The proven way for any company to achieve better sales is to hire top performing sales people. Unfortunately, not every hiring manager or sales manager knows how to hire only the top performers and what questions to ask to rule out those who only think they are the best. One of the key ingredients in hiring the best is the sales assessment questions job candidates are asked during the interview process.
During the initial interviews there are certain things you are not allowed to ask, and all good hiring managers are aware of them, but there are other questions that you are required to ask if you only want the best. It is OK to ask sales assessment questions to determine a candidate’s job qualifications and with sales, the candidate’s experience will not tell you anything. After all you are interested in performance not how long they have been in sales and unless you ask how they increased their level of performance in their last position, you won’t know.
By asking the right questions you can determine their values. Don’t confuse values with priorities. Someone’s personal values will not change and cannot be affected by outside influences. However, their priorities will change based on a number of influences. For example, you have established sales goals and their priority is to call on 20 people per day. Another project comes up and they will only have time for 10 calls a day, which is now their priority.
You will also need to establish what most companies call a job description. Unfortunately, once you put that description in writing it could limit the scope of the position. Having a job description can be a map on how to hire a salesperson, as it can be used to develop interview questions sales position candidates will be asked. Achieving better sales should be your priority and assessing the values of the candidates will help direct you to the right person.
Your sales assessment questions should provide answers that are results oriented, not answers that the candidate thinks you want to hear. Asking what their goals are means nothing if they can’t provide the means of getting there. It’s important to note that while past performance is often an indicator of future success a person with solid values that are in line with your company’s values has the best chance of bringing in better sale and becoming the top performers in your company.
