If you’ve ever wondered what top sales leaders are looking for when they’re hiring a new rep, this article should provide you with actionable insights that you can use in your next job search. I sat down with Kerry Webb, Director of Sales-New Business at Avast, and asked her a number of questions that our headhunters get asked all the time by sales professionals like yourself.
KERRY WEBB
Kerry has more than 20 years of experience, starting out as a sales rep before moving into leadership. Since the beginning, she has been a perennial top-performer – selling and leading teams in both B2C and B2B, inside and field sales. She has increased sales effectiveness by over 40%, has exceeded company sales goals by over 150%, achieved +725% YOY growth on new solutions all while achieving best in class employee satisfaction scores. She has been in the trenches and understands the challenges and the rewards that come with being out in the field, and she firmly believes that this has been instrumental to her success as a sales leader, and her effectiveness as a coach.
As a sales leader, how do you like to be approached by a salesperson who is interested in joining your team?
There’s no right answer to this. However, it feels very natural to be introduced by someone else – so a referral is great. A LinkedIn message is good as well. Someone who doesn’t approach you when the job is posted, but rather someone who wants to be ready and kept top of mind when a position becomes available. Some of the best people are telling you that they are interested before there is a position. Be proactive! It’s also important for the candidate to demonstrate that they’re positive and energetic as well – I’ve had a lot of people who have approached me and they’re personality and level of interest falls flat. So, there are two parts to this – there’s the way that they approach you and there’s the how. Having confidence, enthusiasm and a certain presence will make the candidate memorable and will make me think about him or her when the time does come to fill a position.
What are the things that you need to see in a sales resume before you consider bringing an applicant in for an interview?
That’s interesting, because I’m not as tough as other people that I’ve worked with. I don’t spend as much time on the resume as many other people do. I’m interested in their core competencies, so I’m usually willing to meet almost anyone. That said, I am looking for consistency – making sure there’s not a lot of gaps in employment and the length of time spent working at each organization. I’m looking at the type of work that they did, to determine if there are transferable skills. If you can find people who have done the job before then that’s great, but I like to give people a chance because I’m looking for the competencies more than I’m looking at what they’ve done. Their resume shows me where they’ve been and what they’ve done in a certain length of time, and it tells me whether it makes sense that they’re applying for the position that they’re applying for. Beyond that, I like to talk to people.
What are some of the traits that you’ve found to be synonymous in a top performer and that you look for in every hire you make?
Top performers are not in the noise. Every organization wants more leads, every organization wishes they had a better compensation plan, and every company has some turnover – but a top performer doesn’t talk about that. Rather, a top performer spends their time saying, “I need this and I need that, I tried this and I tried that” and they’re open and they’re asking for help and they’re just trying to make things happen. Top performers ask questions, they find solutions, they’re not making excuses, and they have a reason as to why they are approaching things a certain way. They make it happen – in their own way, and in their own time.
Furthermore, the top performer is a collaborative person. They’re very outspoken when it comes to what they need and they’re willing to ask more than one person for it. As the manager who works with someone like that, all it does is make things better. They are asking the right questions, they are being inquisitive and they are bringing up the right things. I’ve also found that they don’t want to be recognized, because they’re just so busy making things happen. It’s important for me as a leader to support that, and be available when they need something because when they bring something up, I know that that is something that we need to pay attention to.
Top performers can also be emotional, but they are inherently positive. They are internally driven and they believe that they can do anything. They are competitive and they are always urgent – they never stop when they are stuck. Top performers are motivated by money, but they also want to be the best. A top performer isn’t quiet, and they won’t let anyone beat them. They are also the best trackers of their sales. They are not afraid to call a customer if they are behind on their numbers – which in my experience in very rare. In fact, I would say that less than 10% of salespeople will pick up the phone and call customers if they are behind.
What are the things that you look for or want to address in an interview?
I want to know about their sales process, what motivates them and what kind of environment they are looking for – and then it’s all behavioral around those things, as I can build off of those answers. “What worked for you? What didn’t? Tell me about a time, tell me about a sale, explain your involvement in that sale, tell me why you picked that one to talk about?” This helps me to understand their passion.
I want to see what motivates them. I’ll ask standard questions like what kind of boss brings out the best in them, what type of environment brings out the best in them, if they could pick their job what would it look like, what does a day in the life look like, what’s your sales cycle, etc. But I’m really reading between the lines as I’m trying to identify what their motivators are.
At Avast, we’ve started to ask candidates to present to us. We ask them to sell us what they’re selling today. Like we’re a customer. We give them instructions on how to do it and then they present. This gives us a good indication of how coachable they are, if they can think well on their feet and if they can make it interesting.
How important is culture fit? How can both the salesperson AND potential manager screen for that?
In an interview, I’m assessing whether a candidate is a culture fit by first looking internally. Who do I have on the team today. What works? What’s missing? What can this person add to us? What’s going on in our world and could they handle it? So it’s being aware of what they’re looking for, what they bring, and determining if we need that in our environment at this time. Will it enrich what we have today?
One way that I’ve found to be successful when a candidate is assessing culture is to ask to come in and do a side by side, and I think it’s important for companies to have that kind of open environment. I like it when a candidate asks me what the culture is like, and then they try to figure out if it’s an environment that they would enjoy and thrive in.
For remote employees, it’s crucial that they ask the right questions in the interview. They can’t be afraid to tell the hiring manager what they need to be successful. I would want to understand what kind of support they would need from me in order for them to be successful, because I can tell them right then and there if that’s something that can be done.
How do you position career growth to a potential hire? How do you address that question?
When a candidate asks me about career growth in an interview, I throw it back at them and ask them what kind of growth they’re looking for. In a perfect world, what would they like it to be? I will ask them where they see themselves in one, three and five years. I make it a point to always let people know that they have to do the job that they’re in or applying for first, and that they have to succeed in that role. You’ve got to prove yourself. If an organization is going to make an investment in you, it is essential that they see that that person is succeeding in their role before they decide to further invest company time and resources in their professional development.
What activities should a salesperson do outside of work to make a good impression on you?
It’s great to have interests and to talk about them. Show your passion. This is something I look for in a candidate when I’m interviewing. I want to know that they care about something and that it matters to them. This tells me a lot about a person, as I get an opportunity to find out more about their story. This also tells me that the person has a routine – that they’re disciplined, structured and determined. This is a clear indication that the person will be successful in sales. Involvement in networking groups, trade groups and associations is another one that I look for. Top performers are typically involved in some sort of external community of professionals. They know how important it is to have a network.
What “selling process” or sales methodology do you subscribe to, and how do you disseminate that to your team?
First and foremost, I emphasize what needs to be done on the front end. That’s where most of the work is done. You have to be proactive, and you have to get in front of people – whether that be through your network, through LinkedIn, by building a creative campaign or event. To be successful in sales, this is where you need to spend the majority of your time. Once you have identified a customer that wants to talk to you, you engage in a very detailed needs analysis and discovery phase. After the discovery, there will be some type of presentation, followed by negotiation and close. Too many salespeople go straight to presentation and then try to close, without doing the work on the front end, and this usually backfires. I’ve always been a firm believer in the Consultative approach. I coach my team to approach a prospect as a consultant, not a salesperson. To understand their business and to see where they can help. They shouldn’t have a solution for them at the first meeting, and they may not even have one tomorrow. But at least they’ve taken an inventory, and gotten to know their business. At some point down the line, there will be an opportunity where we can help.
We meet a lot of successful salespeople who are interested making some sort of a transition in their sales career – like selling a different solution or selling into a different vertical. How would those people best communicate their ability to make that transition successfully? How could they convince you that they were right for the job?
The first questions I would ask this person are as follows. “What are the differences between what you’re selling now and what you want to sell? What do you think are the similarities? How would you adjust to those differences, and what would you need to do to prepare yourself for those differences?”. If the candidate can’t make that linkage themselves, then they’re probably not going to be able to convince me.
In your industry, how important is it to hire a salesperson with an existing network in the space? Can a candidate with an understanding of the solution offering and a great track record in executing a similar sales process be just as successful? If so, how can they demonstrate that effectively?
A network can help you but I don’t think it stop you from succeeding. Everyone must start somewhere. In some circumstances having a network will give you an edge, but if you don’t have one, I want to hear how you are going to address the challenges you’ll be faced with by not having a network. You either have a network and you know how to leverage it, or you absolutely know what it takes to build one. In my experience, not a lot of salespeople have that skill. To have what it takes to start from scratch, and to be prepared to show me a plan on how they’re going to do it effectively is a huge asset.
What qualities and individual accomplishments do you look for when deciding who to promote into a leadership role?
They don’t need to be the top-performer, as top-performers don’t necessarily make good leaders. I look for people who have helped others naturally, so when there was a problem they’ve gotten people together to try to find a solution. They’ve taken on projects throughout their time that have not just benefitted them, but that benefitted the team. They get involved naturally with rewards and recognition and incentives. They are someone who people approach for ideas and solutions to problems because they’ve done it and they’ve put themselves out there. They’re not the quiet person in the room. They become the natural go-to person. It’s not a surprise when they want to become a leader because they’ve already been acting like it. They have proactively looked for opportunities that would benefit themselves and the team.
Who’s right to be a leader? I’ll always ask, do you want your success to be in the control of others? Or do you want to have control over it yourself? This is a critical question that makes them really question their ambitions to be a sales leader. I also ask them what their motivation is for wanting to become a sales leader. If it’s money and title, it’s the wrong person. A great leader is motivated by making a difference.
One of your strengths as a sales leader is to take an underperforming sales team and turn it around. What tactics do you advise your team to perform in order for them to turn around their own book of business?
You can’t be afraid of the cold approach, but you can’t just do calls. Calls don’t work – they have to be supplemented with other activities like leveraging their network to ask for introductions, posting on LinkedIn, sending out personalized emails with their picture, wishing them a happy holiday, etc. You must get their attention so that they’ll take your calls. That’s how you get in the door. This is basic, and the most important thing a salesperson should remember is to stick to the basics. Salespeople who try to do more than the basics don’t get a lot of time in their approach, as they are perceived to be junior. Most salespeople think that they’re better than the basics, but in my experience – the basics are best-in-class sales reps.
The San Francisco Bay Area has consistently been ranked number one in the United States for quality of living. It’s also widely considered to be one of the best places for young and hungry software salespeople to establish and grow their careers. As a result, it has long been a tech powerhouse that is only getting stronger.
In fact, in a 15-mile radius you’ll find six out of the top ten technology companies in the world and the largest amount of highly success talent pools to choose from. This abundance of sales talent has caused many of the world’s leading software companies – as well as start-ups- to choose San Francisco as their home.
What does this mean for software sales hiring?
It’s the simple case of software companies moving to where the sales talent is versus trying to get them to come to you.
In a recent study by the Brookings Institute, it shows that no city has created more jobs in the digital world over the last decade than the San Francisco Area. Not even the larger Silicon Valley neighbor San Jose.
For organizations on the hunt for software sales talent, candidate pools in San Francisco are large. But, competition is also heating up. To help employers grow their San Francisco sales forces, here’s statistical look at the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically reviewing:
Software employment trends
Regional growth forecasts
Sales Hiring challenges
Salary trends
Employee expectations
Here is our statistical look at the software sales hiring landscape of San Francisco:
San Francisco is at the center of Northern California’s Bay Area, a diverse region that’s home to almost nine-million residents. Not only is San Francisco centrally located in Northern California, it’s also the state’s center both financially and culturally despite it not being the largest city in the region – with a population of 800 thousand. The title of largest city in the Bay Area goes to San Jose at 950 thousand.
The San Francisco Bay Area was originally settled as part of the Northern California gold rush in the mid-1800’s. However, most people remember the region for the role it played in the “Summer of Love” in the 1960’s and 1970’s and the birth of the anti-war and hippie movement.
A more recent “gold rush” in the 1990’s, known as the dot-com boom. Along with the history of silicon and computer software businesses in the area, San Francisco was cemented as the undisputed tech powerhouse of America. During the dot-com boom, San Francisco’s gentrification accelerated quickly. This helped create the culture we see today in an affluent liberal city that is known for its inclusiveness.
When looking at the software sales hiring landscape in San Francisco, we must include surrounding cities as they’re directly connected by transit and highways. This allows more than 265 thousand residents to commute into San Francisco every day. The close proximity of Oakland to the west, along with high rental rates since the dot-com boom, has lead to a booming start-up community just across the bay, and in turn, attracting top talent.
To the south of San Francisco, there’s Silicon Valley, which includes regions up to the border of San Jose. The regions include Redwood City, Palo Alto and Mountain View. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, this area south of San Francisco was the original home of America’s cutting-edge semiconductor and computer chip manufacturers, or silicon chips. Hence the name Silicon Valley. This made it a natural home for the high-tech companies of the 1970’s and 1980’s, including Atari and Apple.
Today, four of the ten largest software companies in the world are located just south of San Francisco.
Oracle, second only to Microsoft in software sales at 40 billion and is located in Redwood City
Symantec, with 6.6 billion
VMWare – sitting at 6 billion – calls Palo Alto home
Intuit – at 4.6 billion – are located in Mountain View
The region is also home to two of the nation’s top 15 universities: Stanford and UC Berkeley. Both schools have outstanding computer science and engineering programs, which produces and attracts young talent for today’s software industry. This also facilitates the replacement of the baby boomer population as they retire.
In fact, these universities produce more than ten thousand new science and engineering graduates every year. This is part of the reason more than 46 percent of adults in the region hold a bachelor’s degree and 21 percent hold a graduate degree. This makes the region America’s most well-educated – with a minimum of a million people.
Quality & Cost of Living
The standard of living in the area is high and people pay for it. This includes any candidates you recruit through your software sales hiring efforts. San Francisco ranks number 1 in the United States for quality of life, but it’s also the second most expensive city to live in. This results in longer commutes and overall travel times.
The appeal of the San Francisco Bay Area is easy to see due to its: desirable climate, the low unemployment rate of approximately 2.6 percent – with the national average being 3.9 percent – and wealth of culture.
However, it’s not perfect for everyone. As tech industries and young people have begun to dominate the area over the last decade, families are leaving San Francisco in search of a more affordable family life. This has led to one of the lowest rates of family households in the US at 44 percent, with 56 percent considered non-family households.
New York comes in at 61 percent family housing to 39 percent non-family. The national average is 66 percent family to 34 percent non-family. For organizations looking to bring on top performing sales executives who are young and hungry, this is perfect. For sales reps that have established families, organizations will have to provide a cash incentive for relocation or agree to remote sales roles.
Public transit fares are significantly better than most cities, ranked as the number 2 transit system in North America trailing only New York City. An extensive short and long-haul rail network connects the entire bay area from north of San Francisco to the south of San Jose, which consistently ranks the region very high in transit coverage to job access.
The high quality of living, access to transit and education, has created a large pool of qualified candidates. It’s also one of the main reasons software companies choose the area. As more tech companies move in, so do more young candidates, and the cycle continues.
Breaking Down The Bay Area
Software companies take many factors into consideration when deciding where to locate. The main reason businesses will choose to call the San Francisco Bay Area home is the supply chain. There’s a large qualified workforce, STEM education, related businesses to build relationships, and over 70 percent of technology-focused venture capitals are found in this region. For financing factors alone, more than 150 major software specific companies are headquartered in the bay area.
Although not specific to software companies, this Silicon Valley heat map shows that there are two main areas where tech companies are choosing to operate:
The city of San Francisco
Silicon Valley stretching from San Mateo south through Palo Alto, Mountain View and North San Jose.
With the extremely high cost of living throughout the region, the workforce is facing some real pressures. The truth is that when looking at where software salespeople live, the answer is often: wherever they can.
