The One Best Sales Rep Interview Question!

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assessment, Interview, Interviewing, leadership traits, questions, Sales, sales effectiveness, sales excellence, sales interview, sales interview questions, sales management, sales people, selling

Use the process carefully…choose you final question with care!

Interview questions fall into four categories;

1. Functional Skills – Those “know how” skills that are necessary to perform tasks that are routine.  There are valuable questions here that can expose the candidates education, and training.  Some deeper questions can help you uncover the interviewee’s perception of their role, and understanding of sales process.  This is a particularly important field of questions for small to medium sized companies that may not offer in-house training.
2. Product knowledge – Just how important is product knowledge?  Does a communication sales rep need to know what reports a call center system is capable of generating?  Does a cabinet sales person have to know how a compound joint is fastened?  The depth and breadth of product knowledge required is really driven by how your customers make buying decisions.
3. Industry knowledge – Is it necessary for your sales people to understand your industry, and your customer’s industry?
4. Leadership skills – This is the most overlooked line of interview questions, yet this competency is the primary driver of the sales person’s success.  Just because a sales rep does not have direct reports does not mean they do not need leadership skills.  Self leadership is the fuel that drives the sales person to utilize all those functional skills.  These are the “soft” skills that are more difficult to train.  Entrepreneurial drive, impact & influence, self-confidence, effective communication and identifying the needs of the prospect come to mind.

There’s no one question that can ensure you make the best hiring decision.  However, your hiring process should be organized enough so that you ensure that all four categories of interviewing focus are covered in the process.  If the last interviewer is asking the same line of questions that the first person asked are you really making the best use of the process?  Think of the interviewing process as a funnel where 100 candidates begin the process and 96 are eliminated.  So perhaps the first step is a 10 minute screening interview where the candidate’s industry knowledge is explored.  The next step may be a 30 minute interview focusing on product knowledge and some fundamental sales skills.  A traditional one hour interview is required to dive deeper into functional skills.  These interviews should always be conducted by a field sales manager.  If the field of candidates is still large I would advise that another field manager conduct a second interview drilling down further into functional skills.

So if your interviewing process is working correctly you now have reduced the number of candidates from 100 down to 4.  And now there is time to change your focus from product, industry and functional knowledge to self leadership skills.  To this point you have narrowed the field to those candidates that are capable of doing the job.  Focusing the final interview on self leadership will help you make the best selection not on capability to succeed, but on the likelihood of that success.  Which is the one candidate that is most likely to succeed and become a peak performer?

Having interviewed thousands of sales candidates, hiring hundreds and seeing those people succeed I would offer this advice.  The one leadership competency that seems to always differentiate average performers & peak performers is entrepreneurial drive.  The only way to determine if a candidate possesses this leadership competency is to ask a situational question, and to listen closely for the behaviors that exemplify this competency.

So what is my favorite all time final interview question?  “Tell me about a time when you were driven to acheive a goal, you faced substantial resistence, and had little internal support.”  This one question should take 30 to 45 minutes to discuss.  And now for the hard part.  You must listen for the candidate’s behaviors.  You must guard against directing them towards an answer, and you can only give them credit for what they did.  Too often “we” slips into the conversation.  No credit for “we” in this interview.  So what behaviors are you listening for?

• The candidate set their own objectives (probably higher than expected), and competed against a self defined standard of excellence.
• Tirelessly pursued attainment of that goal, perhaps for years.
• Showed tenacity by persisting, taking numerous, sustained actions over time in the face of obstacles.
• Identifies the resources needed to attain the goal, and then takes entrepreneurial action to obtain those resources.
• Never gave up.

In the end you’re looking for that special person with the attitude of Gene Kranz…remember him?  Ed Harris played Gene Kranz in the movie “Apollo 13.”  Gene’s most remembered quote was “failure is not an option.”  I believe that in every great sales person there’s a common theme.

What’s That Prospect Thinking?

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coaching, performance, sales cycles, sales effectiveness, sales management, sales people, sales respresentatives, sales training, self improvement, selling

At some point in your the sales cycle your prospect has decided they have a need, hopefully because of your world class probing skills.  As you try to help them move from need, through analysis and finally decision time…just what are they thinking?

At a conscious, or subconscious level buyers are always trying to get comfortable with the balance of performance, image and price (PIP).  Think of these three drivers as concepts that are perceived differently by each of us.  Also understand that perceptions change over time.  In our current economy we must all recognize that the relationship between these three drivers will be changing dramatically.  Marketing must understand these shifts and adapt products and messages that will be appealing.  Sales will have to rework sales presentations, ask new questions and think more about the answers they are hearing.

