Bringing New Blood into Your Sales Team

When new people join a well-oiled sales team, they often end up quitting or falling behind on their quotas. It’s getting harder and harder to identify good talent in the standard job interview process because you can’t really tell if a person has what it takes to join your team just by looking at their experience.

So, how can you make sure you pick the right candidate every time?

Well, you can’t really be 100% sure every time, but this week I wanted to share a few ways you can see if a candidate likely has what it takes to join your sales team and thrive. Here’s what I came up with:

Increase Pressure

It’s no secret that in order to sell successfully you need to be able to deal with high pressure situations. Many sales managers are taking the opportunity to set up high-pressure simulation calls or more hands-on interviewing to see how the candidate will respond to high-pressure situations.

Test Character

Most people will lie and give you answers they think you want to hear in order to get a job, therefore testing a candidate’s character will show you his or her true colors. To do this, simply create role playing situations that will have the candidate make a decision on their own. If they tend to lean towards self-preservation or evasion rather than problem solving, they are most likely not a good fit for your team.

Sell Me This Pen…

It’s one of the oldest tests of a true salesperson, but it is still a great way to sort out the lackluster candidates from the exceptional ones. Place any object you like in front of the candidate you’re interviewing (preferably a commodity like a pen, a glass of water, a stapler, etc.), and ask the candidate to sell it to you.

Only people who have practiced their pitch and have the creativity, resourcefulness, and drive to succeed will really make you want to buy this object.

That’s when you know you have a winner.

Follow these steps while interviewing your new candidates, and you are sure to find the strongest candidates for success.

If you’d like to talk more about building your sales team with the best possible prospects, or if there’s something else I can be of assistance with, don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’m always happy to block off some time to connect.