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Hello, I am Steve Suggs, sales recruiting expert and author of the book, Can They Sell. Welcome to my sales recruitment video blog where you learn to hire the best salespeople.
I recently had the privilege of being the customer of a master salesperson, Travis. Before presenting his product, Travis patiently asked me several open-ended questions to determine my needs, and then, he skillfully presented the features and benefits of his product that matched my needs. I quickly trusted him and was eager to hear his presentation.
During the presentation, he continued to ask me questions and allowed me to react and ask clarifying questions. He adapted his presentation style to my buying style. I had several objections, but he answered my fears and concerns with well thought-out, honest answers. I liked the fact that he didn’t talk too much and didn’t try to tell me everything he knew about the product, but he only focused on those benefits that I was interested in. It was a pleasure doing business with him, and I’ll gladly refer my friends to him.
What was it about Travis that caused him to be able to skillfully execute the sales process in a way that made me feel that he was genuinely interested in solving my problems?
In this video, we’ll look at the traits and skills of this master salesperson and how to measure these in candidates when recruiting salespeople.
First, Travis mastered a face-to-face sales process. As mentioned before, you can put two different people through the same training, and one will master the skills and the other will not.
Natural abilities plus great training equals a master salesperson. Conversely, great training plus weak natural abilities equals a struggling salesperson.
So what are the natural traits that caused Travis to master these great presentation skills?
1. He has the trait of high Social Assertiveness and Confidence. Travis looked me in the eye, confidently asked questions and presented his product.
2. He had a moderately high amount of Need to Impress. Travis had a high desire to impress me with the features and benefits of his product with contagious enthusiasm.
3. When I strongly objected and had some fears and concerns, he didn’t back down. However, he didn’t approach my objections with an intimidating or arrogant response, but with a tone full of caring and concern for solving my problem. This response to my objections was a combination of moderate amounts of the personality trait of Desire to Nurture and the character trait of Concern for Others.
4. Travis also had the attitude of a strong desire to solve my problems using his product, of which he strongly believed in.
So how do we measure the traits and skills while hiring salespeople?
The personality traits of high Social Assertiveness, moderate Need to Impress, and moderate Need to Nurture can be measured by using a validated personality assessment specifically designed to measure these traits. We measure the character trait of Concern for Others with interview questions. We also measure the candidate’s attitude of wanting to solve customers’ problems with interview questions.
To measure the character trait of concern for others, ask these questions:
- What about work fulfills you?
We’re looking for words like “helping others”, “making a difference”, and “solving problems for people”.
- When you’re not working, what are some things that are important to you that you spend time doing?
Look for involvement in things that benefit other people like family, charity, religious organizations. We want to hire people who have a high focus on helping others.
To measure your candidate’s attitude toward your products and services ask questions like these:
- What do you like about what we do and how we serve our customers?
- Who has influenced your thinking the most about our products and services?
- What did you learn from them?
- What products, similar to what we sell, do you currently own or have owned in the past?
We’re looking for candidates to passionately tell us why they like the products and why they have a passion for solving our customers’ problems using our product. We want to know how they developed this passion. Their ownership and experience with our product is a good measure of their passion for the product.
To summarize…
To measure the degree to which a candidate will master the skill of making effective sales presentations, measure for the hard-wired personality traits of Social Assertiveness, Need to Impress, and Need to Nurture. Measure for the attitude of passion for your product and the character trait of Concern for Others.
Thank you for joining me. See you next time on the Can They Sell video blog for more sales job recruitment training. As always, please forward this video to anyone who will benefit. Now go enjoy recruiting the best, and use these interview techniques to help you hire salespeople who will master the skill of delivering strong presentations.
Learn more about the following:
• Where to find sales people, where to find sale reps
• What to look for while recruiting salespeople – 5 Dimensions of the Best Salesperson Profile Hiring sales, hire salespeople, hire sales people, hiring sales people, hiring sales reps, IT sales recruitment, recruiting sales people, sales job recruitment
• How to look for the 5 Dimensions – get questionnaires – interview questions for sales, interview questions for salespeople, sales interview, interview questions for sales people
- Sales test, sales assessment, CPQ, Craft Personality Questionnaire (now the CTS Sales Profile personality questionnaire)
- Sales interview tips
- Sales job description – page 79, Can They Sell book
- Tips for screening resumes – Chapter 13, Can They Sell book
To YOUR Success,
Steve Suggs
SalesManage.com/Recruiting
CanTheySell.com