“Silicon Valley has some of the highest housing and living expenses in the world thanks to its booming tech industry. Between 2010 and 2015, tech jobs grew 24.5 percent, leading to an influx of talent to the Bay Area. But housing has grown only 2.6 percent over the same period, sending prices shooting through the roof. Real estate database firm Zillow estimates a single square foot in the city costs US$495 today; the average rent is triple the United States average at US$3,390 a month.”
This has led to some unique solutions, including companies like Facebook paying employees up to ten thousand dollars to move closer to their Menlo Park campus. Tech companies are learning that shorter commutes lead to better lives and more productive workers.
Housing for tech workers is a long-term problem in San Francisco and area but this hasn’t stopped companies from calling the area home. San Francisco continues to take the number one spot on a list of cities of the future. It’s also why every year you’ll find roughly 20 companies from the Fortune 500 list headquartered in this region. Tech companies like HP, Intel, Apple, Cisco, and Google dominate the list.
Market and Business Landscape
In late 2017, the San Francisco-San Mateo area posted its best jobless numbers ever at only 2.2 percent unemployment. The East Bay and Santa Clara region hit an almost 20-year low, matching rates set in 1999.
Despite the great unemployment numbers, job growth in the region is down over the last couple of years. The Bay Area has had job growth of 4 percent in 2015, 3 percent in 2016, and below 2 percent for 2017. For tech jobs specifically, the growth is larger, but also slowing from 6.4 percent in 2014, to 6 percent in 2015, to 3.5 percent in 2016.
Don’t let the growth numbers fool you. San Francisco and Silicon Valley is still the top destination for tech start-ups. High rents are forcing companies to look elsewhere, but for now, Startup Genome’s 2017 report has them ranked number 1:
“28% of the global investments into Early-Stage startups are captured by Silicon Valley companies. Its top contenders are NYC and Beijing, which capture about 11% each. Silicon Valley also has the highest Global Resource Attraction score at 21%.”
This supply chain of talent and financing makes the area compelling despite the cost challenges.
Tech Continues to Drive Growth
To no one’s surprise, tech industries will continue to be a driver in San Francisco for the foreseeable future. They’re expected to continue to outgrow all other industries in the region and as a result, the need for software sales reps will also continue to grow.
It’s not the only industry that’s growing. San Francisco is the second largest financial hub in the US, which makes sense when you consider that the city is home to the largest venture capital industry in the country. While the high cost of the Bay Area has relocated some start-ups, the money is still located here.
Due to the predicted job growth, the population is expected to grow 20 percent by 2035 and more than 80 percent of that growth is expected to happen in just 20 percent of the San Francisco metro area. Investment is already underway on 7 large billion dollar projects that are expected to completely transform the region and increase density.
Population growth in the tech industry will boost the hospitality, health and construction industries. Adding density has already led to record costs in the building industry creating a boom of its own.
Software Sales Hiring in the San Francisco Bay Area
The Bay Area currently has more than 3500 unfilled software sales jobs on Indeed, second only to NYC at 4300 – similar ratios can be found on Glassdoor and LinkedIn. The region is a powerhouse for tech jobs, and software sales is no exception.
Software Sales positions are available at a variety of levels, including:
New York has around 20- 30 percent more openings due to being three-times the size of the Bay Area. But, the average salary offered is higher in the Bay Area, partly because there are significantly more jobs per capita.
San Francisco is also ranked as the number one city in the country where vacant jobs are difficult to fill. Software and technical sales jobs make the task of recruiting new talent difficult. These qualified candidates are some of the most difficult to find and this delay can result in significant dollars lost:
“Paycor Inc., which sells cloud-based software for human resources and payroll management, said it would have forecast $2 million more in 2015 revenue if it had hit it’s 2014 hiring goals for new sales reps in 2014. The time spent bringing new reps up to speed means the company doesn’t see the full benefit of their productivity until 12 to 18 months into their tenure.”
This all sets the stage to explain the demands on hiring for software sales in the Bay Area. A sample of Software Sales jobs on GlassDoor often include qualities you may not have traditionally found:
Analytical/Mathematical Acumen – ability to analyze sales data
Analyze data from multiple sources to uncover opportunities
World-class interpersonal and communication skills to make complex contractual, technical, and financial details sound simple
Able to work cross-functionally during the sales cycle
The last point may be the most important. Quite often, jobs now require a deep knowledge of the technical aspects of the business. The salesperson no longer defers to a team to do so for them.
Lastly, experience is the number one request that is consistent on almost every post. Usually with direct knowledge of cloud services, SaaS, and B2B solutions.
Sales Salaries
The Bay Area, on average, will have the highest salary offerings for software sales positions. It goes without saying the top software sales jobs are located where the top tech firms call home. In recent years, Forbes looked at the companies that compensated their sales force the best, and every single one of them is in the software business. And, 80 percent have their headquarters or a satellite office in the Bay Area. Business Insider notes that in Enterprise Software Sales, attracting the top reps will cost you top dollar.
In fact, an Oracle sales rep has an average base salary of 110 thousand dollars and an on target earnings potential of 250 thousand dollars. However, there are some people in the company who are expected to earn over 500 thousand dollars. For more senior level roles in these organizations – such as a VP of Sales – they’re earning an average of 300-400 thousand dollars per year.
None of this is surprising when you look at the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Sales jobs in the region will have a salary approximately 50 percent higher than the national average. According to their latest report, Sales Representatives in technical and scientific fields are averaging 100 thousand dollars annually. Sales Engineers can expect to make 154 thousand dollars annually. This includes all fields beyond just software.
To drill down and look at software sales jobs specifically, salary aggregators give us a more accurate look. According to Paysa, the average salary for software sales reps, managers and engineers in the Bay Area is closer to 167 thousand dollars annually.
Challenges in the Region
There are a couple challenge factors when hiring for software sales positions in the San Francisco Bay Area. High living costs, high salaries and high demand for employees are all major issues. However, the benefits of locating your business in an area with the highest talent pool outweighs the negatives. The Bay Area certainly fulfills that requirement for software sales jobs.
The region is also shifting where jobs are located within the Bay Area, which is posing a new set of challenges for the companies looking to hire the best talent here.
Silicon Valley is very crowded, and the shift in demographics is making it harder to attract top talent to the southern Bay Area. Those workers prefer life in San Francisco over the valley. Traditionally growth has always been strong in Silicon Valley, but now you’re seeing numbers dramatically rise in the city as companies create a San Francisco employee strategy to deal with these challenges:
“But the Silicon Valley of old is running out of space and many millennials, the new generation of knowledge workers, want to be closer to, if not in, a city with nightlife and culture. That’s led the likes of Google, Yahoo, Cisco and others to open big offices in San Francisco. Spurred by tax incentives, Twitter set up its headquarters in the City by the Bay in 2006, and there it remains.”
The Bay Area is still experiencing tech growth, but the growth is expected to shift towards the city of San Francisco from Silicon Valley. As this shift occurs, it puts further pressures on rents and forcing businesses to make room. For example, Blue Shield is moving its headquarters from downtown San Francisco to Oakland. The same is true for Uber. All this shuffling around is what is allowing room for companies like Apple to move in.
The other major challenge is that other regions are starting to attract the talent. As you saw in the Genome Startup report, many cities are nipping at the heels of the bay area for the tech crown. This has allowed for start-ups to not only spread across the country but also the globe. Recent studies show as many as 40 percent of Bay Area employees suggesting they’d like to leave the region. It’s important for employers to tackle the issue head-on.
Looking Ahead
WalletHub recently completed their comprehensive job market scoring for 150 of the most populated US cities across 17 market indicators including unemployment, job satisfaction, average salary, job security, benefits and more, and listed San Francisco at number 2. Fremont on the east side of the bay area at number 19. Silicon Valley doesn’t make an appearance until number 31 with San Jose.
The region will continue to dominate the software and tech industry for the foreseeable future. Experts suggest that employers should expect the software sales hiring landscape to remain very competitive.
Here are some additional articles about hiring landscapes in similar markets:
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
More than 80% of all B2B leads are from LinkedIn – so if you’re not using LinkedIn, or not using it effectively, you’re missing out big time. There’s a lot of opportunity on a platform that boasts half a billion users and encompasses every industry. But if you’ve only put together a basic professional profile, you won’t reap any of the benefits it has to offer.
Personal branding is key for any salesperson to really benefit from LinkedIn. We’re going to show you exactly what it means to build a personal brand, and how to elevate and leverage it to drive sales.
Four steps to personal branding you can put into action now
Step 1: Define Your Audience
One of the first things to address when you’re building your personal brand is to understand your target audience. Once you’ve identified who you intend to reach, ask yourself the following questions:
What are their likes and dislikes? Do they like long form professional articles, or short status updates with tips? Are they searching for how-to guides, or are they more interested in theoretical content? This will help you determine what type of content to create and share that will resonate with them.
Who are they engaging with? Are there thought leaders already dominating the space? What are they sharing? What can you learn from them?
What solutions are they looking for? Where do they need the most help? How can you position your solution as the right solution for them?
Is there a dominant geographical area? Can you target your communications to be specific to the region? Are there local events that you can tie into your communications that will resonate?
Step 2: Build a Killer LinkedIn Profile
For your personal brand to be effective, you must invest the time and effort in creating and maintaining a strong profile. When you engage with people, you want your profile to help reinforce why people should engage with you.
Creating a robust profile is not a difficult task, it just takes some TLC. The first place you’ll want to start is the prompts you’ll get directly from LinkedIn. The platform will prompt you to fill out various details and let you know what you’re missing.
Customize Your Profile
Don’t just use the default data that LinkedIn provides. Take full advantage of the customizations it offers so you can really stand out.
Use a great profile picture
Dress for the job you want, not the job you have. A headshot is usually best, but there are rules that should be followed. Having a picture of you in action is a great alternative to a standard portrait.
Make sure you have a custom LinkedIn URL
Using your name is best for enhancing your personal brand, and it also helps with searchability online.
Write a better headline
Don’t try to be clever, unless that’s your personal brand. You’ll want to state exactly what you do, and how it helps the potential reader. Here are some best practices:
Don’t be boring. Write something that attracts attention.
Be confident. You don’t want to seem like you’re begging for business.
State what you do. Be direct, the reader will appreciate it.
Who are your solutions for? Work that into your headline.
State how you’ll make their life better.
A great example comes from Michael Dodd. He’s direct, you understand what he does, who he works for, and what solutions he can provide.
Make your summary work for you.
Don’t waste the space of your LinkedIn Summary Section. Here’s your chance to grab attention and explain why people should do business with you. Make a convincing case. Here’s a great example from Sales Leadership Consultant, Jeffrey Buskey:
Add pictures and video.
Most people don’t do this, so it’s an area where you can really stand out. A video is not only more enticing, it generates 1,200% more shares than text and images combined. You can show people exactly what you’re about, and it’s more personal.
Show Off Your Accomplishments
Showing off what you’ve achieved is a great way to build credibility. You’ll want to showcase your overall sales performance, where you ranked on your team, President’s Club awards, territory growth, marquee clients you’ve worked with, etc. Your brand must be centered around how you’re an expert in a certain field, which is why people should work with you. Show off the qualifications that make you that expert, and tell the story of how you’ve achieved success.
Step 3: Build Trust and Credibility
Trust is a key component to any sale. As a successful salesperson, you know how hard it is to earn trust from a potential client. Best-selling author Neil Rackham conducted a study where he interviewed 50 customers who had turned Xerox down because of price. It turned out that in 64% of cases, price was not the primary factor. Buyers didn’t trust the salesperson or were afraid of becoming too dependent on a sole supplier.
Your personal brand and reputation can make or break the first impression you make on your prospective customers.
Build your Reputation
Don’t be shy about asking people to say a few nice words about you. The most sure-fire way to have people trust you, is by seeing that their friends already trust you. Most of the time people are happy to write a few words for you, if you do the same for them.
LinkedIn makes getting recommendations easy as it’s built right into the platform. It may seem obvious, but target recommendations from key players in your industry. Top executives and those who already have credibility and a great personal brand. Don’t be afraid to aim high! The results just might surprise you and give your brand a quick boost.
Here’s a few tips you can use to ask for a recommendation:
Send a personalized email
Write a recommendation for someone first
Contact people you know well
Provide content suggestions in advance
Build by Sharing
Put yourself out there! Sharing information is the easiest way to say “Hey, I’m an expert in this field, and here’s what you need to know about it today.”
Think about the people you follow. Leaders in their field are constantly sharing quality information. It’s a very simple way to show that you know what you’re talking about. If you want to be a leader, you need to be the person people follow for breaking news in your field, and trusted articles they can use.
Writing articles and posting video are two of the easiest ways to share things on LinkedIn. You can also share articles others have written, recommend industry people to your audience, and generally just share things you’re interested in reading and viewing.
Here’s a few examples of sales leaders who do this well:
LinkedIn at its heart is a social platform. Get involved in conversations, comment on articles, share things that you find useful, and ask questions of other creators. You need to be reachable and engaged with your audience.
Being a part of this community will position your brand in your field. It’s how you’ll make connections, get leads, build trust, and build a portfolio that showcases your brand to your targeted audience. That’s what personal branding is all about.
Step 4: Grow Your Following
Now that you have a solid LinkedIn profile, it’s time to think about how you can grow your audience. Each follower is a potential client, so the wider your reach, the more potential followers and clients you can expect.
Building an audience involves ongoing work with a clear focus in mind. If you’re an expert in your niche, keep your focus on that topic. You may be interested in multiple subjects, but you’ll need to keep focus to build your brand for people to find you, follow you, and continue to subscribe to what you’re sharing. You don’t want to be a jack of all trades, master of none.
There are a few things you should always be doing to grow your following and target new opportunities.
Always be Learning
If you want to know what great personal branding looks like, you’ll want to follow the people that do it well. By following and connecting with key players on LinkedIn you’ll learn from them, and apply the lessons to your own brand.
Always be Optimizing
Anytime you attend a conference, gain a new skill, achieve a new award, or generally build on your brand, you’ll want to be optimizing your message to show you fully understand and are involved in your industry. Being on the cutting edge will help you with your brand and keep you at the forefront of the field.
You’ll learn a lot about what’s working and what isn’t with your brand. What articles people like, what content they’re sharing, what questions they’re asking, and what the demographic is. This information will change overtime, and you’ll want to keep optimizing your profile, website, and social feeds to reflect this.
As LinkedIn changes, you’ll want to change too. Take advantage of new tools, implement new best practices, and generally stay on top of things for best results.
Always be Connecting
Think twice about turning down a connection, or an opportunity to connect on social media. Even if someone doesn’t need what you’re selling right now, you never know when they’ll need it down the road.
You’ll also want to try to connect with the audience of those that have personal brands similar to yours. Their audience is your audience. That doesn’t mean taking over their channel and saying “Hey, follow me too!” It means engaging with that audience in conversation, posting positive comments on things that leader is sharing, joining forums they’re involved in, and generally engaging wherever you can.
Building a personal brand is not an easy task, but nothing worthwhile ever is. If you’re still skeptical about the power of personal branding, this video by Brett Cohen is an excellent example of the impact it can have on people’s perceptions. Brett ran an interesting test to see if he could get people to believe he was a celebrity, simply by acting like one – and the results are astonishing.
Now you’ve seen the impact that personal branding can have. Here are a few more resources you’ll want to check out when you’re ready to dive in:
Interviewing salespeople is like peeling an onion. It involves peeling away their superficial layers and getting past conditioned responses to learn about their capabilities, traits, cultural fit, and if they will yield quality results.
With 50% of sales reps today missing quotas, conducting a successful sales interview is the difference between hiring a top performer who will consistently make their number and drive profitable revenue, or bringing on a mediocre salesperson who hinders revenue generation and lowers team morale. So how do you conduct an interview that eliminates under performers, yet challenges top performers to prove they deserve a spot on your team?
