Julia Weeks
When hiring sales talent, there are 3 interview tools that you should be incorporating into your interview process. These 3 tools will help you to make the right hiring decision.
1. Video Interviews
Since your sales reps will be in front of your existing and potential customers, you want to make sure they have a friendly and outgoing personality. Video interviews are an excellent and easy way to determine this.
A one-way interview will allow you to see this first hand when utilizing it in the initial selection stages. As you are reviewing applications, decide who you believe has the most potential. Then, send them a request to complete the one-way interview. The candidates will respond via video to questions that you selected. Once the candidate has submitted his or her responses, you will be able to review and decide if you would like to take it to the next step, which would be a live interview.
The live interview is essential, as it will allow you to converse with the candidate, while getting a better feel for attitude and personality and also allowing the candidate the opportunity to obtain a better understanding of your personality and culture. Additionally, some platforms give you the ability to record this live interview. This is very helpful because it will enable you to revisit the interview if you have forgotten how the candidate responded to one of your questions.
2. Sales Assessments
There are many different sales assessments offered to businesses today. These assessments are typically completed online, asking a series of questions that the candidate responds to in multiple choice format. The assessments will test for the most likely and least likely behaviors you would see from the candidate, such as if the candidate has more of a hunter or farmer sales tendency.
These assessments can be valuable, but must be taken into consideration with the candidate’s experience and training.
3. Personality Assessments
Personality assessments seem to be gaining popularity in the business world these days. It is not simply enough that businesses hire for skill anymore. Businesses must also factor in cultural and environmental fit when considering candidates. Many personality assessments will help to answer any questions you may have had throughout the interview process regarding a candidate’s tendencies and behaviors. If your culture is relaxed with out of the box thinkers, you may not want to hire someone who works best in a structured and heavily process oriented environment.
Much like sales assessments, personality assessments can be valuable, but must be taken into consideration with the candidate’s previously worked environments and experience.
Do you have experience with any of these tools when interviewing for sales talent? Please share your experiences in the comments below.
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