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By Allan Erickson
This article originally appeared in the November 2002 issue of Office Technology

As I make contact with potential sales professional candidates for my clients, I interview them to determine if they have essential attributes for success. From a variety of sources, research indicates that a salesperson must embody key skills and characteristics to be successful. If the candidate possesses a majority of the following attributes it will increase my odds of making a good placement for the client.

• People person

• Great communication skills

• Integrity

• Positive attitude

• Oriented to solving customer problems

• Hard worker, competitive

• Appropriately assertive

• Skilled in listening and asking qualifying questions

• Responsible and self-confident

• Stable, able to handle rejection

• A pleasant negotiator

• Passionate about product

• Knows buying/sales cycles and how they mesh

• Gains access to real decision makers

• Understands the value of activity

• Team player, creative and energetic

• Professional appearance

• Not afraid to ask for the order

Once I'm satisfied that a candidate presents a majority of these attributes, I proceed to get more information while seeking to keep the process fair and objective.

Job-Related Questions
Essentially, there are two areas of job-related questioning for salespeople I find most useful: sales track-record verification and real-life renderings of past performance in specific circumstances. Here are some examples of sales track-record questions. The answers can be verified through reference checks and other means.

• What was the revenue in your area of responsibility when you started, and what is it now?

• What is your monthly quota, and how often do you meet or exceed quota?

• How many sales reps are in your region, and how do you rank among them?

• What is your average gross profit on a deal?

• What is your track record for selling service/supply agreements?

To get behind the resume even further, here are some questions that require the applicant to relay real-life stories according to specific circumstances described in the questions themselves:

• Tell us about the most competitive sales situation you were ever in, what you did, and how things turned out.

• Think of a specific time when consistent prospecting really helped you avoid a personal slump when everyone else was crying "recession!"

• Share a time when you wrote out your goal with an action plan and acted upon it, and tell us about the outcome.

• Listening skills are central to success in sales. Tell us about a time when your listening skills gave you the competitive advantage.

• Share an instance when your positive attitude and self-confidence helped you win the deal.

• Tell us about a time when you were able to step into another person's world to understand his or her take on things.

If your organization offers outsourcing, facilities management, imaging or IT and software consulting, obviously you would want to query applicants in those areas of expertise as well. Resume evaluation generally serves to identify areas of specialization, but further questioning may be appropriate as well.

Digital Awareness
Many organizations employ sales engineers to assist salespeople, especially in the networked environment involving higher-volume peripherals and color. Some hiring managers find it easiest to have their sales engineers, IT specialists or service technicians engage in the interview process to get a handle on how astute the sales applicant may be. Another way of determine qualifications and experience is to ask questions like the following via a written questionnaire:

• Circle the software you have worked with: QuarkXpress, Photoshop, Illustrator, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, Word, Lotus or Excel.sometimes present transferable skills to outside sales in our industry.

• Circle the network operating systems you have worked with: Novell, IBM, Microsoft, others _____________.

• Have you sold to LAN administrators and IT professionals before? If so, please elaborate.

• Tell us about a "needs assessment" you conducted followed by a presentation involving several multifunctional devices on the network. How were you able to demonstrate benefits?

• What are the biggest concerns of a network administrator in considering new installations?

Five Areas of Evaluation
Giving each of the following areas of evaluation an equal weighting (20 percent of the overall consideration) will generally yield a complete and balanced picture of the candidate's suitability, leading to a determination whether to hire or not. Some managers even develop a point system from 1 to 10 in each category, and unless the candidate scores at least 80 percent, the process is over.

1. Report from the recruiting or sourcing agency: resume, sales track record info and phone interview report and reference checks.

2. In-person interview with sales manager asking only job-related questions, with write up.

3. Second interview with another manager in the company.

4. Reference checks and/or background check.

5. Certain forms of testing, focusing on skills assessment and avoiding the more subjective areas, such as IQ or personality tests.

