Interviewing for Sales Acumen
Early in his career, my Dad was a VP of Sales for a medical products company and he was in the final interview stage with a salesperson candidate. Towards the end of the conversation, which I consider to be one of the most important parts (I’ll explain why below), my Dad asks the candidate if he has any questions. This is the time to show your curiosity, and your interest in really understanding the company and your role. The candidate came back with only one question, “Is it okay if I put a trailer hitch on the company car?” Ouch! Needless to say, that was the end of the interview process for that candidate.
Finding great talent is a critical part of any sales leaders role. It’s what drives culture, and directly correlates to your growth - or your decline. When interviewing salespeople, my goal is to uncover natural sales acumen. The main ones for me are a persons willingness to take control, their self-confidence, how genuine and easy they are to talk with, if they are humble and curious, and how they guide towards next steps.
To uncover these things, below is how I run an interview. A miss on any one of these doesn’t mean an automatic no-hire, but it’s insightful to learn more about the candidate’s natural tendencies. But if someone whiffs on all of these, then that’s a pretty clear no-hire. You’ll see why as you read…
Opening: Take Control or Along for the Ride?
When the meeting starts, after a simple hello and introducing myself, I take a short pause. I allow for a short awkward silence if it’s needed. What I’m trying to learn is if this person takes control of the situation. This is the situation a salesperson is in every day. They meet with someone they don’t know, and they strike up a conversation to start building trust with the ultimate goal of doing business together.
An interview is very similar, and I want to see how they handle that situation. Those who fail at this step just sit there and stare, clearly waiting for me to take control. Those who excel here either immediately take control, or know how to initiate a conversation so that awkward silence never happens. The conversation just flows. If the candidate doesn’t take control, then I’ll do it myself and add some pleasantries to get the conversation going. Again, not a deal killer out of the gate, but a helpful start to your interview.
A Simple Question
After the opening, I ask a simple open ended question, “Tell me about yourself.” Here I’m looking for how personable they are, and how easy they are to connect with. Someone who is awkward will feel it’s a strange question. I’ve had people ask a clarifying question like, “What do you mean?” or “Do you want to know about me personally, my career, what I’m looking for?” which is then often followed by an awkward chuckle because they are so uncomfortable. This is a really simple question, and any interviewee should be ready to share their story.
The ideal to me is when someone shares a little personal background, and then walks me through their career story and how it brings them to today. This also becomes a good time for you to ask clarifying questions about their background, why they moved from one job to another, and why consider another change now. This helps reveal their thinking on career moves. Far too many share how terrible their current employer is and why they need to get out of there. That’s all fine, and many places people do need to leave. But it should also be followed up with clarity on what someone wants in a workplace, what they know about your company, why they’re a fit, and what kind of impact they think they can make.
Prepared for Curiosity
After we’ve gone through their career background (which could take 10 minutes to over 45-minutes in a highly engaging conversation), I’ll ask what questions they have for me. Here I’m trying to see how prepared they are, and if they are a curious person. A curious person will have questions in any situation. A prepared person would have a list of questions all written out only considering which one to ask first! It’s amazing to me how many candidates have no questions at all.
I’m often one of the last of a several step interview process, and some candidates will tell me they’ve already gotten their questions answered. Fail! A prepared person will have questions about the role, ask the same question to me that they asked to someone else to see if they are consistent, or have done their research on me and ask questions about my career and experience. Curiosity wins here.
What’s Next?
After we’ve gone through questions I’ll just say, “Okay nice to meet you.” Now again, if this is a sales meeting with a prospective customer, a good salesperson takes control and works to define clear next steps. Same in this interview. I want to see if the candidate asks about next steps - who they should follow-up with, if we’ve covered everything I want to know, do I have any hesitations about bringing them on board (a good closing question), timing, etc.
There’s many different high quality questions to look for in a sales candidate, but I’ve found this to consistently uncover top talent. And I’ll gladly put a trailer hitch on top talent, who can pull us into more growth.