Selling is a career. Sales can be very rewarding and offers something different every day. Whether you are looking for sales associates, you are one or considering becoming one; take a few minutes and consider these questions.
Hiring someone is easy, finding and hiring the “right” person is more difficult. In my experience, interviewing a sales prospect should be done over two interviews. Only using one interview really doesn’t give you enough time to evaluate a person. The second interview allows you the opportunity to reinforce your instincts and probe deeper. Ask each applicant the same basic questions, but allow yourself the freedom to dig deeper as necessary. Having a second interviewer is useful to have someone watch for subtle reactions, the quiet “tells”, the poise and confidence that the applicant either has or doesn’t have.
Interview #1
- Let’s begin with the standard interview question, tell us about yourself? Ideally, the prospect should talk for two to three minutes about how their life experiences will help them to be a great sales associate for your organization.
2. Why are you interested in sales as a career? Can they articulate why they want this lifestyle?
Things to look for:
- Money as a motivating factor, as a general note, a commission sales associate should be the principal breadwinner in their home
- Skills that they have previous jobs would help and influence them: poise and composure, friendliness, interest in your products and services, they have friends or family in “the industry.”
- The enjoy people and helping people solve their problems
3. How do you feel about working evenings, Saturday’s and Sunday’s? In retail, few people become sales associates for the hours. Evenings and weekends are part of the career. Other industries might rely on extensive travel and have long periods away from home. The demands of selling can be difficult on families and cross boundaries into favourite activities, such as sports. Rarely is sales a 9-5 job.
4. What do you know about our company? How much preparation did the applicant do prior to the interview? For a 20 minutes interview, a sales prospect should do at least that much prep-time.
5. Why do you want to work for us? The applicant has applied, they have gotten an interview, presumably, they have prepared, and they should be able to list 3 or 4 reasons to answer this question.
6. What do you do to relax? Despite the hours that a career in selling entails, the ability to stay balanced is a key to longevity and success.
7. What have you done as part of a team or an organization in the past 24 months? Are they a joiner or a loner? Would they bring new clients to your organization because of their relationships?
8. What would you bring to our company? What can you do for our company rather than what can we do for you? Think of the attributes that a good sales person has:
- Experience
- Skills
- Attitude
9. Have you ever purchased anything from us? What did you like about the experience? What did you not like about it? Their answer will provide more insight into their personality and character.
10. Do you purchase extended service plans? It is important to understand why or why not. Have they done any research into good or bad service plans? Most sales organizations have some type of “Value-added products.”
11. Is there anything that concerns you about sales as a career? Have they thought about the pitfalls: slow days, budgeting money, daycare, travel, the pressure to succeed, straight commission. It is always good to deal with their concerns early.
12. How do you feel about working in a competitive environment? Most sales people are somewhat competitive and that is not a bad thing as long as it is properly managed. You don’t need any sharks but you don’t want any guppies either.
13. Can you give us one or two examples of how you have dealt with frustrating situations in your previous work experience? How will they fit in, no workplace is perfect, but someone who can deal effectively with the challenges is always an asset?
14. What would your last employer say about you? Reliable, Honest, Trustworthy, Hard charger would be good adjectives.
15. What would your references say your greatest weakness might be? Tell us why we should not hire you, it always surprises me how many people we say the most horrible things about themselves.
16. What have you done to improve your skills in the past 12 months? This question gives you great Insight into their character and how dedicated they are to changing with their marketplace. I always find it amazing how many people have done nothing to upgrade their skills … don’t hire them, look for someone who has.
17. Do you have any questions for us? You will notice to this point, the job itself has not been discussed. This interview is about learning about the applicant, now is the opportunity to see how comfortable they are about asking questions, which is a key component of selling. At the very least, the applicant should ask:
- When are you making a decision?
- What are the benefits?
- What kind of uniform/dress code do you have?
- Can you tell me about the job and the training?
- Can you tell me about the commission?
- Is there a draw?
- How often are we paid?
- If the applicant doesn’t have any questions, they don’t get a second interview.
The first interview is longer than the second on purpose. From all of the applicants, select between 5 and 8 people for the first interview. For the second interview select 3 or 4 prospects.
Second Interview
Why do a second interview? Doing a second interview allows you a chance to confirm your opinions of the first interview as well as giving you a second opportunity to ensure that the “fit” is good. Hiring new associates is expensive, time-consuming, and the extra 20-30 minutes for second interview dramatically improves your chances of finding the right person(s).
- For review, please outline your career thus far. This is a great opportunity for the applicant to show you what they learned from the first interview. Not only are you learning about them, they are learning about your organization, this question allows them to tailor their response to what you are looking for … see if they take advantage of the chance.
2. Please walk us through your “sales process” with a customer from start to finish. Sales associates have received various levels of training in their career; this is a good opportunity to find out what they recall, what they use, and what gaps you may have to train through.
3. What kinds of training have you done on your own to improve your selling ability? A good sales associate will apply their organization’s training, a great sales associate will seek out training on their own through Product knowledge training, reading trade publications etc., and/or e-learning.
4. How do you feel about doing “extras”? The extras include things like attending extra training offsite, internal e-learning, competitive shopping, working extra hours when there is a sales event. Sales, trade-shows, and other events come with the territory and it is important to have a prospect understand that this is part of the job.
5. What is it about your personality that makes you ideally suited to be in sales? Personality and charisma can be helpful but that needs to be balanced by solid skills. The applicant should mention their ability to “listen” as part of their answer.
6. What didn’t you like about your last job? Or your current job? How willing are they to blast former employers? Are they team players or gossips? Will they live up to the standards of our staff? This is another good chemistry/culture question.
7. Would people describe you as an “up” person and could you explain? Look for prospects who are “self-motivating” rather than people who need “to have their tires pumped up” all the time.
8. Describe the best way to keep customers up to date on their orders? A key competitive advantage for your organization is to stay “on top” of customer expectations, too many weak sales associates miss this step in the sales process.
9. Some believe sales is all about personality. Attention to detail is just as important. Can you give us one or two examples of how you have used your “attention to detail” to increase your sales? Some industry people have argued with me about this question; however, in my experience some of the very best sales people were also the most attentive for their customer’s needs.
10. Do you have any questions for us? As with the first interview, if the person does not have any questions, you should not hire them.
11. Of the things you have done in your career, what are you the most proud of? The answer to this question will give you more insight into their character and into what their motivation for working is.
12. Why should we hire you? For the applicant, this is their opportunity to close the sale. Their 3- or 4-minute-long answer should encompass many of the key points that they have learned about your organization for your questions.
Many of these questions are generic and can be used in a variety of industries and for all kinds of sales associates. Build your questions to match what you are looking for in a sales associate and to strengthen the culture of your company. After each new hire, I would always “tweak” the questions with my associates, finding the right people is just like selling, it is part science and part craft.
Good luck,