2 1/2 minute video blog – What does dating and interviewing salepeople have in common?
Video Script – Hello, I am Steve Suggs, salesperson recruiting training expert and author of the book Can They Sell. Welcome to my recruiting video blog. 2 and 1/2 minutes of training on recruiting the best salespeople.
Have you ever been on a 2nd date and felt like you’d never met the person before?
At the end of my sophomore year in high school, I kiss my girlfriend goodbye knowing that I wouldn’t see her over the summer. Eventually, summer is over, school is back in session, and as you can imagine, we’re excited to see each other. We finally meet in the hallway of a new school, with new friends, and a new atmosphere. It was great to see her after several long weeks, but for some strange reason as the hours went by, she didn’t seem to be the same person that I’d said goodbye to just a few weeks earlier. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but we just didn’t click. The spark simply wasn’t there. Maybe it was the new school and new friends, or maybe it was both of us had just changed and grown in different ways.
This story reminds me of several times where I have interviewed salespeople and they sound great on the telephone, the 1st initial interview goes well and then I give them some homework and have them take a personality assessment and they come back in for the final interview. About halfway through the interview, my excitement for them begins to fade, the original spark just isn’t there. It’s true in dating and it’s true in recruiting salespeople. The more time we spend with someone, we’re either more attracted to them or less attracted to them. Getting to know someone takes time. Blindly looking at a candidate through the lens of whether or not they can perform sales duties is not enough. We need to measure their attitudes, motivations and character and get to know them at a deeper level. That’s why I recommend a multistep interview process. The final in-depth interview may turn out to be that 2nd bad date. Brian Tracy says that it’s important to interview people in different settings. Hold the interview in different rooms in your office or get out of the office to a coffee shop. This change of setting my change how you view the candidate.
Thank you for joining me. See you next time on the Can They Sell video blog for more salesperson recruiting training. As always, please leave your comments below and forward this video to anyone who will benefit. If you haven’t already, please register to for this blog. Now go recruit the best salespeople.
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