The 5 Crucial Methods to Interviewing a Sales Rep
To hire a top salesman, there are a variety of steps you need to adhere to when conducting live job interviews with sales reps. All of them will help you considerably in discovering the key features of every sales candidate so that you can make the best informed hiring choice possible.
1. Take Excellent Notes in the Margin of the Resume
Make note of statements from the interviewee that you may have just about any questions about. As opposed to demanding the particular question right then and there, jot the assertion down, allow them to finish off and then at some point soon subsequently (this will even be in the following interview), ask your question concerning that statement.
This really is really useful in jogging your memory on crucial statements and in-depth data that a person can use to later challenge and test the mettle of the sales interviewee. The data you’ll jot down right now might seem basic and not at all related to the hiring process, yet later on it’ll make the real difference between making remarkable hiring decisions.
2. Keep Your Mouth Shut
It’s enjoyable to talk about the business, the job, your own “management style” and all that good stuff. The challenge with this strategy is that it doesn’t help you hire the right sales candidate.
The thing is this; the time you spend in an interview ought to be spent with you learning about them, not you telling them about you. Should you keep it that way you’ll uncover much more about your applicants compared to you talking the entire time.
3. Never ever Reveal Your Hand
Only right at the end of the last interview should you begin telling them the character elements you are looking for in “the ideal sales candidate”. Don’t ever speak about this at the start.
What you want is for them to let you know what they’re about. And you complement their talents and skills to the essential skillsets and experience necessary to be successful at the job.
4. Use Awkward Silences
In each and every job interview, there are inevitable unpleasant silences. Resist the temptation to fill them up, in its place utilize them in your favor.
If you find an irritatingly extended silence, the applicant will certainly feel it more than you the longer it goes and they’ll want to load it up with something, anything simply because it’s so uneasy to them. Remain silent, see what they say instead.
Its in times such as these that sales applicants reveal their genuine self simply because they have exhausted their pre-scripted responses. Whatever they say after that will undoubtedly be unscripted and will give you precious insights into who they are.
5. Don’t Steer the Witness
When you ask a question and the candidate suddenly seems to lose their train of thought or struggles with the answer to a question you have asked, allow them to have plenty of time to reply.
Whatever you do though, do not answer for them. The normal human tendency is to “fill in the gaps” and be agreeable and helpful.
The answer will ultimately come and you’ll need to write this down inside the margin to review it later on in the interview process. In the event you sense that the problem they’re having is because of the way you asked the question then simply re-state the query in less complicated terms.
Utilize these five tested techniques to interview your next sales rep and you’ll be amazed at the quality of candidates you’ll then be able to hire.
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