“Must have industry experience” is something that I’ve noticed a lot on sales job sites (not that I’m looking for a new job if anyone is wondering).  Every time I see this statement I think to myself “what a mistake”.  Some of you are probably asking yourself:

“What is he talking about?  It’s perfectly logical to want a sales rep that has experience with and has contacts in my industry.”

While I can see the logic in this thought process there are two fatal flaws with it. 

The first flaw is that the phrase “must have industry experience” is usually followed shortly thereafter by the phrase “must be a top performer”.  The issue here is that only the premier provider in your industry can actually ask for both and get the right people.  That’s because the premier provider also usually has the best sales comp plan so they can recruit all of the best reps from the rest of the companies in their industry.  The problem is that I see every provider in every industry look for both.   This strategy won’t work for them and they represent the majority in the industry.

Let’s define this further.  The top performers at the premier providers in most industries are making $100k – $120k base and $350k+ total comp including commission.  Now most of the jobs that I see posted are for $50k-$70k salary and total comp of $100k – $150k.  Do you see the disconnect and the reason why I think that the standard logic is flawed? 

The issue is if you require “must have industry experience” and you aren’t the premier provider in your industry (which most aren’t) then what you are really attracting and limiting yourself to is the “also rans” in your industry.  So you’re basically playing a game of russian roulette with the fact that you are going to find the diamond in the rough of the “also rans” which could happen but almost never does.  This is why I hear business owners say things like I have had 5 sales reps in 2 years and am still looking for the right one. 

The second fatal flaw is that you are eliminating the pool of really talented sales people who could crush it at your company but are in one of the other million industries out there.  And these people could have really good reasons as a top performer for looking for an industry change.  Relocation is a good one.  Maybe they reached the max potential in their industry.  Maybe they just didn’t want to sell PVC plastic for the rest of their lives (I can joke because it was my first sales job).

What you have to realize is that even though you think it’s really hard to learn your products or industry for top sales reps regardless of where they come from its not.  In fact hiring a top sales rep from another industry would probably give you some really interesting perspectives on your products, sales process and value proposition. 

So in the future when you are copying and pasting your job description on to monster.com or careerbuilder.com for another sales position that you are looking to fill because the last rep didn’t work out.  Stop and ask yourself if you are the premier provider in your industry.  If the answer is “No” then delete “must have industry experience” and try:

“Must be a top performer.  No industry experience required.  Relocations welcome.”

You’re probably asking yourself how is Darren going to link Shawshank Redemption to the steps involved in building client loyalty.  You’re probably also asking yourself how did Darren even conceive of this idea.  My only answer to these questions is it’s the combination of an overly creative mind, combined with some A.D.D. and a little luck sprinkled in. 

On to the connection.  For those of you that have seen Shawshank (those that haven’t will be lost) you know that Andy Dufresne played by Tim Robbins was wrongfully imprisoned for killing his wife.  You also know that Andy was a very successful business man prior to being imprisoned and he was known for being “good” with numbers. 

Well Andy realized very quickly that he would never survive prison life unless he made friends in high places.  So Andy determined that his best chance for survival was to align himself with the guards and more importantly the warden so that he had protection against the other inmates. 

What Andy did was leverage the fact that he was “good” with numbers to help the warden and guards achieve their personal and financial goals.  This plan worked so well that none of the inmates or guards bothered Andy for 19 years.  In that time Andy was able to leverage the unique relationship that he had with the warden to convince him to build a library for the inmates amongst other perks.  Andy then used the library and his education to help other inmates learn to read and get high school diplomas.  This strategy allowed him to build value with the inmates by providing hope that they might be able to change the direction of their life once they were released from prison. 

Now for the lesson.  Andy was able to align himself with the entire prison (the client) by addressing what most don’t with their clients.  If we look at the prison as the hierarchy of a company my comparison starts to take shape.  He was able to help the inmates by giving them a sense of hope that their life could be better once they got out.  He was able to help the guards accomplish personal goals like build family financial plans to help them improve their personal lives.  And he was able to help the warden develop a business model utilizing his “free” labor to outbid every contractor in the county to make him a very rich man. 

The key is Andy brought value to every one of them by realizing that they all had different goals in life (job).   He was then able to leverage his skill set in a different way for each person which allowed him to help them achieve their goals.

Do you remember the key moment that triggered Andy’s 19 year run at Shawshank?  It was on the roof of the prison and the head guard was complaining about the large taxes that he was going to have to pay on an inheritance.

This is the moment that you have to be on the lookout for with your clients as a small business owner.  You have to wait for the moment when you are presented with the opportunity to help them with something that they weren’t expecting you to be able to.

Do you remember as the other inmates were trying to grab Andy as he was walking towards the guards and he asked the head guard “Do you trust your wife?”  I would recommend a different approach but that was just Andy’s personality. 

And right before the guard was ready to throw Andy off the roof we get the trigger event for building client loyalty.  In a 20 second exchange the course of the next 19 years dramatically changed for Andy as he said “Because if you do there is no reason that you can’t keep all of that money”.  And that’s when he had them. 

The key is to always keep your ears open for opportunities to explain to your clients how you can help them achieve something that they didn’t think was possible.  And I’m not talking about helping as in sell them something help.  I mean figure out how to help them with what you already sold them or help in a way that has nothing to do with your product or service or even company.

The key to amazing client loyalty is to first understand how your client’s business makes money and what the goal is of every stakeholder within that company that you encounter.  The trick is in understanding that your product or service or even you can bring something different to every person in the company.  If you can help every stake holder that you encounter achieve their individual goals then you will build client loyalty. 

When you build client loyalty competition disappears, pricing objections disappear and you sell more to that client because they will start asking you “How else can you help me achieve my goals?” 

If you build client loyalty then they will blindly follow your advise as long as you keep helping them achieve their goals like Andy did at the prison for 19 years.

As Andy would say “all you need is patience and time” to build client loyalty.

Hopefully your goal for building client loyalty isn’t to distract the entire prison over a 19 year period so you can hide a 20 foot hole in your cell wall behind a poster that you’ve been digging one handful of rock at a time in order to escape to freedom in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.

And that’s how you tie Shawshank Redemption to the business model for building client loyalty.