Hiring top sales talent is no easy task. More than one sales manager has been frustrated because he discovered he hired a terrific interviewer—not a terrific salesperson. There are several reasons for misfires on talent acquisition.
Salespeople get promoted to sales management with little training on behavior based interviewing skills. (Click here for our hiring and selecting top talent workshop.) A lot of sales managers only interview for sales experience or experience in their specific industry. This experience is important, however, equally important is interviewing for emotional intelligence skills. EQ is a key predictor of success in life and in business.
There are several emotional intelligence skills that impact sales success. Assertiveness or the ability to ask for what you need is an important EI attribute to include in your next sales interview. Research conducted by the Corporate Executive Board shows that top salespeople are assertive. Assertive salespeople are comfortable asking the tough questions during a sales call and stating what they need to create a win-win business relationship.
A great interview question to test for assertiveness is, “Tell me about a sales call where the prospect was hesitant to share budget or didn’t have a budget. What did you do?” Listen to see if the salesperson demonstrated assertiveness and uncovered budget by asking more questions before writing a proposal. Non-assertive salespeople acquiesce to the buyer’s process and follow the ‘go along to get along’ sales approach. The result: wasted time writing practice proposals and sales pipelines with prospects that are aren’t willing or able to pay for the value your company provides.
Building a great sales team starts with carefully selecting each individual on your team. Interview potential sales candidates for hard selling skills, industry knowledge and emotional intelligence. Soft skills make a difference in achieving hard sales results. Join us on March 3 & 4 and learn how to hire top sales producers. http://bit.ly/1CJUkLZ
Good Selling!
