Salesforce Assessments Ltd

Don't hire a liar.

When asked why he left his previous employment, the candidate gave a plausible reason. When asked the same question at a subsequent interview, however, he gave a different answer. When challenged to explain the differences, the candidate stumbled around, saying that he didn't think it was important, but it became apparent he had gotten caught in a lie.

Asking the same question twice can often uncover a candidate who is being less than truthful. Liars sometimes have problems with consistency of answers because they are often made up at the spur of the moment, whereas the truth is always the truth.

People who lie before they're hired, lie after they're hired. If they lie to get a job, they'll lie to keep one, and they'll lie to a prospect to get a sale.

Is this the kind of person you want dealing with your customers?

Don’t discard badly written resumes.

Just because a candidate doesn’t express himself or herself well on paper shouldn’t be the sole reason for eliminating them from the competition. Not every good salesperson has a great grasp of the written word or can spell well but they may be able to sell up a storm.

A lot of well-written resumes are not the work of the candidate but is often the result of a resume preparation service and don’t give you a true insight into the person’s ability to write. If writing letters isn’t a major criterion for the job, don’t worry that the resume isn’t a work of art. Takes the time to at least interview the person over the telephone. If they sound good, carry on with the hiring process and see if they can make the grade against your other hiring criterion.

While it’s nice to have both, the ability to sell far outweighs the ability to properly express oneself in writing.

The danger of hiring overqualified candidates.

Your bottom line and your sales are suffering when along comes a savior, someone with an incredible amount of sales experience and an impressive track record.

You can't afford to pay the person what he or she is really worth but good fortune has smiled upon you. The Great One will join your company for a mere pittance of what he is used to making. Before you start jumping for joy, ask yourself why.

Why would someone take a cut in pay and benefits? If you can't find a reasonable answer to that question, beware, big time. How would you feel if you were in a job that only demanded 25% of your mental or physical energies?

You'd probably get bored and slack off or you'd start filling your time with something other than what you are supposed to be doing. Or you might start feeling that you are underpaid and have the urge to slack off and take it easy, right?

Well, this is how your overqualified candidate is likely to act and feel as well. Oh, he'll do a great job for the first while. After all, it's wise to impress the boss until the probation period is over. But after that the person can start to feel hard done by and either becomes a pain in the duffis or simply leaves.

When this happens, whatever short-term gain you may have had from hiring an overqualified candidate is more then offset by the long-term pain of lost sales, angry customers, and the cost of having to go through the hiring process all over again.

When should you hire an overqualified candidate? Hire the person when you're absolutely sure that his reasons for joining your company make sense and are valid. Listen to your stomach. It will tell you what to do. It's called intuition.

They can read but can they write?

If a candidate's writing skills are an important part of the job qualifications, don’t count on their resume or covering letter as being any indication of their writing abilities.

In this day and age, many people are getting professional assistance in putting together their resumes and what you see is most likely the creative writings from one of these services and not that of the candidate.

If the candidate will be expected to write letters or respond to emails as part of his job responsibilities, have him write one for you as part of your hiring process. Give the candidate a scenario such as the customer is expecting delivery of his order by the end of next week and we’ve just found out that delivery will be delayed by six weeks. Ask the candidate to compose a letter or email to a prospect explaining the situation.

You’ll be surprised how many people have no idea how to even set up a letter let alone handle the situation effectively. You may even find that they are atrocious spellers and have no ability to use spell checkers. If there’s a problem, it’s better that you find out before, not after, you hire them.

Using auditions instead of role-plays.

An extension of the role-play scenario is to do an audition. Give the candidate some product information and ask him to come to the next interview prepared to “sell” the product to the interviewer. It needn’t be one of your company’s products or services, just something neutral.

For example, you might give the candidate a cup (somewhat expensive), a key ring (relatively inexpensive or even cheap), and a calendar (moderately priced), along with the following scenario:

“You will be making a presentation to the owner of a flower shop that wants to reward repeat customers and encourage additional business. The owner has a limited budget and hasn’t used advertising specialty items before. Which of these three items would you suggest and, if suggesting more than one, in what order would you suggest them, and why.”

The resulting presentation should give you some idea of how creative the person is and how well attuned he or she is to the prospect’s needs. It doesn’t really matter which product the person proposes as being the best one just as long as he or she can properly justify (sell) it to the prospect (and you).

The advantages of this approach are that it gives the candidate time to properly prepare for the “sales call” and it gives the interviewer a better idea of the type of questions the salesperson uses to qualify a prospect (or to see if he qualifies at all).

The disadvantages of this approach are that you don’t get an opportunity to see how fast the candidate is on his feet and it requires an additional meeting.

Candidates may be better prepared than you.

There are a ton of books out there for job seekers to help them prepare for the moment of truth, the hiring interview.

A lot of these people will not only know what questions you are likely to ask but what answers they should be giving if they are to impress you enough to get the job. Your job is to prepare a set of questions that will get the candidate to reveal his real self, not just the image he wants you to see.

