Although this blog generally refers to the masculine segment of the sales force, it’s only for the convenience of using a single pronoun.  But today, it’s all about the feminine!  Today’s blog is devoted to the ladies of the trenches. After all, according to various sources, 32% of working women are in sales, making the total percentage of women in the sales force 26%.  I’m sure the percentage varies according to whom you talk to, but these numbers are probably in the ballpark. So when you consider the question of what makes a good salesman, don’t discount the notion that it just might be a woman!

In sales hiring, the field is pretty wide open according to gender, age, race, religion, and other personal attributes. Where a person comes from doesn’t matter; even her level of education can be immaterial. As long as she possesses the qualifications that define the sales personality, she can be successful in sales. That’s why sales hiring is open to all types—all sales types, that is.

Some managers seem to prefer to avoid considering women when they hire sales people. There’s some bias because women bring obvious differences and often some unique challenges to the table. Single moms especially may have more distractions in their lives than the average salesmen. But studies have shown that women can prove to be just as successful sales hires as their male counterparts. In fact, there is some data that show that women are actually stronger in sales, percentage-wise.

Side by side comparisons of salesmen and saleswomen in the same field have generated some interesting results. When strengths and weaknesses are measured, as they are in a pre employment assessment test that focuses on what makes a good salesman, men and women show similar results in the areas of weakness. However, men exhibit three times the severity of a weakness as women. This would indicate that a woman might have a better chance of correcting a weakness than a man does.

On the other hand, women, as a rule, have innate aspects of their personality that give them an advantage in sales. They have an intuitive, empathic nature which enables them to relate to customers more easily than males can. And, of course, women through the ages have been notorious for their laser-focus when the situation warranted.

Although women can sell trucks and tools, and many of them do, the majority gravitate to fields that complement the feminine nurturing instinct: health areas such as pharmaceutical sales, medical sales; domestic areas such as real estate and insurance sales; and of course advertising sales –it’s important for women to support shoppers everywhere.

Unfortunately, one of the greatest challenges many women face is their own low self-esteem. While this may not be a problem in promoting a product, it can definitely get in the way when there is a need for self-promotion, as in interviewing for a job or a promotion. That’s why women are the ideal candidates for salesperson profiles such as AHS uses to identify the combination of Values and Personality Styles that are essential elements in what makes a good salesman. When a woman won’t speak up for herself, these tests can pinpoint her skill set and identify whether she has sales ability in her DNA. If you’re going through the process of sales hiring anyway, don’t overlook the applicant in  lipstick and stilettos.

As you know, Advanced Hiring System is a near-foolproof system that gives you all the tools you need to teach you how to hire salespeople, including instruction on how to conduct an interview. This is the step in sales hiring where you adopt your “engineer persona.”

Why the engineer persona? Just because you’ve been through the preliminary steps—you’ve used the pre-employment assessment test to narrow down your prospects to about three or four likely candidates—it’s not time to let your guard down. Too many interviewers tend to relax and get friendly with the candidate; but now is not the time. At this point you want to see what the candidate can deliver.

By adopting the engineer persona, you can simulate one of selling’s biggest challenges: customer inertia. All good salesmen know what this is: the customer may need the product, may even want the product, but doesn’t want to take action and make the decision or the commitment. That’s when the great salespeople turn on the enthusiasm and make it contagious. It spills over to the customer, and the deal is closed.

How does this apply in the area of how to conduct an interview? Well, think of the stereotypical engineer: dead-serious, emotionless, neutral, downright inscrutable. A human embodiment of inertia.

Now, think of the typical salesman. He has a goal-oriented ego that thinks of every sale as a form of self-vindication. Now he may feel he’s facing his toughest sale—he can’t read your reactions, and he has no idea if he’s making an impression or not. If he’s serious about landing the job, this is the point when he should pour on the enthusiasm. After all, if he can’t get enthusiastic about himself, how can he get enthusiastic about your product? If he can’t overcome inertia in the interview you can’t expect him to overcome it in the customer.

Once you know the ins and outs of how to conduct an interview, you understand that, while you’re measuring the candidate’s enthusiasm, you’re also collecting other vital information by using specific interview questions for salespeople. His demeanor and conduct during the interviews will reveal his professionalism, you’ll learn about his background and accomplishments, and certain questions will generate an idea of how goal-oriented he is and what kinds of sales strategies he employs in different situations.

In the AHS philosophy of how to conduct an interview, there are four levels of questions each candidate must answer, and all candidates should be graded on every answer. As the applicants move from one level to the next, you’ll be able to identify inconsistencies that may indicate that there could be trust issues with a candidate. Each higher level of the interview demands more creativity and “outside the box” thinking, so you’ll be able to assess outlook, values, and attitude. By the time you’ve finished the interview process using the full, in-depth AHS questions in how to conduct an interview, you’ll have filled in any information gaps about each candidate, and you’ll know everything you need to know. To choose the best of the bunch, just tally their scores!