If you look into the history of great business companines nowadays, you would come across that most of their present achievement and panache is founded upon the great inroads in marketing and advertising done by their sales teams in the formative years of the company. It is no exaggeration to say that the sales force of a business is its backbone. Without a fully commited, dashing and dynamic sales team, the company would be limp and lifeless; it would never stand a chance to survive and grow in the promoting wars of today. Hence, as the owner of a small/medium business, it is of paramount importance that you select the finest sales agents who are committed, dependable, truthful and hard-working.
The sales agent is the interface between the company and the client/customer. He has the responsibility of not just making a sale, but of projecting the brand image of the company through smooth customer interaction and service. It is his responsibility to develop the client’s continued trust in the business/company, bring in new clients/customers and in general, represent the growth prospects of the company.
When you are conducting an interview to select the best sales agent, the first thing you should look for in the candidate is the eagerness to succeed. Next, you should ask questions about his previous job and evaluate the genuineness of his answers. You could maintain a standard set of questions to ask each candidate so that the variation of answers would help you to compare different answers and assess the true implications and worth of different candidates. For example, to the question, “Why did you leave your last job?” one candidate may reply, “The pay was not good.” Continue with probing questions such as, “Do you consider pay as the only criteria in a sales job?” and see his reaction. A genuine candidate would answer something like, “No, sir. I am very enthusiastic about my product marketing job, but I plan to get married and wanted a raise, which was refused.” To the same question as to why he left his previous job, the second candidate may reply, “My boss was short-tempered. He was always finding fault in whatever I did.” Be wary here! The candidate may have definitely done something wrong to aggravate his boss. After all, bosses depend on their sales agents to bring home the bacon, and no boss would inherently like to annoy his sales agent! Ask further probing questions such as, “So, your boss was a tyrant?” and watch for the reaction. It is easy to spot whether the candidate is throwing the blame on his ex-boss for his own shortcomings. True, his previous boss might have been angry with him always, but it might have been for the reason that the candidate was always falling short of sales, or he was never showing up for work on time, or did not display the right initiative the boss expected. Keep this point in mind. A third candidate may say that he left his previous job as he was asked to go on a transfer. Once again, be wary here! No business/company would ask a sales agent familiar with one territory, to go to a new territory without justification. It would mean that the company would have to go through the whole tedious process of installing a fresh salesman, training him and familiarizing him with the territory, which would mean a waste of time, energy, sales and money. Continue questioning him, “Why should your company want to transfer you?” “Didn’t you perform well in your territory?” and watch and listen to his reaction.
In the next level of questions, gauge the each candidate to see whether he has the right mix of desire for earning a high income and job satisfaction. Ask questions to test whether the candidate views sales glitches as problems or as challenges. You can easily spot whether the candidate is lying or merely parroting the answer. Ask questions to gauge how responsible the candidate is regarding his job. Ask him about his attitude to customer satisfaction.
In the entire interview your questions should be framed to bring out the candidate’s enthusiasm towards his job, his determination to achieve sales, his enthusiasm to earn decent incentives through hard work, his proactive attitude towards customer satisfaction, his transparency, respect and accountability to his boss and the company, and his short and long term goals with the company. By asking all these questions during the interview and sensing strong positive signals from the candidate’s answers, you would definitely be in a position to select the best product sales agent who will be your company’s proud ambassador. Outsource your sales and marketing project to Globfreelance.com. This marketplace has assumbled the best sales agents that are committed and loyal from around the world. You can also find sales reps at Golden Way Media ( golden-way-media.com) to sale your product in Europe.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articlecoop.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
