In May’s column, I declared, “50% of all new, first-job-in-sales hires do not make it one year,” before continuing with “A year later, 80% are gone.” The first step down this disastrous path is in the interview process. As such, I made suggestions of sample questions a manager can ask a candidate to try and head off a bad hire.
But the manager is not the only one who should be asking questions. Salespeople should arrive with a cache of queries. Great thought, but there are two flaws:
1. They don’t know what they don’t know. That is, because they are new to sales, they aren’t walking in with a list of questions sure to identify a bad fit. But that’s what this month’s column is for … a thought I stood by until the second flaw hit me …
2. I realized potential print sales hires are unlikely to be reading Printing Impressions. That means you managers will need to help them out by bringing up the following issues to beat that 50%/80% failure rate.
Still, I am going to offer up some interview questions as if I was talking directly to them …
“Do you have a sales background?” — A “No” answer is not a good sign and potentially a massive red flag. This means you’ll be working for someone who has never walked the walk. They’ve never sold. They don’t get it. It’s the first question I ask when pulled in to a rep/manager conflict and almost always the lack of been there/sold that experience is a major factor. Do you walk out of the interview at this point? No, but it is something to consider later if you are on the fence. The only time you walk out is if the answer is, “No, but it doesn’t matter because I’ve managed many salespeople over the years and I know them.” If you hear that answer, run! It comes from someone who lacks the humility to admit they don’t know everything and the intelligence to realize one key factor: Sales is different in every way, from the personality type to the definition of success. Which leads me to the second question …
Read the rest of this article on Printing Impressions, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic partner.
