Sales Leaders Rule #9: Don't get smoked in the interview.

Sometimes the best sales call that a salesperson is capable of making is on an interviewer during the interview. What appears to be a superstar sales person during an interview can turn out to be a "professional interviewer". They perform admirably during the hiring process but are lackluster at actually selling your product or service.

How did that happen? Well, you got taken by their smokescreen. Professional interviewers put up expert smokescreens. They give the appearance and impression of being a natural seller but don't have the tangible skills and/or mindset to succeed in the role. Many managers fall for the smokescreen because they don't have a process during an interview.

So if a interviewing process is necessary to avoid getting smoked, how is one established? The first step is to have an objective job profile. What would this person be doing? Is it hunting? Is it farming? What types of buyers are they calling on? What's the selling cycle? What's the dollar value of your product or service? Good candidates need to have the skills to sell your unique product or service. If you're looking for somebody that can manage a long selling cycle for multi-million dollar pieces of equipment to executives, you should be cautious about a superstar that's used to a two-week selling cycle for a thousand dollars that calls on purchasing agents. Without this defined profile it's challenging to identify some of the gaps that a seller will need to bridge to be successful at your company.

Secondly, you need to have a candidate profile. Who's the magic person that would fit my job profile? To uncover this, we use an acronym called SEARCH (skills, experience, attitude, results, cognitive skills, and habits). Ask yourself, what skills would this person need to be 100% successful? What experience should they have in order to be great in this job? What's their mindset or their attitude? What results have they achieved in the past? Do they have the cognitive skills to effectively address your target market? Are their selling habits conducive for your sales process? Once you've identified an optimal candidate, you are able to ask laser guided questions to make sure they have these skills, these experiences, and these results to succeed at your job.

Mis-hires are costly, typically costing five times the amount of payroll. Each sales role is unique and past success is not necessarily a predictor of future success at your company. Set an interviewing process so that you can effectively assess sales candidates for their suitability to your unique sales process.