Attention sales organizations! Are you satisfied with your applicant interviewing policy? Have you ever put yourself in the shoes of the applicants to ensure that you are offering a process that welcomes neurodivergent candidates? If you are hiring for your sale team, this information is important to consider.
Did you know that people with dyslexia excel in sales? We are above average in the critical skills needed to become a top-seller. We score above average in communicating, connecting, visualizing, exploring, imagining, and reasoning. This is the perfect combination needed to run a successful sales opportunity and win business.
Even though dyslexic candidates are a great fit in the sales industry, most hiring policies or processes weed out these strong candidates. Studies show that only 34% of college students with dyslexia graduate. This means that making a college degree a requirement for sales positions eliminates a large candidate pool before they even apply.
During my twenty plus years in sales, I have spent most of my career only able to apply for entry level roles because I don’t have a completed college degree. As my peers with less experience continued to advance or seek senior sales positions, I was prohibited from even applying for these roles either internally or externally.
Interestingly enough, dyslexic individuals can possess a natural entrepreneurial spirit. Just look at the number of all millionaires who have dyslexia. Sales works with the cognitive makeup of the dyslexic brain. Having dyslexia provides the framework to think outside the box, see the big picture, and life experience that develops the grit that is needed to succeed in the sales industry.
If you find yourself wondering how to bring in more neurodivergent talent into your sales organization, ask yourself: is there any value in requiring a college degree for a sales position? What could a candidate offer to the success of the role with a college degree? Would you need to change your sales training to hire someone without a college degree to ensure they could perform the job?
In my two-decades of selling, I have yet to find a college graduate that has learned how to sell at college. Having the ability to communicate with conviction and the natural attributes and resilience needed to sustain high levels of ghosting or rejection predicts greater success than any degree a candidate could obtain.
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