How to Interview and Hire Sales People

No matter which type of industry it is that your company is dealing with, knowing how to interview and hire sales people is a must if you want your business to prosper. Naturally, selling the products or services that your company offers to clients is the key to making a profit.

How do you think you will do in the sales department if you do not have an excellent team of sales representatives working for you? As you may have already heard a million times before, you business' performance in sales is what will make and break your company.

In order for your business to prosper, the people that you will hire would play a major role in how the company performs, sales-wise. Read on to learn more about the things that you need to remember when hiring and interviewing sales people.

Tips on Hiring and Interviewing Sales People

1. Choose the right interviewer.

The problem that most companies have is that they do not choose the right people to do the interviewing and hiring process. This is especially true for small organizations who barely have an experienced Human Resource personnel to spare if they are doing the hiring themselves. If the interviewer does not have the experience to assess the personality of the interviewees, then they will just base their decisions on instinct – without truly knowing whether a candidate can truly excel as a top sales agent or not.

2. Ask the candidates about what they know of your company beforehand.

Do not let the information about your company come from you. A 'good' prospective employee should take the time and effort to research about what your company is all about. This is a also a good way to determine whether the candidate has enough initiative and drive to make it as a good sales person.

3. Prepare a set of questions for each candidate to answer.

Preparation is the key if you want to be able to select the best team of sales people under your employ. First, make a list of the key qualifications that each candidate should have. From the dozens or hundreds of applicants that you have, just contact those whose qualifications meet your hiring requirements. After this initial sorting out of candidates, make sure to prepare a set of questions for each candidate to answer. This will standardize the hiring process and ensure that there is no bias when it comes to choosing who the most qualified candidate is.

4. If there are clients who have extensive experience in the sales department, check on their previous performance. Make sure that the candidate that you are interviewing can confidently say that you can go ahead and contact his or her previous boss to check on their performance as a sales representative. This way, you can have some sort of a measuring scale to determine how the person that you are interviewing will perform when hired.

5. Develop a set of behavioral and situational questions in the course of the interview.

Excelling in sales is a mixture of instinct, quick decision making, persistence, drive and experience. By making the candidate answer a set of behavioral and situational questions, you would know how the person would react in a given situation. For example, if you are looking for a sales manager, you can ask the candidate how he or she would motivate a sales representative who is not meeting the quota.
Generally, the hiring and interviewing process to put together sales people who will make your business succeed is quite a challenge. However, as long as you know how to assess the candidates and you have a list of the qualities and qualifications that you are looking for in a salesperson – then you should be good to go.