Tell me what you’re looking for and I will tell you if I can do it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Really, I didn’t need to go much further, but I did ask him a couple of other questions and received similar answers. So I ended the phone screen by stating, “That’s all the questions I have for you at this time. What questions do you have for me?” Here is the dialogue that followed:<\/p>\n
Candidate<\/em>: Is this a commission-only position or does it pay a base salary plus bonus or commission?<\/p><\/blockquote>\nMy Response<\/em>: The position has a base salary.<\/p>\nCandidate<\/em>: Does the position offer any benefits?<\/p>\nMy Response<\/em>: Yes, it has a full benefit package.<\/p>\nCandidate<\/em>: Will this position work out of a corporate office or a home office?<\/p>\nMy Response<\/em>: A home office.<\/p>\nCandidate<\/em>: Good, I like to make my own hours. I think that’s all my questions.<\/p>\nMy Response<\/em>: I want to thank you for your time today and have a nice evening.<\/p>\nCandidate<\/em>: Thank you, you too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe candidate was toast at this point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 candidate’s response: Tell me what you’re looking for and I will tell you if I can do it. Really, I didn’t need to go much further, but I did ask him a couple of other questions and received similar answers. So I ended the phone screen by stating, “That’s all the questions I have for you at this time. What… 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-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anecdotes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-70","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1018,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/tips-for-extending-job-offers\/","url_meta":{"origin":434,"position":0},"title":"Tips For Extending Job Offers","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"June 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I am going to chime in here a bit on the Velvet Hammer's post from below regarding the 1 week window for making offers to candidates. Last week, Selling Power had an excellent article in their newsletter that contained some great tips. Dan Miller, vice president of Talent Acquisition and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Compensation"","block_context":{"text":"Compensation","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/compensation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":482,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/12\/do-or-do-not-there-is-no-try\/","url_meta":{"origin":434,"position":1},"title":"Do or Do Not. There Is No Try.","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"December 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We're sourcing for an outside sales position in a sunny climate (not here in Minnesota) and had a candidate respond to an ad. He has tremendous industry experience and was good on the phone screen. He was quite inquisitive and asked strong questions about our customer and their market position.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring Salespeople"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":611,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/01\/questions-often-reveal-the-skills\/","url_meta":{"origin":434,"position":2},"title":"Questions Often Reveal The Skills","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We're working through some sales candidate sourcing activities this week for some new customers and uncovering some strong salespeople. There are many reasons why we incorporate a screening step in our recruiting process, but one of the most important reasons is the questions posed by the candidates. A crucial component\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Compensation"","block_context":{"text":"Compensation","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/compensation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":620,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/01\/you-can-ask-me-anything-just-email-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":434,"position":3},"title":"You Can Ask Me Anything – Just Email Me.","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"January 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I am currently sourcing candidates for a customer with these requirements: technically savvy, results oriented, efficient sales skills with good phone & writing skills. My interaction with this candidate started via email, which is great because I could get an idea of his written communication skills. His first emails were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anecdotes"","block_context":{"text":"Anecdotes","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/anecdotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":279,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/09\/bad-interview-techniques\/","url_meta":{"origin":434,"position":4},"title":"Bad Interview Techniques","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Great post from Seth Godin this morning that makes a not-so-subtle point about typical interview techniques. Here is the post in its entirety: Omer sends in this riff from Peopleware: Juggler Interview Circus Manager: How long have you been juggling? Candidate: Oh, about six years. Manager: Can you handle three\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":185,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/07\/questions-for-the-interviewer\/","url_meta":{"origin":434,"position":5},"title":"Questions for the Interviewer","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Tory Johnson from abcnews.com has a helpful article titled Turn the Tables in a Job Interview. She discusses what candidates should ask in an interview when the interviewer asks, \"What questions do you have?\" I'm always perplexed by candidates who simply state \"None.\" That response is always a red flag.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}