This is the third and final article in a series of three blog posts about hiring and retaining top sales talent. In the first two articles, we covered defining your sales candidate ideal profile, establishing your company’s hiring standards, and building a robust candidate pipeline. Now we will focus on how to screen and phone interview the right candidates to increase your success at hiring and retaining top sales talent.
Using a Pre-Hire Sales Assessment is a Must
For consistent success, you must evaluate all candidates using a sales candidate pre-hire screen before the interview. Many companies pick and choose which candidates to evaluate. Sometimes, if the candidate has come highly recommended or has a great sales pedigree, or if a placement firm has recommended them, the company may choose not to evaluate. This is a mistake. Evaluating candidates before you interview has several benefits:
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The sales evaluation we recommend is by Objective Management Group and tells you if the candidate is hirable or not (with 95% predictive validity). If they are not hirable, then there is no need for an interview.
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Evaluating prior to interviewing helps you pinpoint your interview questions based on information that you won’t find in the resume. This allows you to conduct a better, more informative interview.
How the Sales Interview Process Begins
As you begin your phone screening process, consider how much time your salespeople normally spend on the phone for either prospecting or selling. It’s important to have a clear idea of how important phone skills are to their success. If effective phone skills are critical, then evaluating a candidate’s ability on the phone must be part of your screening process.
When a candidate’s resume is received, the recruiting coordinator should contact the potential candidate, let them know that the first step is a phone interview, and schedule it. Keep this same process even if you meet a potential candidate in person. Give their information to the recruiting coordinator and let them follow the same, consistent process.
Conducting the Initial Phone Interview
Consider the challenges your salespeople regularly face when making phone calls. Recreate this same environment for your candidate. If your salespeople must get past gatekeepers to reach decision-makers, then make candidates do the same.
The best way to implement this is to email candidates after interviews are scheduled. Instruct them to contact you as if they are making a prospecting call. Their goal is to get past your gatekeeper and reach you. Instruct your gatekeeper to make this somewhat difficult but to eventually let them through if they are persistent. After each interview, ask how the candidate approached your gatekeeper.
Once you begin the phone interview, treat the candidate as if they are a typical salesperson trying to sell you something. Be brief. Be abrupt. Ask questions. Challenge each candidate. Make them sell you on why they should be considered for a face-to-face interview.
There are three factors that determine whether the candidate will progress to a face-to-face interview. Ask yourself if the candidate:
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Attempted to control the interview
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Asked questions
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“Closed” for the face-to-face interview
Did the candidate take control of the interview by slowing it down and establishing rapport? Did they get flustered when answering your questions or intimidated by your demeanor? Look for a salesperson who can handle pressure and have a conversation—not one who simply answers questions.
Did the candidate ask good questions to uncover what you are looking for, what it takes to be successful, and what’s needed to move to the next step? Don’t get too hung up on the exact questions asked. This interview reflects how they will perform on actual sales calls.
As you finish the interview, instruct the candidate about the next step and let them know that, if they qualify, someone will follow up. This mirrors the common “think-it-over” response from a prospect. If the candidate doesn’t try to close you at this point, they probably won’t try to close a prospect either.
Conclusion
In this series on hiring and retaining top sales talent, we’ve looked at three steps that are key to building an exceptional sales force that will help drive consistent sales growth:
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Prepare: Establish the right candidate profile for your specific situation. Use this standard to compare. Challenge candidates to meet your expectations.
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Pipeline: Build a pipeline of potential candidates by using time-tested sales prospecting techniques instead of relying solely on internet job boards.
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Screen: Use a properly constructed telephone pre-interview to identify the most qualified candidates for a face-to-face interview and improve your sales interview process.
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