Sales_Interview_Guide_A4_Download_v1_0_170608_FINAL_3

Sales Interview Guide Version 1.0 Candidate Name Date 2 Sales Interview Guide Version 1.0 Introduction 3 Preparing for the interview 4 How well do I know the job I’m recruiting for? 4 What do I want to find out from this interview? 4 What questions should I ask? 4 What should I have with me in the interview? 4 Conducting the interview 5 Introduce the process 5 Ask questions 5 Listen and clarify 5 Take notes 5 Close the interview 5 Assessing the candidate 6 Summarise your notes 6 Assess the candidate 6 Rate the candidate 6 Candidate Competency Rating 6 Evaluating candidate responses 7 Further training 8 Competency-Based Interview Course 8 Sales Interview Questions 9 1. Sales Foundations 10 1.1 Sales Confidence 10 1.2 Sales Drive 12 1.3 Sales Resilience 14 1.4 Adaptability 16 1.5 Listening 18 1.6 Embracing Change 20 2. Sales Cycle 22 2.1 Developing a Game Plan 22 2.2 Making Contact 24 2.3 Building Desire 26 2.4 Creating Options 28 2.5 Presenting 30 2.6 Closing the Sale 32 2.7 Satisfying the Customer 34 2.8 Managing and Growing 36 3 Motivation 38 3.1 Money 38 3.2 Competition 39 3.3 Achievement 40 3.4 Pace 41 3.5 Social Contact 42 3.6 Recognition 43 3.7 Growth 44 3.8 Autonomy 45 Contents 3Version 1.0 Sales Interview Guide 1. Introduction The interview is commonly used for recruitment and selection purposes. It can be very useful in helping employers to make a decision about candidates and allowing candidates to find out more about the role and organisation to which they are applying. A considerable amount of skill is required to use the interview to select the right candidate. There is a great deal of research to show that interviewers can fall prey to a number of biases and pitfalls, which result in poor decisions. One of the key elements of good interviewing practice is to use a structured format of questions to assess relevant aspects of the match between the person and the job. This interview guide provides a structured way of gathering information about each candidate and their competency potential in relation to a sales role. The guide focuses on gathering evidence of past behaviour which you can use to predict future performance. It is based on the 22 competencies and motivators from the SHL Sales Model, which is used in the SHL Sales Report and the SHL Sales Model Profiler Cards. The SHL Sales Model Profiler Cards and the results in the SHL Sales Report can both be used in conjunction with this interview guide to identify areas to probe further during an interview. There are three key stages involved in completing a competency-based interview. This guide provides a brief overview of each stage: • Preparing for the interview • Conducting the interview • Assessing the candidate 4 Sales Interview Guide Version 1.0 Preparing for the interview How well do I know the job I’m recruiting for? Sales jobs vary considerably. It’s worth considering the specific activities the individual will be required to do. Think about what behaviours and actions have differentiated between good and average sales people in that role in the past. Review existing job descriptions and documentation. This will help you focus on which competencies are essential to successful job performance. What do I want to find out from this interview? You want to see whether this person is going to be a good fit for the role. You can do this by establishing which of the 14 sales competencies (e.g. Listening, Sales Drive, etc…) are most relevant to the role that you are recruiting for and which of the eight motivators (e.g. Money, Achievement, etc…) are present in the role. Knowing what the important competencies and motivators are in relation to the role allows you to focus your interview on what is important and enhance the objectivity and accuracy of the process. The SHL Sales Model Profiler Cards can help with the process of identifying key competencies for the role. What questions should I ask? Your aim is to find out how well the candidate matches up to key sales competencies of the role and the relevant motivators present in the role or organisation. It is therefore important to ask relevant questions that will help you gather enough evidence in order to make an objective evaluation about the candidate’s potential. This can be done using a structured and focused questioning approach. Once you have determined which sales competencies and motivators to focus on during the interview you can use this guide to select the relevant questions to ask. The questions provided in this guide all contain a series of follow-up questions to enable a full exploration of the particular Sales Foundations, Sales Cycle and aspects of Motivation you are interested in. Bear in mind that it will take you about 10–15 minutes to obtain evidence for two or three questions. What should I have with me in the interview? Make sure you have all key documents to hand. You will probably need: • This interview guide marked with the relevant questions to ask. • Information about the role - job advertisement, person specification, terms and conditions. • Information about the candidate - application form, CV, SHL Sales Report. • Pen and paper - for you and the candidate. • Information about the recruitment process - what are the next steps, when will the candidate hear if they were successful. To help you prepare the interview, ask yourself the following questions. Review the information you already have before the interview. Identify any information that may be missing and make note of any areas that are especially relevant to the role. When reviewing the CV, look for the length of time the candidate spent at different jobs. Is the length of time much different from the industry norm? If you are going to invest months training and developing someone, you need to have some confidence that your new recruit will stay. Ensure that you are ready to receive the candidate and the interview room is set up. Hints & Tips 5Version 1.0 Sales Interview Guide Hints & Tips Conducting the interview There are five key steps involved in conducting an interview. Introduce the process • Ask questions • Listen and clarify • Take notes • Close the interview Introduce the process To get the most out of the interview it is important to manage expectations at the outset. Tell candidates that you are there to find out more about them, but it is also their opportunity to find out more about the role and the organisation. Explain that you will be asking questions about their experience and that they will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the interview. Let the candidate know you will be making notes during the interview. Ask questions Start by asking an opening question about the candidate’s work experience or educational background. This will help to get the candidate talking and may also provide you with useful background information. Next, work through each competency in turn. Aim to find out what opportunities the candidate has had to demonstrate the relevant competency behaviours. Encourage the candidate to identify specific examples from his or her work experience. Probe the answers provided, using the suggested follow-up questions in this guide. Seek evidence across the range of relevant behaviours. You may wish to ask follow-up questions to probe potential strengths or weaknesses identified by the SHL Sales Report. Try to explore both negative and positive behaviours in relation to the essential competencies. Listen and clarify Feedback your understanding of what the candidate has said for each competency. Avoid evaluating the behaviours and remain objective. Focus on gathering information rather than assessing it at this stage. Ask if the candidate has anything further to add before moving on to the next competency. Take notes It is in both your interest and the candidate’s interest to take clear notes. It is difficult to record everything a candidate says, so aim to note the key points focusing on the behaviours, not your impression or evaluation of the candidate’s responses. By taking notes you have an account of what is said and an opportunity to clarify or explore the information further during subsequent interviews. In this guide there is space under each set of questions for you to take notes. Close the interview Allow candidates to add any further information and give them the opportunity to ask questions. Thank the candidate for their time and repeat information about next steps and timescales. Watch your non-verbal signals. Try to maintain neutral body language. Use open-ended questions, which start with the words “how”, “what” and “why”. They allow you to gather more information from the candidate then closed questions that require a simple “yes” or “no”. You want to find out exactly what the candidate did so when you hear the term “we”, probe to find out specifically what the candidate did, even if the situation involved working as a team. If you ask a question similar to, “By how much did you grow business?” the candidate might respond with a vague answer such as “a lot” or “10%”. What does that mean? You want specific answers with actual figures, not just vague responses or percentages. 