I am a psych major. As my mother likes to say, “I’ve never met a psychologist who didn’t need their own services.” Although I am not a psychologist, I get the gist of her commentary. In that vein, I was revisiting some of my antiquated text books in search of a professional explanation for why “bad” sales candidates can often smoke good interviewers. I give you self-presentation or impression management. The definition from Social Psychology-Understanding Human Interaction by Baron and Byrne: …they flatter others, pretend to agree with them about various issues, or feign great interest in what they are saying – all in an attempt to create a favorable… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Group Effect
My wife was at an interview last week for a medical position that is similar to her most current role. She walked into the lobby to find 4 other candidates there. They were all called in to a conference room by the HR person. They were then asked questions individually and asked to answer in front of the other candidates! The 5 of them were then asked to role play certain situations while the rest observed. Finally, they were given a tour of the clinic and then had to provide their own tour to a staff person. The point, I guess, was to see how they handled prospective patient visits.… Read More
Continue ReadingIntroverts Make Great Salespeople
You heard me right, that is an indirect quote from this Inc.com article. This topic comes up often in our sales hiring activities as the conventional wisdom is that extroverts make better salespeople. Not true. Successful salespeople have a wide variety of abilities that go far beyond their communication style. And that is the point here, introvert/extrovert is more of a communication style than anything else. It is important to know a salesperson’s style, but it is not predictive of sales success. Here is some excellent advice from the article (emphasis mine): “When selling as an introvert, use your abilities as a good researcher to really know audience, know what… Read More
Continue ReadingHiring Like A Detective
Yes, the title is a bit quirky, but it is true. A significant portion of successful hiring involves being a good detective. I have always taken that approach when helping our customers find the right salesperson for their position. To be a good detective, you need to be a bit skeptical. Sales candidates blow sunshine. Few have ever missed quota, most state their primary weakness is being a workaholic and all have earned everything they have accomplished. Right. In reality, most have missed their sales quota at some point, many have real weaknesses discussing money and handling rejection and most have benefited from somewhere be it marketing, territory, company market… Read More
Continue ReadingInterview Myths
This article from Yahoo’s Hot Jobs contains 5 hiring myths designed to help candidates perform better in an interview. 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 common piece of advice: You should always be prepared, and that usually includes developing questions related to the job. The myth here is that you must wait until it is “your turn” to speak. By waiting until the interviewer asks you if you have any questions, “it becomes an interrogation instead of a conversation,” says Greene. Greene recommends that you… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Value Of Cliche Questions
Don’t flame me on the title, there is a method to this madness. I like cliché questions for sales interviews. There, I admitted it. Now, I should clarify, I’m not talking about an entire interview of these questions, but rather some strategic ones sprinkled into your question list. Here is why – if the question is cliché, the candidate should have a sparkling answer. Their answer may be well-rehearsed – that is fine. You, as the interviewer, simply need to drill down on their response to get to the unvarnished truth. However, the catch to this approach is when they don’t have a strong answer. I am always concerned about… Read More
Continue ReadingLyin’ Eyes
Clearly the greatest song from the Eagles and a key to discovering lies in an interview. Forbes.com covers fascinating topic with a startling point at the beginning of the article: …they only work about 80% of the time, according to the American Polygraph Association. That is far lower than I expected. Clearly, it is probably better than the vast majority of people, but I thought the number would be north of 90% for sure. Ah, but here are the fun “tells” for interviewers to use: Liars often give short or one-word responses to questions, while truth tellers are more likely to flesh out their answers. And this: Skilled liars don’t… Read More
Continue ReadingA Simple Interview Rule
If you (hiring manager) are talking, you’re not interviewing. I know, simple in concept, but for some it is difficult in practice. I sat through an interview recently that involved a sales manager who spoke for 75-85% of the time! The candidate was simply caught in his wake for the entire interview. My take on the interview was that we learned next to nothing about the candidate and his fit to the position. He may have been strong – we’ll never know. What we did learn is the frantic, scattered approach of the sales manager makes for an interview that did not go deep on any topic. The fault here… Read More
Continue ReadingHiring Without Knowledge
Selling Power’s Hiring One of the Team focuses on finding superstar salespeople that will fit into your existing team. Clearly that is the goal for all sales hiring and this article supplies some sound advice. Other parts of it I will leave to your judgment. Here is a quote I enjoyed (emphasis mine): “Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience. Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind. Experience is easy to provide and quickly put to good… Read More
Continue ReadingLiars For Candidates
Remember the old joke, you can tell when they are lying because their lips are moving? Selling Power provides this article which opens with this statement: Did you know that 50 percent of candidates lie on their resumes? (This includes people who omit things, stretch the truth, and those who outright lie.) That seems optimistic to me. This lying problem is rampant in hiring as we have seen first-hand. I think candidates believe they can state things that are difficult to verify with the legal restrictions in this country. How can you verify that they turned around a territory? How do you know they were the lead person on a… Read More
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