{"id":257,"date":"2006-08-25T13:53:17","date_gmt":"2006-08-25T18:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/?p=257"},"modified":"2006-08-25T13:53:42","modified_gmt":"2006-08-25T18:53:42","slug":"anecdote-why-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/08\/anecdote-why-ask\/","title":{"rendered":"Anecdote &#8211; Why Ask?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Friday and time for another anecdote as the week winds down.<\/p>\n<p>A while back, I was working with one of our clients who has a fairly complex sale in which they offer a high-end solution. Budget is one of the first qualifying questions in their sales process so we mirror that process in our sourcing.  We ask candidates, &#8220;At what point do you qualify a prospect&#8217;s budget in your current sale?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As I talked with each candidate, I asked them this question to see if they could discuss this topic and how they handled customers who were reluctant to share their budget. Most of the candidates did well with this question except for one candidate. His response came back rather quickly:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t. Everyone has the same price so the prospect knows what they are going to be spending for the service so I figure why ask?&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If you ever hear this response from a candidate, no matter what your sales model, run the other way as fast as you can. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday and time for another anecdote as the week winds down. A while back, I was working with one of our clients who has a fairly complex sale in which they offer a high-end solution. Budget is one of the first qualifying questions in their sales process so we mirror that process in our sourcing. We ask candidates, &#8220;At what point do you qualify a prospect&#8217;s budget in your current sale?&#8221; As I talked with each candidate, I asked them this question to see if they could discuss this topic and how they handled customers who were reluctant to share their budget. Most of the candidates did well with this&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/08\/anecdote-why-ask\/\">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_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":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anecdotes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-49","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":434,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/11\/anecdote-tell-me-what-youre-looking-for\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":0},"title":"Anecdote &#8211; Tell Me What You&#8217;re Looking For","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"November 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In a recent phone screen for a sales position, I asked a candidate to tell me how they believed their background fit the requirements of the position. Now mind you, the position required the candidates to listen effectively, build rapport, ask insightful questions and have excellent verbal communication skills. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Anecdotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Anecdotes","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/anecdotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":169,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/07\/anecdote-i-need-a-job\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":1},"title":"Anecdote &#8211; I Need a Job!","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"July 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"During a recent salesperson search involving a long, complex, technical sale, we posted a clearly written ad that asked candidates to either email their resumes or to call. I received a voicemail from a candidate who actually picked up the phone to call (something we always like to see in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Anecdotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Anecdotes","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/anecdotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":244,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/08\/anecdote-is-that-your-final-answer\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":2},"title":"Anecdote &#8211; Is that your final answer?","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"August 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Late on a Friday and we need some levity so it is anecdote time. The set up - I am conducting a phone interview for a consultative service company where excellent listening and verbal skills are required. After asking a candidate (that was doing quite well) some preliminary questions about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Anecdotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Anecdotes","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/anecdotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/06\/anecdotes-the-30-or-10-second-commercial\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":3},"title":"Anecdotes &#8211; The 30 (or 10) Second Commercial","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"June 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"It is Friday therefore it is time for another hiring anecdote. I was phone screening sales candidates for a high-tech company and I asked a candidate to give me a quick 30-second commercial of the products and services he had sold. I asked him to frame his experience in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Anecdotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Anecdotes","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/anecdotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":145,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/06\/anecdote-im-busy\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":4},"title":"Anecdote &#8211; I&#8217;m Busy","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"June 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a Friday before a long weekend so let's go with an anecdote. Just to give you a little background - I had previously talked with this applicant and allowed him to set the time for our phone screen (2 days later). I called him at the set time, reintroduced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Anecdotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Anecdotes","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/anecdotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":306,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/09\/anecdote-so-what\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":5},"title":"Anecdote &#8211; So What?","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"September 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's keep the \"so what?\" principle going before the weekend. Recently in a face-to-face interview for a business development role candidates were asked - \"How have you developed territories in the past?\" The question was purposely vague to see if they would ask for clarification to understand what we were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Anecdotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Anecdotes","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/anecdotes\/"},"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\/257","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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