Sales recruiting is a year-round exercise. The best sales forces are always on the look out for strong sales talent. Find a company that identifies a strong candidate that meets their profile who wouldn’t find a way to hire this individual. It is a rarity to say the least. Sales teams have turnover either driven by the company or the employee. It is best to have a candidate portfolio at the ready than to begin a process of surfacing candidates when a seat is open. Poor hiring decisions are made out of desperation to fill a seat. The open seat is a cost to the company every day it is unfilled. Yet, the cost is more painful if the seat is filled by someone who doesn’t fit.

3. Reverse Interviewing. Since the intent of the process is for both sides to be able to determine if a marriage should be formulated, a wonderful technique is reverse interviewing. This is an interview performed by a member of the sales team who would be a peer if the candidate was hired. It is important that the individual(s) selected to participate in this step are loyal to the company, knowledgeable, and make a favorable impression. However, the "interviewer" does not ask any questions of the candidate. As you know, it is very easy to get yourself in hot water if illegal questions are asked. Thus, you don’t want untrained people asking questions. There are two purposes of this component of the sales talent screening program. The first is to provide the candidate with an opportunity to ask questions of someone who would be their peer if they were to be hired. In essence, it is a way for them to get a picture of a day in the life of this job.

The second purpose is to measure how the candidate prepares for a sales call. A debrief is conducted with the "reverse interviewer" to see what questions were asked. If the candidate took advantage of this opportunity, they brought prepared, insightful questions and wrote down answers. If they didn’t, what kind of preparation will the candidate do for a sales call? How interested are they really in this job? Every once in a while, a candidate will ask a question of the sales person like, "Can you take off at noon on Fridays?" Needless to say, the lapse in judgment raises a red flag of concern?

4. Standard Interview Questions. Often times, many candidates are screened for one job slot. This creates a need to be able to compare candidates to each other, in addition to the profile. To do this, a standard set of interview questions are needed. The responses are documented during the interview and reviewed after a candidate leaves the office. These questions are not designed to provide right or wrong answers. They are designed to see if this candidate’s thought process is congruent with the needs of your business and with the profile of the ideal sales person.

When formulating your list of standard questions, it is helpful to include some sales scenarios that are common in your environment. "Your client balks at the price of your proposal. What do you do?" It is also helpful to have questions that show what makes this person tick. Since few colleges have "sales" as a major, it is always interesting to find how someone arrived at a sales career. "Of all of the careers you could select, why did you pick sales?"

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