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Take the Mystery Out of Hiring Sales
People
 When
you realize the high cost of hiring someone, and the quick turn-around
there seems to be in sales positions, it may be time to rethink
your processes for hiring sales people. Who can afford to spend
six months worth of salary, benefits and time just to see if a
newly hired sales person is going to work out? What can you do
to take the mystery out of hiring sales people?
Often, the best sales pitch a person will ever
make is the pitch they use when selling themselves in an interview.
How can you get past that and see the real person and real abilities?
There are a few ways:
- Make sure you and the others participating
in the interview process know exactly what is needed in a sales
person in your company. Don't just focus on the person's experience
or education. Look for particular qualities and personality
traits that are necessary to connect with your clients. Selling
to people in the beauty industry is probably going to need a
different approach than selling insurance to cattle ranchers.
- Use an assessment. This can reveal
traits the person is covering or is not aware of. If possible,
have the person do the assessment before you have the interview.
This way you will know what to look for, will already have an
idea about the person, and won't be as likely to be "sold".
Often, an assessment will highlight areas you want to explore
more in-depth during the interview and reference checks.
- Run the interviewees through a mock
sale, a role play. Have them sell to you and evaluate their
technique, rapport building skills, reaction to rejection, how
they handle road-blocks they may encounter with your customers,
and various other elements of their sale. This will give you
a better idea of their actual skills and abilities.
- Have a detailed job description, with
all the sales person's duties outlined. Then you can find out
how the interviewees feel about all aspects of the job, such
as paperwork, follow-up and record keeping, duties that aren't
as prestigious as "schmoozing" with clients at business
lunches.
Of course, these are only a few techniques
you can use. There are so many others. As you go through the process,
you will discover what works best for your organization.
Sometimes, though, nothing seems to work. Then
you can always turn to professional recruiters to assist. This
is one of the services Dimension 11 provides, so keep us in mind.
We're here to help.
Practice makes perfect, in many cases. As you
hone your hiring techniques, you will find you will have to do
less of it, because you will be hiring and keeping the best people.
Preparing For an Interview
How can you, as the one conducting the interview,
be more relaxed and feel more in control? Preparation is vital,
just as it is for the one being interviewed. Try these tips:
- Prepare
a detailed job description so you know exactly what to look
for during the interview
- Review
the résumés very carefully and identify the areas you want to
explore more fully
- Prepare
key questions for each interviewee – behavioural, situational,
technical and job-related – making them open-ended
- Take
notes so you don't have to rely on your memory
- Select
a comfortable environment
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Quote
of the Month
"I hear and I forget.
I do and I remember.
I see and I understand."
~Confucious~
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