culled from:bizjournals.com
On July 24, 1996, I had the privilege of proposing to my wife in the White House Rose Garden. A dear high school friend who was chief of a federal agency at the time arranged for this surreal life event. On that special day, I bent down on one knee in traditional fashion and asked Sharon to marry me. You already know her answer since I refer to her as my wife.
What if during the entire two years we were dating I focused on getting to know her needs, wants, desires, likes and dislikes — but never let her get to know me at all? What is the chance that she would have accepted my offer? The odds are pretty high that I would not have been pleased with her answer. How could she be expected to make an informed decision on a major life event if I had kept the relationship at arm’s length?
This may seem silly to you. After all, who would propose a relationship of this magnitude without both sides fully getting to know one another? Yet, it happens every day when companies consider candidates for their sales teams. Executives are so focused on evaluating the candidates that they forget to turn the tables and give candidates the opportunity to evaluate the role.
Always be closing
Here’s a common sales candidate evaluation approach, but not one I would call a best practice, as told by an executive: “We’re going to bring the candidate in for an interview. If we like her, we’ll bring her in for a second interview. If we still like her, we’ll make an offer.” Then, later: “What do you mean she didn’t accept the job?”
Executives get irritated when salespeople fail to close deals, especially after significant time and resources have been invested in the pursuit of them. Yet, few apply the same expectation to their sales hiring process. The offer acceptance rate should be measured just like a sales close rate is measured. When the acceptance rate is not where it needs to be, steps should be taken to adjust the process – just like what would be done with a sales process.
How do you provide candidates with visibility into the role? A personal favorite of mine is the “reverse interview.” In this type of interview, the interviewer doesn’t ask any questions. This is the time for the candidates to ask any and all questions of someone who has been successful in the role for which they are being considered. Don’t automatically pick your most tenured salesperson or top salesperson to lead this interview. Select the one who best represents your company, has been successful, and is philosophically aligned with the management team.
Benefit of turning the tables
While this interview is intended to help the candidates understand the role to which they’ve applied, there’s also a candidate evaluation component for the company as well.
First, you’ve offered a wonderful opportunity to the candidate to best understand the role. Did she arrive with a laundry list of questions or a blank sheet of paper? The level of preparation for this interview demonstrates a level of sincere interest in the role. If a candidate is truly interested in this specific sales job, the expectation is that she will have a ton of questions already prepared. The fewer questions the candidate has, the less interested I am in pursuing the relationship further. I want people who genuinely want to play for my team, not just looking for a job.
Second, some candidates let their guard down during these interviews and ask telling questions. For example, I once had a candidate ask a reverse interviewer, “Can I disappear on Fridays and play golf?” Other candidates asked if I was a micro-manager. Red flag! Most executives know that the salespeople most concerned about micro-management are the ones who need it the most.
For the reverse interview to work properly, it is important that the interviewer refrain from asking questions during a reverse interview. Also, even though this person is not a member of the management team, the interviewer could create a legal risk for the company by asking an out-of-bounds question of the candidate. There isn’t a necessity for this person to ask questions of the candidate as the interviewer’s questions are not the purpose of this interview.
How forthcoming should the interviewer be during a reverse interview? The answer to that question is a question: Would you rather add a salesperson to the team who quits after three months because the job isn’t right for her, or would you rather she withdraws from consideration before ever extending an offer because she determined that the role is not a good fit for her?