What to Avoid
Over the years I have encountered any number of evaluation methods used by hiring managers. Some are sublime, and frankly, others are ridiculous. A guiding principle in asking questions during the interview: Does this question only ask for job-related, skill-related information? Narrowing questions this way helps achieve fairness and objectivity, thus avoiding any appearance of discrimination.

However, here are examples (reported to me by candidates) of some of the questions not to ask in the interview:

• Are you single? (Generally asked of female applicants, and obviously out of bounds.)

• If you were a copier, what kind would you be and why? (Job-related question?)

• If you were a tree, what kind would you be? (Probing for nimble thinking in a salesperson?)

• What do people like most about you?

• Do you have children? Do you have childcare?

• What does your spouse do?

• Where/when were you born?

• Where did your grandparents come from?

• What's your religion?

• Do you think the president is doing a good job?

Obviously, none of these questions is appropriate, job-related or designed to identify relevant skills. In fact, several of these questions could provoke a lawsuit. It is unlawful to ask questions that seek to determine: age, race, ethnic heritage, religion, sexual orientation or political persuasion.

Along these lines, here are some of the interesting reasons we have heard for declining a candidate:

• The guy had sweaty palms.

• She had a weak handshake.

• There was a stain on his tie.

• His/her nails were too long.

• He/she just didn't do anything for me.

• There was no pizzazz there.

• My gut feeling is he would be high maintenance.

• I checked a reference and they said they didn't feel the candidate would be a good fit for us.

• I just don't feel he/she fits with our culture.

Admittedly, grooming and attire are important considerations. However, it is also important to consider one dimension of a candidate's qualifications measured against other criterion, thereby making a reasonable judgment regarding suitability and probability for success. If the issue is cultural or personality "fit," there are ways to derive cues in these areas without being unfair.

Properly Phrased
To determine if an applicant "fits" a given culture, it is appropriate to ask a question by first using a defining statement: "Our culture in sales is very fast-paced, hard-driving and competitive. Can you tell me about a time when you were able to thrive in such an environment?" This is a job-related question asking the candidate to tell about specific circumstances in the workplace. The response can go a long way toward helping the hiring manager determine "fit."

Getting Testy
Testing is another troublesome area in applicant evaluation. Some time ago I applied for a recruiting position with a very large agency. Before I could see the hiring manager, I had to complete a "personality profile." It was a time-sensitive test involving numerous subjective questions. The hiring manager eventually told me that it was foolproof, consistently rendering an accurate composite of each applicant, pointing unerringly to issues of suitability. I had my doubts upon reviewing my results. I was offered the job, but declined, knowing I would be expected to put applicants in a box.

Over the years, in the workplace and while doing some graduate work in psychology, I've seen many versions of "personality" tests, IQ tests and skills assessment instruments. Some are useful only as indicators of personality type and should be used sparingly in evaluating people. Of the three, professional psychologists tend to look down upon personality and IQ tests because they are notoriously inaccurate or shallow, or both. Skills assessment tools tend to be more objective and, therefore, more useful. No test can give you the whole story. People are too complex and fluid. However, some tests are useful tools when used as a portion of the evaluation. It is a mistake to put all your confidence in any given test.

Final Thoughts
Hiring "industry experienced" people might help shorten ramp-up time and save on training expense, but there is a risk in getting people who may bring bad habits. Considering other outside sales professionals, even fired-up college grads (who tend to be computer wizards), is a viable option, if the evaluation process is solid and objective. I have even found that inside salespeople in related fields sometimes present transferable skills to outside sales in our industry.

In any event, the contemporary mantra for sustained growth and reduced turnover appears to be: Develop people. Ongoing training and mentoring of entry-level people produces the next super major account rep. Nurturing major account people sows the seeds for growing your next branch manager, and helping managers succeed provides you with your next vice president of sales.

Quality hires are achieved through an objective and fairly balanced selection/evaluation process, serving both the growth goals of the organization and the career aspirations of applicants in mutually profitable ways. The alternatives, evaluation overkill or being awash in subjective considerations, yield negative and counter-productive results every time.

© 2002 Allan Erickson. All rights reserved.