In this ultimate guide, we will discuss the dos and don’ts of sales interviewing, which includes common interview mistakes and legal guidelines, a comprehensive list of sales interview questions, what to look for in a candidate’s answers, and red flags to watch out for.
Finally, at the end of the guide we’ve created a template interviewers can use to ensure all candidates are measured objectively.
You’re about to go into a in-person interview with a candidate. You’ve reviewed their resume and cover letter, and based on what you’ve read, they seem strong. They don’t have any employment gaps, their resume focuses on skills and experience, and they’ve listed their quota attainment for the past five-years.
You walk into the conference room and the candidate immediately gets up to shake your hand. Their handshake is firm and confident, and you notice they’re well dressed for the meeting. So far, your first impression of them is positive.
Upon sitting down, you observe that they are giving you their full attention. You begin your interview questions and you facilitate a back and forth conversation. The candidate answers your questions with ease and no obvious red flags arise.
After approximately 45-minutes, the interview comes to an end – you shake hands, and show them out. You’re left feeling positive about the candidate and you decide you want to snatch them up before a competitor does.
They seemed like a strong candidate didn’t they?
Now, look ahead . You’ve hired the candidate, provided necessary training, and have allowed sufficient time to onboard and ramp up.
At this point, you expected a high-level of customer facing activity, a healthy pipeline, and a few deals to have closed. But this isn’t happening. They’ve had extensive coaching and shadowed one of your top performers as they worked through the sales cycle. Nothing is working.
Why is the rep not performing?
You can trace their poor performance back to their in-person interview conducted eight-months ago. The interview went seemingly well, but did you do absolutely everything you could to ensure they were a top performer?
Perhaps you didn’t.
Here is your ultimate guide to conducting successful sales interviews.
Rule #1: You Need To Be Just As Prepared As The Candidate
Being an unprepared interviewer is just as hindering as it is to be an unprepared candidate.
Why?
If an interviewer is unprepared, time is wasted on “get-to-know-you” or “ice-breaker” questions, which does not aid in evaluating the candidate’s skills, experience, and competencies. The candidate has more opportunities to fool the hiring manager into thinking they’re the ideal candidate, and the odds of making a bad sales hire increases.
Top performers expect you to have a robust understanding of the role:
Before going into the interview, think about the role and company information not listed on the job description or company website.
These details could include the size of the sales team and how they’ve been performing over the past 2-5 years, the performance of the territory they would be taking over, vacation time offered, and much more. Top performing candidates want to know this information.
Being able to provide these details – versus needing to follow up with the correct information later, positions your organization as having a strong interview and recruitment process, which improves the candidate experience.
You’ve got the tools needed for proper assessment:
Coming prepared also means bringing the the tools and resources needed to conduct the interview successfully. They could include the candidate’s resume and cover letter, an interview template – which is available to download at the end of this guide – that contains all your interview questions, and note-taking tools.
Taking notes during an interview allows an apples to apples comparison after interviewing numerous candidates. Without taking proper notes, valuable information may be forgotten, which leads to poor sales hiring decisions based on minimal information.
Rule #2: You Need to Abide by Legal Guidelines**
Hiring managers must follow the legal guidelines when conducting a sales interview. There is a fine line between asking a legal and effective interview question, and offending a candidate – resulting in legal repercussions.
For example, under federal and state laws, it is illegal to discriminate against a candidate based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, and age.
There are also states that have made other discrimination categories illegal, such as sexual orientation and marital status.
It may seem natural to inquire about these topics in conversation, however in an interview setting there is a high risk of offending candidates and the chances of fueling a discrimination issue, is even greater.
Some examples of illegal interview questions include:
When did you graduate from high school?
What kind of personal time off will you require on an annual basis and what will they be used for?
Do you have any children?
What kind of childcare arrangements will you be making for them while you’re at work?
What does your partner do for a living?
How long do you plan on working before retirement?
What kind of illnesses have you experience in the past two-years?
Focusing on legal interview questions allows proper candidate evaluation, as the focus is on determining their skills, experience, and competencies.
Another area to avoid is making promises or guarantees in an interview. Interviewers may say things like “permanent position” or “job security”, which causes the candidate to hold them accountable for said statements. These candidates can then claim a breach in their implied employment contract, should any of the verbal promises not come to fruition.
Here are some things that should be done in an interview:
Ask all candidates the same questions
By doing this, interviewers avoid any one candidate claiming they’ve been singled out based on a specific question.
Keep the questions job related
Questions should serve the end goal of discovering if a candidate has the skills, experience, and competencies to be successful in the role. If the question doesn’t serve the end goal, then it shouldn’t be asked.
**Please Note: Be sure to conduct thorough research prior to doing interviews to ensure federal and state discrimination law compliance.
Rule #3: Don’t Make These Common Mistakes
Conducting a successful sales interview is reliant on the interviewer’s ability to run the conversation smoothly and obtain needed information.
But, there are some common mistakes interviewers make; many of which they are unaware of. Anything from trying to make a personal connection with the candidate, to accepting the candidate’s first answer without probing for more information, can hinder an interviewer’s ability to objectively and thoroughly assess a candidate.
Some of the most common sales interview mistakes include:
Allowing the candidate to take control of the conversation
It’s in a salesperson’s nature to talk and convince prospects to buy what they’re selling. And when they’re in an interview, they do exactly the same.
When an interviewer asks a question, the candidate may want to provide as much information as possible in an attempt to successfully sell themselves.
While details are positive, too much detail can result in irrelevant information. As the interviewer, stop them from speaking and steer them back to the point they were trying to make. Interject by saying something like:
“That’s really great information but I would appreciate it if you could tell me more about X.”
Also mention that there’s a limited amount of time and it’s important to use the time efficiently. Top performing sales reps will appreciate these efforts as they understand time is valuable.
Using intimidation to get answers
It’s common to think that because sales reps typically have strong personalities, the hiring manager has to display a certain level of intimidation to match said strong personality. This can either help match the candidate’s tone or cause them to feel intimidated and drop out of the recruitment process.
“I’ve interviewed people who would survive well in ‘intimidation interviews,’ but are terrible at sales. I’ve also interviewed people who would fail, yet are some of the best salespeople I’ve ever met. Is it worth losing talented people before they ever started because you want to show them you are in charge?”
Not asking behavioral questions
Behavioral interview questions inquire about specific selling activities and behaviors the candidate has done in the past, whereas regular interview questions ask what the candidate would do in certain situations.
By asking behavioral questions, the candidate is offering details about their past success, which is used to measure their potential success in the new role. Position these questions in a way that requires them to provide an example to support their claims.
Without using behavioral questions, sales hiring decisions are based on hypothetical promises instead of facts.
Not being transparent about the role
Organizations make the mistake of thinking it’s only the candidate’s job to prove why they’re the right fit for the role. With nearly 75% of candidates today being passive, providing upfront information about growth opportunities, role responsibilities, compensation, and culture will help entice these ideal candidates.
Prolonging the interview process
There is a fine line between taking the necessary amount of time to interview a candidate and stringing them along. Top performers understand when they are being strung along – they are quick to know which prospects won’t close – and will back out of the process as a result.
Typically at the third interview, candidates will begin to ask if it is the final step in the process.
Prolonging the interview process beyond a third in-person interview is a sign that the process is broken, candidates see this as a poor work environment, and they drop out.
Falling prey to interview bias:
It takes an average of seven seconds to form initial judgments about someone, according to recent research. Even people who have the best intentions can harbor different beliefs and attitudes of which they’re not aware – biases.
Non-performance based factors like the Halo Effect, often cause interviewers to eliminate A-players from the hiring pool, or make the mistake of hiring mediocre candidates.
Some examples of interview bias includes:
Leniency/ Strictness Bias occurs when people differ in how they evaluate people. One interviewer may be harder on candidates than other interviewers.
Halo Effect occurs when the interviewer lets one positive factor take precedence and influence the rest of the interview.
Horns Effect occurs when the interviewer lets one negative factor take precedence and influence the rest of the interview.
Similarity Effect occurs when an interviewer rates a candidate based on characteristics the appraiser sees in themselves.
To combat interview bias, three entrepreneurs created software that eliminates ethnicity, gender, age, and educational background from a job seeker’s application, which many companies like Dolby and Mozilla have implemented.
With this software, companies review and evaluate applications solely based on skills and experience, and decide whether to invite the applicant in for an interview.
Be Aware of Your Candidate’s Behaviors
Paying attention to the interviewees behaviors helps hiring managers make the decision to either move forward with a candidate or eliminate them. These conscious and unconscious behaviors give insight into the kind of experiences clients will receive in the field, should the candidate be hired.
Some of these behaviors include:
Their body language
Paying attention to the interviewee’s body language and nonverbal communication, shows how interested they are in the role and how they will conduct themselves in the field. Body language includes facial expressions, eye contact, hand gestures, posture, and more.
Humans produce over 700,000 signs, more than 5,000 distinct hand gestures, 250,000 facial expressions, and over 1,000 different postures, according to recent research.
With 55 percent of effective communication being body language, paying attention to these signs will help make effective sales hiring decisions.
The more open the body is positioned, the more receptive the person is. If they have their arms folded across their chest or have their fists clenched, they’re defensive and unhappy. If their body is oriented away, they are detached or disengaged – which indicates that they’re disinterested in the interviewer, the role, or your company.
In contrast, if they use open hand gestures, this is a sign of interest. For example, they may have their hands resting openly on the table as they answer questions, which indicates a positive emotional response. When their body is directly facing the interviewer, they’re engaged and interested.
Eye contact is a critical step in building rapport and being able to successfully sell. Maintaining eye contact for 60-70 percent of a conversation is optimal in developing rapport.
Pupil size, for example, aids in measuring someone’s interest. When the pupils dilate, it indicates there are positive feelings towards the individual or object they are looking at. In this case, it would be the hiring manager and the role being discussed. If the pupils constrict, they are less receptive and disengaged from the conversation.
Their tone of voice
“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.”
Sound familiar?
Paying attention to a candidate’s tone of voice provides insight into their ability to prospect, build relationships, negotiate to close deals, and win new business.
When forming conclusions about an individual, 38% of effective communication is tone of voice. Therefore, as hiring managers interview candidates, 38% of the evaluation is based on the tone of voice they experience.
Voice inflection is one way of evaluating if a salesperson can emphasize the important parts of a sentence so the client thoroughly understands the value of the product or service they’re selling. In this case, the candidate is selling themselves and should be able to emphasize their important attributes.
The energy of their voice aids in determining their ability to have an effective conversation versus talking over someone. Being driven individuals, salespeople are eager to move onto next steps, which causes speedy communication.
A top salesperson communicates with purpose, while maintaining a steady pace the average person – or client, can follow. Their voice’s energy is a direct reflection of what clients will experience during a cold call or presentation.
A salesperson’s tone of voice could be the determining factor between winning a large deal, or losing it to a competitor.
If they have questions
A candidate asking questions is an indication that they have done their due diligence in researching the company and are interested in gaining a robust understanding of the role.
Some examples of questions a candidate could ask are:
How would you describe the responsibilities of the role?
Can you describe what a typical day looks like in this role?
Is it a new role? If not, why did the previous sales rep leave?
What kind of travel is expected on a weekly or monthly basis?
What are some of the growth opportunities available should I be hired?
What kind of targets will I be expected to hit in the first year, two-years, etc?
What does the territory look like today? Have there been any issues within the territory?
Top performing salespeople go to interviews prepared to ask questions that help them determine if the role is a good fit.
A Comprehensive List of the Top Sales Interview Questions
Before selecting your sales interview questions, create a set of mandatory hiring criteria all candidates are required to meet to be considered for the position. This will allow you to select interview questions that correlate with what success looks like in the role.
To help you create your hiring criteria, download the worksheet here.
Once the hiring criteria is established, choose the interview questions that will gather the information needed to determine if a candidate has all the skills, experience, and competencies needed for success.
“A candidate who has at least a 90 percent chance of achieving a set of outcomes that only the top 10 percent of possible candidates could achieve.”
Interviewers should use their chosen questions to either move them closer to an A-player with a 90 percent chance of being successful, or closer to eliminating a below average salesperson from the candidate pool. If a question does not move the interview in either direction, it does not serve a purpose.
Prospecting
Question 1: When in your career have you been required to do cold calls?
Follow-up question: Did you have a cold call target and on average how many were you making per day/week/month?
Follow-up question: What was your strategy when making these cold calls?
Question 2: How do you maintain a positive outlook in the face of rejection?
Follow-up question: Provide an example of a time when you were rejected by the client.
Follow-up question: How did you handle it and what did you learn?
Question 3: How do you approach prospecting for new leads and opportunities?
Follow-up question: How did you determine what companies you were going to target?
Follow-up question: How do you organize your prospects to ensure consistent communication?
Question 4: Do you generate your own leads and opportunities?
Follow-up question: How do you do this?
Follow-up question: If not all leads are self-generated, what percentage come exclusively from you and how is the remaining percentage generated?
Question 5: What percentage of your leads have you turned into successful sales?
Follow-up question: What steps did you take to achieve this ratio?
Follow-up question: Provide a specific example of a successfully closed deal. Please include the following information: company name, stakeholder titles, deal size, sales cycle, what you sold, the date of the deal, and how you won the account.
Question 6: What tactics do you use to build your pipeline?
Follow-up question: Do you have a target for pipeline size? If so, what is it?
Follow-up question: How do you organize and maintain your pipeline once prospects have been added?
What to look for:
Look for answers that involve their lead generation strategy and quantifiable metrics to back it up. These metrics help determine the level of activity the sales rep needs to maintain to achieve their targets. Their answer could include number of cold calls, meetings, pipeline size, and more. For example, if their lead to close ratio is 6:1 and you will expect them to close ten deals per quarter, that means they need to have at least 60 client meetings per quarter to close those ten deals.
Red flags:
If they’re not able to describe when and how they did their prospecting, cold calling, etc, then they’re at risk of coming into the role not knowing how to develop and execute a prospecting strategy. It’s also an indication that they were not out in the field looking for new business – which is needed if you’re looking for a salesperson to help grow your business.
Deals
Question 7: How long is your average sales cycle?
Follow-up question: What kind of factors impact the sales cycle length (ie, client buying cycle, RFPs, custom products, etc)?
Follow-up question: How do you maintain a relationship with the client – to remain top of mind and avoid any detrimental issues – while you’re waiting to close the deal?
Question 8: What is your average deal size? Please be as specific as possible.
Follow-up question: Do you work off a recurring revenue model or a one-time fee?
Follow-up question: If it is a recurring revenue model, is it monthly, quarterly, or annually? And what are the contract lengths, if any?
Follow-up question: If it is a one-time fee, how do you continue to grow the account and win repeat business?
Question 9: Who are your typical decision makers?
Follow-up question: How do you identify your key decision makers within an organization (ie, research, talking to the gatekeeper, leveraging a champion, etc)?
Follow-up question: What does their buying cycle look like?
Question 10: Describe to me your biggest career win. Please include the company name, stakeholder titles, deal size, sales cycle, what you sold, and the date.
Follow-up question: Describe your strategy behind winning this deal.
Follow-up question: Why is this considered your biggest career win (ie, is it due to the deal size? Was it an account who threatened to cancel but you turned it around? Is it because you competed against larger more established companies to win it?)
What to look for:
Look for specific pieces of information associated with deals they have closed in the past. This information should include the company name – if they’re not comfortable providing the company name then ask for the company size and industry – stakeholder titles, deal size, sales cycle, what was sold, the date, and how they won the deal.
Red flags:
There should be 2-3 deals that stick out in their mind as big wins. If they cannot recall a specific example or claim there are too many to choose from, then perhaps they haven’t had any big wins.
