Skilled sales reps have a lot of practice selling not only their product or service but also selling themselves. While this is a great ability for a sales rep to have, it can make interviewing one very difficult. Many times a sales rep will be hired based on their charisma and confidence during an interview, but when it come time for them to perform, oftentimes they’re unsuccessful. The best way to avoid hiring regret is to interview sales reps about skills that you can observe and ones they can’t manipulate.
Writing Skills
Good writing skills are not just reserved for marketing and creative professionals. It’s important for sales reps to have strong writing skills too when reaching out to potential prospects and corresponding with current customers. In a world where people rarely answers phone calls from people they don’t know and refrain from checking emails altogether, it’s important for sales reps to be able to craft enticing emails that will grab the prospect’s attention.
One way to determine if a sales rep already has good writing skills is to look at any of the correspondence you have had with them and at their resume. Both their emails and resume should be free of grammatical errors and both should look and sound professional. If you don’t have any previous emails from them, ask them to answer some follow-up questions for you in an email and observe their writing skills in the response.
Interpersonal Skills
Many sales reps appear to be very charismatic and conversational in an interview, but good interpersonal skills extend beyond interactions with clients or people they need to impress. Sales reps need to be able to work with colleagues and sales managers in and out of the office. Top sales reps often get a reputation for not playing well with others and making up their own rules but this can have a negative effect on your company’s culture if you’re very team-oriented.
To avoid hiring someone with poor interpersonal skills, ask questions about how they react to stress and how they got along with previous co-workers. If you’re not satisfied with their answers, ask for references from former colleagues.
Product Knowledge
A good sales rep will know all of the ins and outs of the product or service they’re selling. They should be able to provide you with exact details about what they’re selling and being able to answer any questions you have. If they’re not confident about what they’re selling, then that could cost them a potential sale.
A great way to find out about their product knowledge is to ask them about the most recent product or service they were selling. Ask questions that a prospect would typically ask and see if they stumble through their answer, or if they really sell it. You can look at their resume to see where they have previously worked and do some research on the company before the interview to really test their knowledge.
Selling Skills
It’s one thing to hear a sales rep’s product pitch, but it’s another thing to see how they have performed in the past. The best indicator of future success is past behavior and that is definitely true in sales. A sales rep should be able to point to specific numbers on their resume to show how well they have been performing
Make sure to pay attention to whether or not they consistently meet quota and if they’re able to reach goals beyond their quota. This is a good way to determine whether or not they’re successful because the numbers don’t lie. If you’re unsure about the numbers they’ve provided, then call a reference or past manager to verify what the candidate has told you.
Hiring new sales reps can be challenging, but if you are prepared and know what to look for, then you can increase your chances of hiring a top rep that will be successful in the future.
