Can you Codify a Person’s Soul?

How do you know a person you are about to hire is who they say they are? 

You call in the modern Dr. Frankenstein.

These are Ph.Ds in lab coats that peel back the outer layers of ego and self-defense and peer deep inside the nooks and crannies of your gray matter to get to the truth, the unvarnished essence, the real you.

At The Right Five, we have our own mad scientist in a lab coat. 

His name is Kurt. 

He’s one of our co-founders. 

He led the team that developed the assessment that identifies those individuals that have the right set of attitudes and attributes to be a successful first sales hire at a B2B tech startup. We call these individuals Pathfinders. 

Pathfinders are those who will hack their way through the proverbial jungle, developing the trail others will follow. These are unique individuals and makeup less than 1 in 10 salespeople. 

We have found that what makes a Pathfinder successful as the first sales hire is connected to an entire network of internal perspectives, attitudes, and approaches to work. You can’t see it, and it’s hard to get at in interviews – even for professionals skilled at interviewing salespeople.

We find these people through an online assessment and rules engine that classifies candidates as a Pathfinder or a Non-Pathfinder and which covers both these ‘deep’ skills as well as the vocational skills required for the role.

How we get there is through a highly respected process developed by academics. When you take the assessment, you respond to statements that are indicators of a Pathfinder’s intangible factors. 

It’s not a direct measurement, like getting your blood pressure taken, it’s an indirect measurement using these indicators. There has been extensive research on these types of measurements to ensure that they are valid.

Our proprietary process was developed by starting with known and validated scales and modifying them to assess for Pathfinders. We then validated the findings through statistical analysis to ensure there’s an internal consistency to the results.

These are considered research best practices to validate assessments like ours. 

We have automated this assessment of candidates, so we bring you five of the right type of candidates—Pathfinders—so you can choose the one that is a best fit for your organization. And, compared to recruiters, our process is dirt cheap. The Right Five costs less than US$1,000 per first sales hire.

Pathfinders have a unique set of characteristics that are distinct from your typical salesperson, including:

• A strong ability to deal with ambiguity. The first Sales hire role is one without a Playbook and, by definition, such an early startup lacks the support (e.g. lead generation) of other later stage companies.
• A willingness and excitement around building the processes and procedures necessary for a successful Sales operation as an organization scales.
• Curiosity that allows for creative solutions.
• A hunger motivated by something quite different to most other sales types.

Fortunately for all of us, you can’t codify the human soul. But, assessment is the next best thing. 

Want to find out more? Watch this five-minute overview and demo of The Right Five or send us a note and we will set up a meeting.

Curious to know more about the assessment? Want to see if you are a Pathfinder? You can take the assessment here for free but make sure you check out the notes at the bottom of the post before you start. Your results are yours, we don’t share them with anyone.