Recruitment Tips for Sales Managers

All too often a sales manager gets trapped in the ever decreasing circle of a negative sales employee turnover. A recruitment drive takes place and no defined interview technique is put in place to test the prospective candidate in more depth. The interviewee who is eventually taken on fails to meet the goals that are set out in the job description. There then follows a period of further training for sales staff which costs the company more money. When that eventually fails to create positive results (at the end of the day if someone does not have the fundamental capacity to sell no amount of training will help) then an employee looses their job and a new recruitment drive takes place.rnThis is a very detrimental, time consuming, expensive, but a classic cycle that many sales companies find themselves trapped in. It can be prevented by making the interview process much more robust and specific to the needs of determining exactly what is needed in an excellent sales candidate. Too often interviews take the traditional method of asking about past experiences, qualifications, CV evidence and product knowledge without looking at the interviewee closely enough. An interview process is a place where we all elaborate on what we can and cannot do. We tend to say what we think the questioner wants to hear. Experienced sales people are past masters at this. An excellent sales person is simply selling themselves to the buyer.rnSo it is difficult to tell on what level the candidate is actually working at in reality. One thing is for sure, there are traits needed within a salesperson that will determine how well they reach sales goals. Unfortunately these traits are the same as the ones it is so hard to determine in the interview. Because a sales post is so practical, and deeply linked with human interaction and communication you will not see the candidate as they truly are until they are in the post.rnThere are some clear pointers that should be recognisable straight away. For instance, is their appearance good? Do they appear confident in their manner and in their answers? Are they passionate about their work? Are they warm and friendly and open in making contact with you?rnThese kind of questions probably are discernable to a degree in a sales interview, and when preparing for the interview these type of questions which point to the candidates overall character, should be made quite clear within the interviewers remit. But the most useful factor you can add to an interview is a written behavioural analysis which takes into account important areas such as understanding of business, memory recall, vocabulary, mental acuity, numerical perception, energy, emotional development, assertiveness, listening skills, and motivation.rnThis way you are really finding the real candidate behind the façade and using questions that are more in line with activities once they take the job.