Unless you have a greater than 50% success rate at hiring salespeople, don’t rely on just one interview or one interviewer when making this critical hiring decision. I’ve already mentioned the fact that job candidates, particularly sales candidates, have no problem presenting the picture you want to see. Having more than one interview and more…
Category Archives: Interviewing
Why HR Shouldn’t Interview Salespeople
Now before some HR professionals dump garbage on my doorstep, metaphorically speaking, let me explain. What I’m really saying is that HR shouldn’t be the only people who conduct sales interviews, but that wouldn’t have made a provocative headline. HR professionals are excellent at conducting preliminary interviews but, even then, they might inadvertently throw out…
But… Can He Sell?
You’ve just finished conducting a job interview with a potential sales candidate and you have a nice warm feeling about the person. The individual was charming, witty, laughed at your jokes, had a reasonable resume, and seemed to have great listening skills. But… Can he sell? And more importantly, can he sell what you want…
Using Behaviour-Based Interviewing to Get to the Truth
You may not have noticed this, but some salespeople are prone to embellish the truth. In addition, some are masters at hijacking the interview process by regaling you with stories of their successes. What should be a fact-based autobiography turns into a full-blown fiction novel. Using behaviour-based questions are a key to determining key competencies…
Are You Conducting Too Few Sales Interviews?
I’ve often felt that companies are too fast to hire and too slow to fire. One of the hiring traps that companies fall into is hiring someone after the first, and sometimes only, interview. Even the worst sales candidate can come across as being presentable during that first interview. It’s like being on a first…
Don’t Hire a Bull in a China Shop
Some candidate’s selling styles, in particular Hunters, exhibit the interpersonal skills of a small stone and their abrupt manner can often annoy people. Hiring someone who is going to be going around inadvertently annoying people isn’t a particularly good strategy because annoyed prospects don’t buy. Adding to the problem is that many of these people…
Beware of the Sales Gabber
Some salespeople simply don’t know when to shut up! Recently I had set aside an hour to do an interview with a sales candidate. Now I do a pretty thorough interview and I came prepared with a list of 30 or so questions I like to get answered. I usually start off with a brief…
Getting Piles From Sorting Resumes
The piles I’m referring to is not the type that cause anal discomfort, it’s the “Yes,” “No,” and “Maybe” piles that result from sorting through tons of resumes before we engage in the interview process. When you think of it, we make our go/no-go interview decisions based on the quality of the writing in a…
Hiring a Salesperson? Hire for Attitude.
Seasoning is great “on” food and “in” people! One of the things employers often look for in a sales candidate is past sales experience and “seasoning.” However, sometimes when you hire one of these seasoned pros, they come complete with complacency. In sales, like in many things, attitude counts. I don’t ever discount a salesperson’s…
Set an Interview Time Limit
I’ve blogged in the past about sales candidates who have a propensity to be verbose and why you may want to avoid them (huge timewasters). Whenever I’m tasked to do an interview with someone who our Sales Temperament Assessment has flagged as being over-social, I use the following technique to see if the person has…
