Nov 9, 2021
As you’re looking to get your next (or even first) sales job,
understanding what traits help you stand out can be a challenge.
But on today’s episode of Selling in Color, we’re looking back to
an episode from the vault of The Sales Evangelist (featuring Billy
Keels.) This episode focuses on what criteria a hiring manager
looks for when hiring successful
sellers.
Hire the right behavior
- The ideal candidate is someone proactive. They should work
without needing someone to oversee their work.
- Being proactive is a core strength for sellers. It opens more
doors, creates more connections, and eventually points customers
toward the sale.
- As a hiring manager, a good interview question for potential
candidates will allow them to talk about a time they were
proactive.
- New sales reps go through trial and error as they gain
experience, so ask about that and what they’ve done, not what they
would do.
Look for self-awareness
- The benefits of being self-aware are tied to a candidate’s
skills, ambition, and attitude.
- As a sales leader hiring for a team, you compensate gaps in a
candidate with how they can be supported through training programs
and other sources.
- To see if a candidate is self-aware, ask about issues they’ve
had meeting quotas and what they did to improve those
results.
- The hard truth of sales? Sometimes we just don’t win. But a
willingness to work to overcome that can make all the difference
when hiring a potential candidate.
Consider the scale of the role.
- Obviously, hiring someone for enterprise sales requires a more
robust skill set than a sales training position. Therefore,
consider the job itself and what degree of skills should be present
in the ideal candidate when hiring.
- Regardless of the position, avoid setting overly high
expectations. This could result in burnout, which won’t help new
sales reps reach their goals (or sell more products.)
Hire people who can self-manage.
- Look for candidates who have goals and don’t need to be told
what to do. They can work independently and do what’s best for
their career and their business.
- If they don’t reach sales goals, a candidate should
self-correct and start a new plan. They don’t go to their boss
every time they have to make a decision.
“Things To Look For When Hiring Successful Sellers”
episode resources
This episode is brought to you in part by
Skipio.
Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching
out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is
real.
But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people
prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage
in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and
start having conversations that end in the conversions you want.
Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com.
This course is brought to you in part by the
TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and
struggling sellers master the fundamentals of sales and close more
deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the
first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals
or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion
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Audio provided by Free SFX and
Bensound. Other songs used
in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by
Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by
Brightseed and Hill.