How to Hire Employees – The One Question You Must Answer in a Sales Hiring Interview

At some point in most sales interviews most interviewers make a fatal mistake and ask something like, “Tell me a little about yourself…”

At that point the interviewer has given the interviewee permission to take control of the interview. In 99% of the cases the interviewer has lost control of the interview from that point.

The applicant is now taking the interviewer on a “word spinning ride.”

Unfortunately most interviewers think this is a good thing — watching the applicant spin a web of words.

I am here to tell you it is not a good thing – or more specifically it doesn’t mean much of anything.

Amateur interviewers think they are seeing “how the applicant was so convincing in the interview. So articulate. So charming, so professional, so, so so…”

In reality sales hiring interviews like this are a waste of time for one simple reason – the interviewer has not clearly thought through what really needs to happen in the interview.

Seeing if someone can persuasively spin words is only one aspect of what is required to be a successful salesperson.

Yes, true, salespeople need to be persuasive, but being persuasive is only one part of the job. In 99% of the cases you can do this with a sales assessment we call the StylesMatrix(TM). You get a more accurate reading from using theStylesMatrix(TM). .

So what is the one thing? I believe the real “meat” of selling success, is how they are going to meet roadblocks, discouragement and dead ends.

Selling is about keep on keeping on when things are not going the way you want them to go.

In the sales hiring interview, the one question you want to get answered is whether the applicant has follow-through, stick-to-itiveness and the ability to overcome adversity. That is the one question that you need to determine in the interview.

Advanced Hiring System has developed an entire system to help you hire salespeople who really can succeed. Interviewing your sales applicant well is a key part of hiring sales applicants who can sell after they get hired.

‘When you’re recruiting, resist the urge to grant a face to face interview to applicants who aggressively get past your receptionist.

When you are running a Hiring “Module” and are really looking hard for new salespeople, resist granting face to face interviews before testing applicants. Even if the candidate effectively gets past your receptionist and gets you on the phone, politely resist the urge!

Send them through your hiring system first — have them complete a ValuesMatrix and a Styles profile in order to get a good salesperson profile.

There is an important principle of Scientific Hiring at work here:

Although it is true that skillfully getting past a blocker is important in sales, it is only one of many skills required of a salesperson. You are looking for “complete” salespeople, not just those that are good in certain areas.

If you need some reinforcement on this decision, remind yourself of all the salespeople who you’ve hired in the past who had gotten past your receptionist — and then failed.

Commit to a hiring system. A system is a series of actions that cause a desired result  When you do this you have committed to having the best sales team possible. Only through creating a system, setting up rules and following through on these rules will you get a great  sales team.

Shortcut your system and you’ll be back in the same boat with the rest of the Sales Managers who hire 1 good salesperson out of every 4 hires!

 

Checklists are handy things. Professionals use checklists.

Pilots are big on checklists. Check out the cool video here

I’ve prepared a list of things not to do when hiring salespeople.

In 2003, when our company’s growth got us to 200 salespeople very quickly, I realized we were way too focused on training. We needed to fix our sales hiring.

Hopefully becoming more aware of these pitfalls will help you to be a better sales manager for 2010.

1. Not constantly looking for sales talent.

If you don’t have a folder in your Outlook of applicants you’ve talked to who show promise, you’re missing out on a key way to build – over time, a better team.

2) Only running the sales hiring process when you need a salesperson.

Someone quits and you start scrambling. Related to number 1, but this is only one dimension of the benefit. You’ll laugh at “sales hiring crunch worries” forever.

3) Running ads that attract the wrong personality style.

If you want a hoot, open up any job board and look at the ads for salespeople. Most of them say to me, “No top sales performers need to apply.” They look like ads written by people who hate sales and salespeople.

4) Not marketing your company’s sales position.

Your sales team is your company’s lifeblood. Really. Great product. A lousy sales team means disaster.

Hopefully, this will get you started. I’ll post some more later, but I’ve got to run to a meeting…