One way to prepare is to read the same books the job hunters are reading. That way you’ll have a better sense of whether you’re getting a stock answer out of some book or if you’re getting close to the truth.

Another method is to have a set of standard questions that are appropriate to you, your company, and what the candidates are expected to sell and use those questions at every interview. After a period of time, you’ll know what answers to expect and a red flag will go up whenever you come across someone who is trying to bury you in BS (a technical term!).

To paraphrase the old saying, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there," when you're asking interview questions, "If you don't know what answer to expect, any answer will do."

Your challenge is to be even better prepared for the interview than the candidate. Your bottom line may depend upon that preparation.

Why Johnny can't sell.

For some obscure reason many people feel that there isn’t much to selling and anybody or everybody should be able to do it. If this is the case, why is it that so many people don’t last in the profession?

This phenomenon probably explains why so many family businesses fail or falter when the original founder’s children join the company in the sales role. Apparently they are supposed to use their innate sales abilities to carry on the business traditions. Sometime it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. Not everyone has the drive, desire, ability, or temperament to do the job successfully.

If it’s simply a matter of no ability, we can train the individual. We might even be able to plant the seeds of desire for the job, but the drive has to come from way inside the individual.

Then there is the matter of temperament. How temperamentally suited is the person to sales. Having the proper temperament doesn’t assure success in sales but it gives the person a running chance at success because selling will come more naturally to them.

On the other hand, having the wrong temperament doesn’t mean the person will fail at selling but he better have a great deal of drive, desire, and discipline or he isn’t going to make it.

It’s important to match the person’s temperament to the job if you want a better chance of getting the best performance from a new hire.

Beware of the "halo effect."

Did you ever meet someone who you took an instant like to? That’s because the person you’ve just met subconsciously reminds you of someone you know and it’s called the “halo effect.” Whatever qualities you attribute to the person you know are transferred to the person you’ve just met.

This is an all-too-common and dangerous phenomenon that often occurs during the interview portion of the hiring process. We take an instant like to the candidate and end up short-circuiting the interview process and not digging for the information we need to make an informed hiring decision.

The best way to deal with this situation is to mentally note that you have this warm and fuzzy feeling about the candidate and try to identify who it is she reminds you of. Having done that, pause a moment to remind yourself that this person is NOT the same person and you need to look for the differences.

Another phenomenon to be aware of is the “reverse halo effect.” This is where you take an instant dislike to a candidate. This is because the individual reminds you of someone you dislike or someone who has caused you grief in the past and you’ve transferred the other person’s transgressions onto the new person.

Use the same techniques as for the halo effect to get your mind back on track again.

Interviewing frenzy.

If possible, try to interview all your candidates on the same day. Line them up to arrive one after the other at one-hour intervals. I usually allow 45 minutes for the interview, ten minutes to make post-interview notes and 5 minutes between interviews to catch my breath, clear my mind, and get ready for the next interview.

The advantage of this approach is that you can more easily compare one candidate with another. You lose this advantage when you’re interviewing people days or weeks apart. It’s also more efficient use of your time.

Consider having someone sit in on the interview with you as an observer, then compare notes after the candidate leaves. The observer is likely to see, hear, or sense things you miss.

But... can he sell?

You’ve just finished conducting a job interview with a possible candidate and you have a nice warm feeling about the person. The individual was charming, witty, laughed at your jokes, had a reasonable resume, and seemed to have great listening skills.

But… can he sell? And more importantly, can he sell what you want sold and can he sell in your specific selling environment? Sometimes the only thing some people can sell is themselves! They know what to say and what to do to get the job and then it all goes downhill from there.

So make sure you go beyond the usual conversational interview approach and ask sales performance-related questions. The answer to a question like, “How do you handle price objections?” can give you great insights into a person’s selling philosophy. Or asking, "How would you go about finding prospects?" will give you some idea if the person has given any thought to how he will go about doing the job.

This aspect of the hiring interview is so important that I developed a Sales Interview Questionnaire (SIQ) that not only tells you what questions to ask, but why you’re asking them.

Always be looking for good salespeople.

The time to start looking for a new salesperson isn’t when you’ve just lost one. You should always be on the lookout for possible candidates. Keep a "Resume/Prospective Salespeople" file folder close by and put into it any resumes you might receive or even the names of people you might like to have work for you if the conditions are right.

Cast a large recruiting net.

Just like professional fishermen catch more fish when they use a bigger net, you can find more potential recruits if you cast a bigger, wider net.

Don’t get stuck always using the same old techniques. Broaden your reach. Don’t discount competitors as a good source of potential candidates. How about salespeople in allied or similar industries? Use the Internet. Check out Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, HotJobs.com, SalesLadder.com SalesJobs.com, etc.

If you’re in Canada, check out the services offered by the Canadian Professional Sales Association at CPSA.com.

Good sources of salespeople.

Looking for new salespeople? Ask your top performers if they know anyone. Birds of a feather flock together and it’s quite likely that your existing people may know someone who could be a candidate for the position.