Communication and Negotiation
Question 11: To what extent have you been involved in contract negotiation?
Follow-up question: Please provide a specific example.
Follow-up question: What was the end result (ie, did you win the deal, did you have to compromise on price, etc)?
Question 12: Give me an example of a time when you worked with a difficult prospect?
Follow-up question: What was the outcome (ie, did you win the deal or lose the deal)?
Follow-up question: How did you win the account despite the prospect being difficult?
Question 13: Describe a time when a client was looking to end business with your organization, but you retained them?
Follow-up question: How did you accomplish this?
Follow-up question: How did you ensure this would not reoccur in the future?
Question 14: When in your career have you given presentations to senior decision makers, such as C-Suite?
Follow-up question: What were you looking to accomplish in these presentations?
Follow-up question: How do you present next steps?
Question 15: Tell me how you handle unresponsive prospects during a pitch or presentation.
Follow-up questions: What steps do you take to ensure prospects remain engaged during your presentation?
Question 16: On average, how many presentations do you give every week, month, or quarter?
Follow-up question: What is your target for number of presentations per week, month, or quarter?
Follow-up question: What is your presentation to close ratio?
What to look for:
Look for strong verbal communication skills, such as tone of voice and voice inflection, which helps convey importance and meaning when working with clients. Also look for positive, non-verbal communication, such eye-contact and open body language, as it helps build relationships with prospects.
Red flags:
Be conscious of the amount of eye contact they’re giving as anything below 60 percent indicates a lack of rapport building skills. Also be aware of closed body language – which can include clenched fists, crossed arms, and how their body is oriented – as it indicates disengagement and disinterest.
Problem Solving
Question 17: What are some industry related selling obstacles you’ve had to face?
Follow-up question: How did you overcome them and still hit your targets (ie, collaborating with internal stakeholders, selling into other markets, focusing on growing existing accounts, etc)?
Follow-up question: If you didn’t overcome them, what steps did you take in your efforts to overcome the obstacles (ie, did you do absolutely everything you could)?
Question 18: Describe a time when you lost a deal?
Follow-up question: Why did you lose the deal?
Follow-up question: What did you learn from the loss?
Question 19: When in your career have you had complete autonomy and were required to manage/grow your territory as if it was your own business?
Follow-up question: Describe a typical day.
Follow-up question: Please describe any success during your time working autonomously (ie, exceeding your quota, growing your territory by a certain amount, increasing your book of business by a certain number, etc).
What to look for:
Look for specific issues they’ve faced within their industry – such as their product being more expensive, weather conditions impacting product performance, competitor’s products making theirs obsolete – and how they’ve overcome them. If they did not overcome the issue, what steps did they take in their efforts?
Red flags:
Discussing failures is equally as important as discussing wins. If a salesperson is not able to think of any challenges or issues they’ve faced in the past, then it is unlikely they will be able to come up with solutions to future problems.
Selling Approach
Question 20: How would you describe your selling approach?
Follow-up question: Do you follow a specific selling methodology?
Follow-up question: Have you had any formal sales training (ie, provided by a current or past employer, or on your own time)?
Question 21: How do you establish relationships with clients?
Follow-up question: How do you nurture them long-term?
Follow-up question: How do you ensure no clients are forgotten about (ie, managing regular touch points through a CRM)?
Question 22: Give me your typical sales pitch for your current product or service.
Follow-up question: How have you perfected this pitch throughout your career?
Follow-up question: How do you alter your approach for different clients?
Question 23: Describe a time when you had to change your selling approach to suit a client’s needs?
Follow-up question: How did you recognize that you needed to change your approach?
Follow-up question: What was the outcome (ie, did you win the deal)?
What to look for:
Look for references to a specific selling methodology, such as Six Sigma Black Belt, Sandler, SPIN, Miller Heiman, Challenger, etc. This is an indication of either formal sales training or a drive to improve themselves through learning independently (ie, reading books, listening to webinars, etc). Top performing salespeople have sales strategies they have perfected over time and alter them to fit different clients.
Red flags:
If the candidate is not familiar with any formal selling methodologies or if the candidate doesn’t have a strategy, then it indicates that they are an underperformer who just “wings it” and hopes for the best. It also shows their lack of motivation to better themselves in their selling career as they haven’t worked to improve their approach, skills, and performance.
Sales Performance
Question 24: When in your career have you built a territory from little or nothing?
Follow-up question: What were the results of your efforts (ie, what the territory looked like when you took it over, the revenue increase, the time period of the increase, etc)?
Follow-up question: How did you accomplish this (ie, cold calling, attending trade shows, leveraging your network, etc)?
Question 25: Describe to me your quota and quota attainment numbers over the past five-years.
Follow-up question: If you attained your quota every year, how did you accomplish this?
Follow-up question: If you haven’t consistently hit your quota, what are some of the reasons why?
Follow-up question: Where did you rank on your team (ie, if you didn’t meet quota, then how was everyone else doing)?
Question 26: How did you go about achieving your sales goals?
Follow-up question: What was your strategy?
Question 27: What was the size of the sales team you were/are on?
Follow-up question: Where do you rank in terms of performance?
Follow-up question: What are you doing that other reps are not doing to accomplish their goals?
Question 28: Describe a time when you did not hit your targets or achieve a set goal.
Follow-up question: How did you handle the situation?
Follow-up question: What were the steps you took to ensure you were successful going forward?
What to look for:
Look for specific data that showcases their success over the past five-year – or longer – such as their quota attainment, territory growth, number of new clients they’ve acquired, etc. For example, a top performing salesperson would say “I increased sales by 50% year over year.”
Red flags:
Not being able to provide quantifiable evidence of success is an indication that perhaps they haven’t had success. If the candidate doesn’t know what they achieved, how did they know they were successful? For example, an underperforming salesperson would say “I increased sales last year.”
Strengths and Weaknesses
Question 29: Why do clients choose to buy from you?
Follow-up question: How do you build their trust?
Follow up question: Give me an example of a time when you earned the trust of a client and became their trusted advisor – versus simply a salesperson.
Questions 30: What are 2-3 of your strengths as they relate to sales.
Follow-up question: How do you leverage your strengths to close deals?
Follow-up question: Provide a specific example of a time when you leveraged one of your strengths to close a deal.
Question 31: What are 2-3 of your weaknesses as they relate to sales.
Follow-up question: How do you avoid letting these weaknesses get in the way of your selling?
Follow-up question: What are you doing to improve on your weaknesses?
What to look for:
Look for clear descriptions of what the candidate believes they do well and potential areas of improvement. Also look for why they believe these are their strengths and weaknesses. For example, if one of their strengths is building relationships and one of their weaknesses is that they get nervous when pitching their products or services, then perhaps they are reading books or attending seminars to improve their presentation skills.
Red flags:
If the candidate is unable to discuss their strengths and weaknesses, it’s an indication of a lack of self awareness – which also indicates a lack of structure in their selling. If the candidate does not know where their strong points are then they can’t leverage them to close deals. If they’re unaware of their weaknesses, then they run the risk of letting these weaknesses get in the way of building relationships and closing business.
Culture and Environment
Question 32: How would you describe the corporate culture of your current or past company?
Follow-up question: What was your favorite aspect of the corporate culture?
Follow-up question: If you could change one thing about the corporate culture, what would it be and why?
Question 33: What kind of environment do you thrive in?
Follow-up question: Why do you think you thrive in this kind of environment?
Follow-up question: What kind of environments hinder your ability to perform?
Question 34: How would you describe your ideal Sales Manager?
Follow-up question: When have you worked with a Sales Manager whose management style was not ideal for you?
Follow-up question: How did you handle this situation?
Question 35: What are some of the positive traits you look for in a sales leader?
Follow-up question: What are some traits you consider negative and why?
Question 36: What core values should all strong sales organizations possess?
Follow-up question: Why do you think these values are important for sales success?
Follow-up question: What values do you possess?
Question 37: How would the rest of your sales team describe you?
Follow-up question: Do you agree with these descriptions, why or why not?
Follow-up question: What are some of the areas they think you could improve upon?
What to look for:
Look for a clear picture of the kind of environment the candidate has worked in and the kind of environment they want going forward. It’s critical to discover what kind of environment they thrive in – which could include a collaborative sales team culture, a hands-off management style, a customer centric selling approach – to ensure the company environments are a match.
Red flags:
If the candidate is unsure about the culture they’ve been a part of and the kind of culture they want, or if the culture they’re describing doesn’t align with your own, then there is potential for conflict. For example, if the candidate needs a Sales Manager who is at the office everyday to offer assistance, but you have a Sales Manager who works remotely, then this is a potential issue.
Drivers
Question 38: What motivates you as a salesperson?
Follow-up question: How do you keep yourself motivated?
Question 39: How do you define sales success?
Follow-up question: Where do you feel you have achieved sales success?
Follow-up question: What success would you like to achieve in the next 2-5 years?
Question 40: What kind of sacrifices have you made to be successful?
Follow-up question: How do you maintain a work-life balance for yourself?
Follow-up question: What does a perfect work-life balance look like to you?
Question 41: Why are you looking to leave your current role?
Follow-up question: Would you be willing to provide references from your most recent company, why or why not?
Follow-up question: When calling your references, what do you think they will say about you?
Question 42: Why have you chosen sales as your profession?
Follow-up question: What is your favorite thing about working in sales?
Question 43: What do you dislike about sales as a profession?
Follow-up question: Why do you dislike this aspect of sales?
Follow-up question: How do you ensure it doesn’t affect your ability to close business?
Question 44: What are some of your short-term goals?
Follow-up question: What are some of your long-term goals?
Follow-up question: How does our company and this role fit into these goals?
Question 45: How do you plan on achieving your goals?
Follow-up question: Do you have an achievement plan in place for the next 2-5 years and beyond?
Follow-up question: What does that plan look like and how does this role fit into it?
What to look for:
Look for details about why they’ve chosen sales as a career path, why they’ve chosen to stay in sales, and why they get up every day and perform their tasks. A top performer’s motivators could be earning potential, ranking high on their sales team or within their organization, job security, and much more.
Red flags:
If the candidate doesn’t have a clear motivator, then perhaps they are not motivated to be in sales. Lacking a motivator means lacking the drive to meet and exceed targets. For example, an underperforming candidate might give a vague answer like, “I kind of fell into sales and just decided to stay in it.”
Industry Knowledge
Question 46: How do you stay current on your customers, your industry, and products?
Follow-up questions: Have you attended any seminars or listened to any webinars recently, if so, which ones?
Follow-up question: What did you learn from them?
Question 47: What are some books you have recently read to further your knowledge of sales and your industry?
Follow-up question: What did you take away from them?
Follow-up question: How have they helped you in your sales role?
What to look for:
Look for indications that the candidate is consistently working to further their knowledge and get a leg up on the competition. Look for specific webinars, seminars, books, and podcasts, that they’ve used to educate themselves. Top performers use things like conferences and seminars to expand their network and client base.
Red flags:
If the candidate isn’t doing anything to further themselves, then it’s an indication that they do not have any future goals and do not have a desire to better themselves. It also shows a lack of adaptability as industries change. As a result, they could be using old selling techniques or information that is no longer relevant in the market.
Specific to Your Organization
Question 48: What do you know about our organization?
Follow-up question: What is it about our organization that you find the most interesting?
Follow-up question: Why do you want to work here?
Question 49: Why should we hire you?
Follow-up question: What kind of value will you bring to our sales team?
Follow-up question: What would you be looking to accomplish in the first year, should you be hired for the role?
Question 50: What questions do you have for us?
What to look for:
Look for specific pieces of information about your organization – which could include your company history, community involvement, new product releases, awards, etc – that indicate the candidate has done the due diligence of researching your organization. Look for the candidate to relate what they know about your organization to why you should hire them. For example, if you’ve recently released a new product, they could discuss how they have experience launching new products into the market.
Red flags:
If the candidate hasn’t done any research on your company and cannot speak to why they want to work at your organization, then it’s an indication of a lack of motivation and interest in the role. By having little to no information about the company they’re interviewing with, the candidate is simply looking at this as a job they will switch to – which can result in quick employee turnover rate – versus a strategic opportunity for their career long-term.
Questions for a Sales Management Role**
Question 1: When in your career have you managed a sales team?
Follow-up question: Describe your experience with hiring and firing (ie, how many people have you hired and how many people have you fired).
Follow-up question: Describe your experience with coaching (ie, your approach, how often, etc).
Follow-up question: Describe your experience with planning and strategy (ie, territory assignment, lead generation, etc).
Follow-up question: Describe your experience with forecasting.
Follow-up question: Describe your experience with motivation and incentives.
Follow-up question: Describe your experience with building any kind of sales support for your team.
Follow-up question: Describe your experience with tracking customer data.
Question 2: How would you describe your sales management style?
Follow-up question: Have you had any formal sales management training?
Follow-up question: If so, when and what did it entail?
Question 3: If we asked your current or past team members to describe their experience reporting to you, what would they say?
Follow-up question: What would they describe as opportunities for improvement?
Follow-up: How have you worked to improve in these areas?
Question 4: What is the largest sales team you have successfully managed?
Follow-up question: What kind of sales team was it (ie, inside or outside sales)?
Follow-up question: What success did you see while managing this team (ie, hitting team targets, improving sales rep performance, etc)?
Question 5: When have you managed remote sales reps?
Follow-up question: What were some of the challenges?
Follow-up question: How did you ensure their success?
Question 6: When have you managed a sales rep who had consistently missed quota for three-months or longer?
Follow-up question: Please describe the plan you put in place to help this sales rep be successful.
Follow-up question: If the sales rep’s underperformance persisted, how did you handle the situation?
Question 7: When have you managed a top performing sales rep looking for more responsibilities and room to grow in the company?
Follow-up question: What kind of actionable goals did you help this sales rep set?
Follow-up question: If their goals were not attainable at that time (ie, someone was already doing the role they wanted), how did you keep them engaged and interested in staying at your company?
Question 8: How do you monitor the performance of your individual team members?
Follow-up question: How do you make your team aware of their performance?
Follow-up question: What do you do with this data?
Question 9: How do you motivate your sales team on a day-to-day basis?
Follow-up question: How do you motivate them long-term?
Follow-up question: When have you managed a sales rep who lacked motivation and how did you handle them?
Question 10: Describe a sales strategy you implemented upon taking over a new sales team.
Follow-up question: What were the results you achieved (ie, sales rep improvement, targets achieved, territory growth, etc)?
Follow-up question: Looking back on the strategy you implemented, what changes would you make today to achieve even greater results?
Question 11: Were you responsible for achieving a team quota?
Follow-up question: If so, what was it?
Follow-up question: Describe the team quota attainment numbers during the time you were responsible them.
Question 12: Did you have an individual quota?
Follow-up question: If so, what was it and have you consistently achieved it over the past five years?
Follow-up question: How did you go about balancing your own quota and your managerial duties?
Question 13: Where do you go to source top sales talent?
Follow-up question: How do you decide which applicants you are going to interview?
Question 14: How do you evaluate sales skills in an interview setting?
Follow-up question: What skills do you look for in a candidate?
Follow-up question: What kind of objective measurement techniques do you use when vetting candidates?
Question 15: When have you been involved in decisions about compensation for new sales reps?
Follow-up question: When have you been involved in the decisions to provide raises and bonuses to your sales reps?
Follow-up question: How do you determine raise and bonus qualification?
What to look for:
Look for pieces of information that show strong experience as a sales leader, which could include sales team quota achievements, sales reps receiving promotions, large deals won, overall years of experience, and much more. Top performers will share strategy information about how they approach coaching, process implementation, forecasting, etc. Look to gain an understanding of their management style and how it correlates with your sales environment. For example, if the candidate has a very hands-on management style but your entire sales team is remote, then the candidate may struggle.