6 Sales Interview Guide Version 1.0 Assessing the candidate The key steps to assessing the candidate post an interview are: Summarise your notes • Assess the candidate • Rate the candidate Summarise your notes After the interview, you should aim to finish writing up and summarising your notes as soon as possible, while the information is still fresh in your mind. Assess the candidate Objectively assess the evidence you have for each competency and link the evidence you have to the relevant behavioural indicator. You can do this by using the table of positive and negative behavioural indicators for each sales competency provided in this guide. Behavioural indicators identify the key behaviours that contribute to a competency. These indicators provide a framework for evaluating the strength of the evidence the candidate provides and are represented on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is an indicator of positive behaviour and 1 is an indicator of negative behaviour. Sometimes, you may find that there is little or no evidence for a particular behaviour. This should be indicated as No Evidence (NE). You should only rate the candidate on the actual evidence they provide that relates to the question. Note: You will notice that behavioural indicators are not used for the Motivation section. Motivation is evaluated based on the factors that affect a candidate’s motivation rather than behaviours. Rate the candidate Finally, rate the candidate on each key competency and record this information. Below is a rating scale that you can use when assessing a candidate, which uses a 1 to 5 rating scale. There is a space for you to enter the rating in this guide, which you will find below each competency’s table of behavioural indicators in the area labelled ‘Rating’. Once you have each competency’s rating you can determine an overall rating for the candidate. Candidate Competency Rating Rating Definition 1 Poor. Marked weaknesses across most of the competency. 2 Marginal. Weaknesses across some areas. 3 Moderate. Acceptable across the competency as a whole. There may be some marked strengths and some weaknesses in specific areas. 4 Good. Marked strengths on some aspects of the competency and acceptable on others. 5 Excellent. Marked strengths on most aspects of the competency. 7Version 1.0 Sales Interview Guide Hints & Tips It is a very good idea to carry out more than one interview. A second interview will give you a better feel for that candidate’s interest in the role, allow you to gather more evidence or information and enable you to confirm or revaluate your view of them. Evaluating candidate responses Evaluating candidate responses in an interview can be quite challenging; how good is the answer, how easily can this be linked to the behavioural indicators? To better understand how to evaluate a candidate’s response, let’s look at an example. For this example we will use a follow-up question from the sales competency, Sales Drive, as highlighted below. Question from Sales Drive competency Tell me about a time when you have won back a client from a competitor. • Why did the client go with the competitor in the first place? • Why did you want to win them back? • What steps did you take to regain this client’s business back? • What challenges did you face? • How did you know you’d overcome these? • What were the key learning points for you from this experience? Specific vs. vague answers When asking questions during the interview, you are looking for the candidate to give specific answers. Here is an example of a specific and vague answer for the follow-up question highlighted above. Specific Answer: “Having ascertained the client’s strategic growth plans, I formulated a proposal that provided a detailed recommendation on how we could meet their new geographical requirements, supply demands, quality specifications and the need for long term payment flexibility.” Vague Answer: “I offered them a discount on future sales.” Linking to behavioural indicators The evidence provided in the answers above can be linked to the behavioural indicator referring to meeting customer demands shown below. In the specific answer, the candidate has considered a range of factors that are likely to impact on the client’s growth plans and what they can offer to facilitate these. This suggests a focus on going beyond the customer’s expectations and focusing directly on their needs, which is a positive indicator of the behaviour. The vague answer suggests the candidate is doing the minimum they can, and therefore is a negative indicator of the behaviour. Does the minimum required to meet customer demand Views their role as making the sale only, and leaving the follow up to others Works hard to meet and exceed customer demand Follows up with client after making a sale, and if necessary takes ownership to ensure customer satisfaction 1 2 3 4 5 8 Sales Interview Guide Version 1.0 Further training SHL offers a training course related to competency-based interviewing. Competency-Based Interview Course The one day Competency-Based Interview (CBI) Course is intended for people with minimal interview experience or for those not confident with the competency interview process (for example, those who currently use biographical interviews). The emphasis is on following the entire interview process from beginning to end, starting with selection of competencies to interview against, then conducting the interview, and finally evaluating interview responses. Delegates undertake practical exercises for each stage of the process and have the opportunity to practice conducting competency-based interviews with external ”candidates’” in a safe training environment. If you would like further information about these courses please contact SHL Customer Support on 0870 070 8000. 