It’s in their DNA. It can’t be taught with a book or through a weekend seminar. It’s just there, or it’s not. It’s what separates a good salesperson, from a great one. If you’re looking to hire the best of the best, you have to know what to look for, and you have to know how to separate the hunter from the farmer.

There are a few tell tale signs to look for in your candidates. Now don’t get me wrong, your company won’t suffer with good salespeople – in fact you may hit targets and do just fine. But, you’ll start seeing the difference and hit levels you may have not thought possible if you hire GREAT salespeople.

When interviewing a salesperson, the most important thing to keep your eye out for is does this person genuinely like people; are they a people person? Do they smile honestly, do they ask questions, make eye contact, have open body language. Do they enjoy making friends from strangers – and are they likeable in return?

You can generally get a sense for that and if they have it, it’s a good sign. If they’re the quiet introverted type, they may be smart and capable – but they’ll be doing themselves and their customers a disservice by not covering this major base of a personality trait.

Now, let’s dig a bit deeper. This is where home run champs get separated from the bunters. Beyond the initial questions they ask to spark a conversation with a prospect like “What do you do, how’s business, how old is the company, etc…?”

A GREAT salesperson will know how to foray these questions into finding out what the prospect is passionate about, what drives them. Do they find out what prospects do on weekends, are they married, kids, what books do they read, favorite sports teams, etc…

When a salesperson gets that info, that’s something very powerful, it makes the prospect vulnerable. They prospective customer will have the impression that this person cares about me. If they’ve done a good job with that, (especially if it’s genuine on behalf of the salesperson) – then the sale is already done. If they can explain the product/service well, it’s just a bonus at that point.

So in a nutshell, this is what makes someone great vs. just good – now it’s up to you to ask them the right questions, get a good read on their personality and find out if they demonstrate these traits. What questions do they ask you during the interview? Do you feel like they really like YOU? Know YOU? Then you might just have a great sales candidate in front of you.

Ramy Assaf is the Digital Marketing Developer at Laimoon.com, the fresh way to find jobs in sales & marketing. Post a Job!

Photo Credit Glengarry Glen Ross / Vendere Partners.

Moving from a purely transactional sale to a ‘return on investment’ based sale means that when faced with objections, the answer is not to go straight to ‘price’ but to focus on the benefits to the business. When interviewing sales people, for Hardware technology, there is a huge importance on hiring people that can become part of a much more complex sales environment. With a sale that is less ‘price’ driven but more ‘solutions’ driven, it is important to find out whether the candidate can make the transition from selling to IT to selling to the business.

When Interviewing a Hardware Salesperson, you should ask:

• Talk me through your most complex customer deal? How did it start, who were the stakeholders and what objections did you have to overcome to close the deal? 

  This is, perhaps, a long winded question but what you are looking for here is someone who can network across the length and breadth of a client, who doesn’t restrict themselves to IT but are able to get the business involved or at least acknowledges that IT is really there to serve the business. Like any sales interview you are always looking for a salesperson that can sell top down (Yes, we are talking ‘C’ level) but for Hardware Sales this person really need to demonstrate their capability to network not only within IT but to establish ‘buy in’ from the business and overcome any objections without discounting on price. Getting them to talk in detail about one deal will also give you an insight into how well they get to know their customers.

• You are involved with a deal where you need to involve two other sales people from other lines of business and a Partner Manager. Talk me through how you would manage this situation and ultimately the sales cycle?Again, get the candidate to do the talking. You are looking for a salesperson who can really get their head round complex sales situations both internally and externally. Are they able to work in a team where they need to demonstrate a ‘one united face’ to the customer whilst at the same time managing a solution that encompasses a number of different solutions across a number of ‘Lines of Business’? You want someone who will take ownership and drive the sale at the customer whilst at the same team putting together an internal team to build a solution that can be sold to the business. Can they manage or be part of a Software sale where the sales cycle is longer? These candidates need to demonstrate that they can drive a sale whilst also managing an eco-system of other sales people and stakeholders who are involved in the customer solution.

• Give me an example of when you have had to sell a brand new technology which has been added to your portfolio. How did you go about introducing it to your customers?Technology is continuously evolving and changing and sales people in this area need to adapt quickly. What you are looking for here is related to thinking through the business value within a customer and where can they position new technology. This skill is very important in sales people who really need to understand their customer’s needs and react quickly in a competitive world.

The most important thing to remember is that you need a salesperson who can demonstrate that they can sell in very complex environments, doing the best thing for the customers business whilst at the same time being conscious that they need to meet (or ideally overachieve) their targets.

For more information on how to interview.

Victoria Sorensen is a Corporate Recruiter at Oracle in the Netherlands who is focused on recruiting for both the Hardware and software lines of business. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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