Red flags:
If the candidate is lacking evidence of successful leadership, whether it be in examples of success or years of experience, this is a red flag. With 75% of new Sales Managers failing within their first two-years, it’s clear that the skills and experience that make an individual contributor successful are only a small part of what will make them successful sales leaders. An underperforming sales leader may say something like, “I have around eight years of sales management experience and my team has always been successful.” This is vague and does not provide quantifiable evidence to reinforce the claim.
“My objective in interviewing candidates for sales management positions is to determine if these skills exist or can be developed. Clearly, technical competence is important for leading a sales team, but the other critical traits I look for when interviewing a sales management candidate are self-awareness, a willingness to learn, and an understanding of the roles of leadership and coaching.”
** Please note: these questions should be used in combination with the Top 50 Sales Interview Questions previously listed, as many of them are also applicable to someone being interview for a sales leadership role.
Download the Comprehensive List of Top Sales Interview Questions below:
Understand How To Eliminate A Candidate
Telling a candidate they didn’t get the sales job is never a step hiring managers enjoy, however, it’s essential in the hiring process. Eliminating a candidate as soon as you know they’re not the right fit frees up time for other prospects, and it allows the unsuccessful candidate to look for other opportunities.
To effectively determine which candidates to eliminate, hiring managers need to quantify their interview results – which they can do by using the sales interview template at the end of this guide.
This template uses a numerical grade to evaluate the candidate’s answers to interview questions. Hiring managers provide a minimum score the candidate has to achieve to move forward. Should the candidate not reach the minimum grade, they should be removed from the candidate pool.
When you’ve decided to eliminate a candidate, telling them they’re not moving forward in your process needs to be straightforward and personalized. This involves:
Saying thank you
Delivering the news
Giving the main reason
Offering hope
Depending on the role and at what stage they are being eliminated, the rejection letter could be two paragraphs or it could be just a few short lines. For example, if a candidate has gone through one 45-minute interview and is not moving forward, then a few short lines would suffice. If it’s down to two candidates and they’ve been through multiple interviews, 2-3 paragraphs would be more suitable.
What if a candidate asks for feedback?
When providing candidates with feedback, there is a fine line between providing constructive information they can use to improve themselves, and offending them.
Research has shown that only 4.4 percent of candidates receive individual feedback from hiring managers or recruiters. And some of the most common reasons hiring managers do not provide feedback include: requiring too much time, the process could be expensive depending on the number of candidates, they do not want to tell candidates they were unqualified, and there’s the risk of legal issues.
However, there are also reasons hiring managers do provide feedback:
Not giving feedback hurts employer brand
Candidates have invested time and effort into the hiring process and may become disgruntled if they’re not provided individual feedback. This could cause negativity on websites like Glassdoor.
These candidates may be future customers
Having a strong network of candidates – who move from company to company as their careers progress – may result in bringing them on as a client in the future.
Without feedback, unqualified candidates may apply again
If they don’t know they’re unqualified, they may apply again for a future role and cause more wasted time.
If the candidate does request further feedback, here is how you can approach it:
Correlate feedback with the job description
By keeping the feedback directly related to the job, it focuses on their skills, and experience, or lack thereof, as they relate to the role.
Be both constructive and clear
Salespeople want actionable information they can take into their future interviews and roles. Provide them with feedback they can use to improve themselves and increase future success.
Remain factual
These facts can refer to specific answers the candidate provided that were perhaps not what the hiring manager was looking for. Provide an example of what a successful answer may have looked like.
Success Stories From World Class Companies
Every year, Glassdoor releases their list of the “top 50 companies to interview for”. To qualify for this list, companies must receive a minimum of 100 reviews from candidates who have interviewed for them. Depending on the review ratings, companies can rate on the list of top companies candidates want to interview for.
Why does this matter?
Glassdoor is a resource candidates use to find information about potential employers. If a company rates high for positive interview experiences, candidates will be more inclined to apply for vacant roles.
Here are some examples of what the “top 50 companies to interview for” do in their interview process to achieve high ratings:
They treat the interview process as a larger experience. If they are interested in a candidate, then they are known for paying for the candidate’s flight, hotel, rental car, meals, etc, when coming to visit their head office. They also have someone from their company give the candidate a tour of the city.
Other candidates have stated that Caterpillar is very clear about the information they are looking for in their interview questions, and are very open to answering any questions their candidates have.
Their interview process is relaxed and conversational. They make an effort to get to know their candidates and introduce them to other people within the company to learn more about the culture and environment.
They put emphasis on finding someone who is the right fit. While academics are important, the hiring managers are more interested in getting to know the candidates to figure out how their personalities would fit with the rest of the company.
What do these companies have in common?
Being three of the most highly rated companies on Glassdoor for their interview quality, these companies have an employer brand candidates want to work for.
These companies put high emphasis on getting to know the candidate to make sure they have the right qualifications and to make sure they’re the right fit culturally. They go the extra mile to ensure they’re very clear on expectations when asking interview questions, and they welcome the candidate’s questions.
Sales Interview Template
Having a template to use for all interviewees, helps ensure the most effective questions – based on your role requirements – are asked, that all candidates are asked the same questions, and that time is maximized.
In this template we have left room to ask two to three questions for each category outlined in our list of top sales interview questions.
The template is broken down into eleven categories of questions and a ranking chart is at the bottom of each category. To use this interview template:
Decide the minimum ranking the candidate must achieve.
Choose 2-3 questions from each category in our list of the top sales interview questions, and input them into the template.
As the candidate answers the questions, be sure to record their main points for future comparison.
Once all the questions are asked in the given category, mark their actual rating in the chart provided, along with any additional comments.
Use this template for all candidates interviewing for the role, and conduct an apples to apples comparison – using the completed templates – once all interviews are conducted.
Download the Sales Interview Template below:
Peak’s Best Practices
It is fairly straightforward to cover work experience, sales results, and self-perceived strengths in any interview. Consequently, most interviews focus on these things. Sales candidates, anticipating this format, will practice their responses to these questions. As a result, they can appear natural and authentic, even when they are spinning or fabricating the truth.
In most cases – though, surprisingly, not in all cases – candidates will prepare to put their best foot forward and be prepared to make a strong impression.
If the candidate has been to a lot of interviews – in many cases, not a good sign – they may also expect you to ask questions such as what type of company they’d like to work for, their ideal work environment, what they would do for you, and how they might handle certain situations.
While these types of questions shed some insight into the mindset of the candidate, they usually get textbook practiced answers in response, which is not overly useful for making an accurate assessment of whether the candidate can excel.
To accurately predict a salesperson’s capability to meet or exceed sales targets in a new role, the sales interview must address not only sales experience, but also personality and behavioral traits which are as important, if not more important than sales experience.
Make Your Interview Scripts Specific
While Peak tailors its interview scripts to the specifics of each sales role for which we are screening, there are some questions that address the common traits of top sales performers and we do employ certain sales interview strategies to ensure accurate assessments in all of our interviews:
Use a mix of open and closed ended questions
Ask proof questions such as “what did you do in the past” instead of theoretical questions such as “what would you do in the future”
Ask for examples to support claims about strengths
Cross reference by asking the same questions in different ways
Challenge candidates with questions that they won’t be expecting and won’t have practiced beforehand
Use interviews as a way of testing or confirming observations obtained in other parts of a comprehensive and structured hiring process
The reality is, sales hiring managers often ask us to share the best questions used in a sales interview. The answer depends on the nature of the sales position, because there is no definitive list of questions for all potential sales hires.
The interview questions Peak Sales Recruiting uses to assess potential reps for new sales development roles are different from what we ask account managers. Furthermore, the questions used to interview sales representatives are very different from those we ask when interviewing candidates for sales management and leadership positions.
Increase Your Sales Interview Effectiveness
Conducting an effective interview is the difference between hiring an underperforming salesperson who will negatively impact revenue generation and sales team morale, and hiring an A-player who will consistently achieve their targets.
The key is to customize your interview approach – using a sales interview template – for individual roles to ensure all skills, experience, and competency requirements are met.
If your interviews are role specific and all candidates are measured in the same objective way, you will increase your A-player headcount and your sales teams will consistently drive revenue and profitability for your organization.
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
In the hypercompetitive industry of sales, a motivated sales force can mean the difference between hitting targets and missing them by a mile.
In fact, a recent Gallup study found that an unmotivated workforce costs companies 300 billion dollars in lost productivity each year. Even the best sellers, with self-motivation and resiliency built into their DNA, still need a reminder of what they’re working toward and why.
Motivation is key to driving top performers and developing the junior ones. And, research supports this notion — organizations with engaged employees outperform those with low employee engagement by 202 percent.
So, what can you do to motivate your sales team? There are a number of tactics to fuel your team’s fire and keep them on track to achieving aggressive revenue targets. But to keep things simple, we narrowed it down to our top 10.
Here are 10 ways to motivate your sales team to crush their numbers this quarter:
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In today’s talent market, voluntary turnover rates are at an all time high. With the average turnover rate across all sales industries being 11.5 percent – software sales holding the top spot at 15.3 percent turnover – it’s more crucial than ever to create a work environment your sales team doesn’t want to leave.
With a record setting 51 percent of today’s workforce stating they’re watching for new opportunities regularly, Human Resources (HR) Leaders need to improve and maintain the aspects of their organization that top performing salespeople value most. These aspects include competitive compensation structures, training programs, opportunities for professional growth, flexible work location and schedule, and vacation time.
But there is another tactic HR Leaders can leverage to reduce sales force turnover and that is sales team building activities – both one-on-one and group based.
In this article we list and discuss the five most effective sales team building activities and how they help foster a work environment that builds employee loyalty, improves job satisfaction rates, and reduces voluntary turnover.
Here is a list of the five most effective sales team building activities HR Leaders can use to reduce turnover rates:
1. Conduct “Stay Interviews”
Stay interviews are an effective way of gaining insight into what your employees enjoy most about their role and the organization, and on the flipside, what they don’t like.
It is a proactive approach designed to address any internal issues that may cause voluntary turnover, versus a reactive approach, which involves conducting an exit interview once a sales rep decides to leave.
This one-on-one sales team building activity works as a trust fall exercise to keep a workforce engaged and on your team. It develops trust with your sales reps over time as you take steady action to follow through on promises of improvement. Some of these improvements could be with company culture, role attributes, company leadership, etc.
“It’s a relationship review. What’s your relationship to the company, the project team and your manager and what is within our purview to do to make those better? Stay interviews encourage managers to sit down and have a structured talk with their teams about what works and what doesn’t work for them.”
As HR Leaders build trust with their sales teams, sales reps are more likely to proactively share underlying concerns. As long as their HR Leader follows through with necessary action, they will continue to work with HR to improve their role and the organization.
The success of these interviews is dependent on the interviewer’s ability to remain open-minded and use both the positive and negative feedback to improve employee experience and employer brand.
For existing employees, conduct your stay interviews once per year during a slow business period. Conduct them all within a few weeks of each other so you can then take what you’ve learned and make any necessary changes.
For new employees, conducting stay interviews after their first 30 days and then again at 90 days is recommended.
When conducting the stay interview, questions should be broken down into three categories:
1. General questions to break the ice and gain insight into the employee’s feelings about your organization.
2. Questions relating to the employee’s role.
3. Questions that provide insight into their level of satisfaction with compensation and company perks.
You may also want to include time at the end of the interview for employees to include any information you may have missed, or to provide any additional suggestions.
Our list of stay interview questions:
Examples of general questions:
Do you believe that your work has meaning? How can we work together to make your work more meaningful?
Is the organization providing you with opportunities to grow and develop as a person and as a professional? What would improve your opportunities?
Do you feel that you have the necessary control over your job to perform most successfully and productively?
What type of feedback would you like to receive about your performance that you are not receiving now? From me? From coworkers?
Do you respect the amount and kind of leadership that you receive from the senior managers?
Examples of role specific questions:
Do you believe that your work has meaning? How can we work together to make your work more meaningful?
Is the organization providing you with opportunities to grow and develop as a person and as a professional? What would improve your opportunities?
Do you feel that you have the necessary control over your job to perform most successfully and productively?
What type of feedback would you like to receive about your performance that you are not receiving now? From me? From coworkers?
Do you respect the amount and kind of leadership that you receive from the senior managers?
Examples of sales specific questions:
Do you believe your sales goals are attainable? What can we do to make them more attainable?
Is the organization providing you with enough sales support to do your job successfully? What kind of support would help you in your role?
Do you feel that your goals are clearly set? How can we work together to create clear goals?
What kind of feedback would you like to receive from your manager during your performance review? What can we do to make performance reviews more enjoyable and effective?
Do you respect the amount and kind of sales leadership that you receive from senior management? What can we do to improve our leadership efforts?
Examples of compensation and perks questions:
Do you think your compensation is in alignment with the local market?
What would you like to see in the employee benefits package that is not currently offered?
When you consider the employee activities, events, parties, company sponsored sports teams, company paid race entries, company provided meals and snacks, and family activities, which would you like to see continued?
Please note: The stay interview questions are available for download at the end of the article.
Do stay interviews really work and are they worth the effort?
One organization that has experienced success implementing stay interviews is NOVO 1.
After implementing stay interviews with over one thousand employees, their voluntary turnover rate immediately decreased by 20 percent.
Mary Murcott – Founder and President at Performance Transformations Inc. and former President and CEO at NOVO 1, states:
“We build walls between us and employees by asking opinions in anonymous surveys which protect us from looking in their eyes and hearing their words. Maybe down deep we have a fear that they will ask for something and we’ll have to say no. We can’t become a great company unless we ask, listen, and then consider every reasonable request.”
2. Have collaborative huddles
A collaborative huddle is a group-based sales team building activity that serves a different purpose than a sales meeting. While sales meetings often include updates about:
Previous sales activity (number of meetings, cold calls, presentations, etc)
Pipeline status
Goal status
Deal status
Scheduled sales activities
A collaborative huddle addresses mistakes and obstacles your sales reps are presented with. And your team pools their talent and skills to find a solution.
Collaborative huddles are an important sales team building activity because a continuous obstacle that goes unaddressed can cause a sales rep to become unmotivated and disengaged. As a result, they may look for opportunities elsewhere.
Some obstacles include:
A client who’s hesitant to work with them
Going up against a big name competitor to win a deal
Issues penetrating a target account
An unsatisfied or disgruntled client
Also, two heads are in fact better than one, according to Scientific America. People perform better and make more intelligent decisions when they put their heads together, versus working alone. It allows open communication and collaboration to address challenges that sales reps may not be able to solve on their own.
“An idea is a network,” says Steven Johnson during his TED Talk titled: Where Good Ideas Come From. “I’ve been kind of on this quest to investigate this question of where good ideas come from. What are the environments that lead to unusual levels of innovation, unusual levels of creativity? I’ve started calling it the “liquid network,” where you have lots of different ideas that are together, different backgrounds, different interests, jostling with each other, bouncing off each other — that environment is, in fact, the environment that leads to innovation.”
To implement this sales team building activity, HR Leaders need to ensure their sales leaders are scheduling regular meetings so sales reps can collaborate on their issues.
Advise your sales leaders that these huddles can be held on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis, and can be combined with their regularly held sales meetings to save time. We recommend setting aside 20-30 minutes at the end of the sales meetings to allow your team to collaborate on their issues. Depending on the size of the sales team, your sales leaders may need to schedule more or less time.
3. Create a team-based selling environment
A team-based selling environment is where a group of salespeople work towards a common sales goal. Each rep is closely connected with their team members and combine their knowledge, experience and skills to prospect and develop new business as a group.
Creating a team based selling environment is beneficial because top performing salespeople work to engage with their colleagues and coordinate their abilities to hit their targets.
