Every now and again, I get asked to review a sales book.  I am happy to do it. 

First up is Topgrading for Sales by Bradford D. Smart and Greg Alexander.  Brad Smart is the author of Topgrading and Greg Alexander is a former sales manager who used the Topgrading methodology to improve his hiring while at EMC. 

Who Is It For?

Topgrading for Sales is for sales managers.  More specifically, I think the book is for sales managers at large corporations with expensive outside sales teams. 

General Premise

The authors describe a process by which sales managers can assess their current sales team to identify the "A" players.  Then they assert that it is possible to hire only "A" players in the future.  By nudging out the "B" and "C" players, one will be left with a sales staff comprised solely of "A" players.  The authors go into detail about the financial benefits of hiring only the best.  But, I think we are already convinced of that before we even crack open the book.

Content

The authors do a good job of providing both an argument for their methodology and a system for putting it into place.  A nice touch is the forms that they provide for:  Talent Review, Cost of Mis-hires, Career History, Hiring Checklist, etc.  One very good idea is the belief that sales managers should always be recruiting and building a "virtual bench" so they are prepared to deal with the inevitable turnover that occurs in sales.

While I'm not sure there is any groundbreaking information in the book, I am sure that I have never seen as comprehensive a discussion about how to hire.  The authors are "detail guys" and not one detail of what to do and when to do it is omitted.

They reveal their "silver bullet" in Chapter 4 when they introduce the Topgrading Interview.  This is where it becomes obvious that not everyone will be able to make a commitment to perform the topgrading methodology.  Topgrading interviews are detailed and complex and require several hours with each candidate.  If you haven't taken the necessary steps up to this point, you'll spend way too much time potentially bad candidates and get frustrated.

My Thoughts

The book is well thought out and comprehensive.  If there is a nit to pick I would choose to focus on the fact that, while the authors give you plenty of questions to ask, they often don't offer guidance regarding how those questions should be answered.  For example, the candidate is asked about their Active Listening skills.  What will the "A" players say that can be distinguished from what the "C" players are saying?  The authors don't give us their opinion.

Perhaps, this means that this book is not the only one you might need when it comes to learning all the skills necessary to hire an extraordinary team.  That's okay.  There are plenty of books about assessing talent that can be used as companions to this one without negating the value this book brings to the process.

Most sales managers that I know do not have the patience or the time to put the Topgrading for Sales methodology to work.  But, perhaps that's the point.  Very few sales managers can do what the authors propose, but for those that do, the rewards are tremendous.  The sales managers that can make a commitment to hiring only "A" talent might be the "A" players of sales management.

For sales managers looking to break away from the pack, becoming an expert at hiring is certainly one way to do it.  For them, Topgrading for Sales is custom made.