Jill Konrath has a great post about salespeople who come on “like a bull in a china shop” when trying to sell to prospects. Her cure for these salespeople:
You need to create conversations with decision makers. And, there’s only one way to do this. You need to ask questions to engage prospects in a dialogue, then shut up and listen.
I couldn’t agree more. I want to take that point and apply them to sales hiring. We use the entire hiring process to observe the salesperson in action. We particularly observe their question pattern – are they trying to determine how they would sell the company’s value proposition if they were in the role? Or are they simply trying to sell themselves to get on the company payroll?
We value sales candidates who attempt to discover the hiring company’s value proposition, how they go to market and what are the parameters of a typical sale. Pay attention to the dialogue a sales candidate attempts to create with you in the hiring process. Questions, especially sales-focused ones, help to reveal the candidate’s abilities and selling strategy.
Finally, she wraps up her post with this:
If you don’t plan questions ahead of time, you’ll get caught in “premature elaboration.” Before you know it, you can’t stop talking – even though you know better. Your prospects will slowly start backing away to protect themselves from your onslaught.
Now that is the way to turn a phrase . . . I’m still laughing at it.