The Standard in Hiring your Salesperson

Back few years ago, I decided to interview a salesperson who even though he relatively few years of prior sales experience, the years he did have were positively stellar. He had achieved top rankings at his previous employers, but was lacking the pre-requisite “five years of direct outside selling experience” that the posting for the position had set as the standard for the company I then worked for. In spite of the lack of pre-requisite years, I scheduled the interview anyway. Something told me this guy would be hungry, ambitious and good. A few days prior, a sales management colleague of mine asked me if I was going to interview this candidate. He was also hiring for a sales position in a similar area, but in a different division of the company. Curiously, the candidate actually matched his product profile better than mine. My colleague said he had passed on him because of his lack of experience. I told him I just had a feeling that he was going to be really good. I was not disappointed.

I remember it to this day, his easy, confident, friendly, yet direct, manner in which he took me in to his past experience. He easily built rapport with me, was self-deprecating, yet extremely self-assured. He spoke to me directly and clear about his past accomplishments and related those accomplishments to what he could achieve in the job he was interviewing for. He effortlessly worked in anecdotes and analogies to what he had accomplished, to what he would accomplish when he was hired by me. He had done his homework and was obviously well-prepared.

I offered him the job by the end of that week.

In his first full sales year with me, he was the number one salesperson in the country, winning the first of two CEO Circle Awards in consecutive years, the award given to the top 5% of the sales force. The following year, he was promoted to a sales management position.

Why am I telling you this story?

For a few different reasons, the first reason is that I when I interview sales candidates, even today, I always compare them to “the best interview I have ever had”, namely this one. The standard had been set and it’s a standard that I always refer back to in times of indecision with candidates. You may have a similar experience from some point in your past and it’s a good idea to keep that experience in the foremost of your mind as “the standard”.

Secondly, it underscores the fact that a sales job interview is at its core, a sales call! For the interviewee, it is the biggest sales call of their life.

To find out more about sales management visit my blog about sales motivation at http://www.topsalesmanagerblog.com