>> T H E OWNERS MANUAL

Seen in:

the trust model for hiring

CONSTRUCTING LONG-TERM EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIPS
Reprinted Content from
When screening salespeople for a position within your company, you are looking for Volume 3 Number 2 February 2007
someone trustworthy. After all, your prospects will only buy from someone they can 2400 Boston Street, Baltimore, MD 21224
trust. But what is trust, and can it be measured? Is trust a gut feeling – or is there Phone: 410-342-9510 Fax: 410-342-9514
www.smartceo.com
science behind the psychology?
Publisher: Craig Burris
Regular readers of this column know what I will say to that. Over the past Editor: Timothy Burn
months, we have explored the benefits of leveraging both science and mindset to
improve hiring results. Today, the focus is on building a stronger relationship Throughout the hiring process, you need
between the sales professionals you will ultimately hire (and retain) by using what to be able to assess each person objectively
using the Trust Model. It is important to
we call the Trust Model. resist the urge to look for trustworthy candi-
dates among your friends. Remember,
According to the Trust Model, trust is people buy from people they trust. Unfortu-
the confluence of three qualities: reliability, nately, you may not be the best judge of
sincerity and competence. whether or not that is true about your
Reliability is akin to integrity. It means friends. Someone once said that the main
doing what you say you will do, when you reason that we like people is because they
say you will do it, and it can be measured. As like us. For this reason, we tend to hold our
you progress through the stages of the hiring friends to much lower standards than we do
process, does the candidate take on some our business associates. Our friends typically
responsibility and deliver on time? only have to demonstrate only one of the
Sincerity is a quality that, like charisma, three: sincerity, reliability or competence.
is hard to quantify. A function being present, For example, your workout partner may be a
sincerity is a genuineness that just seems to major BS artist, but you love him because he
come naturally. When people are sincere, makes you laugh. Or your lady friend may
you believe that they are being open and JasonPapas&JoeMechlinski be hopelessly late to every date, but terribly
honest with you. This is tough to fake. sincere, and therefore all is forgiven.
Competence is being the right salesperson Hiring friends in the role of sales is
for the job: having the ability to discover the almost always a bad idea. Though your friend
uation, you might not trust the people you may meet the three criteria of reliability, sin-
real client need and to identify the best solu-
are dealing with, and why – gasp! – they cerity and competence, you are putting your
tion, whether or not you happen to be selling
might not trust you. friendship at risk by entering into an employ-
that solution. Listen for examples of this quali-
When separated into its core elements, ment relationship. There are just too many
ty as candidates describe their past experiences.
the Trust Model is a powerful tool for analyz- factors outside either of your control. Again,
Competence has many flavors. I men-
ing others – and yourself. Think of sales situ- it is far more likely that you will be fooled by
tioned last month that a major factor in my
ations you’ve been in. As a sales rep leaves your friend’s good qualities. He may be reli-
company’s hiring decisions is how well
your office, and you’re standing there feeling able with you, but is he reliable elsewhere?
prospective salespeople try to discover our
a bit queasy, you now have the power to ask She may seem sincere to you, but would
ends needs. This is a form of competence in
why. Did he fail to deliver on some promise others be so charmed?
sales. Do they go into rote presentation
(reliability)? Did you sense that he did not
mode, or do they use the Socratic Method to
have your best interest at heart (sincerity)? Or
help us discover the deeper forces driving us? Identifying the components of
did he simply fail to convince you that he
If they are sincere and reliable and can
understood what you wanted (competence)? trust can give you the power
demonstrate that they understand what we
And, on the flip side of the equation, take a
need and why, we are more likely to feel
look back at some of the deals you didn’t win to understand why, in a given
good about trusting them in front of our
clients.
and the clients you couldn’t enroll. Compare situation, you might not trust
your list of sales accomplishments and fail- the people you are dealing
The basis of a mutually beneficial, long-
ures against the Trust Model, and you will
term employment relationship is trust. Iden- with, and why – gasp! – they
find again and again that when trust exists, so
tifying the components of trust can give you
the power to understand why, in a given sit-
does the relationship that brings in the sales. might not trust you.
 Take the case of two friends, Bill and
Larry. After high school, Bill went off to col-
lege, and Larry took a job in insurance. Over
the years, Larry developed special expertise
and a small but loyal client base. He decided
to start a business packaging complicated
insurance products as financial instruments
in mergers and acquisitions. Around the
time Bill was finally leaving school with a
Master’s degree in English, Larry was ready
to hire his first salesperson.
Right or wrong, we see what we want to
see in our friends. Bill was sincere and reliable
as always. Larry liked his air of academia. He
thought it would give him a competitive
advantage when speaking with business
prospects.
As we all know, intellect does not neces-
sarily mean smart in the high stakes world of
consultative sales. Bill was thoroughly indoc-
trinated in the company’s solutions, but as
soon as he met clients, he foundered in deeper
water faster than Moby Dick. Unlike Larry,
the company’s prospects had absolutely no
reason to give Bill the benefit of the doubt.
Trust breaks down when expectations are
not being met. Conversely, when things are
running smoothly, no one questions trust.
But when things fall apart, it is usually
because someone was either: unreliable,
insincere or incompetent. Knowing why
something fell apart is important, because it
presents an opportunity to get back into
integrity with each other and move forward
together – or not. I walked away from my
first sales job because I didn’t believe in the
product. How could I ever be sincere?
By knowing where the breakdowns are,
with the other person and within ourselves,
we are in a position to make choices. We can
choose to make a change in our environ-
ment, meaning the people with whom we
are doing business, or we can make a change
in ourselves. We can choose to be more dili-
gent in the execution of our deliverables, be
better with our word or be more sincerely
involved in the outcomes that our clients –
or our potential hires – are trying to achieve.
Trust is the integration of all three attrib-
utes, but many companies focus only on
competence. We are living in a time when
competence often passes for excellence. In
our quest for yes, let’s commit to being excel-
lent. Let’s commit to hiring for reliability and
sincerity, as well as competence. And let’s
trust the power of trust.

Jason Pappas and Joe Mechlinski are principals of EntreQuest, a

Baltimore-based sales and leadership development firm focused
on productivity and profitability.