The Phone Interview… A quick scorecard system from The McCandlish Group

Do you set your own phone interviews? If you do not, it’s a big mistake.

You’ve taken away an opportunity to hear candidates ask for the appointment on an introductory call, something you’ll soon be asking them to do.

As a search firm specializing in sales hiring, we often suggest to client hiring managers and HR professionals that they call our submitted candidates without setting up an appointment. You can gauge their sense of urgency and enthusiasm or lack of same.

Sometimes the official setting up of an interview time removes spontaneity and thinking on their feet. Why not “surprise” them and see how they react. You’ll hear if they went to your website, researched your company, and how they adjust to your call. Often times we pick up candidate habits such as visiting happy hours or golf courses early in the day, all good information to know before a decision is made.

If the candidate doesn’t answer their phone, leave a message and see how often they check their messages. If they are communicators, it’s often, and they should call you back the same day or following morning.

The phone interviews take on new meaning when you smile to yourself and grading them on their approach. Get to know each other a bit without the visual. It’s effective.

Please do a phone interview whether they are in the same city or not. Remember the phone is for setting appointments and all salespeople need phone skills. It’s essential.

Other staff that should get involved early on the phone (saves travel, interview expenses) are technical people who have a say so, and the candidate’s direct report. Either of those interviewers can halt the process and save further time and resources if the candidate isn’t a match.

The first steps should be to qualify the candidate for compensation range, commute time, confirm job description match, review communication and set up next steps.

Keep this scorecard by the phone and keep track of their answers
Give them one point for each yes. If they get under 7 don’t see them.
Yes No
1. Are they enthusiastic about your opportunity?
2. Do they seem smooth and prepared to ask questions?
3. Would I let them schedule an appointment with me if I
was a prospect of my company?
4. Did I feel that they were sincere during the discussion?
5. Am I looking forward to meeting with them?
6. Did they close by asking for an interview?
7. Are they confident/comfortable with themselves?
8. Are they asking about opportunity at your company?
9. Do you have to repeat yourself?
10. Did they sound persuasive?
11. How did you feel when you put down the phone? Were
you smiling?
TOTAL
Remember 7 or under, goodbye.

This message is from The Sales Hiring Handbook and if you are interested in an eBook version, just email me back and I will forward one.

Email Mike for a free eBook

Is your sales search unique?

It may be challenging, but there are certain processees that sales people develop that make them achievers.

Many can transfer skillsets to new companies, even in new indsutries.

Thinking of promoting your top sales person to sales manager?

Better stop to think it through. Most sales stars would raterh just do it themselves and don’t manage oterhs as well as they sell personally.

Check this out!!!

The importance of role-playing during interviews with sales candidates by Software Advice’s COO Austin Merritt

http://new-talent-times.softwareadvice.com/role-playing-during-interviews-0513/.

On a promotional item for our company, a Louisville Slugger small bat, I have this saying …
“If business is good, Keep Swingin’
When business is bad SWING HARDER!”

If you have an open requirement for a sales person, we’ll be working to find you a hard worker!

It seems every sales resume we review has superlatives describing the sales candidate’s past accomplishments. EVERYONE was Sales Person of the Month, the Quarter, the Year, the Decade, AND the history of the planet…!

Sometimes sales, as in politics, is all semantics. Possibly those sales people were the best on their team. But, perhaps it was a small team. SO, it’s up to us to ask “How many people were on your team?” Were you the best of 5? Best of 10 or maybe best of 100? Fairly basic stuff here…
Then we get more detailed.
1. What support system was in place for you to make goal?
2. Did anyone assist in RFP’s or did you do the proposals?
3. Did you actually open the account or was it inherited?
4. How long was the sales cycle?
5. How did you prospect for new business?

Our list of questions could be as many as 20-30 depending on the client’s specifications.

Lastly, do you have references to support your statements?

It’s challenging to get references from past employers. Many large companies only furnish dates of employment and title as they are concerned about litigation. When asked, our recruiters dig for information to make sure we have the right candidate. NO firm wants to do the search twice as we’d have to replace the candidate if clients ask them to leave within the guarantee period.
Additionally, we have found that hiring managers are sometimes overly skeptical about the information contained in Candidate Reference Reports. There is often the perception that a candidate can somehow skew or “game” what is being said by their references.

It has been our experience that if we speak with three or more listed business reference contacts provided by the candidate and ask open ended questions about the candidate’s personal character, their relationship to the candidate, examples of problem definition and solving ability, and goal achievement, etc., a valid picture of the candidate’s preferred work style and true ability to get things done –DOES IN FACT EMERGE.

To get an accurate picture of the individual’s accomplishments we have to ask the hard questions. Every hire is important and costly if mistakes are made.
If you wish to hear how we work, call me anytime!

It’s a wonderful sight to see stars on a roll and bringing in huge orders. Once those same top sellers are established and productive it is painful to lose them.

