{"id":1759,"date":"2008-10-22T08:59:17","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T13:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/10\/tips-for-interviewing-sales-candidates\/"},"modified":"2008-10-22T06:08:56","modified_gmt":"2008-10-22T11:08:56","slug":"tips-for-interviewing-sales-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/10\/tips-for-interviewing-sales-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips For Interviewing Sales Candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Too many times the process of hiring a sales person rarely takes priority in a sales manager’s duties\u00a0– they have enough to do already.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the hiring tasks get pushed to the margins of their day.\u00a0 Any sales manager knows how important it is to hire strong sales people, but it all too often doesn’t get the attention it deserves.\u00a0 Dave Stein has 11 spot-on quick tips<\/a> that can help you set the right priorities and increase your success rate.\u00a0 His tips are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Make sure you know what you are looking for.<\/li>\n
  2. Prepare your questions in advance.<\/li>\n
  3. Remain objective during the interview.<\/li>\n
  4. Trust but verify.<\/li>\n
  5. Don\u2019t lead the candidate.<\/li>\n
  6. Push back.<\/li>\n
  7. Take notes.<\/li>\n
  8. Solicit peoples\u2019 names.<\/li>\n
  9. Deliver powerful messages.<\/li>\n
  10. Practice.<\/li>\n
  11. Give the candidate feedback.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I agree with Dave that it is extremely difficult for people to stay objective during the interview.\u00a0 He makes a great point in that you need to act like a doctor when they are taking your medical history or reading your EKG.\u00a0 Too many times a hiring manager will get emotionally attached to a candidate and lose the objectivity\u00a0needed to make the\u00a0best hiring decision.\u00a0 First impressions are important, but don’t allow that to cloud your judgment and write off what could be a\u00a0strong candidate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    I have been in interviews where the hiring manager didn’t think that a candidate was outgoing enough, made the decision they were not a fit and just went through the motions to fill the remaining time.\u00a0 The candidate did well answering the manager’s questions and then\u00a0the time for the candidate to ask questions arrived.\u00a0 They were prepared with questions to\u00a0discover information about the company and sales department, the challenges it was facing, why the position was open and what the hiring manager was looking for in an ideal\u00a0candidate.\u00a0\u00a0Yet the hiring manager had already made up his mind and determined that the candidate was not the right fit.\u00a0 He had disqualified them.<\/p>\n

    The ability to stay objective and to gather enough information is critical to making a strong hire.\u00a0 Be conscious of quick decisions and do not fall into the trap of prejudging a candidate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Too many times the process of hiring a sales person rarely takes priority in a sales manager’s duties\u00a0– they have enough to do already.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the hiring tasks get pushed to the margins of their day.\u00a0 Any sales manager knows how important it is to hire strong sales people, but it all too often doesn’t get the attention it deserves.\u00a0 Dave Stein has 11 spot-on quick tips that can help you set the right priorities and increase your success rate.\u00a0 His tips are: Make sure you know what you are looking for. Prepare your questions in advance. Remain objective during the interview. Trust but verify. Don\u2019t lead the candidate. Push… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,16,10],"tags":[257,1762,1050,446],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-sn","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759"}],"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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}