Briefly the steps you must take to get a real sales superstar are as follows:
- Design your job advert to scare off people who aren’t right for you
- Do an initial brief phone interview to burn through the chancers
- Invite them to a Psychological Profile-based Interview
- Ensure a Super Star Self-assessment Form is completed to show each
- Interviewees skill levels (at the right time in the interview)
- Check their CV and ask questions on it at the end of the interview
- Phone their references
- Try them on probation (hire or fire depending on outcome)
The whole process is all about finding the person with the psychological profile that fits a sales super star. Bear in mind as you go through the process that not every great salesman has high-rankings in all the attributes of a star salesman. Hence step 6 in the process – the hire or fire decision. Three important steps from the recruitment process are Job Advert Design, Phone Interview and the Psychological Profile-based Interview. These are explained below: Job Advert Design
Attract the sales superstar by indicating the top level of income they could expect. Not the income level you’d expect an average salesman to make. Design the advert so that it’s clear you’ll know whether the interviewee is who you’re looking for. Don’t limit potential candidates to your industry sector. A true super star will learn your target market quickly. You should have in place training so that he can learn faster.
Use the phone interview to put them under pressure – can they handle it? Can they handle rejection? Or do they simply go away? Typically a phone interview will allow you to burn through 80% to 85% of everyone who applies leaving you with a more manageable set of potential sales super stars to interview.
This interview is in three parts. Deep rapport building, skills assessment and CV review. You can see from the number of parts to the interview that it takes longer to do than most normal interviews – but results in a better breed of salesman in your company. It also quickly finds out whether the person is a sales supertstar, or not. As I’ve noted in the part I of this article , empathy and ego need to be in the right balance to create a sales super star.
We can find that out by using a psychological profile based interview. This type of interview allows us to explore how the interviewee was regarded during childhood, the sort of things they enjoyed and how they were shaped by their experiences.
As a by-product this part of the interview creates deep rapport so that you can ask very deep questions and expect to get truthful answers, or make the candidate very uncomfortable if they’re lying.
Once you’ve established the deep rapport I use a 17 point Sales Super Star Self Assessment process and form to assess whether the candidate is really a superstar or a bluffer.
Finally you review the salesman’s CV and ask probing questions which usually result in truthful answers because they’re still in deep rapport with you.
Move quickly when you’re interviewing superstars as once they start being interviewed a good recruiter will get them as quickly as possible. Maybe before you.
Also be prepared for them to leave one day because superstars are also entrepreneurs too. And they’ll want to work for themselves in due course.
One word of warning if you find your super star salesman doesn’t bring in the business for you. It maybe they weren’t interested in your business at all and were using you as a stop gap. Or they discover they don’t really like your sector. Don’t hang about find out as early as possible. You’ll notice little or no activity and/or no sales, or they’ll complain - often. Obviously your particular sales cycle depends on your industry so you’ll know how soon a good salesman should be getting sales. If you don’t ask around.
How Can You Tell Your Salesman Isn’t For You
The Psychological Profile-based Interview
Phone Interview
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