Sourcing a replacement, training, strategizing over what accounts are assigned and when to grant them is time consuming, risky and costly.

Top producers want …REALISTIC GOALS to hit for their bonus.

SUPPORT….from the production side so they can keep selling and earning commissions. Service or product delays are a motivation killer.

RECOGNITION… Since rejection is part of their day, it’s nice to be appreciated when they conquer challenging clients with patience and creativity.

What most Sales Stars DON’T want is this:

MICRO MANAGEMENT…….. This activity alone creates turnover.

CAPPED Stars look for unlimited opportunity and high earnings for the hours worked. When their commissions are capped, even a high cap, it’s psychologically restricting.

TERRITORY REDUCED OR TAKEN AWAY… Companies need to grow and gain market penetration. Be careful how it’s done when a rep brings in a large account only to be re-assigned to the National Sales Manager. If the rep is strong enough to open it, they’re probably strong enough to manage it.

Try to keep your stars, create new challenges for them to grow. It’s also ok to pay them all differently as they produce differently. VOLUME MATTERS!

We occasionally discover companies who seem to be growing quickly and demonstrate excellent customer service.
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We deal with this topic daily.

Sure, who doesn’t want a high base salary to show up for work? It guarantees you can pay your bills and earn additional commissions so you can put some money away.

Have you ever gone to an employer and asked what they would pay you if you just went on straight commission? Yes, just give up the salary. You may be surprised at their reaction.

There seems to be 3 schools of thought that are prevalent.

1. Pay sales people a base salary with commission and bonus opportunities.

This is done so the company can control your activities somewhat and ensure they are “buying” productive talent. The company wants you there at a certain time, and a manager normally monitors things like attendance, prospecting activity, presentation abilities, and percentage of goal. Sure, some virtual work options are available for those with appropriate talent. There still exists doubt in many employers mind about working from a home office. The preference remains to have sales teams in corporate offices for monitoring activity and synergy.

Also, the company normally makes more money on this type of comp plan, which is fair, because they guarantee a paycheck.

2. Pay sales people a low salary with higher commission opportunity.
The guarantee is low because the company wants motivated, commission oriented people. The reward comes with results. Also it seems smaller companies just aren’t able to pay big base salaries and can get more feet on the street this way.

3. Pay straight commission, possibly with a draw.
This company can allow an aggressive percentage of the sale for the sales person because the company doesn’t lose anything. Producers and the company both win.

For every sales person who makes the company money there is one who does not. This becomes expensive for the firm and challenging to make a profit. If the risk of losing money is removed, a company may pay higher commissions.

There are some advantages to this approach. Flexibility of schedule is attractive to many. Also higher commissions are possible because the company won’t lose money on you. It’s often possible to negotiate an accelerated payout for exceeding goal. If goal is one million in annual sales and the rep hits 1.5 million, the percentage on everything over 1 million is often negotiable.

Lastly, this approach is often utilized by entry level sales people to gain experience and training. Training is important so make sure you find out the particulars in the interview process.

Although I’ve worked many straight commission jobs, more people leave those for a job with a salary plus commissions than vice-versa.
Regardless of your plan, call us for sales hiring assistance.

SO, a fair question to ask is… How do we judge motivation levels of candidates???

Before I discuss HOW, isn’t it great to see someone who demonstrates excellence on the job?
Whatever the job is, they seem to enjoy it and their energy level and detail is very noticeable.

The person could be an automobile mechanic who advises you of every detail but doesn’t oversell you. Another example is a teacher who has the ability to motivate students to learn.

They just seem so natural…

It seems that Motivation is necessary for excellence. People who perform at high levels are born with motivation or worked hard to gain it. Either is fine. If they have the trait, they’ve learned their business and developed skills necessary for success.

Our firm evaluates motivation by the following criteria:

1. The written word and the resume :
How much detail is in the resume? Did they discuss what they sold and who they sold it to? Pretty basic stuff here but you’d be shocked at how many salespeople haven’t answered those questions, especially the specific product or service sold at a previous company.

2. Our Interview Notes:

They are comprised of 8 questions that answer why the candidate changed jobs, compensation requirements, goal achievement history and more. If the candidate doesn’t provide detail and get the document back to us timely, we know they aren’t going far in process, if we move them forward at all. Some candidates back out of the process on their own because they won’t take time to complete the form. Whatever their reasoning, we quickly qualify and they are gone.

3. Follow up:
Is it timely or do we have to chase them down? The most motivated candidates call us, email us and follow up until we connect. Candidates who fail to follow up assertively seldom get an offer. It’s hard to believe some candidates don’t send a thank you note after interviewing.

Funny how the most motivated candidate for the position normally gets an offer. They provide more detailed information, call us back promptly and have great questions for the interview and they do it with enthusiasm.
Call me if you are in need of motivated sales candidates!