Also, don’t hesitate to ask your current salespeople if they know any competitive salespeople whom they respect. Be careful about approaching these possible candidates directly as you might start a raiding war. Use a third party such as a flexible executive recruiter to make the approach and to assess the candidate’s interest in making a career change. You've got nothing to lose and a lot to gain. When you hire a salesperson away from your competition, you're up one and they're down one. A big difference.

Hire a boomerang!

What’s a boomerang? That’s someone who left your company for supposedly greener pastures but found himself standing in the same brown stuff as before and is now ready to come back. Even if the grass was greener when he or she left, times change and the grass may now be less green where the person is now.

It doesn’t hurt to call someone whom you were sorry to lose and see what the person is up to. Maybe he’s happy as a clam and maybe not. If he’s happy, be happy for him and tell him to give you a call if things change. You may or may not have a spot for him when he calls but it’s worth the try. On the other hand, if he isn't particularly happy where he is now, have a chat.

Like a boomerang, the person may come back. It's a win-win for everyone. He's happy to be back in an environment he is familiar with and you're happy to have a performer back in the fold.

Hire for attitude.

Seasoning is great "on" food and "in" people! One of the things we often look for in a candidate is past sales experience and "seasoning." However, sometimes a seasoned pro comes complete with complacency.

Don’t discount a candidate’s enthusiasm. It’s often better to hire an inexperienced but enthusiastic individual than a laid-back, seasoned person.

To hire an experienced salesperson with a poor attitude is to hire a problem. Remember the old axion, "hire for attitude and train for skill."

Conduct group interviews.

If your firm is keen on using a team approach to selling, it might be wise to include some or all of the current sales team members in on the final selection interviews for a new salesperson. If there is going to be a personality or other type of conflict, better you find out before you hire someone than after. Make sure that each of the people on the interviewing team come with one or two relevant questions.

I recommend an informal setting for the interview. You don't want it to turn into a good cop/bad cop thing where the team tries to beat the truth out of the candidate. This is an interview, not a rubber hose interrogation! Keep it light but meaningful.

Another advantage of having this type of interview is that it allows you to take a less active, observer role so that you can see how the candidate reacts to the situation and to the other team members. This is likely the way he will react when dealing with your customers when he first meets them.

Beware when hiring extroverts.

For some reason, people feel that extroverts make the best salespeople. Some do, many don’t! Why? Because extroverts are so outgoing, they often talk "at" people instead of "to" them and this annoys many people, particularly introverts.

Too many extroverted salespeople take the approach of, “Let me tell you what I’ve got,” instead of trying to help the other person make an informed buying decision. Some of the world’s most successful salespeople are reserved and introverted. This causes them to ask more questions and listen better. Prospects appreciate that.

I'm not suggesting you avoid hiring extroverts. I'm suggesting you hire extroverts who have developed their listening skills. How do you determine if they have good listening skills? You do that during the interview process. Does the person respond appropriately to things you tell him (good)? Does he give you long answers to short questions (bad)? Keep in mind that some of these people wouldn't listen at all if they didn't think it was their turn to talk next!

Why use the Sales Temperament Assessment?

With the cost of hiring a salesperson ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 or more, making the right hiring decision is critical. Psychological profile tests, such as our Sales Temperament Assessment (STA), can be a valuable tool in the decision-making process.

When hiring a salesperson, you are basically looking for three things:

Ability: Can the person do the job?
Character: Does the person have the desire and determination
Temperament: How will the person go about doing the job?

The interview process can usually help you find the answers to the first two qualities. The third ingredient for selling success — temperament — is harder to assess.

The STA is a tool designed to measure the basic temperamental qualities that make up a successful salesperson:

Competitiveness
Sociability
Drive
Independence

Here are some of the things the STA can reveal about salespeople:

Are they competitive, ambitious, decisive?
Are they sociable, persuasive, optimistic?
How good are they at pushing for results?
Will they be overly talkative?
Will they shy away from objections?
Are they persistent?
Will they be comfortable making cold calls?
How likely are they to close a sale?

These are some of the things you want to find out before you hire someone, not after.

Looking for superstars?

If you want to find a really good salesperson, don’t run an advertisement. Use an even better resource--your experience. As you trundle up and down the road of life, keep note of the salespeople you meet that impress you. Get their cards and home telephone numbers. That way you’ll know how to reach them if they leave their current employer.

If someone impressed you, he or she is likely to impress your customers as well. Professional selling skills are very transportable and if the person was good at selling whatever it was you were buying, he or she may be able to sell your stuff as well. What better source of talent than real performance.

Use TORC when hiring.

Not checking with a candidate's previous employers is a serious mistake that many companies make when making a hiring decision. Sometimes it’s impossible to check a person’s employment record or do meaningful reference checks because the candidate is still in his first job.

If you have someone you want to hire but the candidate is still employed, use TORC to deal with the situation. TORC stands for “Threat of Reference Checks.” Tell the candidate that you always make job offers contingent upon receiving a satisfactory reference from his current employer. If the candidate is having problems with his employer, he’ll disappear in a flash. If things are OK, he’ll accept the condition and make sure he leaves his current employer on good terms.