3. Behavior Profiles
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Dominant Behavior Drives Customer Engagement
Empathetic Salespeople Connect to Customers (vs Spock)
Non-conformity Ensures Creative Solutions to Difficult Problems
Impatience is Good, Deadlines for Everything
4. The Pitch to Candidates
Lock in every candidate before qualifying
Working with smart people
Family orientation
Transparent communications
Focus on growth, personal and business
Low drama culture (forming, storming, norming, performing)
Great product
Great market
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5. Candidate Sources
Recruiters (least preferred due to cost
and conflicts of interest)
Employee references (2nd best)
Personal Network (best)
Indeed (3rd best)
In house recruiters
Social sources (Linkedin, facebook,
twitter)
Other? (keep adding to this list)
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6. Interviews (critical step – 1 of 2 sides)
The “round robin” Company Team Approach (separate interviews but 3+
departments participating)
Review with all the strategies for cutting the interview short (Never spend
time with a candidate that isn’t going to fit, that’s a waste of both person’s
time – show we respect time)
Create grading sheet, used by all interviewers to avoid later biases creeping
into the decision (use stack rank numbering – create in excel in 5 min)
Questioning
Stack rank (ask “how many peers in the prior sales team?” & “How did you
rank”), Look only for TOP 10% people DO NOT MAKE EXCEPTIONS
Addressing <2 year stints
Right answers…(financial hits/buy outs, forced move because of family, poor fit if
identified early, criminal activity, etc.)
Wrong answers…(poor performance, didn’t like someone, wasn’t treated right – anything
inward that’s not harassment or ethics based. Best to verify through other sources)
Heroes, ask “who are yours” (Run from anyone who can’t answer this, all great
salespeople have heroes that they model)
Life goals, what are they (all top performers have life goals they review
regularly)
Passions (best answer is something that relates to job requirements, worst is no
answer)
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7. “The measure of a man is how he treats money” – Carnegie (he asked their philosophy about money –
they should have one or it’s a red flag, and greed is ok with salespeople, the best stories here are the
ones form when they were very young)
Sales books, study – ask, “what was the last book you read for sales improvement?” (someone who
takes sales seriously is always studying the craft, it can never be truly mastered – consider eliminating
anyone who can’t remember the last one)
What brought you into sales? (just helps one to understand what motivates them, important to know
before hiring anyone but often overlooked)
GPA (and other awards are obvious pluses. But this can also act as a trick question, here you are
trying to see if you are dealing with an honest person. A poor GPA can be explained, but lying about a
poor GPA can’t)
Typical # calls/day? (ideal answer is 25-50+/day in enterprise sales, more for non-enterprise, consider
eliminating anyone who says they avoid cold calls, this IS NOT A SALES PERSON BY DEFINITION)
Opportunities Created Per Period (measure this answer against other candidates for same position,
and be sure to ask the follow up of how many typically closed)
% Self Identified Opportunities Per Period (looking for people that know sales is about finding
business, not having everything handed to you by marketing)
How long did you prepare for this interview (answer should be hours, lack of preparation is a top 3
reason for poor sales results, extra points for anyone who was smart enough to pay an expert to craft
their resume)
Benchmark Prior Sales Process (measure against known best processes), ask “take me from start to
finish in one of your recent sales”
Benchmark Prior Objection Handling (Crucible Behavior – think like a bugler or Marine, find path
through or around. Ask them “describe a recent obstacle you encountered and how you dealt with it)
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Interviews (critical step – 2 of 2 sides)
8. Answering the Potential Rep’s questions
Are they asking all the right questions?
• Sales process
• % of team hitting quota
• Hiring process steps, asking for the job!
• Are they asking questions that show they did research?
Red flag questions
• Compensation (on 1st interview)
• Flextime
• Others?
They should talk 2x more than you
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9. Post interview processes
Offer letter mechanics review, leave no chance for confusion (explain to the candidate next steps and time-frames). Ask them
when they want to start – this should be the date you put on the offer letter
Offer letter pre-call (SEE NEXT SLIDE – Counteroffers), call rep discuss intended offer specifics to ensure fit with candidates
expectations
Behavior test (the model works, don’t make exceptions because of someone being exceptionally nice)
Criminal background check (don’t dishonor everyone in the office by having your new hire walked out by the police)
Manager calls (close loop on stack rank ques. & any managing issues)
Do not allow the “we don’t provide these” objection, use Marine or Burglar logic
to get around this blockage (do not accept no answer)
Be sure to tell candidate you will be calling their prior managers when asking
about their ranking, saves a lot of embarrassment
Sync inputs, make selection (if appropriate) & gain harmony with other organizational decision makers. If agreement isn’t
reached, be sure your logic is explained to all dissenters
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