When an applicant comes through the door if they are truly interested in the advertised position they will be fully prepared to answer all of your questions. Conversely, as a hiring manager you should also be prepared with an established set of interview questions for sales people to let them know you are ready to hire the most qualified candidate. If you appear unprepared or not interested in the sales hiring process you could chase away the best qualified candidate.

Remember that everyone being interviewed must have already scored well on a sales aptitude test and shows promise, but that doesn’t always mean they will fit into your organization. Each of the candidates interviewed should be asked the same questions. As they move along in the hiring process the interview questions for sales people should result in different levels of response. The better sales candidates will be able to maintain a high level of answers while some of the lesser qualified candidates, feeling they are looking better to you since they are advancing through the process, become more lax in their responses.

This is where the abilities of the interviewer will come into play during the sales hiring process. Notice the phrase hiring process, as it is a process and not any special technique. Although it takes a certain amount of knowledge to hire properly, sales hiring is a process and the successful candidates will move through it, with you gaining more confidence in their abilities with each step they take.

Too many sales managers have an inflated opinion of their ability to evaluate how a candidate was able to sell themselves. The better sales candidates will know when they have made a mistake in an interview and be able to right their wrong and keep moving through the process. This is the part of the sales hiring process that many managers are unfamiliar with and a sales aptitude test will most often reveal.

Even if a candidate has never been involved in sales before that doesn’t mean they aren’t qualified for the position. During the sales hiring process if they have demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit, can overcome adversity and can manage their emotions they may be a better hire than those with years of experience. When considering someone for a sales position it may be better to look beyond a lack of experience that can be replaced with the traits that make the best sales people.

Many business owners turn the hiring process over to their human resources department since they have the experience in hiring salesmen, but this doesn’t excuse them from knowing how to hire a salesperson. In fact, after job candidates have passed a sales test and have gone through the interview process, many business owners should conduct the final interview and make the actual job offer.

With many companies, the human resources department is responsible for administering any pre employment assessment test before scheduling interviews for salesmen. Applicants that do not fare well on this test are not usually called back for interviews while those that score well on these tests are sometimes asked to complete a subsequent sales test before the interview process begins.

All interviews, beginning with the initial one should be conducted by those who know how to hire a salesperson.  Human resources personnel may be familiar with many aspects of the hiring process but only those familiar with what it takes to be a great salesman should conduct the first and subsequent interviews. When conducting interviews the results of the pre employment assessment test should be included with the interviewer’s packet to allow questions to be asked based on any discrepancies in the answers.

Ideally, interview questions will  basically be the same, but often worded differently to extract the feelings and emotions used by the applicant to better understand their answers. Unfortunately, some companies allow their top salesmen to conduct the interviews which does not always reveal an accurate assessment of the applicant’s abilities. They may not have a complete understanding of how to hire a salesperson instead comparing the applicant’s answers to how they would have answered, not resulting in an honest assessment.

Sales managers are about the worst person to be involved in the final interview as they are going to be the ones they answer to if they are hired. They may believe they know how to hire a salesperson but in reality, in addition to comparing their own talents to the applicant, they are looking for someone who will follow their direction and not the free-thinkers that turn out to be better salesmen.

The owner of the business will ultimately be responsible for the performance of the new sales person and should have the best understanding of how to hire a salesperson. As a result, they should conduct the final interview and be the one to make the job offer. This lets the candidate meet the boss while allowing the owner to explain not only the job duties, but their expectations as well.

When you hire salespeople for your company, you probably don’t realize that there’s a philanthropic spirit behind the goal-oriented, driven, ambitious people that you have recruited. After all, when you ask the typical man-on-the-street to give you the characteristics of good salesmen, altruism isn’t at the top of the list. But you might be surprised.

According to the Advanced Hiring System Values Matrix, the best salesmen are motivated by a desire for money and power. For that reason, many people think that that’s all good salesmen care about. When you really get to know some of them, though, you’ll discover that what motivates them is just a small part of who they are; because of salesmen, the world is a much better place.

Let’s consider the facts: while a desire for money and power may be the primary force that drives good salesmen, they’re not usually just out for themselves. What about the customer? By selling your product to Mrs. X, your salesman—we’ll call him Sam—is making a sincere effort to improve or enhance some part of her life. Oh sure, there are those out there who really don’t care about the customer—those are the ones who have created those unpleasant stereotypes that plague all the good salesmen. Those are also the ones you hope you don’t have on your sales team.

When Mrs. X is delighted with both your product and the way she was treated, she will tell Mrs. Y and Mrs. Z, who will undoubtedly request Sam to help them purchase your product because he made the experience so enjoyable for Mrs. X. Now Sam has helped three people, and who knows how far the word of mouth will go? All because he’s motivated by money and power? Maybe, but now we can see that there’s another whole dimension to Sam.

Now, as Sam is helping Mrs. X, Y, and Z, your growth charts begin to rise. As more people buy your product from Sam, your profits grow, and your company is getting stronger. All because of Sam? Hmm. Just because he’s collecting a commission doesn’t mean that it’s not important to him to do what he can to help ensure
your company’s success.

Taking the whole idea a step further, good salesmen help the economy. Sam takes his commissions and spends money on products and services in your community. As businesses thrive, employment rises, and more products and services become available, and so on, and so on. And now that your business is also thriving, you have to hire salespeople again, and the cycle continues.

Okay, maybe you can’t really save the world just because you hire salespeople. But now you can see how one good hire can help a lot of people, including you. It’s all about money, power–and humanity.