How to Validate Your Sales Candidates

Difficulties When Finding Sales Candidates

The first step in the sales hiring process is to make sure you’re looking for the right people. This means that you need to be clear on what it takes to succeed in your organization and how the role fits into your company’s overall growth strategy. If you aren’t clear about these things, then it will be hard for a prospective hire to say yes and become part of your team. Finding good candidates doesn't have to be difficult, but it does require some strategic planning on your part before looking for any specific type of person or experience level within sales teams (i.e., junior vs senior).

Work Ethic

• The sales candidate's work ethic is the quality that matters most. The best way to determine if a candidate has a strong work ethic is to ask questions in this vein: "What are your top three priorities at work?" and "Can you describe a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty for one of your clients?"
• A candidate's attitude toward his job can also be an indicator of his commitment to the company. You might ask questions like this: "Tell me about a time when things didn't go as planned," or "Tell me about a time when someone asked for something that was unreasonable."
• Motivation, self-discipline, and drive are all qualities needed by high performers in any field—and especially so in sales. Questions like these should help clarify how driven your candidates really are: "What motivates you to do well at work?" and "Tell me about something challenging that happened recently."

Communication Skills

One of the most important things to look for in a sales candidate is how they communicate. Do they speak clearly and concisely? Do they make eye contact with you as they talk or do their eyes dart around the room? How do they respond when answering your questions? What’s their tone of voice like?

The way you ask these questions will vary based on your company’s culture, but here are some things to listen for:

• Nervousness or lack of confidence.
• How well articulated their answers are, whether they use simple words instead of unnecessary jargon.
• Their ability to ask follow-up questions if necessary (and demonstrate that knowledge).
• Whether or not their previous job experiences align with what you need in this position.

Competitive Instincts

The third quality you should look for is competitive instincts. The ability to compete and win is critical in sales. When a person thinks of competition, they often think of the positive aspects: a will to succeed and be better than others, drive and ambition, and an attitude that makes them eager to push forward with their goals. However, there are two kinds of competition: one that benefits your customers and company; one that does not.

The first kind is what we call "Good Competition", which refers to when two people or organizations are both working together towards mutual benefit (i.e., there is overlap between what each party wants).

The second kind of competition is called "Bad Competition," which occurs when two parties are competing over something they don't want and neither party has any interest in giving up those resources or rights! This type of activity hurts your business by causing fights within your organization instead of building consensus around solutions that will help everyone succeed (and earn more money).

Persistence

Next, you need to be persistent. Don’t give up on the sale until you have it in your hand. You can’t expect someone to take the time out of their day for an appointment if you don’t show up for yours!

If you were late for your meeting and it escalates into something more than a mere apology (ie: an angry customer), there are still ways that you can recover from this situation. If they are really upset with missed appointments, they may never consider doing business with your company again, but there is hope! Follow-up emails are a great way to keep yourself top-of-mind and remind clients that they did miss out on something special by not following through with the initial appointment. Just make sure that these follow-ups aren't too frequent or overly intrusive; otherwise, they'll start coming off as annoying rather than helpful reminders of what could have been, which is never good when trying to sell anything!

Sales Ability

To be a successful salesperson, the candidate needs to understand the product and customer. It's important to be able to articulate the value of your product in terms of what it can do for them. Candidates should also know what customers are looking for and be able to show how your product meets their needs.

The most common mistake made by companies is to hire the best candidates from an academic or technical point of view, but then fail to assess their sales ability. This leads to poor performance and high turnover rates.

In fact, it's not just about sales ability but also about the person's character and attitude. Salespeople need to be very persuasive. They have to be able to convince their potential customers that they need something.

It is very difficult to assess whether a candidate has all these qualities or not. But there are some questions that can help you determine whether a candidate has good sales skills or not:

• What was your biggest sale? Why did it make you feel good? What did you do right?
• What would you say are the three keys to success in sales?
• What have been your biggest challenges and successes?
  

Check These 4 Things When Hiring Salespeople

• Work ethic: The right salesperson will be willing to put in long hours to get the job done. They will also be willing to travel where needed, and not complain about the hours or pay.
• Communication skills: A good salesperson is able to convey their message effectively, listen closely, and understand what customers need from them. They can then translate those needs into specific solutions for their client's problems.
• Competitive instincts: Salespeople who are driven by competition are more likely to push harder than others when it comes down to closing deals or beating out competitors for new business opportunities. They'll also likely have a better understanding of how competitive companies operate because they've been there themselves (or know someone who has).
• Persistence: As we mentioned above, persistence can take on many forms, whether that means asking clients over and over again until they finally say yes or just keeping after an opportunity until it comes through (even when everyone else thinks it's already too late). It's important that your candidates show this characteristic early on so you know whether or not they're right for your company culture; if they don't have it naturally then there's no use hiring them!