With the amount of sales teams who practice team-selling increasing from 22 percent to 49 percent, team selling now accounts for 44 percent of the overall impact on a company’s profitability.
This means that HR Leaders have the opportunity to not only increase employee engagement and decrease sales turnover, but also increase profitability through team selling.
A large media company saw great success in a team-based selling environment. They invested in an internal social-networking platform with a goal of getting their sales reps to exchange information about complex accounts. As a result, cross-selling increased, sales cycles decreased and conversion rates went up.
Here are some examples of sales team building activities HR Leaders can use to create a team-selling environment:
Create a scoreboard
Having a scoreboard does more than just keep track of how your sales reps are doing against their targets. They foster healthy competition amongst the sales team and they help your sales leaders understand what aspects of their sales process are working and what’s not.
This sales team building activity is another way HR Leaders can be proactive about making necessary process changes to keep sales reps loyal and engaged.
For example, your sales leader notices there is a drastic difference between the amount of presentations given and the amount of deals won. HR Leaders can address the issue by helping to facilitate workshops and improve on presentation and follow-up skills.
“Sales success requires great salespeople in a great system. You can get by with one or the other, but top performers can only do so much with a broken process and most likely won’t stick around”
When creating the scoreboard, make sure your sales leaders hone in on what metrics are important and over what period of time they will be measured. The scoreboard should include each sales rep’s name, their specific targets and their actual results.
Examples of metrics your sales leaders may include:
Individual quotas for each sales rep (if you do a team quota, list the overall target and the revenue each sales rep has generated to achieve the collective goal)
Level of activity (number of cold calls, sales meetings, trade shows, etc)
Number of Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
Pipeline size
Number of deals closed (new and existing business, or a combined target)
Some tools your sales leaders can use to create the scoreboard include:
Implement gamification
Gamification is used to describe the application of traditional game elements to other activities to encourage engagement and drive. In a selling environment, HR Leaders can use it it to encourage collaboration and healthy competition amongst the team.
While gamification is often associated with younger generations – such as millennials – it can be implemented and used to motivate all generations. Top performing salespeople are driven individuals who have a desire to compete and win. Gamification fulfills these desires.
One organization in particular that has had success after implementing gamification into their selling environment is Stanley Black & Decker. Their goal was to bring in gamification to drive results with their more seasoned salespeople, especially those who tended to resist new technology.
The results they achieved were a 29 percent increase in pipeline activity, a 43 percent increase in documented opportunities and 70 percent of employees showed engagement.
Before choosing the kind of gamification to implement, help your sales leaders determine their goals by having them think about this statement:
If our sales team did more of X, or did X more effectively, we would hit our targets this quarter/year.
Once the goal is established, determine what gamification is most effective in achieving your sales leader’s desired results.
Some gamification options to provide your sales leaders include:
1. Leveraging their peers
To encourage collaboration on your sales team, create a system awarding points when sales tips are exchanged. It facilitates a team-selling environment while aiding reps in achieving their individual targets.
2. Taking a new product to market
If your sales team isn’t talking about the new product with their clients, create a leadership board that rewards reps when they pitch it. HelloWorld used this concept and created a hashtag that was logged into Salesforce by the sales reps. As a result, they saw the product sales increase by 230 percent and the product pitches doubled.
3. Leverage your sales process to increase win rates
Collaborate with your sales leaders to analyze the sales process and determine what stage holds the highest win rate. Once that is determined, run a contest that gives points once the sales reps move an opportunity into that stage. This not only advances opportunities but it also helps keep your client data accurate.
4. Selling a particular product or service
If you have a product or service you want sold quickly – perhaps sales for this particular product are down or you have a new product launching – create a contest that awards points every time a sales rep successfully sells said product or service.
4. Facilitate side projects outside of their role responsibilities
Using side projects as a sales team building activity is a way for HR Leaders to increase their sales reps’ sense of purpose within the organization – which fosters loyalty and decreases voluntary turnover.
They allow your salespeople to feel like their role has a greater impact on the company as a whole. In fact, 78 percent of millennial employees say it’s important to have side projects as another area of growth opportunity.
“…most people do not know how to bring their ideas to fruition, they might be open to developing their idea with their employer. This will help the employer keep a hand on what is going on with their employees and how they are feeling, as well as potentially lead to interesting business opportunities,”
When considering what kinds of side projects to offer your sales team, think about these areas of the project:
The format in which it will be given
The time they will be allocated
The results you would like to achieve.
Debbie Madden, CEO and cofounder of Stride – an agile software development consultancy, based in New York City – explains that for 13-years she has been holding quarterly open space meetings where the entire company comes together for a whole day to discuss new ideas:
“Almost every single cool thing at Stride has come out of our Open Space meetings. It’s not a hackathon, so we’re not creating ‘products.’ We’re creating policy. [An] amazing idea that came out of a Stride Open Space is our monthly Lean Coffee. We talk as an entire company about the single most important issue facing our team at the time. The issue is self selected and voted on by all of Stride.”
Some projects you could facilitate include:
1. Peer mentorship opportunities
Going through the onboarding experience can be daunting and is filled with the pressures of ramping up. Tenured sales reps have knowledge about the company, its products and services, its clients, and best practices.
HR Leaders can have tenured sales reps provide lessons on products and services, sales best practices, and much more. The new sales reps could also shadow the tenured sales reps in the field as they move through their sales cycles.
Having the tenured sales reps teach the new sales reps bridges the knowledge gap, decreases ramp up time, and offers the tenured sales reps opportunity to improve their leadership skills.
Salespeople are busy and often so focused on hitting their targets that they don’t have time for side projects. However, encouraging them to practice “two-second lean” allows them to work on a new project and decrease the time needed for everyday tasks.
These “two-second lean” projects could include simplifying the way information is inputted into the CRM, decreasing travel time, or simplifying how expenses are submitted.
3. Professional certifications
Earning a professional certification not only validates you sales rep’s expertise but it also gives your clients a higher level of confidence in your business. Your sales team will become more engaged since you are invested in their professional development and helping them take the next steps in their career.
Companies like Microsoft, IDC, CompTIA and Novell have experienced increases in productivity due to their professional certifications preparing employees for their day-to-day challenges.
Some professional certifications you could offer include sales methodology training, seminars for presentation skills, leadership skills, etc.
5. Have a Corporate Community Initiative (CCI)
Companies that encourage community involvement not only distinguish themselves from their competitors, but also see the benefits of happier employees. Community involvement as a sales team building activity shows your sales reps that their role serves a larger purpose.
In a recent study done by Deloitte and Points of Light Institute, 74 percent of the white collar workers who participated in their CCI stated that it had a positive effect on their careers.
In addition:
83 percent of professional women reported that their CCI developed their leadership skills
78 percent reported improvements in their communication skills
Over 50 percent reported improvement in other workplace skills.
Below are some examples of companies who leverage CCIs to develop their employees’ skills and grow their employee bond:
Dow Corning
An employee was sent to Bangalore, India to participate in Dow’s international volunteer program. This program sends employees on a pro bono basis to work with NGOs and entrepreneurs in emerging countries.
One employee, an electrical apprentice, worked for four weeks with a local community and a team to improve the manufacturing process at Sustaintech – a local clean cookstove producer.
Throughout the experience, this employee learned leadership, problem solving, and out-of-box thinking skills. After returning to work, she stated she was excited about her future with Dow and hoped to move up in the company in the future.
Team One
Employees from Team One’s Atlanta office take over for the staff at the Atlanta Children’s Shelter one day every month. The volunteers look after the children so the shelter staff can hold their monthly meetings. The volunteers also help with classroom decorating and provide creative projects for the children.
An Account Coordinator stated the volunteering has deepened her understanding of the advertising industry and corporate philanthropy. She attributes her professional development to the volunteer program and gained valuable skills to help her work effectively with coworkers and clients.
Doing these activities with remote employees
More and more salespeople are doing their job remotely and at different times of the day. From 2012 to 2016 the number of remote employees rose by four points, taking it from 39 percent to 43 percent.
This means that employees have fewer face-to-face interactions with their managers and coworkers, and they’re communicating more through e-mail, instant messaging and conference calls.
To ensure HR Leaders are conducting effective sales team building activities with remote employees, we recommend using video conference software. Video conferencing encourages both participation and more face-to-face interaction.
Video conferencing is particularly useful for collaboration meetings, team-selling activities and side-projects.
Some video conferencing tools you can leverage include:
With CCIs and stay interviews, bring your remote employees into the office once or twice per year. As stay interviews are done annually and during slow business periods, bringing them in for a face-to-face meeting yields better results.
Decrease Your Voluntary Employee Turnover
Using sales team building activities not only decreases voluntary turnover rates but also increases employee loyalty – which is the heart of successful companies, according to Entrepreneur.
The more employee loyalty HR Leaders facilitate, the more the sales reps will go above and beyond to help their organization improve and succeed. Loyal employees share their expertise, they boost morale, and they consistently hit their sales targets.
Keeping your sales team engaged and feeling positively about your organization will help ensure your turnover rate stays to a minimum and your top sales talent continues to generate revenue and profitability for your organization.
Download your list of Stay Interview Questions here.
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
It’s the talent on your sales team that will determine your fate when you’re working to hit aggressive targets and achieve your company’s future goals. And finding top performers is the difference between your company’s victory or failure in competitive markets.
To find these top performers faster, you need to incorporate quantitative and objective candidate assessment tools into your recruiting process.
Specifically, sales assessment tests represent a unique and effective way to inject objectivity into your screening process and improve quality of hire rates.
In this article, we explain why sales assessment tests are effective recruiting tools and how they improve the screening process.
Why You Need to Use Tests When Recruiting Salespeople
Salespeople are driven individuals, who are competitive in nature, resilient, and have strong desires to influence others. Because these traits are common in top performers, yet are commonly misjudged, they challenge an interviewer’s ability to distinguish between A-players and average or below average sellers.
“Sales assessment tests, are a good way to pick out the candidates who are best for the job. We use these tests to figure out what kind of person they are in the workplace, how much time they put into a task, and how smart they are in real life situations. Using these tests has helped us tremendously and since implementing them, we consistently end up with our ideal candidates.”
With executives admitting to making the wrong hiring decision 25 percent of the time, additional steps must be taken to ensure only the highest quality salespeople are hired.
Assessment tests help interviewers overcome implicit and unintended recruiting challenges and their negative implications, such as a involuntary turnover rates.
So why is it that great salespeople are so hard to identify? Here’s two simple reasons:
Salespeople are difficult to assess. They’re skilled in presenting themselves in the way the interviewer expects. Their sales careers have depended upon their ability to quickly develop relationships, find common grounds, and persuade prospects to buy what they’re selling. Applying and interviewing for a new role is no different. They are simply selling a product they are the ultimate experts in, themselves.
It’s common for organizations to often be unclear about what they want. They understand they want top performing salespeople, however, they don’t understand what top performance means for the specific role. Having a generalized understanding causes bad sales hires. Having a thorough understanding of the specific skills, experience, and DNA required for success, improves quality of hire ratios.
But the task of objectively evaluating the performance potential of a candidate poses unique challenges for Human Resources (HR) Leaders due to 50 percent of sales reps today consistently below their targets. With an annual quota for an outside sales rep averaging 2.7 million dollars, the costs of bad hiring adds up quickly. If they’re generating 50 percent of their quota, the lost revenue is 1.35 million dollars per rep annually.
The average percentage of salespeople that achieved one hundred percent of annual quota last year varied by type of industry:
The Negative Impacts & Costs of a Traditional Screening Process
It’s common for companies to leverage their market experience when making sales hiring decisions. This decision involves using gut feeling, which is a subjective and emotional form of assessment. It is often used to examine candidates and find similar qualities to their other top performers. However, using gut feeling to find these similar qualities results in identifying similar emotional traits based on bias, versus identifying objective, skill-based qualities.
With methods like this being subjective and unstandardized, they are unreliable and unable to accurately predict an employee’s potential success.
PredictiveHire, a SaaS analytics solutions provider, observed that one of their clients could have saved 1.1 million dollars by using an assessment tool. This client had hired 80 people over 12 months.
Without using a sales assessment test, it cost them an additional 800,000 thousand dollars for time required to screen and interview the 80 candidates.
But only 29 percent of business leaders today are leveraging these emerging technology options. An even smaller 6 percent think their hiring process works well for them. These statistics show missed opportunities to accurately assess and hire top sales talent.
Sales assessment tests stop companies from merely checking credentials and move them towards confirming a candidate’s skillset and psychological preferences, in turn increasing quality of hire.
There’s a Domino Effect When Bad Hires are Made…
Making a bad sales hire is a domino effect. Making one bad sales hire can lead to many more, in turn costing your company millions.
Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, estimated that his own bad sales hires have cost Zappos over one hundred million dollars.
The effects of a bad sales hire trickles into other aspects of an organization; not just top-line revenue. Having a “bad apple” in your organization is contagious and causes top performing sales reps to feel disengaged. There is also the risk of causing employee burnout due to top performers having to pick up the slack and compensate for “bad apples”.
An organization who successfully focused their efforts into only bringing in the greatest talent is Instagram. In 2013, Instagram had 13 employees, yet they sold their company to Facebook for 1 billion dollars.
While their product wooed Facebook, Instagram’s success underlines the impact “homerun” employees have on a company’s success.
What is a Sales Assessment Test?
Sales assessment tests are an objective, data-driven evaluation technique removing intuition, gut, and heart driven decisions from the talent acquisition process. In other words, it’s a simple and easy way to avoid making bad sales hiring decisions and increase your quality of hire.
Experts agree that measuring quality of hire is needed both pre and post-hire. Since recruitment quality measures directly correlate with post-hire performance metrics, sales assessment tests used pre-hire aid in determining quality of hire measurements post-hire.
These tests properly calculate pre-hire metrics, which talent acquisition leaders can later use to hone in on specific hiring problem sources and eliminate them. Based on the data gathered from hiring and case studies, and by analyzing employee data, sales assessment tests come in many forms and can be customized to suit your specific environment.
Assessments are typically done via online portals and are delivered to all candidates who apply. Employers then decide on the candidates that will come in for in-person interviews.
Some assessment types include:
Psychometric Assessments Examines a candidate’s sales DNA and unquantifiable traits to gauge their odds of being successful. Here at Peak Sales Recruiting, we leverage a software called DISC Profile, which is a non-judgmental psychometric assessment to give us insight into candidates’ behavioral differences.
Cognitive Tests Measures a candidate’s reasoning, memory, reading comprehension, and knowledge of a specific role function.
Simulation Tests Includes performance tests, role-playing, moral judgment, work samples, and job previews. It tests candidates in real life work environment situations. Unilever is known for using this software in the last step of their recruitment process.
The sales and talent leaders who have a thorough understanding of the vacant role they are looking to fill, obtain the most use and value out of their evaluations.
Having an understanding of the vacant role ensures that the assessment results you gather from prospective candidates will be in line with your ideal candidate profile.
Keep in mind the assessment results you receive from candidates should account for 20 percent of your overall hiring decision. Your decision should also include data from their application, resume, in-person interview, reference checks, etc. These tests do not function as an all-encompassing recruiting tool used to replace other stages. It is an additional measure to save you time and assist in making accurate sales hires.
Sales Assessment Test’s Potential Impact on Reducing Hiring Bias
Sales assessment tests help HR Leaders predict a potential sales hire’s on-the-job performance and retainability. Additionally, these tests reduce hiring risk factors like implicit bias.
This concept refers to people’s ability to harbor bias outside of their awareness or control. NeuroLeadership Institute refers to the mind as an iceberg and while our conscious mind seems to command our brain activity, in reality the vast majority of what’s going on in our brain is below the surface. This is where the following biases can occur:
The Halo Effect: When the interviewer lets a positive fact overshadow everything else the candidate says and/or does.
