How To Interview Sales People Successfully
Since the dawn of free trading only two things have ever
mattered; producing a quality product or service and the ability
to sell it successfully. By successfully, I mean ensuring that
you achieve maximum profit from the sale, while the customer is
delighted with their purchase. In most cases the Business owner
understands what they need to produce, but more often that not
rely on someone with sales skills to sell it.
Would you know a good sales person from a bad one? While many
company founders realize that they may not have the requisite
sales skills, would they be able to recognize and hire someone
who could sell? It is a recognised fact that four times as many
business fail due to poor salesmanship, rather than poor
products. Can you afford an other Sales person, based on the
margins of what you intend to sell?
Thus hiring the right people to sell for you is one of the most
important decisions most companies will make.
Unfortunately hiring is a bit like selling. First you must find
prospects. These are the candidates that you will interview. To
do this you must create a job spec. This will be your advert.
How to create a sales job specification. Like marketing, this
step must not be rushed. First understand exactly what you want
the person to sell (Product Mix). Whom you wish them to sell to
(territory) and how they should sell (Quota). You then need to
ensure that you compensate them appropriately through a mix of
base salary, Commission and Benefits.
Assuming you arrived at your targets, using an appropriate mix
of sales history and market research, you will need to do a
similar exercise on the cost of the sales person. In other
words, can you afford them, based on the margins of what you
intend to sell. It is also imperative that you offering a
competitive package, if you want to attract the right level of
person.
So now assuming you have advertised your position on the likes
of www.salesjobs.ie or
have advised an agency, what do you do next? You should
partition the CVs that you get in, by sorting them into piles of
"no" and "possibly". You may have an agency doing this for you,
or you might have a stab at it yourself.
The First Interview - by Phone or in Person? The next step is to
telephone interview the "possible" candidates. I would select
about 10 candidates to interview by telephone. At