Sales Strategy & Enablement by Revenue.io

1123: Hire for Culture Fit, Not Just Competency with Nigel Green

Jan 24, 2023

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Nigel Green is the Founder of Business of Primary Care, CRO of Affirm Health, and the host of the Revenue Harvest Podcast. Companies that want to grow from 10 to 50 million in annual revenue need to effectively hire salespeople.

The team that got you to $10 million might look different to make it to 30 or even 50 million. Nigel discusses the biggest obstacles in hiring sellers and the biggest mistakes leaders make during the hiring process.

He also shares his 6 steps for selecting the right candidates, which measure culture fit just as much as competency, and gives actionable tips to ask out-of-the-box questions that reveal the character traits that you are looking for.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Hiring based on fit is essential to build a top-performing sales team - Nigel: "I break it down into 3 Cs. So you've got competency, which is the stuff that they've used to done. Are they technically sound? Can they orchestrate a demo? Can they use technology? Do they understand the tech stack? Can they ask the right questions? All that's competency. And you have to be competent at that."

"But here's the catch and here's where a lot of leaders get wrong. They spend too much time on that and not enough of, do we have common ground? Do we have shared passions? Do they care about what this business does for our customers? Are they bought into how our company is uniquely positioned to solve a problem?"

Hesitations about a candidate during a reference call is a red flag - Nigel: "If there is any pause, it's a no. Even if it's a yes, if there's any pause, in my mind, I'm trying to walk myself out of a no. If it's a very quick, hey, Nigel, absolutely, I'd hire this person right now."

"If it's huh, well, yeah... I'm talking myself out of a no. What I've learned is that if it really is a yes, there's no hesitation in that reference whatsoever. They say absolutely, real talk, I will hire that person."

Connect with Nigel and get the Hiring Salespeople Course in the links below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/revenueharvest/
Website: https://www.nigelgreen.co/