The Horn Effect: When the interviewer lets a negative fact overshadow everything else the candidate says and/or does.
The Stereotyping Bias: Forming a snap conclusion about someone based on their specific characteristics, such as race, religion, age, gender, etc.
The Contrast Effect: When you interview a stronger candidate after a weaker candidate, causing them to appear more qualified than they are.
The “Similar to Me” Effect: The interviewer developing a positive opinion of the candidate due to the candidate having a similar mindset or personality.
With many HR Leaders relying on human judgment in their recruitment process, sales hiring biases have become common.
Lauren Riviera, a professor of management and sociology at Northwestern University, says:
“Hiring now resembles choosing a romantic partner more than an employee.”
A bias that has had startling effects on the tech market is motherhood. A recent study evaluated two equally qualified candidates, one of which was a mother in the tech market, and found the following results:
Women who did measure up to these higher criterion were considered bad mothers for being dedicated to their work.
An example of the success behind confirming skills through tests and avoiding hiring bias is within symphony orchestras. Orchestras were traditionally dominated by white men. Women accounted for less than 5 percent of the musicians in all top five symphony orchestras in the United States.
That is until the blind audition policy was implemented in the 1970s. To counter bias and avoid missing out on top talent, they put up screens to conceal the musician’s appearance.
The Results: Women were selected 25 to 46 percent more often
Applying the symphony orchestra’s success story to sales recruiting, unconscious bias is filtering out top salespeople. Removing hiring bias can increase the number of top performers hired by 25 to 46 percent. Comparable to the symphony orchestra increasing their count of female musicians.
To further see what kind of unintentional biases you harbor, Project Implicit developed a study to provide further insight. With over 17 million implicit biases measured, they have participants answer questions about different words and phrases. This helps them determine the negative and positive connections people have.
Success From The Frontlines
One company in particular has reported success through using these assessments and technologies.
Unilever — a global consumer products organization — is combining video interviewing and gaming to create a digital, four-step, recruiting process.
These four steps include:
1. Candidates complete a short online form associated with their LinkedIn accounts. There is no need to upload or provide a resume. There is no waiting process, as they’re sent an SMS almost immediately after completing the form.
2. Candidates spend 20 minutes playing a series of 12 games. These games give Unilever insight into different capabilities, including personality, communication style, and problem-solving. After completing these games, candidates get a report with feedback within 48 hours.
“The level playing field provided by anonymous gameplay also reduces the potential for unconscious bias among the recruiting team.The fact that candidates can play in their own time, in their own space, and complete the entire process in 20 minutes cuts back on time and costs too. In fact, the whole process is more agile,”
3. This step is for candidates the Pymetrics program selects as eligible to move forward. The candidates go through a video interviewing process, which Unilever does through HireVue. The software assesses the video interview and ranks the candidate based on their fit for the role. The highest ranked candidates then move to the fourth and final step in the process.
4. They are then invited to the Discovery Center for an in-person simulation of a “day in the life at Unilever”. They work through real-life business situations to indicate how they will respond to quickly changing markets.
The Result:
Their digital recruitment platform decreased their time-to-hire to under two-weeks, and as short as one to two days. Unilever’s recruiters are now screening two candidates and putting one through the four steps. Versus screening six candidates to put one through for an in-person interview.
Hilton has also started using data-driven assessment methods and has cut their recruiting cycle down to five days from six-weeks. They found their sales assessment test trimmed the number of interview questions from 200 down to five. It also increased the chance of hiring someone after one in-person interview.
Some Assessment Options
Below are sales assessment test options, which were selected based on the successes other organizations have seen.
Predictive Hire is a cloud-based, predictive analytics, solutions company offering customized AI based on data gathered from your specific company. They fuse your specific KPIs with the results from the questionnaire done by your existing workforce. The AI asks candidates questions to evaluate their likely success, and provides 90% accuracy.
DISC is a psychometric assessment that examines candidate’s behavioral differences. Candidates register on their website and answer a series of sentence based questions. Their answers produce measurements of their dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness. They provide the pros and cons of a candidate’s results, so in-person interviews are tailored accordingly.
Hiring Simulations is an organization providing job simulation assessment software, which is either licensed in-house or outsourced through their team. They offer options based on your specific needs and have been proven to help increase hiring success rates.
Pymetrics offers games for candidates to play in order to test diverse aspects of their capabilities. The global neuroscience community developed these games over decades of research. They use blind auditions to mitigate conscious and unconscious biases. The candidates move through their platform completely anonymously. The prediction algorithm does not use demographic information, race, gender, etc, to assess career fit.
Increase Your Sales Hiring Success
These sales assessment tests help HR Leaders make more effective sales hiring decisions. By using an assessment you ensure all potential candidates are measured in the same objective way and based on what they need to be successful in the role. It’s hazardous to rely on gut feel or in-person interviews to make sales hiring decisions – with 50 percent of sales reps not hitting their sales targets. These tests weed out the pretenders and make sure you are interviewing the true top sales talent. The more candidates you put through the objective sales assessment tests, the higher quality the sales hires, and the stronger your team will perform.
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Building an all-star sales team is one of the greatest challenges a hiring leader will face. In fact, research from Deloitte shows that talent acquisition is the third most important challenge organizations need to solve in 2017.
However, sales hiring is often put on the back burner — only being addressed when an open seat becomes available. While it is entirely possible to find a great employee in short order, it is far more likely that you will end up settling for someone average or worse. If attracting top performing salespeople is a primary driver of sales success, then shouldn’t recruiting be a top priority?
World-class organizations adopt the ABR: Always Be Recruiting principle. Continuous recruiting allows hiring managers to find and engage the best sellers and keep them warm until a position opens. Sales Expert and Founder of Engage Selling Solutions, Colleen Francis, recommends adopting the ABR mantra:
“Many sales managers settle into complacency when their team is performing well, or recruiting falls by the wayside when there’s too much else on their plates. But in reality, it’s essential to constantly have recruiting on your to-do list.”
Still not convinced?
This infographic details five reasons you need to always be recruiting for your sales team:
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When I became the leader of a sales team for the first time in the mid 90’s, I did not have the luxury of selling for many years and being mentored by someone who could teach me the ropes. Instead, I was a company founder who filled a need that we had at the time to build our sales team, and I kind of made things up as I went along. As I think back to those days, I realize how much I struggled to achieve my goals, and while I was successful, I can’t deny that it probably had as much to do with luck and timing as it did with my will and effort.
It was a time of great learning but there are a few lessons that would have served me well if I had known them in advance.
Here are the top things myself and 28 other sales leaders wish we had known before becoming a Sales Manager:
1. That it’s almost impossible to be a player-coach selling manager
“I wish I knew how little most senior executives understand the true job of a Sales Manager and how much crap companies throw on the sales leader’s desk that has nothing to do with leading the sales team. I wish I knew that much of what makes people great as individual producers in sales does not translate to success as a manager. The jobs could not be more different. As a producer, you win on your own, but great leaders win through their people. Night and day difference. I wish I knew that it is almost impossible to be a player-coach selling-manager. To do that, well you have to be schizophrenic. The reason sports teams abandoned the player-coach model is because it’s stupid and produces sub-optimal results while creating a mess.”
“I wish I knew that not everyone thought as much about how to be successful as I did. After meetings/conversations with prospective buyers, very few sales reps took time to self assess. To help them develop, I needed to teach them how to think differently. I constantly asked: What do you think went well? Why did it work? How can you use it again? Where did you get stuck or run into trouble? What was your role in creating this situation? How could you do things differently next time? What else could you try? Doing this creates an upward spiral. Everyone gets better, driving increased revenue.”
“As a sales leader, you likely want to jump in and make every sale happen. It is vital you have wise discernment, though. You must recognize you’re playing a long-game, and as such you should focus on the development of the people you’re leading, not just on chasing short-term customer opportunities. As tempting as it is to close the sale, the bigger benefit is in coaching the salesperson to know how to close the sale when you’re not around. The mark of a sales leader is not what occurs when they’re present, but rather the success their team has when the leader is away.”
“I think a lot of sales leaders wish they knew how difficult it was going to be to transition from salesperson to sales leader. The skills that made them successful as an individual performer turn out to be only a small part of the toolbox they need to build a successful team. As a salesperson, they could easily and quickly respond to adversity, but as a sales leader, they often find it quite frustrating that people don’t do things the way they do.”
“Without many years in sales myself and having to take over leadership of a sales group, I didn’t appreciate the value of a structured selling process. I told my sales reps to call-qualify-develop and close and left them to their own devices beyond this, which meant that each rep sold in their own unique way. Beyond ensuring that customers received different experiences from my sales team, it made it very difficult for me to coach and develop my reps. In short, without a structured process in place, some of the characteristics of a dysfunctional sales team were beginning to reveal themselves.”
6. To spend more time on the hiring than the selecting
“I wish I had known that what people say and what they actually do are two different things. While your salespeople may tell you something that has transpired, they may not be telling you the whole story. It’s important to have full transparency as it helps them in their sales cycle. It’s important to understand that not everyone lives in the CRM and you need to look for that when recruiting, as that data’s so important. I also wish I had spent more time on the hiring process versus the selection process. It’s much easier to hire than it is to fire someone. Relying on the experts to find you the right people is much more beneficial than selecting someone and having to fire them later due to poor performance.”
7. How to understand the different personality types of people in sales
“When I first moved from sales into a sales management position, I was fortunate that my company sent me for some training. The most important lesson taught was about understanding the different personality types of people in sales. Previous to this, I thought everyone would handle their business the way I did. Upon taking over, I quickly learned that you cannot manage everyone the same way. Each person on the team had a different temperament, a different attitude, and was motivated by different things. Once I got a handle on each person’s wants, needs, and desires, I was able to take an office that was on the bottom of the revenue-generation pile and turn it into the first place office in the company.”
“I wish I knew before becoming a sales leader/manager that 1+1 = 3. When I became a sales leader I thought it was my job to be the best seller on the team. I would swoop in to save deals, and ride along with sellers to close deals. Always being the hero. We did well, but not exceptionally well. It was only after I learned that my job was to coach each individual to be better than me that our sales really accelerated! A sales manager’s job is not to be the best seller on the team. It’s to curate excellence and leverage it amongst the team members.”
Tell your salespeople what they did right. A Harvard Business review study confirms that individuals who receive at least a 6-1 ratio of positive-to-negative advice outperform those more often criticized. Focus on a maximum of three improvements at a time. The brain can’t possibly remember 36 new techniques to incorporate into a sales presentation. Like golf, a good swing coach offers just one suggestion that triggers all the other actions. Feedback must be specific. Avoid generic suggestions like, build more trust or tell better stories. Instead share the four components of building trust or five keys to a powerful story. “
“If there is one thing that I know now that I didn’t know then, it’s the importance of time management and prioritizing tasks. As a young business owner or professional, you will have many moving parts and daily tasks which can easily keep you busy. However, there is a major difference between being busy and being productive! In my opinion, the “Eisenhower Principle” is a must have time management principle that should be learnt and adopted by every business owner and professional. In essence, it is understanding the difference between urgent and important activities to help you think and structure your business priorities correctly.”
11. The value of really getting to know each person on the team well
“I wish I knew the value of really getting to know each person on the team well, especially personally. When I did, it made it much easier to help that person overcome a problem or set better goals – whether personal and professional – to keep them motivated. Especially once they ‘got good’ at their jobs, it’s easy to get comfortable and go on ‘autopilot’ as a manager.”
“Many salespeople spend their precious time on the wrong things. Sales Managers and leaders play a crucial role in helping their reps focus on high-value sales activities. Here are three tips: Guide them towards activities that benefit customers the most. The bigger the problems reps can solve, the more resources, time and money customers will commit. Ask reps what they need to do their jobs better. Knock down any obstacles that make it difficult for reps to sell and customers to buy. Limit business hours to high-value sales activities. Train reps to save travel and administrative work for “non-working” hours.”
“This is easy for me …. firstly COACHING 2.0. As a 2.0 manager, learning that there is a big difference between demanding results and putting the right people in the right roles and conditions for success is crucial. Lastly DOGS versus STARS. If you spend 50% of your time with your ‘stars’ – who are often independent by nature – instead of the ‘dogs’, you will double your results. Apologies to ‘dogs’ but they always have an excuse, lots of personal issues, etc. Once they are past a reasonable training time they will vacuum up all your time and energy. Go with the stars who are building a joint path for their career development and success!”
14. To trust myself and not suffer from “Impostor Syndrome”
“I wish I had known to trust myself. Many of the leaders I coach now have the same syndrome that I had – Imposter Syndrome – the fear that the world will find out that I really don’t know anything. The truth is that I did/do know a lot and you do too. It’s those who think they know everything who are circumspect. It is OK to be authentic and a little vulnerable; it engenders trust. And, a team who trusts you will follow you into the unknown where you’ll likely create great things together.”
“The one thing I wish I knew before becoming a Sales Manager was that when it comes to managing people, people don’t care what you know until they know you care. I have coached many new sales leaders to get to know their salespeople before they begin talking business or trying to tell them what they would do.”
“I perceived that sales leadership was a very complex task, so I tried to explore and navigate every possible course of action. In reality, leading a sales force is all about finding simplicity. Identify the few things that really drive sales performance, and then hammer those things hard from every possible angle. If you wade into the complexities of sales leadership, you’ll drown.”
“I wish I knew that I had to understand that the separation between the ideology of church and state is a real thing as a manager. When I was an SDR, I developed friendships with people on the SDR team and when I became a manager everything had to change. You have to realize as a manager that once you come into work, it’s like you putting on your jersey during a game and your reps cannot be seen as your friends when you have to put your manager hat on.”
“The first time I built a sales team I made 3 faulty assumptions that almost cost me my company: 1) I assumed that salespeople knew how to sell because they had sold something for someone else. 2) I assumed that salespeople have discipline and are disciplined. 3) I assumed that a CRM system would help us sell better as a team. My conclusion and advice: design an informative and actionable sales process that is easy for salespeople to learn and execute. Make it the vehicle for sales methodology, enablement content, performance tracking and coaching. Then improve it!”
“Many Sales Managers make a mistake in assuming sales reps are coin operated, and that therefore the most important parts of motivating a sales team are the compensation plan’s size and structure. Although those are important, salespeople are much more complex, and there are things you can do to motivate them on a deeper and more sustainable level. Help your team understand the big picture. A sales rep should be able to connect the dollar they earn to the company’s ability to produce a better version of the product they’re selling. This can be more motivating than just the cash in their pocket alone.”
“When I was a sales rep, I once worked for a micro-manager—and hated it! I resolved never to be that way myself if became a sales manager. Years later, as a Sales Manager, I got confidential feedback from my sales team about my management style. Sure enough, the overwhelming perception was “Hey, Kevin’s not involved enough in our opportunities and our coaching. I realized then that I had over-corrected. And because I did little coaching, I wasn’t helping my team develop. Though I’d had the job title “Sales Manager” for over three years at that point, that was the moment I truly became a Sales Manager.”
“Your time is not your own! I’m not sure what I was expecting when I first moved from an individual contributor to a Sales Manager, but I was surprised at how much time was required to manage and lead a team. My calendar was suddenly full of meetings, 1:1’s, customer calls and coaching sessions. And for a while I felt a bit out of control. One skill I had to work on was time management and prioritization. Sometimes I miss the days when my time was truly my own, but I wouldn’t trade the privilege of working with a team for any amount of hours back in my day.”
22. To understand the uniqueness of each person on my team
“One Size Does NOT Fit All. You need to understand the uniqueness of each individual on your team. It sounds obvious, but as a young leader you try and apply a one size fits all approach. The key is to take the time to know what motivates each member of your sales team and what demotivates them. Having this understanding means you can play to their strengths. This allows you to adapt your coaching, training and feedback in a manner that gets results.”
