Recruiting a sales person - tips?

[adamsgi]

We are recruiting our first ever dedicated sales person and have our first interview tomorrow. I have recruited before, but not for a sales role. Are there any questions I should ask to get a feel for how well a person can sell? They will be selling payroll services, so there are no products involved just B2B services. Has anyone got any pointers?

Thanks!

[maxine]

Hi Adam

I do lead generation for accountants and have run quite a few payroll campaigns which can be pretty tough going from cold calling. Sometimes it isn't all about the "selling skills" in my opinion, it is about having an attractive product, presented to the right audience with a strong offer, and building up and managing a pipeline of prospects effectively.

I did a blog article Telemarketing for Payroll that might give a few ideas to help you but a couple of questions for your interview might go along the lines of ...

* How would you respond if a person told you that they were tied into a fixed fee contract with their Accountant that included Payroll services?

* How would you respond if a person told you that a family member was currently doing all the Payroll and managing perfectly fine?

* How would you respond if someone told you that they had an inhouse person doing the payroll for them and could not see the benefits of outsourcing?

Hope that helps and good luck
:)

[LightingGiants]

Go Superwoman @ maxine

[maxine]

Thanks LG (Promise I meant to be helpful and not spammy)

... but anyway I forgot to add link to blog article :)

Telemarketing for Payroll (http://maxxyuk.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/telemarketing-for-payroll-services/)

[VeitSchenk]

here's a thing I've learned from Chet Holmes on hiring sales-superstars:
let them know that you're after superstars only -- and at some point during the interview make a remark along the lines "mhmm, I don't quite see super-star material here". If they're a really good sales-person, they'll see that as an objection and start handling it (yes, they might get a little pissed off...). If they don't have what it takes to do tough sales, then they'll cave in, "ah, ok, well, mhmm....".

you've got this practice this though so you know what to do if they start coming back at you

note from personal experience: I've made the mistake of putting ads out for "superstars" and then didn't do the test described above, and every single time I did regret it afterwards. And every time I did it properly (it kinda feels harsh when you do it) I ended up with great people.

[Acorn BusinessPerformance]

Hi,

In my opinion (as an experienced Sales Professional) ask your self a question.

Is this person trustworthy and would I buy from them?

You can only hire the "yes" people and not many will fall in that category if you are being honest.

Regards,

Alex
Acorn Business Performance

[Connections_Media]

As this is a sales role your going to want to get to find out what their personality is like and when I was recruiting for a sales role before I found all that formal interviewing does is just makes the candidates chat absolute ****.

I would make the situation relaxed but also be objective and let them overcome the objections as you will gain an understanding about their ability. Personality is a huge factor in sales as most people buy from the person not the company so I would assess if they are a very warming person and able to talk.

I know you might not think it is orthodox but I done interviews in a nice pub before as it made the candidates show their real self not the person who is just applying for the job.

[maxine]

So the op should have done the interview today...

How did it go?

[adamsgi]

Thank you for all your replies, particularly Maxine. The blog post on Telemarketing for Payroll was a great read and allowed me to ask some real questions on objection handling.

We already have someone who we almost certainly want to employ, but are reserving final judgement until seeing the other two candidates. I took the advice of making the interview less formal and so had a general chat at the beginning trying to find some common ground before starting the interview and seeing how they would fit in with the existing team.

I'll keep you all posted!