6 Tips to Find Strong Sales People in a Poor Environment
Sales people are of the utmost importance to a firm
Ultimately, they are the ones responsible for driving the sales of the company. This is why caution sould be exercised when hiring sales people.
Hiring ineffective sales people is of no use to a company, but evaluating the skill of a salesperson during the time of recruitment can be very difficult. In times of financial difficulty and in poor environments, recruiters have no idea how good a salesperson actually is. This is because most of the recruits will not have prior experience and gainful employment in harsh economic and social conditions. Here are some tips to help you hire sales people easily and efficiently. Selecting the best is tricky and should trail the following rules:
Sales people Assessment
Screening candidates for interview is not enough to identify the strongest ones, it gives you direction of what they achieved, where they worked but never what they can and will achieve within your organization if you hire them. Using a proven sales assessment tool is essential to uncover the candidate’s abilities to sell, grow, and achieve like a rain maker.
Crucial Findings
- The first rule to identify strong sales people in a poor environment is to look into their desire and commitment to do the job for you.
- The second rule is to figure out if they can grow, if they are trainable and coachable to ensure their ability to achieve their sales target on a monthly basis.
The above rules are important because every organization wants to hire the best but they might not be able to afford the best. In this situation, it is better to screen the potentials as shown above.
Simulate a situation during face to face interview
You don’t need to look at a salesperson’s past experiences if you can simulate a situation that they will be facing in the position they are being interviewed for. You can get recruiters to act as potential clients and customers to whom the interviewee must pitch. This is one of best assessment effectiveness methods as you can gauge the communication skills, people skills and ethics of the candidate. Recruiters involved in sales people hiring also get to see how well the candidate performs under pressure.
Carefully note sales people interview responses
Even in a poor environment, you will always have a number of candidates. Make sure you have initial filtering sessions where candidates are eliminated also based on their communication and written skills. After this, you must carefully note their appearance, bearing and responses to see if they have all the qualities to become excellent salespeople. First and foremost, they must be dressed well – not shabbily and not gaudily either and they must exude confidence and calmness. Contrary to popular belief, salespeople must be modest, curious and polite and not brash and aggressive. Taking mental aptitude tests is also a great way to improve sales people assessment effectiveness.
Keep your questions vague
A sign of a good salesperson is how he/she picks up what is not being said but implied, understanding exactly what is needed. When you are interviewing candidates, make sure to keep your questions vague and open to see if the candidates are able to figure out what you are looking for. Candidates need to think harder and need to be smart about their answers when confronted with such open questions, but it is a great way to understand how quick and sharp the candidates are.
Finally score them
Classify the candidates screened, assessed and interviewed from the highest to the lowest score for an easy final decision and always use the Sales Ghost Calculator to find how much a bad hire will cost your organization.
