Most contractors hire a business developer on one trait. Maybe it’s industry experience. Maybe it’s the gift of gab. Neal Glatt is a sales and leadership coach who helps companies hire and develop salespeople, and he explains what to test for before you make the offer.
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The Sales Hiring Mistake Contractors Keep Making
Neal says companies fixate on one thing they think matters. A hiring manager might want a money-motivated rep or a former D1 athlete. The worst one, in Neal’s view, is industry experience.
Those are good traits on their own. They don’t tell you the whole story. Neal’s firm screens salespeople with an assessment that looks at more than 220 data points.
One of them is comfort talking about money. Take a rep who has only sold contracts under $500,000 and put him on a $10 million project. He can freak out.
Neal compares the interview to test-driving a used car. It feels good. Then the mechanic runs the inspection and finds what you couldn’t see from the driver’s seat.
How Much Industry Experience Does a Business Developer Need?
It depends on what you sell. Neal says HVAC and clean room construction demand technical knowledge.
He still thinks the industry is easier to teach than selling. A strong business developer with no construction background needs serious onboarding. Send them to vendor schools for a couple of weeks. Pair them with a senior rep or a project manager for six to twelve months.
The PM listens for the technical details. The business developer runs discovery and builds trust.
Every Salesperson Needs a Coach
Neal hears this from owners. The candidate passed the test and interviewed well. Then he washed out.
Often the company hired a great candidate and expected a superstar with no support. “Everybody needs a coach,” Neal says. He has a sales coach himself, and he sends his own salespeople to coaches who aren’t him.
Sales Process Problem or People Problem?
Here’s Neal’s test. Can you write your sales process on a piece of paper as stages and steps? A list of the events you attend doesn’t count.
If those steps produce sales at a predictable rate, you probably don’t have a process problem. Very few contractors can say that.
How do you spot a people problem? Listen for excuses. Neal recently interviewed several business developers on one team in California, and the company had no process at all. Two reps were frustrated and kept asking how to do it better. A third blamed the company’s Google reviews and a tough year for sales.
That third rep is the people problem. Even then, Neal says the fix is often training.
Build Your Sales Process From Your Best Sale
Grab a piece of paper. Think about the best sale you ever made, the one you wish you could repeat every month.
How did it start? Neal says it usually starts with an introduction to a decision maker. Who did you meet with? What did they tell you? Was the presentation a formal PowerPoint or a casual conversation?
Write that out for your three favorite sales. You’ll see threads that repeat. Those are the bones of your sales process.
Whoever Has the Stronger System Wins
Eric sells by creating his own game and inviting people to play it. Neal was taught the same rule in different words. “Whoever has the stronger system wins.”
In commercial construction, procurement has a strong system. Neal says their playbooks are better researched than most sales playbooks. “Their whole game is to commoditize you.”
So what do you do when it’s a competitive RFP and the scope is the scope? Neal’s answer is that “somebody helped them write that scope.” Get there six months to a year before it goes out. Help the client set the scoring criteria. If you hold a certification few contractors have, show them why it should carry weight.
He adds a condition. Do it ethically, and only when it’s the right application for the client.
Three Questions That Find the Real Decision Maker
Eric asks one question in every sale. “Who besides yourself is involved in the final decision regarding this sale?”
Neal adds two more. To what extent are they involved, and how? What’s important to them?
Ask all three on any complex sale. Then ask again later, because people get fired and companies get bought in the middle of a project.
How Long Should You Give a New BD Hire?
Give them 30 to 90 days to hold an intelligible conversation with a prospect about what you do. After that, set a weekly and monthly activity number. Count events attended and calls made to your target market.
Neal says you’ll know within six months whether the person is likely to pan out. Carry a non-performer for two years and he puts the cost in the millions next to a rep who performs.
The Five-Minute Phone Screen for Sales Candidates
Schedule a phone screen and don’t say how long it will run. At five minutes, cut the candidate off. Tell them they’ll hear by the end of the day tomorrow if they’re getting an interview.
Some say thanks and hang up. Others ask how they scored and how they can improve. Neal wants the second group for a hunter role.
His caveat is that the result is “suggestive, it’s not definitive.”
Do the best-sale exercise this week. One page, stages and steps.
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About the Guest
Neal Glatt is a sales and leadership coach who helps landscape, lawn care, horticulture, and other green industry companies grow revenue through better hiring, stronger leadership, improved accountability, and more effective sales execution.
Before starting his coaching business, Neal helped grow Case Snow Management from a single pickup truck to more than $40 million in annual revenue in just seven years. That experience gave him firsthand insight into what it takes to build teams, develop leaders, create scalable systems, and grow a service business without everything depending on the owner.
Today, Neal works with business owners and leadership teams across the trades and green industry to improve hiring decisions, develop salespeople and managers, build accountability, and create organizations that can scale sustainably.
Connect with Neal Glatt
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nealglatt/
Website: https://nealglatt.com
Cassidy Gutter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassidy-gutter-4a007822a/
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