5 Questions to Ask During the Hiring Process

When it comes to hiring someone new to join a sales team, the pressure is on to select the right candidate. But having to decide from a cover letter, a CV and a few face-to-face meetings whether someone is worth taking a chance on can be a tough ask. 

At Aaron Wallis, we know that recruitment is all about asking the right questions. When you’re interviewing someone for a role, asking the right questions can coax the interviewee into giving the answers you really want to hear – the answers that will tell you if they’re right for the job. We’ve come up with a selection of five great questions to ask during the interview process that will help you to narrow it down and choose the best candidate for your business.

1.     What previous work experience have you had to prepare you for this position?

Forget generic questions like, “Why are you a good fit for this position?” Instead, try to encourage the candidate to come up with specific examples and reasons why they’d be suitable for the job. Not only do they have to think on their feet, they also have to provide you with some insight into their work experience in order to answer the question. Two birds with one stone! Their answer should give you a clearer picture of the candidate’s working background, and whether or not their experience is suited to the position they’re applying for.

2.     From what you have learned about our company and this role, how could you make a contribution?

This question will help you discover whether your candidate is a serious contender for a role. Great candidates will have done their research on your company before the interview, and will know how they can make a valuable contribution to your business. The answer to this question should be bursting with enthusiasm, and must demonstrate some prior knowledge of your company. Watch out for generic answers – they’ll come from unsuitable candidates.

3.     Where do you see yourself in five years?

Want to gauge how ambitious and driven an individual is? Ask them this question. Pay attention not only to their vocal answer, but also to their body language as they respond. A truly ambitious, committed and motivated person will appear animated and passionate when talking about their hopes for the future. This is the kind of person you want representing your company.

4.     Give me an example of a time that you had to go above and beyond to get the job done or accomplish a task?

Their answer to this question will give you a sense of how dedicated the candidate is to their career. If they can’t think of any examples at all, it speaks volumes about their levels of commitment and overall attitude to their job.

5.     Do you have any questions?

This is a fairly standard interview technique – and for good reason. This question can speak volumes about a person, and it gives you more of an insight into their overall personality. If the candidate answers ‘no’ to this question, it’s more likely (though not certain) that they’re a passive person who lacks initiative. If the person asks self-centred questions about their pay or benefits, they’re more engaged but perhaps not a team player. The perfect candidate asks questions about the job itself, the role, the company and the expectations of them as a potential employee.

So you see, asking the right questions can tell you all you need to know about a potential recruit for your team. 

For more articles to help you recruit for your sales team visit: http://www.aaronwallis.co.uk/employer_client_advice.aspx

Do Yourself a Favour – When Looking For Sales Jobs, Choose a Specialist Sales Recruitment Agency.

Go to a supermarket to buy sausages, or whatever product you care to choose, and you will have to walk past a vast number of other products that you don’t want, or need, in order to get to them.
That’s how the system works, you see things that you didn't even think you wanted, or needed, but now you do – and you will probably buy at least some of them.

Some recruitment websites and agencies are rather like that. They are the recruitment equivalent of a supermarket. Once you are on their books they’ll show you jobs that may not be a good fit for your skills, because it’s in their interest to do so - after all, they’ll receive a commission if you, their candidate, succeeds in obtaining the job in question. It may be that the jobs that they show you are not even sales jobs at all.

By dealing with a specialist sales recruitment agency you will get to see only sales jobs. If the agency is a good one then they will drill down into your skill set, qualifications and training in order to make sure that they only put you forward for roles where you are likely to be a great fit.

This doesn't mean that you can’t change track with regard to the things you sell or the way that you want to do that selling. For example, someone with telesales experience may want to move into field sales or perhaps an experienced car salesperson might decide to go into selling computers or software services.

What’s important here is to demonstrate that you have experience in the sales process and not place too much emphasis on the product knowledge. There used to be a popular trick in sales interviews where the interviewer would hand the candidate a pen and say “sell me that pen.”

