“Does the salesperson know our products well enough?”
That’s often the first question most businesses ask themselves when they’re interviewing a potential salesperson for their organization. However, it’s not quite a good idea. Putting too much emphasis on that question is also one of the biggest sources of high turnover and frustrated sales managers. A successful way to prevent that kind of scenario and to attract sales people you can rely on long-term is to focus on the WHO rather than the WHAT as shown through the following questions: -Does the salesperson have enough willpower to speak to strangers? – Is the salesperson motivated enough to make sales calls? – Ultimately, does the salesperson have the right attitude?
The Right Attitude
When it comes to selling a product or service, attitude always comes first. It’s the most important part of a salesperson’s skill set. A salesperson has to be great with people. A lot of companies make the mistake of focusing so much on a salesperson’s knowledge of their own products or services that they forget to factor the salesperson’s people skills into their hiring decision.
How to Hire for Attitude AND Skill
You want to avoid making that mistake. There’s a hiring process that will help you weed out incompetent salespeople before you spend any time, energy, and thousands of dollars on training them. The main goal of the hiring process is to figure out whether or not the applicants have enough drive and willpower to be successful salespeople. You should include as many obstacles as possible to challenge them before you actually make the hire. The hiring process is made up of four different steps.
Test Them
The first thing you want to do is to get into the salesperson’s heads to uncover whether or not they would fit well into your company. We do that by making the applicants take aptitude or personality tests. We also have them undergo multiple interviews with other people in our organization to see how well they get along with everyone.
Check their LinkedIn Profiles
It’s paramount to any salesperson’s success that LinkedIn is part of his daily routine. That’s why you should always check each salesperson’s LinkedIn profile. If you see a LinkedIn profile with very few connections, the salesperson’s ability to network is questionable. It shows that the salesperson is not doing his job, because connecting with clients via LinkedIn is part of the process of selling a product or service. When you check a salesperson’s LinkedIn profile, you also want to really look at his recent activity to measure how solid his online presence is. If you have a salesperson telling you that he has a huge customer base, the first thing you want to do to verify that claim is to check his LinkedIn profile. Always remember that LinkedIn doesn’t lie.
Call Around
This is a tried-and-true method of uncovering a salesperson’s true colors. Don’t just call references; you should also call all the companies they have worked for in the past. Be sure to get the sales manager on the phone and ask questions to get feedback on whether or not the salesperson has the right attitude for the position you’re looking to fill. The following questions are good ways to begin:
How did they get along with teammates?
Did they do a good job hunting for business?
Were they a good closer?
