A cheat sheet from monster.com that is fairly comprehensive. These tips and prep questions are all excellent from the candidate side of the equation. These items become more troublesome when hiring salespeople. Even bad salespeople have some rapport-building ability that they incorporate into the interview process.
There isn’t a hiring manager alive who doesn’t have a sales hiring mistake. We hear story after story about how good a candidate looked in the interview. The story continues with unique stories of different baggage. Some examples:
salesperson wouldn’t make calls in their cubicle – they had to go in the conference room
salesperson thought the support staff was completely dedicated to them
salesperson (in a software sale) did not know how to use any office software products
salesperson spent more money on their expense report than closed sales
You get the idea. Hiring salespeople based on resumes and interviews is like gambling on roulette – the odds are against you. There is a process that allows you to know the candidate better than you know some existing salespeople on your team.