Ok, earlier today I posted on mistakes made by candidates in the interview. Now it is time to look at mistakes made by hiring managers in the interview. From CareerBuilder.com’s article Five Common Hiring Blunders and How to Avoid Them: Experience is important, but life experience is sometimes better Yes, you want to make sure your candidate has relevant experience in the field, but don’t place all your eggs in that one basket. Some candidates lack the desired amount of relevant experience, but they make up for it with their life experience. Military experience, studying or working overseas, volunteering a year of their life to saving the whales, or taking… Read More
Continue ReadingInterview Tips
We attempt to keep track of the interview tips that are offered all over the web to candidates to assist them in their job search. Some tips seem clever, others seem robotic. This StarTribune.com article – Ten Things Not To Do In An Interview – provides a general, helpful list of interview faux pas. For instance: 3. Don’t speak badly about previous employers or co-workers. Make sure you’ve practiced an honest answer but one that doesn’t show that you’re angry with the previous employer or circumstance. Very true and yet I have encountered many candidates who cannot resist the urge to denigrate previous managers. I worked for my share of… Read More
Continue ReadingWant A Better Answer? Ask A Better Question
The title of this post is a statement often offered by my father. The statement can be slightly aggravating in certain situations, but there is much truth in it. Who? What? Where? When? How? and Why? When phone screening or interviewing salespeople, one of those 5 words should be the lead-in to your question. Yes, I crossed out “Why” for a specific reason that we will get to shortly. We have covered this technique before but it is immeasurably important when screening sales candidates. Do not ask questions that leave you “boxed” in a corner. Those questions tend to have a structure that leads with a verb and always elicits… Read More
Continue ReadingBritish Interview Faux Pas
Google brought me to this British site – Onrec.com and their article Interview Faux Pas. Here are my 2 favorites from the somewhat strange list: 1. Know the job you’re being interviewed for. After an otherwise quite successful interview for a telesales job, one graduate stunned the panel with the phrase: “Oh and by the way I don’t do cold calling.” 8. Prepare your questions. At the end of her questions, an interviewer posed the question; “okay, you can ask me one question and one question only” to the interviewee. After much procrastination, the young lady took a deep breath, calmed her nerves and asked “Are you going anywhere nice… Read More
Continue ReadingAssessing The Behavioral-Based Interview
Selling Power discusses behavioral-based interviewing in On Your Best Behavior. The article covers the main points of this interview approach and it is certainly an approach we incorporate – to some extent. First, if you are relying on the face-to-face interview to make a strong sales hire, you are taking unneeded risks. Even bad salespeople can be good at building rapport. Other salespeople may be silky smooth talkers but nothing more – they can shine in the interview but never close a deal once they make it on to your payroll. An over-reliance upon the interview is the number one reason for a bad sales hire. You must use a… Read More
Continue ReadingBody Language Continued
We are now establishing a theme for today’s posts. BusinessWeek.com offers this article regarding body language – It’s Not Your Mouth That Speaks Volumes. I’ve read these stats before but I always find them remarkable: Only a small percentage of communication involves actual words: 7%, to be exact. In fact, 55% of communication is visual (body language, eye contact) and 38% is vocal (pitch, speed, volume, tone of voice). The world’s best business communicators have strong body language: a commanding presence that reflects confidence, competence, and charisma. Do you ever stop and think of that percentage – only 7% of in-person communication is your choice of words. That’s amazingly minute.… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Body Language Of Interviews
You Can Say Too Much Without Even Speaking – this is so true. This article dovetails nicely with our Sales Traits Series posted earlier today. From CareerJournal.com: No matter what a job candidate might say, using the wrong body language can make them appear disinterested or even deceitful to recruiters. I sat through an interview recently with a candidate who maintained eye contact without blinking. Ok, that may be an overstatement, but I was quite put-off by his intensity. Thankfully, I don’t think is mattered much to our customer. That faux pas just happens to be the first one listed in this article: 1. Maintain the right amount of eye… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Phone Screening Essentials
I have read numerous article over the past few weeks about phone interviewing or screening sales candidates and every one of them miss the mark. Instead of going at what is wrong with each of these articles, I will give you some essentials that make this an effective step in our hiring process. These are the steps we incorporate into each recruitment process we run for our clients. These techniques have been developed through conducting thousands of sales interviews and phone screens over the past few years. What are the main requirements of the job? I am not talking about the job description. Instead, think about a wish list, so… Read More
Continue ReadingCandidates Who Have Been Coached
Further proof of why we put limited importance on the face-to-face interview: I recommend that you answer difficult questions with SANDWICH technique. Practice writing out your answer – be sure to sandwich the negative with an emphasis on the positive. (+) (-) (+) Here is how you should fill in the blanks: (+) Begin with a positive statement (-) Slip in the negative (or weakness) (+) End with a positive statement Most likely the new employer will request only confirmation that you worked at the company. We always change plans, so it is okay to change your plans – maybe you were planning to go to college??? I don’t think… Read More
Continue ReadingHow Interviewers Affect Candidate Decisions
Yesterday I attended a Webinar from Monster and DDI titled, “Thanks, But No Thanks: Keeping Top Prospects From Turning Down Your Offer” that not only echoed many of the points from this Selling Power article, but had the data to support it. There were numerous points that I wanted to share with you so I’ll post on them in bite-size pieces over the next few days. In our previous post, point #4 talks about trust. A candidate forms their opinion about trust in 3 areas with the interviewer being the first mentioned. I’m sure some of you thought that may have been a bit far-fetched but take a look at… Read More
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