{"id":1472,"date":"2008-03-17T13:00:33","date_gmt":"2008-03-17T18:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/03\/candidates-that-do-not-wow\/"},"modified":"2008-03-17T15:20:42","modified_gmt":"2008-03-17T20:20:42","slug":"candidates-that-do-not-wow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/03\/candidates-that-do-not-wow\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidates That Do Not Wow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#000000\">We&#8217;ve been on this topic a bit lately, but it is mission-critical to successful selling.\u00a0 Asking questions&#8230;asking the <em>right<\/em> questions is tantamount to qualifying prospects.\u00a0 Most sales managers know this, yet we often see them displaying selective amnesia when it comes to interviewing sales candidates.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#000000\">Case in point:\u00a0 Lee often observes sales managers who are underwhelmed with a candidate because the candidate didn&#8217;t &#8220;wow&#8221; them.\u00a0 That&#8217;s understandable, but many times the manager isn&#8217;t wowed because the candidate is qualifying the opportunity instead of spewing feature\/benefits.\u00a0 It is at this point that Lee has to mention the different questions that the candidate asked in their responses and the information that candidate gathered in the interview.\u00a0 What ends up happening is that the sales manager is answering questions and doesn&#8217;t pay as much attention to the question pattern of the candidate.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#000000\">After the manager recounts the questions, they tend to be impressed with the candidate&#8217;s subtle ability.\u00a0 Clearly there is more to it than just asking questions. Candidates need to be able to use the information they gather in an effective manner otherwise it is all for naught.\u00a0 Yet, success starts with their questioning ability.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#000000\">ManageSmarter.com offers a strong article titled <\/font><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.managesmarter.com\/msg\/content_display\/sales\/e3ic999a42f15268674f1a04009b706a341\"><font color=\"#000000\">Three Mistakes Every Sales Rep Makes Every Day<\/font><\/a><font color=\"#000000\">.\u00a0 From Mistake #2:<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><font color=\"#000000\">Prospects and clients share one commonality across all industries: they have a problem (or they wouldn&#8217;t be talking to you) and they are looking for help (a solution to that problem). The key to identifying a prospect&#8217;s &#8220;pain&#8221; is questions, questions and more questions. Going into a sales call\/presentation, a customer\/prospect expects the &#8220;pitch&#8221;\u2014they expect that you will try and sell them on your product\/service. What most don&#8217;t expect\u2014and what separates the No.1 rep from the No. 10\u2014is that you have a vested interest in not only their company&#8217;s success, but also their personal success. Prospects and clients love to talk about their company and its successes\/struggles; you just have to open the door.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><font color=\"#000000\">Perfect.\u00a0 The personal success point is an important distinction within the paragraph.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve been on this topic a bit lately, but it is mission-critical to successful selling.\u00a0 Asking questions&#8230;asking the right questions is tantamount to qualifying prospects.\u00a0 Most sales managers know this, yet we often see them displaying selective amnesia when it comes to interviewing sales candidates. Case in point:\u00a0 Lee often observes sales managers who are underwhelmed with a candidate because the candidate didn&#8217;t &#8220;wow&#8221; them.\u00a0 That&#8217;s understandable, but many times the manager isn&#8217;t wowed because the candidate is qualifying the opportunity instead of spewing feature\/benefits.\u00a0 It is at this point that Lee has to mention the different questions that the candidate asked in their responses and the information that candidate&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/03\/candidates-that-do-not-wow\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,9],"tags":[47,446,149,142],"class_list":["post-1472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiring-salespeople","category-sales-techniques","tag-sales-candidates","tag-sales-interview","tag-sales-question","tag-sales-technique"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-nK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1067,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/07\/what-does-success-look-like\/","url_meta":{"origin":1472,"position":0},"title":"What Does Success Look Like?","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"July 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week, myself and the President of one of our customers interviewed a sales candidate. We purposely put the candidate through an extensive interview to observe his ability to handle a lengthy discussion (similar to our customer's typical call). After putting him through the paces, we gave him the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2230,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2010\/01\/interview-myths\/","url_meta":{"origin":1472,"position":1},"title":"Interview Myths","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This article from Yahoo\u2019s Hot Jobs contains 5 hiring myths designed to help candidates perform better in an interview.\u00a0 Myth #1 is excellent for the hiring manager: Myth #1: Be prepared with a list of questions to ask at the close of the interview. There is some truth in this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":440,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/11\/candidate-questions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1472,"position":2},"title":"Candidate Questions","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"November 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We always say that interviewing is a two-way street. Both the hiring company and the candidate have to be impressed with each other to continue the process. Either one can terminate the process at any time. That being said, BusinessWeek has an interesting article dedicated to candidates titled Ask The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2289,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2010\/03\/hiring-like-a-detective\/","url_meta":{"origin":1472,"position":3},"title":"Hiring Like A Detective","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, the title is a bit quirky, but it is true.\u00a0 A significant portion of successful hiring involves being a good detective.\u00a0 I have always taken that approach when helping our customers find the right salesperson for their position.\u00a0 To be a good detective, you need to be a bit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1545,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/3-sales-hiring-inhibitors\/","url_meta":{"origin":1472,"position":4},"title":"3 Sales Hiring Inhibitors","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Even bad salespeople can appear to be strong in a face-to-face interview situation.\u00a0 This reason is why sales recruiting is truly different than any other form of recruiting.\u00a0 Reviewing resumes and assuming abilities is is a fool's errand.\u00a0 Yet, there are certain aspects of general recruiting that can that hinder\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2354,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2010\/06\/social-skills-vs-sales-skills\/","url_meta":{"origin":1472,"position":5},"title":"Social Skills vs. Sales Skills","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"If you\u2019re talking you\u2019re not selling.\u00a0 That is an old axiom I learned early in my sales career and it is always true.\u00a0 Talking does not equal selling. Unfortunately, people not experienced in sales hiring often have the opposite view.\u00a0 Their stereotypical belief is that the best salespeople are the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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