Look at how they’d respond to this question not commonly asked in interviews. This would give you an idea how they respond to that occasional oddball question from clients and prospects.
Of course, no one would prefer anything here–but ask them what’s worse. Depending on the position they’re interviewing for and the goals of your company, they can make the wrong or right wer that would demonstrate their fit.
Let them choose something they’re capable of explaining thoroughly. What you’re looking for is helpful, consultative demeanor as opposed to someone “giving instructions”. Are they patient in fleshing out details, looking at you for cues of interest or confusion? The important thing to note here is how they conduct themselves when faced with the task of explaining something thoroughly.
In the age of consultative selling, we’re looking for words like “knowledgeable” and “helpful”.
Ideally, your aspirant has researched about your company, your sales process and your products. More than having the right suggestions, what you’re looking out here for is if they did research before the interview. Major brownie points if they did.
This is a test of whether they did research on your company or not, and if they are capable of selling to your target clients or not. You’d have to watch out for details–how well do they know the audience and if they can give a general overview of the common pain points for ideal clients of your company and product.
Is their least favorite part of the sales process a crucial step in the sales process of your company? Might be better to let them walk.
Ask them about techniques they use when responding to price objections, early objections and other types of resistance from customers. Listen if they have a process in place.
According to Glassdoor, lack of opportunities for growth is one of the top reasons salespeople go on to look for another job. If your company is unable to provide growth opportunities to the person you’re interviewing, you’re better off letting them walk than to have to go through hiring again sooner than you’d like.
Sales is not about seeing what sticks–that’s why you form buyer personas and pinpoint your ideal clients before launching a sales campaign. If your candidate says they will never do that, it’s time to do some explaining that not all potential customers are good fits
Screen for cheesy wers. Get to the core. Is it money? Recognition? Helping others? Being on top? Depending on what your company’s values are, you’ll get an idea if you have an applicant that could fit your sales culture well.
You’re looking for salespeople who are persistent and are willing to get better after every call. These are the type of employees that drive success from the sales floor. Make sure that they are able to understand why this is important–and if they never had the chance or direction to do so, ask what they would do if they were in such a situation.
You want someone who will stay so definitely give less points for people who would say monetary benefits (like commission and spiffs) as their main motivation.
Nurturing leads and attracting prospects through useful content are major ingredients of the inside sales recipe. Ask the aspirant how they would use content in day to day operations.
While this question’s wer probably largely relies on how their past companies managed sales, you want to be on the lookout for aspirants who know that one or the other can never be left behind. Both are crucial in inside sales and expanding the sales pipeline.
The sales life is ridden with rejection. It’s definitely crucial for a salesperson to have the ability to self-inject positivity when needed. Ask them for their techniques.
They should be able to give you specific processes they had in place in their past job. Even if they’re from a different niche, they should demonstrate understanding of why being updated is crucial. Having prior go-to techniques is a good demo of this.
It’s good to let them know that yours is a reasonable company. You know that everyone has bad spells. Ask them to tell you about it: what led to it and how they turned it around.