Liveblog: The ROI of Recruiting and Retaining Top Sales Talent, Kimberly Rath

Kimberly Rath, President and Managing Partner, Talent Plus, has nearly 25 years of experience in the human resources field, and she is a recognized leader in the field of executive development. Rath provides executive management consulting consulting and training to organizations worldwide, including the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, The Estee Lauder Companies, and Mercedes-Benz USA.


Rath asserts that:

(Talent + Fit) x Investment = Growth

• Talent means "Talent/Potential"
• Fit means "Culture, Schedule, Compensation, Skills, Education"
• Investment means "Relationship, Training, Mentoring"

"Recruiting is like shaving...if you don't do it every day, it gets a little rough, and a little shaggy."

"We are a company of 120 people. We had 1,500 applicants last year."

Rath also led the group in a very eloquent conversation of the judgements and labels we put on candidates based on our initial impressions. Bill Eckstrom was a great sport, and allowed himself to be "labeled" by the group. Literally.

Rath counseled that an organization needs to hire "as-is" - as fundamental change of an individual is unlikely.

Over thousands of interviews, the attributes that Talent Plus has seen that drive success are the following nine (values, competition, focus, discipline, customer relationship, empathy, positivity, persuasion, enterpriser), in the following five categories:

Drives and Values
Values
Competition

Work Style
Focus
Discipline

People Acumen
Customer Relationship
Empathy
Positivity

Influence
Persuasion

Thought Process
Enterpriser

Successful sales people need to have 2 of the following 3, according to Rath: Enterpriser, Persuasion, Competition. ("After Sept. 11," Rath noted, "the two key attributes were Positivity and Persuasion.")

"We can predict failure -- e.g. 'this person won't make it' -- better than we can predict success."

"The behaviors you hire in, they define your culture."