Response to Comment from Anonymous from 'Our very first job fair' post

On 6/20 Anonymous posted the following comment:

Do you accept all applicants into the training program?
If not, why would someone be rejected? Please be specific.

What 3 characteristics are most common in those who are successful in the course and beyond.
(Besides liking 'piles of money')?

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As far as whether or not we accept all candidates in the program - the answer is no we do not.

Because we pay people to go through our program AND invest heavily to make them successful AND only make money when we place them with a client - taking everyone would represent a poor strategy. At the same time, we are able to assume more risk than many companies and often - when we are on the fence - my vote is usually to take the chance on a candidate.

Regarding the characteristics most common in those who are successful in our course, it would help if I knew which perspective you were coming from...that of a prospective participant or a prospective client.

Assuming you are asking from the perspective of a participant, I would say - by design - success in our program requires individuals possess those characteristics that will make them successful in sales. If this is not what you were looking for please feel free to give me some direction.

To answer this more specifically, successful participants must have:

- Motivation to succeed: Different people measure success in different ways. For most salespeople, success is measured in monetary terms but all successful sales people are drawn to the sense of accomplishment that comes from winning a deal or cashing a commission check

- Persistence: Motivation represents the force that drives an individual but persistence is the behavior trait that enables one to redouble their efforts in the face of resistance.

- Third place is tough because there are several characteristics competing for this slot. I would say 'capacity to anticipate' is a strong contender. I used to race road bicycles (poorly) and learned that the key to going fast is 'looking through the turns.' That is to say trying to see as far into the future in order to identify and prepare for obstacles (a manhole cover) as well as opportunities (the inside line that just opened up.)

- Self-confidence and ability to handle rejection are pretty important as well although these can be learned or - more accurately - individuals can learn to separate their 'self' from the role they are filling. By way of example, rejection only matters if you take it personally and has no effect on he ego once you figure out that its just part of the game.

- Finally I would say ‘intellectual curiosity’ which is actually an attribute I learned from Don Hazell at Rally Software. Don is a dyed-in-the-wool sales guy who helped me realize there is a huge difference between simply asking good questions and having an insatiable need to understand how the customer’s business works. Back in the good old days we use to call it the ‘Columbo’ approach to selling.

Please let me know if these answers help and/or drop me a line at townsend@3valuelogic.com