Hiring is hard at any time, and it’s getting even harder. Why? Because you get literally thousands of applicants, many of whom are not qualified. It makes sifting through resumes difficult.
And, arguably, one of the most important jobs in a company is the sales rep. Even if your product or service is amazing, if you can’t sell it, you won’t earn any money.
Knowing how important sales teams are, I found this list from Chris Koerner, an entrepreneur who started The Koerner Office, a podcast and social media feed that addresses workplace issues. In his words, he described the 10 types of people he has found to be the best at sales:
- Former door-to-door reps. They’ve already cut their teeth on the hardest kind of cold selling. Zero fear of rejection.
- Ex-college or pro cheer/dance/performers. They’re used to nonstop hustle, crowd-facing energy, and thriving under pressure.
To keep reading, click here: Why People Who’ve Failed Make the Best Employees
It’s the same lesson that evil masterminds in spy movies never learn: If you execute your minions after a single mistake, you end up with zero minions who have any experience. That’s why the good guys always win.
If you succeed at something, you’ve learned nothing, because you already knew what you were doing. Only failure teaches us new things.
This–and the entire framing of the discussion–assumes that this is binary. You either 100% succeed at something, or 100% fail at it.
What I’ve found is that things usually aren’t that cut and dried. Most tasks are broken down into multiple subtasks, each one of which you can succeed or fail at. And for each there’s a spectrum of better and worse outcomes, methods, and other aspects. Which means that you may succeed at something, but still may be able to identify areas where you can improve.
For example, let’s say you deliver a project on time and under budget. Success! However, you also realize that if you’d reached out to Legal two weeks earlier you wouldn’t have had to scramble to get the paperwork in on time, and if you’d used this vender instead of that one the product would have been better in ways that may matter to your next client, and your own records could be improved so you don’t spend so long looking for emails in the future. None of these were in themselves failures, and the project did get done on time and under budget! But all of these are areas where you can improve in the future.
The quality of an employee has little to do with whether they’ve failed in the past. It’s the ability and willingness to constantly strive for improvement in areas that you care about. If they’re doing that they can turn a failure into a learning experience. But they can also turn a victory into a learning experience just as easily.
Love this take! It’s so true — the best salespeople usually come from tough, real-world experiences. Door-to-door reps, performers, or anyone who’s had to face rejection and keep going — they just get it. That kind of resilience can’t be taught.