team skyrocketed to No. 1 out of the 22 sales teams.

For both Company A and Company B, job benchmarking revolutionized their sales teams, increasing the profitability of each company. When you have the right people in the right jobs, you will create more dynamic teams with higher engagement, retention and development.

To learn how job benchmarking can revolutionize your hiring practices, contact Vantage at 616-676-3330 or email us at info@vantagegroupinc.com.

What's Keeping You Awake At Night

As business owners and managers, it’s not uncommon to be awakened in the night with questions of “Where are we going?” “How are we going to get there?” “Do we have the right talent?” Though the tried and true approach can be satisfactory for the time being, businesses cannot continue to operate as they’ve always done or hire as they always have and expect to see growth. Meanwhile, institutional change should never be capricious. The tool every organization should use to ensure success in the marketplace is a strategic plan. But you already know this, and chances are you have some form of one in place. So we must ask, why the cold sweats?

The answer is simple. If everything went according to plan, there would be no reason to worry, no reason for on-the-spot decisions and no reason not to see growth year after year.

The question becomes, “Do you have a strategic plan that is fluid and flexible enough to stay the course, while overcoming foreseen and unforeseen obstacles and making way for new opportunities?” And “Do you have the talent to execute?”

To determine if your plan will get you to the next level, you first must answer these five questions.

1. Where are you now?
2. Where are you going?
3. How will you get there?
4. How will you handle changes that arise?
5. How will you accept new opportunities?

One question remains, “Do you have the talent to execute your strategic plan?”

Most business leaders have read Jim Collins’ Good to Great. The concept of having the right seat on the bus is one that must be applied in order to achieve the objectives of your strategic plan. But let’s take that a step further. Do you know what your bus looks like? Do you know what purpose each seat plays in making your plan come to fruition?

If you are unsure or answered no to either question, or if it simply made you stop and think, then you need our two day workshop, Strategic Fast Track. In our two day corporate planning retreat, we will identify five steps to understanding your “Bus,” designing your seats and hiring the right people for each. Contact us today to find out more.