The most common mistake sales people make is to immediately launch into a product presentation or \u201cpitch\u201d when they first meet their prospect. They extol the virtues of what they sell and tell the prospective buyer how good, fast, reliable, inexpensive or easy to use their product is. They talk, talk, and talk hoping they\u2019ll convince the buyer that their product or service is of value.<\/p>\n
The problem with this approach is that the \u201cpitch\u201d seldom addresses the issues or concerns of the buyer. Because their needs have not been addressed, there is no compelling reason for them to consider using your machines or to change vendors. If you really want to give prospects a reason to buy from you, you need to give them a reason. One of the most effective ways to do this is to ask a few well thought-out questions to uncover what is important to the prospect.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nExactly right.\u00a0 One of the more overlooked aspects of a sales interview is to pay attention to a candidate\u2019s questions, both the content and the sequence.\u00a0 I try to write all of them down in an interview to review them afterwards.\u00a0 The candidate\u2019s questions in the interview provides a glimpse into their qualifying ability without asking the candidate about it.\u00a0 It is most important that you, the hiring manager, observe this ability closely both on a phone screen and during a face-to-face interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I come across this often \u2013 a company wants to hire a superstar salesperson and the hiring manager\u2019s first instinct is to find a loquacious talker.\u00a0 Perhaps you have seen this approach too?\u00a0 Clearly no readers of the Hire Sense would administer this approach in their hiring. Right? Ok, maybe not.\u00a0 The point is that smooth talkers are not categorically the best salespeople.\u00a0 I am appreciative of good communicators, but being good at talking is the lesser part of communication.\u00a0 Being an active listener is more important.\u00a0 This fact is often overlooked in sales hiring. The reason this ability is important is that is supports the foundation of successful selling… 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":[1393,212,330,446,1394,211,142],"class_list":["post-2105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiring-salespeople","category-sales-techniques","tag-qualify","tag-sales-ability","tag-sales-candidate","tag-sales-interview","tag-sales-qualify","tag-sales-skill","tag-sales-technique"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-xX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1362,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/01\/the-toughest-topic-to-qualify-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":2105,"position":0},"title":"The Toughest Topic To Qualify-Money","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not really when you know how to do it.\u00a0 Unfortunately, many salespeople have a distinct weakness when it comes to even broaching this topic with a prospect.\u00a0 This weakness leads to compounded expenses in that the salesperson will typically invest time and resources on a prospect who will disappear\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring Salespeople"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2393,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2010\/08\/of-objectivity\/","url_meta":{"origin":2105,"position":1},"title":"Of Objectivity","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"August 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I preach this point from the mountaintop as often as possible so I\u2019ll continue here \u2013 sales is the single most difficult position to hire in any company.\u00a0 The reason is simple, accurately predicting sales success by discerning candidate capabilities is\u2026well, often a crapshoot.\u00a0 This fact is why it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Assessing"","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2501,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2012\/06\/the-money-trap\/","url_meta":{"origin":2105,"position":2},"title":"The Money Trap","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"-Discounting is a hot topic in sales especially in this prolonged, down economy.\u00a0 However, discounting is never the best choice regardless of the situation.\u00a0 Here is a good Eye on Sales article speaking to that point. Here is a good suggestion: The first question I ask anyone who thinks they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring Salespeople"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56110,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2019\/10\/gathering-giving\/","url_meta":{"origin":2105,"position":3},"title":"Gathering > Giving","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This statement is going to sound blunt, but gathering information is always more important than giving information in a selling process. \u00a0This truth may sound counterintuitive to the stereotypical sales process. \u00a0However, it is crucial to understand this approach. The stereotypical thought is that good talkers make good salespeople. \u00a0I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Techniques"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Listening.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Listening.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Listening.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":126,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/06\/hiring-experience\/","url_meta":{"origin":2105,"position":4},"title":"Hiring Experience","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm putting the finishing touches on an article we are going to release next week that deals with hiring salespeople based on experience vs. talent. We advocate sales talent first. A couple of points to whet your appetite: First, the vast majority of resumes are embellished. We have written about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1521,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/04\/what-qualifications-determine-sales-success\/","url_meta":{"origin":2105,"position":5},"title":"What Qualifications Determine Sales Success?","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"April 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's what we often see from hiring managers or recruiters that focus on a wide variety of positions.\u00a0 They tend to look for qualifications in their sourcing activities.\u00a0 Obviously, this approach is warranted and required when sourcing for positions like accountants, medical personnel, IT, engineers\u00a0and so forth. But what about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring Salespeople"","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\/2105","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=2105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2106,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105\/revisions\/2106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}