Although this is a bit of a cliché nowadays, I stopped doing it years ago, but in principle it does demonstrate the view, that many people have, which is that a good salesperson should be able to sell anything. It is, according to this theory, the sales technique that matters, not the product knowledge.

Of course, this is only a guide and it would be tough for someone with experience selling advertising in a local directory, for example, to step into selling medical equipment to doctors, but many employers will take the view that if someone comes across as a good salesperson then they could be given the product training to enable them to sell the more specialised product.

If you apply for sales jobs through a specialist sales recruitment agency they will take the time to compare your skills and experience to the profile that the employer has given them of their “ideal” candidate. Perhaps the employer might be wanting to take on a sales person with specific specialist knowledge of their product and, especially if it is a fairly senior role, they might only want to consider experienced people.

On the other hand, they may be willing to consider someone with good sales skills and then give them the product knowledge afterwards – by applying for sales jobs through a sales recruitment agency you can be sure that the agency will have established this by discussing the role with the employer prior to putting forward candidates.

As a jobseeker, all you need to do is submit your CV and other details to a specialist sales recruitment agency like Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment. They will take the time to speak to you and find out more about you so that they can put you forward as a candidate for the sales jobs that are right for you.

Despite the Overwhelming Shift Towards Inbound Marketing in Many Organisations – One Sales Role Seems Resistant to the Shift towards Outbound Oblivion – Telesales!

There can be few sales roles that vary in scope so much as that of telesales. The role can involve a variety of tasks ranging from simple service centre call answering and attempting to cross-sell or up-sell to existing product users, through to outbound “cold” calling and following up of leads which are, shall we say, not too strong.
When recruiting telesales staff employers are often keen to stress that, although basic salaries for telesales roles can be often be low, the on target earnings, (OTE), is often much higher due to the existence of a very good bonus or commission scheme.

Get Guidance From A Telesales Recruitment Agency
Guidance on industry average salary levels can be obtained from a specialist telesales recruitment agency. Those roles which involve high-intensity outbound cold calling are frequently more demanding and therefore often carry higher On Target Earnings than those which involve answering inbound calls from “warm” prospects.
Be Sure Know Your Telesales Recruitment Criteria
When recruiting telesales staff for an inbound role, one of the main criteria is to ensure that as well as being able to sympathetically handle an inbound call which may be a complaint to begin with, the telesales operator should be able to identify any opportunities to cross sell the client to an alternative product which may be a better fit or to upsell them to a product which has more, or better, features at a higher cost, of course.
A Nose For Business
This “salesman’s nose” is what enables good salespeople to identify an opportunity and develop it to the point when a sale or upgrade can be achieved. Not all operators will possess this skill so it is important to select candidates who either have it, or can be trained to acquire it very quickly.
Poor Sales Recruitment Can Lead To Missed Opportunities
Every inbound service call is a potential sales opportunity for many companies so it is important to scope out your proposed role in order to reflect this before starting the telesales recruitment process. This is a prime example of a situation where it can pay big dividends to use the services of a specialist telesales recruitment agency.
Telesales - The First Step On The Sales Ladder
For many, their first telesales role is simply the first step on the sales career ladder, leading up to a role perhaps as a field sales representative or account manager. Again, it is important to be able to recognise these qualities when recruiting telesales staff so that their career path can be managed accordingly.
It Can Be Cold Out There!
Alternatively, if your proposed telesales recruitment process is designed to attract a more hardcore applicant, one capable of successfully handling cold leads, then the criteria will be markedly different. This breed of telesales person is unlikely to be sitting around waiting for inbound calls and will usually work through a database or other prospect list until he or she finds someone willing to listen to their pitch.
Here, the qualities looked for, whilst having a lot in common with those described above for inbound salespeople, should include tenacity, dogged determination and a refusal to acknowledge the existence of the word “no”.

A rarer animal, no doubt, but with the aid of a competent telesales recruitment agency like Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment, they can be found.