Sales Skills
- Sales cycle: describe the duration, pricing process and decision-makers involved.
- Quality of results: actual vs. quotas; sales contest/awards won; your rank in sales staff?
- Prospecting experience: # of calls per day/week; # of appointments per week?
- Tell me about your most significant sales accomplishment.
- How would you approach the initial prospecting challenge to build your sales pipeline?
Drive to Achieve
- What motivated you to become a sales person?
- How competitive would your colleagues tell me that you are?
- Tell me about the most difficult goal or objective you have achieved.
Relationship Skills
- If I asked a group of people who know you well to describe your style, what words would they use?
- Tell me about situations where you have had to engage powerful people, like business owners and C-level executives?
Work Ethic
- Earliest work experience – describe the first time that you ever made a buck in your life.
- Tell me about a time when you worked about as hard as you’ve ever worked.
Cognitive Abilities
- Best and worst courses in college (grades)? How hard did you need to study?
- Describe a situation where you had to learn a lot in a short period of time.
Verbal Skills
- In what types of situations do you approach with the most (and least) confidence?
- How comfortable are you working a room full of strangers, say potential clients, if your role was to introduce yourself to as many as possible? What techniques work for you?
Desires (Career Fit)
- Walk me through your work history and include reasons why you left/took each job.
- What’s the optimal location for you to work/live long-term?
- What are your career goals and how do you see this opportunity fitting into your plans?
Compensation Fit
- How comfortable are you with (eventually) a commission based career?
- What’s your starting money expectation to accept a new position?
- What does make a “substantial income” mean to you?
We screen candidates against these key selection criteria.
Sales Skills: Has demonstrated effective sales skills with a record of successful selling in a business-to-business environment; has met or exceeded quotas; understands and applies sound principals of prospecting for new business, including cold calling; supervisors will support claims of sales success and reasons the candidate left their employ.
Drive to Achieve: Has demonstrated motivation to excel; sets high standards for personal performance and works hard to meet them; has strong self-discipline; perseveres and overcomes barriers in achieving goals; bounces back rapidly from discouragements.
Relationship Skills: Enjoys people; mixes well, is sociable and friendly; works well with
everyone; can show concern for the needs of others.
Cognitive Abilities: Skilled in analytical and critical thinking, in problem solving; learns
rapidly.
Work Ethic: Works hard; understands that building a book of business from scratch requires more time devoted to work than many careers, and has demonstrated a willingness to give the time required.
Verbal Skills: Is an engaging conversationalist; listens well; responses to questions are organized and succinct; grammar is correct; conveys enthusiasm.
Desires: Has demonstrated sound rationale behind previous job moves; understands that this position requires a long-term commitment to a career; the career, the firm, the location, and the rewards all meet or exceed the candidate’s desires; they are a good “fit” with what the candidate wants to do and = where he or she wants to do it.
Compensation Fit: Understands and can accept the client’s compensation program;
accepts that the career will be commission based after validation.
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