The Sales Interviewing Question

I have interviewed a lot of sales people over the past 5 years. And something remarkable occurs in each interview: the sales candidate sells him or herself pretty well.

Until ......

I ask these series of questions:

1. Tell me how you structure your day.

This little question is like a major "Duh" to some of the people I have asked. What do you mean by, "structure my day?" is the unspoken reply. But perhaps more interestingly the sales candidate goes on and answers something they have no clue of what I mean.

What I mean by this question is: Tell me how you block out time to do the important things that are critical to the success of your role as a sales person. For example: what time do you block out for doing appointment setting? And if you block out this time, how did you come to realize that this time was the right time? Was it your best moment of the day? Or did you find through trial and error that this was the best time to reach prospective clients?

Interesting questions. People who are very good at whatever they do, BLOCK OUT time to get the important things done. They realize it is not the urgent but the important that is critical to the success of their job. This is especially true for sales people. People get caught up in other people's dramas and events and crisises that there is no time to do what they were hired to do.

My advice: Find a sales person who is obsessed with time management.

2. What books have you read on sales lately? (How about ever??????)

Do you know I have found sales people who prefer to "wing it"? They say, "I don't need to learn how to sell. I know people. And I can sell." It is amazing how many people prefer not to read about how to be better at their craft. What if you went to a doctor or lawyer who said, "I don't need to learn how to be better at surgery" or the lawyer who says, "I don't need to learn how to be more persuasive in court." WHAT????? Are you KIDDING me?????

3. The best sales people ask me this question, one that led me leave the company where I was hired to do a start-up: "How does marketing (or your company) help generate leads?"

Wow. A powerful question. If your company is not actively out trying to generate leads, then the company is on the verge of revenue generation issues. You see, the time of the sales person is TOO VALUABLE to have to sort through the list of prospective clients and figure out which potentially viable client is better than another. This is MARKETING'S JOB!!!! The sales person is too expensive to be sorting through low potential prospects in order to find the most likely candidate. As a sales condidate - you should expect your employing company to have a target set of companies and define who in the company is the likely buyer, who are the likely influencers and what the value proposition to each of these buyers is. In addition, there should be marketing materials all centered around those buyers and the results driven in companies similar to them.

If you get asked the third question, and you have a weak answer, and the sales candidate still wants the job, question the sales candidate's capabilities and real reason for wanting to join you.

More importantly, ask yourself, if you don't have a good clear answer and process of gaining access to these companies and individuals - why you are in the current position and instead don't go running for the hills.

That's my story for today.