9Version 1.0 Sales Interview Guide 2. Sales Interview Questions This section provides several questions for all of the sales competencies and the sales motivators, each with a number of follow-up questions. A definition of each competency and motivator is provided and for the sales competencies, positive and negative behavioural indicators are provided. Use the guidelines in the previous sections to select the most important competencies, and highlight the relevant questions in this section of the guide. This guide is designed to be used in your interview so you can refer to it when making a decision about the candidate. On the cover of this guide there is space to write the candidate’s name and the date of the interview. There is a space under each question to make notes and, for the sales competencies; the positive and negative behavioural indicators are presented in a table to help you rate the candidate. The following competencies are covered in this section: 1. Sales Foundations 2. Sales Cycle 3. Motivation 1.1 Sales Confidence 2.1 Developing a Game Plan 3.1 Money 1.2 Sales Drive 2.2 Making Contact 3.2 Competition 1.3 Sales Resilience 2.3 Building Desire 3.3 Achievement 1.4 Adaptability 2.4 Creating Options 3.4 Pace 1.5 Listening 2.5 Presenting 3.5 Social Contact 1.6 Embracing Change 2.6 Closing the Sale 3.6 Recognition 2.7 Satisfying the Customer 3.7 Growth 2.8 Managing and Growing 3.8 Autonomy 10 Sales Interview Guide Version 1.0 1. Sales Foundations Describe a situation when you have influenced a challenging customer to buy your product or service. • Why was this customer challenging? • What was the product or service you were selling? • What level of the organisation were you working with (e.g. senior management, etc...)? • How did you overcome their challenges? 1.1 Sales Confidence Projects an air of confidence when dealing with others and portrays outstanding personal capabilities and talents. Tell me about a situation when you have presented a sales proposition to a key buying decision-maker. • What was the sales proposition you were presenting? • What benefits would this have provided for this customer? • What challenges did you face when delivering the sales pitch? • How did you overcome these challenges? • What was the subsequent short-to-medium term commercial relationship with this customer? Candidate’s responses Candidate’s responses 11Version 1.0 Sales Interview Guide Sales Confidence behavioural indicators Evidence Rating Fails to persuade the customer to buy Is reserved and shy when initially meeting customers Appears uncertain or hesitant to customers about the likely success of proposed initiatives Fails to overcome customer challenges First impression lacks positive impact Demonstrates a lack of self- confidence and confidence in the product being sold Influences the customer to buy Demonstrates confidence when first meeting customers Expresses confidence in the likely success of initiatives proposed to customers Successfully overcomes challenging customer questions or scrutiny Makes a positive first impression upon others Demonstrates self- confidence and confidence in the product Negative behaviours NE 1 2 3 4 5 Positive behaviours 12 Sales Interview Guide Version 1.0 Give me an example of when you have achieved a very challenging sales target. • Why was the target challenging? • How did this target compare with other targets you have been set? • How did you achieve this target? • How did your target achievement compare with those of your colleagues? 1.2 Sales Drive Has drive and enthusiasm, seems hungry for success, and propels oneself to meet tough targets. Candidate’s responses Tell me about a time when you have won back a customer from a competitor. • Why did the customer go with the competitor in the first place? • Why did you want to win them back? • What steps did you take to regain this customer’s business? • What challenges did you face? • How did you know you had overcome these challenges? • What were the key learning points for you from this experience? Candidate’s responses 13Version 1.0 Sales Interview Guide Sales Drive behavioural indicators Evidence Waits for others to take the initiative More likely to look for others to take the lead andmake decisions for them Takes a lethargic approach to achieving targets. Lacks enthusiasm Does the minimum required to meet customer demand Views their role as making the sale only and leaves others to follow up Tends to achieve targets that are not ambitious and lack challenge Sets targets that most sales professionals could easily achieve Is reactive in approach Waits for the customer to come to them or doesn’t see the need to pursue other opportunities with the customer Sets personal goals and objectives which are easy to achiev