The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes [52]
Now you want to look for areas of accomplishment to gauge just how much of an overachiever your candidate really is. Use these prompts and questions:
Tell me about a time in your life when the odds were stacked against you but you overcame them and succeeded.
Tell me three or four things of which you are most proud.
Have you ever practiced and reached a high level in any area beyond just getting by in life?
Areas of achievement might include music, sports, writing, or art. Many top producers have other areas of overachievement. Sports are a big one.
Once I had a salesperson who was an absolute master at astrology. It takes discipline to develop any area of competency. This particular fellow had software programs that helped him do a chart, and he was scary accurate at telling you about yourself—a great tool for bonding. This guy had it all. He was a serious closer, too.
To test empathy and the candidate’s ability to bond with others, ask these questions:
How would your best friend describe you?
Of every one you know, who has the most faith in you? Why?
What are your best memories?
People with weak empathy skills will give one-sentence answers to such questions. They are just not great at “sharing,” and it will be obvious. Bonders will talk your ear off. They need approval as part of their profile, and they will win you over with tales of their past.
People with a strong ego will have no problem telling you how good they are. Contrary to conventional rules of etiquette, this is actually a positive thing in a top producer and you want to give them the opportunity. Ask candidates to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 in these areas:
Ambition
Confidence
Ability to face rejection
Establishing rapport
Qualifying skills
Ability to create desire in your prospects
Closing skills
Time management
Presentation skills
Strategic thinking
Market knowledge
Self-improvement
Getting around gatekeepers
Top producers will rate themselves very high in all areas. But so will dreamers, so be careful. Some people have what I call false bravado. This is a cover for a deep insecurity that will eventually make them cave in the face of adversity. So getting examples from them of why they’ve rated themselves so high is a way to go deeper and see what you really have. I hired a sales rep who came on so strong, I thought, “This guy is either truly great or completely full of it.”
On his first day in the job, all that bravado worked well for him. He got three sales. He was on cloud nine. The second day, he hit nothing but no’s. On the third day, I noticed he was writing a lot of letters. That was it. I pushed him with every thing I could, and he just avoided the telephone after that day. My philosophy with salespeople is to keep the pressure on constantly. One of two things will happen: they will cave under the pressure or rise to the occasion.
I had a client who did all hiring through group interviews. The “team” members all had to agree before they would hire any new salesperson. The results? They hired a lot of nice people who could not sell. One superstar in that environment stirred up the entire place. He started outselling even the veterans within just a few months. That superstar got that job because I rammed him down the throat of that particular CEO. I convinced him that he needed to put some heat in the kitchen. He listened, and after that star salesperson started selling like crazy, several of the weaker people quit.
My philosophy is that the sales environment should be structured where the strong survive and thrive and the weak go do something else. This is a race and you need champions. Put the people who aren’t sales superstars in customer ser vice.
Next you want to find out how candidates mea sure themselves against the best of the best. Ask them who is the best salesperson they have ever met. If a candidate names himself as the best, offer him the