“It was one thing to be 100% responsible for achieving my numbers as a rep and totally foreign to achieve my new numbers through 20 people as the manager. My first biggest “ah-ha” was they didn’t sell how I did, think like I did, have the same goals or methodologies and they were certainly not interested in hearing how I did it. Because of my teaching background I immediately realized I needed to coach each person to be the best that they could be in the way they learn, process, speak and execute actions. A few months of building a great team could have been shaved off if I had known coaching was the key before day one.”
“To lead your sales team to perform, treat them like you treat your customers! For customers – you make the time when they need it, lead them to the best outcome, explain everything relevant to them, offer information, solutions, tools, and resources relevant for THEM, and make it easy for them to work with you. It’s the same for your team. Get them what they need to succeed (it’s not just leads and software), make the time to coach, and make everything you say, do, ask, and expect focused on what makes it important to them. You’ll be an effective leader with a performing team.”
“What I wish I learned earlier in my career is how you need to make a sales rep’s life simpler. Selling, especially in B2B, is a tough job. Navigating byzantine internal bureaucracies while at the same time maneuvering complex customer buying processes is challenging. If you absorb as much of that complexity as possible, it makes it much easier for sales reps to close business. Whenever possible simplify processes, products, messaging and asset distribution to enable a rep to focus on selling.”
“Anyone with a career in sales has heard the stereotypes that salespeople are coin operated and competitive. Understanding that there is definitely truth to these, I have always paid close attention to how sales people are being paid because it is directly tied to what they will actually do. Therefore, sales comp plans MUST be aligned to the results the company wants to achieve. As an old boss/mentor of mine once told me, they must be simple enough to pass the spouse test. So any spouse that looked at it would instantly understand how their spouse is being paid. In regards to competition, mostly all sales reps use it appropriately as a little bit of healthy competition, which never hurt anyone and can be just added driver to achieve greater results.”
“Recruiting is hard, not only because it is a totally different skill set and process than sales. It also requires an even bigger focus on a long term mindset. On top of that, your legacy as a manager won’t be the number you hit but who and how you developed the team. I would have spent far more time being involved in the recruiting process prior to being a hiring manager myself.”
28. To use programs to set up sales contests and broadcast sales results frequently
“One of the things I wish I’d done earlier is use a program like Zoho Motivator. It plugs into our CRM so it’s always up to date and makes it easy to give the sales team daily contest results and tie 1st place to a prize. I have always communicated targets but never publically broadcast results with regularity or frequency. With Zoho Motivator, I set up the contest in the beginning of the month and it runs on autopilot. I think good sales people tend to be competitive and seeing team member results regularly will either light a fire under someone driven or highlight the duds on the team.”
“Of course you want to stay on top of everything, but there’s a different between being updated on a project and hovering over your employees. When you micromanage, your sales team feels smothered and unappreciated. Instead, give your employees ownership of their work to let their talents shine. Productivity will improve dramatically.”
Put these 28 tips to use and visit the Peak Sales Career Blog for the latest actionable insights on how to advance your sales career.
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Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Technology and data analytics are a critical advantage for human resource leaders that are committed to building and maintaining a high performance sales force.
Recruiting A-players, the most important sales force effectiveness driver, is quickly moving up the priority list for sales leaders – 41% express dissatisfaction with their current sales force, saying they weren’t able to effectively sell value. Yet with strong indicators that US and global marketplaces will be healthy in 2017 and beyond, corporate leaders have set aggressive sales and growth targets. This has put increased pressure on Heads of Sales to critically evaluate resources — specifically human capital resources — that are vital to making the number and advancing the organization. With more than 40% of employers reporting talent shortages in 2017 (revealing a 10% increase since 2010), and Baby Boomer retirement contributing to a declining population of proven salespeople, human resources (HR) is being counted on to fill the sales force with top talent.
Companies that embrace new technologies to support recruiting and other critical HR responsibilities will find a better breed of salesperson, improve diversity, and reduce hiring costs.
In this article we’ll look at how technology, such as data analytics, professional networking sites, and hiring software, are improving HR leaders’ ability to sales recruit.
We’ll focus on three areas:
1. Helping companies source better candidates;
2. Sifting through resumes at scale with more accuracy and less bias; and
3. Choosing candidates that match the attributes of top performers.
Human resources has been slower to adopt tech and data analytics than other business functions, such as customer acquisition, customer retention, and finance. But the shift is happening. 57% of business and HR executives polled by Harvard Business Review in March 2016 currently use new recruiting technologies, while 32% are planning to implement them.
Let’s look at real-world examples of how companies recruit better salespeople through the use of new technologies, platforms, and analytical models. We’ll start at the beginning: sourcing candidates.
Sourcing candidates: Using social networks to expand the pool, then pinpoint the best talent
Social professional networks and the internet give human resource leaders access to an unprecedented number of candidates. They also shift the candidate pool to a higher-quality population. Where talent acquisition efforts may have once only focused on industry or location, online networks readily surface salespeople in other cities and enable more cross-pollination from different industries and job functions.
These sites work. A study of 4,000 companies in 31 countries reported that 43% of companies cite social professional networks as a top source of quality hires, putting it in the number one spot above internet job boards and employee referrals.
Social professional networks are especially important when hiring salespeople because they make it possible to find and contact passive candidates at scale. Passive recruiting is the practice of contacting talent this currently employed and
performing well at their current companies. It gives recruiters access to the people who very well might be the best salespeople in the industry: those who are actively delivering results at their employers. As McKinsey analysts explain in the 2016 report Connecting Talent with Opportunity in the Digital Age, “companies are no longer limited to posting a job and waiting to see who responds … They can seek out the talent they want, even if those individuals are not actively job hunting, and then approach any number of prospective candidates in an immediate but personalized way.”
The passive candidate population is too big to ignore. According to research by the Adler Group and LinkedIn, approximately 65-75% of LinkedIn members are passive candidates and 15-20% are “Tiptoers” who are gainfully employed but casually looking for another job. So if HR waits for candidates to drop their resumes at the door, they will only see the active job seekers that make up 5-20% of the talent market.
If talent acquisitions efforts can bring more candidates through the door, the ability to retain that talent is critical.
LinkedIn data shows that employees sourced from online platforms are eight times more likely to stay with their employer for over 2 years, and are 11 percent more satisfied in their jobs than they were in their previous positions.
Why?
One reason is that social professional networks are a two-way street. Candidates can better select fulfilling roles by researching the profiles of current and former employees, anonymous reviews about the employer, and salary information. Options abound online, including job matching sites such as TheLadders, review platforms such as Glassdoor and Vault, and, of course, LinkedIn.
Tech platforms also give standout candidates a voice to showcase their merits.
Before the age of the open web, a candidate only had an 8×11″ sheet of paper to communicate their achievements. Now there are myriad ways for a salesperson to publish their track records and personal stories. Sales reps and sales leaders can curate their own websites and portfolios, represent their views on Twitter, and write thought leadership articles for industry publications or on Medium. It’s easier for human resource professionals to spot top voices in the community, or at least find more material to help them vet applicants.
This practice has room to grow in the sales function, but is well developed in engineer and developer communities. Sites like GitHub (an open-source code repository) and HackerRank (which lets programmers solve code challenges) make it easy for recruiters to spot and contact the best developers from around the world. In fact, a data tech company called Gild has developed a product to do this automatically. Read more: A Startup That Scores Job Seekers, Whether They Know It or Not.
Resume screening: Using tech to be a better gatekeeper
Technology can reduce the time and cost of initial candidate screenings, as well as human bias.
Where humans once suffered paper cuts from reading stacks of physical resumes, algorithms now slice and dice as many applicants as a company needs to review. If companies are expanding their talent pools with more professional networking sites, it’s critical to sort through the noise by filtering search results and candidate pools by desired experiences, skills, selling results and qualifications.
One can question whether it’s wise to trust an algorithm to make decisions about who to let through a company’s gates. After all, wouldn’t humans have a better read on the intangible qualities of a top performer? And can a machine deliver on recruiting standards while increasing employee diversity?
It turns out that algorithms may do a better job than humans when sorting candidates, both from a performance perspective and from a bias perspective. Companies that embrace automated resume screening systems outperform their human review processes by at least 25%, resulting in better outcomes and more diversity. This finding comes from researchers from the University of Minnesota who reviewed 17 studies of companies and academic institutions that backtested their applicant evaluation algorithms and compared them to their traditional methods.
Here’s a real-world example of this from a professional services company that struggled keep up with screening the 250,000 job applications it received per year.
To lighten the load, they introduced a resume screening algorithm that mined for education and work experience and considered the history of the company’s past applicants, extended offers, and accepted offers. The tool sorted resumes into 3 groups: most likely to be hired, least likely to be hired, and in-between applicants that needed the attention of a human recruiter. The intent was to reduce time and cost for the HR team, but there were concerns that a machine would interfere with the company’s goals to hire more women.
The algorithm delivered a 500% return on investment in terms of cost savings.
It sorted away 55% of the resumes, either into the “least likely to be hired” pool (where they were automatically rejected), and the “most likely to be hired” pool (where they automatically went on to the next stage).
Moreover, it improved the female hiring initiative. The system passed 15% more women than manual screenings did, and all of them on merit. “The foundational assumption—that screening conducted by humans would increase gender diversity more effectively—was proved incorrect.”
Google also uses a systematic, data-driven approach to reduce bias in resume screening. They analyze employee profiles that lead to success at Google, and use the insights to reassess candidates they are about to reject. This helps them identify potential false negatives, helping them catch excellent hires they would otherwise pass over.
In a similar exercise, an Asian bank challenged their hiring assumptions by taking a closer look at the backgrounds of their top performers:
“Whereas the bank had always thought top talent came from top academic programs, for example, hard analysis revealed that the most effective employees came from a wider variety of institutions, including five specific universities and an additional three certification programs. An observable correlation was evident between certain employees who were regarded as “top performers” and those who had worked in previous roles, indicating that specific positions could serve as feeders for future highfliers.
Both of these findings have since been applied in how the bank recruits, measures performance, and matches people to roles.
The results: a 26 percent increase in branch productivity (as measured by the number of full-time employees needed to support revenue) and a rate of conversion of new recruits 80 percent higher than before the changes were put in place. During the same period, net income also rose by 14 percent.
Hiring: Select the Future Top Performers
“Big data can help me predict who will be a successful employee,” says Anne Robie, Head of Human Resources at StubHub.
/three-reasons-More and more, companies are using rigorous, systematic processes and tests to evaluate candidates after the resume screen. Why? Because hiring based on structured measures is more objective, accurate, cost-effective, and scalable than hiring on gut feel.
This is particularly true for the sales profession, where charismatic personalities often sway an interviewer. We’ve found that companies get the best results when they complement behavioral-based interviewing techniques by testing for a candidate’s Sales DNA using psychometric assessments. Sales DNA is a specific mix of skills and aptitudes that make a person uniquely suited for success as a salesperson, and is a better predictor of success than a resume with the right industry experience.
This is why world-class HR organizations are adopting online tools that test for aptitudes, cultural fit, and even soft skills such as leadership, persistence, and creativity.
A successful example is the Bon-Ton chain of more than 280 US-based department stores, which created a test to evaluate candidates. The test was based on a data analysis that pinpointed the attributes of their best cosmetics sales reps.
“[Bon-Ton] now screens potential reps using a test of cognitive ability, situational judgment, initiative taking, and other relevant traits. Those who score in the top half tend to sell 10 percent more product than the others and tend to like their work more. Since 2008, the chain has seen an increase of $1,400 in sales per representative and 25 percent lower turnover among them.”
Similarly, Xerox implemented a 30-minute online test using a hiring analytics startup, Evolv. Their goal was to reduce new-hire attrition, which had been an incredible expense for the company. The test successfully reduced attrition and even improved the productivity of call center agents by 3 to 4 percent.
Algorithms are HR’s friend, but data experts from KU Leuven in Belgium remind us that human discretion is critical and keeps algorithms sharp. Even the best algorithmic models operate in a constantly changing organization and market environment, and their average lifespan is an estimated 2 to 3 years based on benchmarks in customer analytics. So HR needs to monitor pre-hire effectiveness (which recruiting channels deliver candidates with the right profile, for example) and post-hire effectiveness (which recruiting channels provide the best candidates), then adjust the algorithm as soon as they see a dip in performance.
Technology and data: The new backbone of sales recruiting
Humans with HR titles aren’t going away. Rather, technology and data analytics are here to empower talent leaders to do their best work. When tech does the heavy lifting, HR has the latitude to apply their time more effectively. These systems also push us to reconsider our innate biases and traditional hiring criteria, resulting in more equitable hiring processes.
Professional networks, screening algorithms, evaluation tests, and the web at large are the emerging standard for recruitment. HR leaders that embrace them will take a seat at the table as indispensable strategic partners in their organizations.
Appendix
Companies that want to explore new recruiting technologies can start with the McKinsey Global Institute’s collection of emerging and established online talent platforms.
me what the culture is like, and then they try to figure out if it’s an environment that they would enjoy and thrive in.
Don’t be shy about asking people to say a few nice words about you. The most sure-fire way to have people trust you, is by seeing that their friends already trust you. Most of the time people are happy to write a few words for you, if you do the same for them.
Now, look ahead . You’ve hired the candidate, provided necessary training, and have allowed sufficient time to onboard and ramp up.
For example, under federal and state laws, it is illegal to discriminate against a candidate based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, and age.
Another area to avoid is making promises or guarantees in an interview. Interviewers may say things like “permanent position” or “job security”, which causes the candidate to hold them accountable for said statements. These candidates can then claim a 
By asking behavioral questions, the candidate is offering details about their past success, which is used to measure their potential success in the new role. Position these questions in a way that requires them to provide an example to support their claims.
Typically at the 
Leniency/ Strictness Bias occurs when people differ in how they evaluate people. One interviewer may be harder on candidates than other interviewers.
When forming conclusions about an individual, 
To effectively determine which candidates to eliminate, hiring managers need to quantify their interview results – which they can do by using the sales interview template at the end of this guide.
Research has shown that only 
Why does this matter?
The key is to customize your interview approach – using a sales interview template – for individual roles to ensure all skills, experience, and competency requirements are met.
To find these top performers faster, you need to incorporate quantitative and objective candidate assessment tools into your recruiting process. 
With executives admitting to making the wrong hiring decision 25 percent of the time, additional steps must be taken to ensure only the highest quality salespeople are hired. 
But the task of objectively evaluating the performance potential of a candidate poses unique challenges for Human Resources (HR) Leaders due to 
It’s common for companies to leverage their market experience when making sales hiring decisions. This decision involves using gut feeling, which is a subjective and emotional form of assessment. It is often used to examine candidates and find similar qualities to their other top performers. However, using gut feeling to find these similar qualities results in identifying similar emotional traits based on bias, versus identifying objective, skill-based qualities. 
An organization who successfully focused their efforts into only bringing in the greatest talent is Instagram. In 
Experts agree that measuring quality of hire is needed both pre and post-hire. Since recruitment quality measures directly correlate with post-hire performance metrics, sales assessment tests used pre-hire aid in determining quality of hire measurements post-hire. 
Keep in mind the assessment results you receive from candidates should account for 20 percent of your overall hiring decision. Your decision should also include data from their application, resume, in-person interview, reference checks, etc.
This concept refers to people’s ability to harbor bias outside of their awareness or control. 
To further see what kind of unintentional biases you harbor, 
2. Candidates spend 20 minutes playing a series of 12 games. These games give Unilever insight into different capabilities, including personality, communication style, and problem-solving. After completing these games, candidates get a report with feedback within 48 hours.
and final step in the process. 
