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    "result": {"data":{"contentfulSkillmeterBlogPost":{"url":"hiring-a-salesperson-25-questions-to-ask","title":"Hiring a Salesperson: 25 Questions to ask","description":{"description":"<p>A\r\nperson who has great sales and negotiation skills will find open doors in lots\r\nof companies, in any industry and country. For a Sales Professional a job\r\ninterview is a real test, because this time it’s not about selling a product or\r\na service. The product that they need to promote to a Hiring Manager is basically\r\nthemselves, let’s call it “Brand Me”. How well is this salesperson able to\r\nemphasize the good points and steer clear of the others? Candidates will have\r\nto show right from the start how good their skills, experiences, personality\r\nand motivation are.</p>"},"body":{"body":"<p>A\r\nperson who has great sales and negotiation skills will find open doors in lots\r\nof companies, in any industry and country. For a Sales Professional a job\r\ninterview is a real test, because this time it’s not about selling a product or\r\na service. The product that they need to promote to a Hiring Manager is basically\r\nthemselves, let’s call it “Brand Me”. How well is this salesperson able to\r\nemphasize the good points and steer clear of the others? Candidates will have\r\nto show right from the start how good their skills, experiences, personality\r\nand motivation are.</p><p>What\r\nare the four most important character traits of a top performing salesperson?\r\nApart from having full product/service knowledge it is crucial to be\r\npersuasive, persistent, likeable and highly self-motivated. </p><p>These\r\nare some questions which will help you to unmask the truly indomitable\r\nsalesperson. When hiring a salesperson, it’s not just important to ask the right\r\nquestions, but also to know how to interpret them correctly. </p><ul>\r\n<li>What do you know\r\nabout our product line/service? </li><li>What do you dislike\r\nabout most sales?</li><li>What kind of rewards\r\nare most satisfying to you? </li><li>How do you plan your\r\nday? </li><li>How well do you\r\naccept disappointment? </li><li>How do you feel\r\nabout out of town/overnight travel?</li><li>I would be\r\ninterested to hear of a time when you proved yourself to be more tenacious than\r\nyour peers. </li><li>Please describe a\r\nspecific time when you greatly exceeded the norm. </li><li>What percentage of\r\nyour sales calls result in sales? </li><li>How long does it\r\ntypically take you from initial contact to close the sale? </li><li>How do you turn an\r\noccasional buyer into a regular buyer? </li><li>What was the sales\r\nvolume when you started? What was it when you left? </li><li>How do you go about\r\nsecuring new prospects and clients? </li><li>What kind of people\r\ndo you like and dislike to sell to? How do you manage to sell to these people? </li><li>What steps are\r\ninvolved in selling your product?</li><li>Tell me about your\r\nmost difficult sale and how you approached it. </li><li>What was the most\r\nsurprising objection you ever received, and how did you handle it? </li><li>Sell me this pen. </li><li>Give me an example\r\nof a sale that was, for all intents and purposes, lost. How did you turn the\r\nsituation around and make the sale?</li><li>Have you ever sold\r\nanything over the phone? </li><li>What special skills\r\nor techniques are necessary to be successful over the phone? </li><li>Tell me about a time\r\nwhen you called a complete stranger on the phone. How did you start the\r\nconversation? </li><li>How do you go about\r\ngathering names of new contacts on the phone? </li><li>What is your\r\npersonal most successful sales strategy secret? </li><li>What will you do if\r\nI hire you? </li></ul><p>If\r\nyou want to put your candidate through a more rigorous test you might consider\r\napplying the following strategy: </p><ul>\r\n<li>Don’t respond to\r\nyour scheduled telephone call. See what the person’s reaction is. </li><li>Send an email by\r\naddressing the candidate with the wrong name. Wait and see what the candidate does.\r\n </li><li>During the interview\r\nask the person to hold a presentation in selling the company’s product/service.\r\n(How confident does the person sound? How familiar is the candidate with the\r\ncompany’s products/services?)</li><li>Invite the job\r\napplicant for lunch. See how the candidate talks and acts outside an office\r\nenvironment. (Would you really want to do business with this person?) </li><li>Write a rejection\r\nletter. What is the candidate’s response to it? (Does the person still try to\r\nturn the situation around?) </li></ul><p>The\r\ngoal of this whole exercise is to find out in a real life scenario, how tenacious\r\nand keen the person is to close the deal. Don’t just rely on asking\r\nsales-related interview questions, instead try to put the candidate in\r\ndifferent situations. This approach will make it easier for you to make the\r\nright hiring decision.&nbsp;</p>"},"authorName":"Karin Schroeck-Singh","authorBio":{"authorBio":"Karin Schroeck-Singh is a passionate Public Speaker, eBook Author, and a freelancing Online Content Producer. She has an MBA from the University of Leicester (UK) and gained 18 years of international work experience in Italy, the UK and India."},"publishedOn":"2015-09-25T13:09:09.710Z"}},"pageContext":{"id":"e4433e15-9d63-5b56-8335-b5853d500b43"}},
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