| iv> | | | | not impressed. The second common answer is that |
| | | | they go back three or four jobs for the example. So |
| One of the most frequent questions we get on hiring | | | | what have you done for me lately? They don't |
| is, "What do I ask sales people to get past the BS?" | | | | consistently demonstrate high initiative. |
| For many, hiring sales people is difficult. The fact is | | | | 2) Every sales person has on their resume a bullet that |
| most sales people think they can sell anything, when in | | | | reads in one way or another, "Increased sales by X%." |
| fact the sales processes are so different, many don't | | | | Usually some figure between 30 and 60 percent. The |
| actually sell as much as take orders. | | | | obvious question to me is, "What two numbers did you |
| Here are two screening questions I use to at least | | | | divide to get that percentage?" I find 1 in 10 can |
| eliminate sales people that embellish and claim to be | | | | answer this question. Not because they made it up |
| hard charging. | | | | (although I don't rule that out), but because they take |
| 1) "Give me an example of where you demonstrated | | | | the position the company grew by X% and I'm in sales, |
| high initiative?" Seems to me like a simple question, | | | | so I did it. |
| yet most sales people can't answer it because most | | | | For me, these are phone screening questions I like to |
| sales people don't take high initiative. So often I get one | | | | ask. It does eliminate a lot of candidates, that in the |
| of two answers. One is that they tell me about a sale | | | | past, I might have presented to one of my clients and |
| they made where they had to call on the customer | | | | for hiring managers desperate to hire a sales person. It |
| 5 or 6 times to get the deal. WOW. Doesn't every | | | | is tough to eliminate candidates, but I have found the |
| salesperson have to do this? Isn't that just part of the | | | | ones that can answer these two question have been |
| job? I don't consider this high initiative and if they do I'm | | | | successful.We welcome your comments and thoughts. |