So what are these three concepts and how should I deal with them?

• Performance – for consumers this concept is going to change dramatically.  Think about the most expensive purchase a consumer makes…a home.  Bigger is better is a dead concept.  Consumers will not sacrafice long commutes to work in trade for a McMansion.  Certainly families form, expand and contract so actual space needs will change.  But the concept, bigger is better is gone.  For business buyers there will be a similar shift.  Product/service claims will all be tracked.  Proof will be examined.  Investments that will not deliver a return for years will not be purchased.  If you thought companies were short sighted before, you haven’t seen anything yet!
• Image –  this concept is alive and well.  Right?  Image is alive and well but constantly changing.  For consumers the image is more about what something means to me.  For the homebuyer they may want a smaller home closer to work, but they will still want that home packed with what is important to them and their lifestyle.  Some images may become anti-conspicuous.  Is the Prius the new BMW?  If you don’t think companies will change their views on image I have one question for you.  Would you apply for a job selling corporate aircraft today?
• Price – despite the tone of this posting I do not believe that price will come before all other drivers, but price must make sense.  Consumers may be ready and willing to buy, but are wary about their ability to buy.  Staying with the home purchase example there is pent up demand for quality newer homes, but the fear of the unknown continues to keep these buyers on the sidelines.  Hyundai has done an excellent job in addressing this fear with their recent Assurance Plus program.   For businesses there will be a categorical shift.  If your product is directly related to their product/service core offering then your value proposition will get traction.  If you cannot prove this direct correlation, price will become more important to the buyer.

So the buying process is the same, more difficult certainly.  The shift will be in the buyer’s perceptions and balancing of performance, image and price is going to change dramatically for the next several years.  Consumer preferences will shift and so will business buyer’s.  If your sales presentation was about performance & image and you dismissed pricing as an issue, you are going to have a very difficult time in the coming months. 

Archimedes said “Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth.”  I have always loved that quote, but for the time being the earth is shifting and so should your sales approach.

The Single Biggest Impact On Sales This Year!

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coaching, effectiveness, leadership, management, performance, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales management, sales training

As a CEO or top sales officer you may be the cause of sub-optimal sales results.  How?

Field Sales Leaders generally have multiple accountabilities, each one competing for their time;

• Revenue – overall production, margins, pipeline and making joint sales calls.
• Predictability – forecast, CRM adoption and usage.
• Cost of Sales – time utilization, resource application, pursuit costs.
• Sales Development – quota attainment, turnover ratio, ramp up time, coaching, training and general development of team members.

Unfortunately the Time Management Matrix in Stephen Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” comes back to haunt us again.  In case your misplaced your copy, the third habit is putting first things first.  My overall take was that we are always reponding to those items that have a due date (urgency, but little importance). and in doing so we steal time from more important tasks simply because there is no due date associated with them.  Guess which of the tasks above does not have a time frame urgency attached to it?  Give up? 

If you guessed coaching, training and general development of team members you would be right.  So if the top sales officer of any company want’s to know the one thing that will have the single biggest impact on sales THIS YEAR it would be to free up time, and demand that time to be invested in assessing, coaching and developing all team members.  Okay, so you’ll get around to it next quarter, right?

In the movie “12 O’Clock High” (1940) General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) is assigned to a poorly performing bomber squadron.  The group was demotivated, and their current leader mired himself in administrative duties when he wasn’t busy commiserating with his group.  The first thing Savage did was to get out of the office and fly lead in the missions.  He didn’t do this to become a member of the team, or to show what a good pilot he was.  He did this to find out where the team’s gaps were and then lead them back into high performance.

General Frank Savage (in his first address to the squardron)  : “There will be a briefing for a practice mission at 1100 this morning. That’s right, practice. I’ve been sent here to take over what has come to be known as a hard luck group. Well, I don’t believe in hard luck. So we’re going to find out what the trouble is”.

So, Chief Sales Officers, if you want what ever the optimal results are for this year think about this option.  Clear out the in-baskets of your field managers and insist they invest no less than 50% of their time assessing, coaching and training their sales people.  It is more important this year than ever before.  Do it this week.  No!  Do it today!

