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?
First, he has the trait of high Social Assertiveness and Confidence.
Travis looked me in the eye, confidently asked questions and presented his product.
Secondly, 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.
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.
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".
Ask this question--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.