APPROACHING SALES INTERVIEWING MOST PRACTICALLY: key questions & assessment methods

This article is a continuation of a broader sales headhunting topic. In the first part, we focused mostly on hunting the potential candidates to schedule your first on-call or other F2F interactions, picking the right channels and tools, messages to send, and exploiting LinkedIn as the most powerful tool of recruiters and headhunters.

Check what steps you need to take until you finally shake hands:

Breaking the ice

1. THE FIRST CONVERSATION WITH A CANDIDATE - PRE/SCREENING CALL

Screening calls save your time. In the first round, you don’t necessarily need to meet everyone in person. Call and interview them first and schedule an on-site follow-up interview only after knowing that both sides’ criteria match.

Even if you have zero experience with hiring, don’t panic - having sales skills will help a lot. Before you start talking to candidates, create a call script. Just like in sales, it’s not for you to read. Instead, it guides you through the call. List questions you want to ask and not forget, and all information about the position.

Since you’re initiating the whole conversation, “luring” the person to our company, start it by shortly explaining and pitching the position. Because they didn’t apply, they probably didn’t do any research on the company or the position and would be missing context.

Their approach is more “Maybe they have something interesting, won’t hurt to listen”. If they did the research, points for them! Your proper introduction of the company and the position usually results in a great conversation, and the candidates value your time, energy, and transparency.

We use BANT(C) sales qualification methodology not just when qualifying customers, but  even when screening candidates. A similar, used in hiring is QIAA (Qualified, Interested, Affordable, Available)

Our call script structure looks like this:

Rapport

a short small talk to see the other side’s energy

Company & Position

explaining, describing, providing context, and pitching

Questions on them

What is their situation now - Are they looking actively, are they just looking at what's on the market? So you know what kind of interest to expect.

Experience - Prepare a list of questions related to what you’re looking for in the new employee, and sales-related questions, e.g.:

• whether they have done acquisitions
• what is their strategy for acquisitions
• what is their conversion rate lead -> deal (or opportunity, whatever was their KPI)
• did they fulfill their targets
• whether they are hunters/farmers, etc.
  
  

Ask BANT (C) - Prepare a list of questions related to what you’re looking for in the new employee, and sales-related questions, e.g.:

• B - BUDGET - What is the financial level they want to reach on the new position
• A - AUTHORITY - Any possible obstacles you reveal (can't move, can't commute, can’t travel a lot, etc.)
• N - NEED - What are they looking for in a new job (boss, sales team, company culture, the scope of work, industry, etc.) Knowing their need, you increase your chances of selling the candidate what they want, but no BS!  
• T - TIME - When they can start
• C - COMPETITION - Whether they’re talking to other companies and have some interview deadlines, contract signing, etc. So you know how fast you need to act.
  
  

Languages, driving licenses, etc.

‍Don’t forget to ask about or even test the required skills.

Confirm that it’s a match and they want to proceed and set the next steps

If you have the power of not having to sync up with your team first, schedule a meeting immediately while the excitement is still there.

Coffee or tea?

2. MEETING ON-SITE - THE INTERVIEW

Sales representatives know to sell themself. They’ll make their achievements and skills sound great. It can be true or not. That’s the reason sales representatives are so often tested during the interviewing process.

It’s time-consuming, so before you schedule an assessment center, ask as many behavioral questions as possible to eliminate the non-fits on the first meeting.

The structure of a sales interview can be:

Rapport

a short small talk to see the other side’s energy

Questions to ask the candidate

Dig deeper into their experience. If you didn’t collect the whole BANT(C) (or QIAA) this is the right time to do so.

Don’t let yourself be fooled by shallow answers; keep asking “why?” “why do you think this happened?” etc.

Examples of the interviewing questions:

• Why they would want to sell your solution - Observe whether you were worth their time, and they had done their research on you, your customers, competition, etc.
• What kind of sales methodology they use - Observe whether they follow structural methods in sales
• What kind of tech tools they use to support their sales
  Observe whether they can be effective
• Where they get their sales education - Observe whether they actively educate themself

Then add some behavioral questions:

• When was the last time they lost a deal, and what they did after
  (Observe how they coped with failure and what they learned from it)
• When was the last time they won a deal, and what they did after
  (Observe their excitement, and whether they managed to replicate this approach later)
• How they would win a big customer
  (Observe their workflow, whether they understand the customer journey, roles of the individual champions, procurement, etc.)
• How they create a sales process
  (Observe how they handle opportunities, whether they know when it should move forward, how to maintain steady progress and prevent blockers)
  
  

There are hundreds of questions to ask in a sales interview but pick just a few. With most of them, you’ll probably wander into more extended conversations anyway. Pick them so they match the job description and therefore bring a real value.

Once again, explain the position

This time, provide a broader context.

Answer their questions

‍They should have some ready.

Set up the next steps

‍If you liked them, we strongly recommend testing them on their sales skills. We know we’re repeating ourselves, but sales representatives know to sell themself. They know what you want to hear, and they’ll tell you. Always see them perform before you make them an offer - even a simple roleplay will tell you enough about their performance.

Let's do some testing

3. TESTING SALES REPRESENTATIVES ON THEIR SALES SKILLS

Test everyone, seniors and juniors. You might be surprised how natural some juniors can be and how often seniors overestimate their skills. If people get discouraged by invitations to sales testing, consider it a great filter. They either weren’t that interested, or they know they’d fail.

Types of the interview process sales tests

You should have different versions for different position types. We test sales representatives on:

• Cold Emailing
• Cold Calling
• Sales Meeting Role-Play
• Feedback is a gift
• From your yes to their yes
  
  

Let’s take a look at them in detail:

Make the Role-Play tricky, but not too much!

We don’t make it easy for the candidates. First of all, we don’t tell them about a second person showing up in a meeting. We watch whether they’ll react to it and ask what their role is. Also, we include objections such as “It’s too expensive”, “This is not the right time”, “We need to talk to John first”, etc. and watch their reactions to this negative feedback.

What we don’t do is challenging them on the features and functions of the solution they’re selling, as that would be unfair to someone not familiar with it. Instead, we ask whether they did research on the industry and the problems the solution solves.

The role-play meeting is suitable for juniors, too. Just don’t expect them to excel. Instead, check if they’re coachable. Make sure the instruction for preparation is explicit enough.

On the role-play meeting, observe how they prepared and how they’re with people. Once you’re done, give them feedback on what can be improved, and do the same role-play again.

Then you’ll know whether they’re smart and interested enough to be coached by you.

Fingers crossed!

If you sign a contract, start the preboarding/onboarding process immediately. Haven’t heard of preboarding? We’ll tell you in the following article focused on nesting a new employee.