Effective One-On-One Sales Coaching Sessions

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coaching, effectiveness, leadership, leadership traits, management, sales management, sales people, self improvement

Recently I have read posts on this subject on a several popular blogs.  My most recent “snooping around” session revealed on one of those blogs that an “effective One-On-One coaching session should be planned six months ahead of time”.  My curiousity ended, as did my snooping session.  If you are holding your coaching session every six months you should be fired as a sales manager!  You sales people are customers of your leadership, and they need service from you more often than every six months. 

There are four types of coaching sessions:

1. Behavioral – something has come to your attention that must/should be shared.  Though we think of these sessions as addressing negative behaviors you should use them to recognize positive behaviors also.
2. Discovery – As a manager you have uncovered a developmental issues that should be addressed.  This is the first session of a field training program that should end with a bi-lateral contract between you and the sales person.
3. Follow Up – These are frequent mini-sessions to check up, and exchange feedback.
4. Bottoms Up – If you are a great leader this should happen often.  Instead of you discovering a developmental issue one of your team members seeks out your help.  Why?  Because you are trustworthy and they know you are there to serve them.

First a note about tone.  Attitude is everything.  If this is a behavior coaching session do not send mixed messages.  If a negative behavior issue is serious enough to warrant exploration and coaching, don’t mince in other topics.  The outcome of behavioral coaching sessions are usually uni-lateral next step contracts.  If you have discovered a specific sales skill that needs improvement you do want to recognize those other skill areas that are best in class.  If this session is a follow up you should summarize previous discussions, recognize progress and discuss next steps.  The key to follow up coaching sessions is that this is a bi-lateral agreement to next steps. 

Coaching sessions should be orderly.  You should control some parts of the discussion and you should let your team member control others.  However, this is not a free flowing, never ending conversation.  You may end up being friends with some of you sales people but remember, friendship is the outcome of effective leadership, leadership is never the outcome of friendship.

The coaching session outline;

1. Warm Up – I guess you could just hit them over the head, but why?  This is a team member.  The only reason to minimize this part of the discussion is if you have uncovered a negative behavioral issue that if not addressed could result in the termination of this team member.  Initiating a serious conversation with frivolous small talk is disingenuous.
2. Orientation – If this is the first coaching session to reveal something you have discovered, particularly if the team members overall contributions are satisfactory, this part of the discussion is crucial.  For instance, if you are concerned with this team members prospecting skills you should discuss what lead to this discovery.  “Jim, thanks for your first quarter results.  It helped show the others that the goals are achievable even with this difficult economy.  But I was exploring our CRM system and think I discovered something.  I noticed that you not only made your goals, but had the highest proposal to contract closing ratio!  In fact, you also had one of the highest closing ratios in moving prospects from the needs analysis to the proposal, congratulations!  But that led me to think, are you motivated to dramatically increase your earnings?  Because if you are I think I discovered something that is holding you back…”  Now the stage is nearly set for you to focus the conversation.
3. Focus – This is the meat of the conversation and two-thirds of your time should be spent here.  But step back a little.  Dust off those sales skills from your past life.  If you sold like I did, you’re best sales pitches were not about what you told a prospect right?  First you need to sell the need.  Continuing our conversation with Jim…”Since you have world class skills at the end of the sales cycle, I did a little arithmetic.  You may already know this but if you were able to put 3 more prospects into your pipeline every quarter your earnings would increase by 10%!”  My best sales presentations came about because of the questions I asked!  You need to use your open ended probes, your directional probes and confirming probes.  You need to find out if the lack of prospecting is a skill gap, or a will gap (see seperate articles on each subject on blog).  If Jim agrees he has a need to increase the number of prospects in his pipeline, you’re halfway home!  You now have to come to agreement on how to satisfy that need.
4. Contract – Every coaching session should end with a contract.  Simply put this is the agreement going forward, which defines each person’s action plan and roles.  In my Sales Excellence Process there is a form which defines each person’s commitment.  The contract (unilateral or bilateral) should be driven by what you determined to be the cause of the problem.  If the issue is skill then you as the leader will have an obligation to the sales person to deliver the training.  If the issue is one of will to do the task then the sales person will have more obligations to the contract while your role will be inspecting what you expect.

Coaching sessions are the most important duty of a sales manager.  How you go about delivering a coaching session will define your leadership.  Get your mind right!  Are you there to help, or are you there to catch someone doing something wrong?  Remember “Cool Hand Luke”?

Boss: Sorry, Luke. I’m just doing my job. You gotta appreciate that.

Luke: Nah – calling it your job don’t make it right, Boss.

