Over the years I must have hired or managed a couple hundred people or more. That is what happens when you where employed by 7 publications over a long three decade plus career. Much of that time was spent in management of advertising sales people and as happens with sales staff there is a lot of movement in and out of the office. Much of that I am proud to say was staff moving up and onward to better opportunities. Of course I did some firing too, but that was likely less than a dozen overall.
The need for good staff that could talk to small business people and converse with large corporate advertisers kept me on my toes when replacing people leaving employment. Through the years that I interviewed prospects I refined my approach and frankly believe I got better at the task. The need to get better became more critical in the late 1980's when the people showing up for jobs frankly got less qualified and more in need of skill training due to the declining quality of public schools. I am not saying anything here that anyone who hired people before and after that time will tell you if they are honest.
So as I got better and refined my hiring skills there came a point where my interviewing skills got to the point I could pick good staff almost every time I hired for a position. In fact I got so good I bragged about it, and as they say it ain't bragging if you can back it up with results. Since I was very successful over the years in sales and retired early due to those good hires I say it is a fact. Good sales managers hire good staff, give them the tools to sell, and gets the hell out of the way. Only thing left is for the manager to clear out red tape making sales easier and to resolve disputes among staff and if are not resolving disputes over who's sale it is or who's terrritory it is then you have one lousy staff.
Being able to pick the good ones from the not so good ones has two strong advantages. One, you are spared the expense and trouble of firing them and the loss of sales revenue that comes with that issue. Two, and maybe just as important, you spare yourself and the person being hired the future issues of not being placed in a position that fits their long term future and harms your status as manager.
My interviews at the end took less than 20 minutes max and afterward I could weed out the good ones quickly. If you hire people now I expect you are asking how did I do it and just what was the plan. Well after some serious considerations of not giving away the secrets and hard won approach without just compensation I have decided to go public for free. It also has not hurt that in the last year or so I have been doing some consultation work with a couple of newspapers and realize it could not hurt to spread the experience and skill sets.
First off when hiring anyone in sales the key is not to look for skills or experience. You need to look not for aptitude, but for attitude. Yes, I know they need to have some smarts, but if given a choice I would rather have someone who has the right mindset and not the right mind. Honestly I have hired some people who some people thought were dumb as they come, but day after day they brought in sale after sale and I certainly did not mind that and praised them to the hilt for their results. If I can find the person with a good attitude then I can teach them the finer points of sales. After all if someone can sell the product they can be taught how to haul it in so to speak. Any manager will tell you if the salesperson is getting the big sales, cleaning up after them so to speak is not an issue.
Three things you are looking for in the person. One, first and foremost, is ego drive. Without a stout ego they will quickly become dejected and emotionally down after some nos, which they will most certainly get their share of, and that will be noticed by the person they are trying to sell to and kill the sale before it starts. That ego drive amounts to the absolute driven internal go that says I can do it and I can do it better than anyone else so get out of the way and let me do it.
Second thing you look for is empathy. The sales person with empathy will follow up a sale with someone with the desire to make sure that the sale produced results for the person. They will work hard to make sure the sales money is well spent and there is value for the customer. They are not afraid to follow up since they honestly believe there product is worth the price. The sold to person will sense that empathy and form a bond with the salesperson that should result in continued sales for the salesperson.
Lastly and not least is the ability to get along with the rest of your staff. I said rest of your staff and not other people. Being able to get along with the rest of your staff means they will not hinder or impede the sales of other staffers and be able to work as a team when needed.
Of course the question here is how on earth do I find people with those qualities, but maybe more specifically how do I weed out the ones with those qualities from the ones without those qualities. Well I have refined the interview questions down to only six that will net you those results and as I said the interview can be done in 20 minutes or less.
Question Number One...What motivates you.....You are looking for answers such as "money" or "recognition", not " it feels good', or " makes me happy". You are searching for ego drive here so the more brass balls you find in the answer the better. None of that touchy feel answer stuff.
Number Two...Why do you want this position...Again you are looking for "money", or " this is a position that makes me proud", not " I like to work with other people", or ' your company is known to treat people nice'. Again some ego drive they want the job because they want to do something for themselves and make some sales for you. Note these first two questions should give at least similar answers if not the applicant is trying to fudge some here. Trying to make you happy with their answers.
Number Three...Describe your best boss and your worst boss ...You are looking for answers such as "treats his staff fairly", or " pushes us to do better", or even "knows how to teach and how to not scold in public". For worst boss you are looking similar answers but the opposite side of the best boss. From time to time you will get answers such as they were sexual predators or stole from the company so use some followup questions to steer them to what you are looking for in traits not what the boss did that was out of line. The deal here is a good boss for them has BOTH ego and empathy and the interviewee sensed that even though they do not know what they were sensing.
Number Four...Tell me about your proudest achievement ...Answers here need to be some sales record or big sale or I just kicked someone else's butt in sales as again you are looking for ego drive the most important attitude for the job. Now young people will sometimes come across as cocky when they have nothing to be cocky about and that is ok because as we said we are looking for ego. A good sales manger can train and redirect that ego drive to some good sales.
Number Five...Tell me your best personal traits and your worst personal traits. I love these questions and they are maybe the best of the interview in finding out what you are looking for in a employee. Note this is question number five and is placed here for a reason. The interviewee is likely some frustrated and mentally tired here since the interview is not going as they were expecting or planned for and usually by now have given up the fight to answer questions as they think you want to hear and thus you get some good results. Best traits of course are ego drive and empathy type answers as noted above and you can weed them out as they talk. As for worst traits, if they can not answer this one and frankly many can not and more importantly are afraid to do so I generally would not hire them. If they do answer that means they can brutally honest with you about themselves and likely can work well with others since they can sense how they come across to others. There is the concern here that you will hear something like " I drink too much", etc. that will give you pause and likely drop them quickly from your list and consider that a gift from not having to fire them later.
Number Six...Sell yourself to me in three minutes or less...This one is a good one since if they can sell themselves to me in the three minutes I give them, then they can likely sell my product once trained in the product we are selling. Also give them three minutes and trust me here almost no one can last that long in a sales pitch and that is just fine. If they last the three minutes you might consider this person too talkative to be someone who will get along with your sales prospects. Again no empathy as in thinking to themselves how am I coming across to the person I am trying to sell the product.
Now trust me on this one no one who you interview will be prepared to answer questions like these. They are ready to tell you about their prior jobs, prior experience, skill sets they have, etc. and being unprepared you get some honest answers. There are obvious trip ups here where if they are trying to think on the go and fudge some answers it will not work.
Tally up the answers on your interview sheet and you will find those with the traits I suggested are needed for good salespeople. In fact maybe any new employee if you like. Now if you try this and succeed as I know you will since this advice was free email me as a thank you and ask me about my favorite charity as payment. See not completely free if you have empathy for the person passing on this info. You do have empathy don't you?
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