by Kathryne Newton

Finding the right salesperson can be a little like finding a needle in a haystack. Hiring is never easy, and hiring a good salesperson sometimes takes extra effort.

What is the best way to find a good salesperson in todays tough market? The most important thing to remember is to take your time. That doesnt mean dragging your feet for weeks before making a decision, but you should take time to plan your new hire just as carefully as you would acquiring any expensive company asset.

Planning for an interview is the most neglected, and most important, step you can take to assure a good hire. Without good planning, hiring typically begins with a limited screening effort (look over a few resumes) and ends with a shoot-from-the-hip interview that is fraught with problems and is very unlikely to get you the best candidate for the job. In fact, research on interviewing shows that when interviewers have limited or no training, interviews are one of the poorest ways to find someone who will be successful on the job.

Why do interviews often fail? Poorly trained interviewers typically make three fatal errors:

1) asking poorly targeted questions;
2) talking too much during the interview; and,
3) providing too much leading information (often given while the interviewer proceeds to sell the job to the candidate; a very common problem in distribution).

Ask targeted questions
A good interview hinges on the list of questions that the interviewer asks. This list of questions must be directly aimed at identifying the candidate with the best set of knowledge, skills and abilities needed for the job, and must be asked of each and every candidate. This approach assures that the interviewer is not swayed too much by general impressions of the candidate and is comparing apples to apples when making the final decision.

The best way to develop the list of interview questions is to start with two key documents: the job description and job requirements. While distributors often believe these are a hassle to prepare, they are extremely valuable in making good hiring decisions (theyre also great guidelines for job training and performance appraisals).

A job description is simply an outline of the key tasks and responsibilities the salesperson must accomplish in the job. Examples might be: contact key customers on a routine basis, attend sales meetings, study and learn about new products, complete daily call report for sales manager, maintain sales volume, etc.

From this list of job duties comes job requirements: high school graduate or better, good ability in math, good personality, proven sales record, good handwriting, computing skills, etc.

Now you have the ingredients to develop the interview questions and make decisions about other supporting tests to help you pick the best candidate.

If your job requires salespeople to develop new leads, be sure to ask a question that asks what steps they would take to develop them. If they are expected to have some knowledge regarding plant maintenance issues, develop a few questions related to that. You should also consider testing skills of candidates. For example, if your job requires candidates to have computer skills, consider giving them a computer test. If they need math skills, give them a test of typical problems they should be able to solve on the job. The more closely related these tests are to the real job, the better chance of finding a candidate who can do the job well.

Make the candidate comfortable
Remember that an interview should be a discussion between two people who are trying to determine whether their overall employment goals match. This should be a pleasant conversation aimed at providing a rich discussion of each others interests and developing a good working relationship. In fact, you want to create an environment that makes a candidate comfortable enough to get past the perfectionist posture most of us take on during an interview.

Avoid hardball tactics aimed at challenging or tricking the candidate to see how they will handle tough situations. These amateur psychologist tricks are rarely, if ever, aimed at identifying skills needed on the job, and they leave candidates with a terrible impression of your company. This may be the only impression of your company these candidates will ever form, and they may eventually work in your industry. Dont ruin your companys reputation with such antics.

Common pitfalls to avoid
Beware of these pitfalls that can occur in any interview.

The first is talking too much. In a well-balanced interview, the interviewer should talk no more than 20 percent of the time. You cant learn anything if youre doing all the talking.

The next pitfall to avoid is the quick decision. Interviewers are commonly so swayed by their first impression of a candidate that they give short shrift to the rest of the interview. Dont abandon the all-important list of questions in such situations. Stick to your interviewing plan.

Another more common problem is succumbing to hiring pressure. Employers may find themselves so desperate to hire someone that they offer a job to the first warm body standing upright who walks in the door. Take your time. A poor hiring decision will surely cause trouble later.

Also, be aware of the kind of environment you set. Remember, an interview should be a pleasant exchange of information between two people. Be sure your questioning technique doesnt come off like a Spanish inquisition. Use a question-answer-comment routine that breaks up the questions with light comments.

Some final comments
Be sure to familiarize yourself with local and state laws that may have an impact on your hiring process. And dont forget to share the information with all employees involved in hiring. To be fair in your hiring process, the same interview routine should apply to all candidates for the job, whether from outside or inside the company. It takes a bit of extra effort, but its worth it. 

Dr. Kathryne Newton is an associate professor of industrial technology and coordinator of the Industrial Distribution Program at Purdue University. She is an accomplished speaker, consultant and author of distributor management topics, including human resource development, distributor channel management, strategic planning and quality control.

This article originally appeared in the May/June '00 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2000.

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