Downsizing The Sales Organization – Ensuring The Best Possible Outcome

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assessment, downsizing, management, performance, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales management

I was truly hoping that I would not have to write this article, but the reality is that the majority of CEO’s will need to include the sales organization in staffing reduction initiatives.  Is it really possible that your company will decide to eliminate sales or account manager jobs when client acquisition & retention is so important?  The answer to that is yes, and the higher the salary base (fixed compensation) of those positions, the more quickly that directive will arrive.  One last comment before we dive deeper.  Many companies will not be profitable in this economy.  Companies do not go out of business because they’re unprofitable, they go out of business because they run out of money.  Your job has always been to maximize the money coming into your company.  For the next several quarters, your job will also be to minimize the money leaving your company.

So, as the top sales officer in your company you have a choice.  You can wait for the orders to come down and scramble to meet whatever deadline is imposed on you, or you can begin now to think through the best possible method & process and have a good plan ready.  Hopefully you are that strong, credible person described in “Why Leaders Get Followers”.  If I were you I would create a -10% solution, and a -25% solution.  But first a few questions.

1. Can you categorize your fixed compensation expenses?  You may want to consider the following;  A) Customer acquisition (sales),  B) Customer retention (account management), C) Operations (CRM, incentive admin etc.), D) Support (anyone in the field who does not have a quota or direct customer accountability).  You need to understand where the fixed compensation expenses reside.  Understanding these numbers will help you think more creatively. 
2. Are there any other expenses that can be annihilated before eliminating jobs?  Company Cars?  Rent?  Memberships?  Travel?
3. Are there any operations that are now out of alignment with your company strategy?  (i.e. inside sales group soliciting small businesses while your curremt strategy does not focus on small businesses)
4. Are there any creative solutions?  Would your organization be better off implementing a 10% reduction in salaries rather than a 10% reduction in workforce?  Careful, this may be more palatable but you will have adverse turnover if you do not manage this correctly.

If there is no other solution but to reduce the number of sales and account managers you have a challenge in front of you.  You can huddle with your field management team and come up with a list of jobs to eliminate, or you can create a process that will distill the best contributors from your group.  I would focus on the process and the more transparent, the better.  I am creating an in-depth process for publication, but for now I would suggest the following:

• Extract quarterly sales results from the prior 3 years.  You need to rank contributors by quartile and summarize.  Refrain from using performance evaluations if possible, they are often biased.
• If you have a good CRM program run a sales pipeline report.  But be careful, the pipeline can be chock full of dead prospects.  You can easily scrub the results by putting a time frame parameter.  For example run a report that only shows the pipeline of those prospects which have graduated in the sales cycle steps within the last 30 days.  This should show you the pipeline of each person with “active” sales progress.
• What are the three to five most important sales competencies?  You must identify the most important self leadership competencies, and define them in terms of the action steps are best practices.

Having led several large “right sizing” processes of sales organizations I hold a strong conviction that assessing sales people fairly is a three step process.  You must consider past, present and future contributions.  I know this sounds wacky, but it can be done.  In fact, when you perform the tasks bulleted above you are half way there.

1. Prepare an assessment of the previous 12 quarters for all sales people with more than one year of tenure.  You can best compare results by characterizing results in quartiles.  Obviously this exercise summarizes past contributions.
2. Each representative’s sales pipeline is the best indication of the contributions they will make in the near future (present).  Take care to sort and cut this data to eliminate “hope” from reality.  If your sales cycle is 6 months perhaps you should only count prospects who have moved cycle steps in the last 30 days.  If your CRM system is not robust enough for this excercise you’ll have to enlist the help of your field managers to manually scrub the pipeline.
3. Assessing the skill and will of each representative on each of the 3 to 5 competencies will tell you the likelihood of future contributions.  This step is the most overlooked in downsizing processes, and that is a fundamental flaw.  Your company, products and competitive environments are continuously changing!  You should identify the most important skills today and assess or interview to ensure those skills are in place.  Your sales people also change over time.  Yes, unfortunately a person may have all the skills necessary to be a peak performer but they may have lost the will to do the task.  For more information see the post “Sales Will”.

This economy will improve and believe it or not, you will be in a recruiting mode again.  In the meantime you are going to have to help your company get through the next several quarters.  How you go about this process is going to have a dramatic impact on the perceptions of your leadership, and the culture of your sales organization.  Do a poor job and you may survive, but when the economy improves your best performers may seek a better working environment.  Do the right thing, do it well and show your trustworthiness, compassion and support for everyone in your organization.