“You are hired. You walk in on Monday and sit down at your desk. Walk me through how you will be successful in this job, starting with the first day.”
This is a simple go-to question I use when hiring salespeople, but it is surprisingly difficult to answer. Less experienced sellers often struggle to respond, and the more seasoned sellers struggle to provide a succinct answer.
It’s not a trick question, and there is not one right answer. The goal is to force a methodical discussion about your approach to your success. How do you think about a problem and the decisions you make? What is the outcome of those decisions?
After hiring several sales reps and watching how some develop faster than others, I began asking this question during the interview process. The more successful employees typically hit several of the points below. Not only am I providing bullets points you can use to answer this question, but more importantly, to increase your chances of success.
· Expectations and Goals – Find out what expectations and goals the organization has for you as a salesperson. An organization hires based on a set of goals for the position and the individual (meaning you). By the end of week 1, you should be clear on the goals set for you by the organization, and what activities will help you achieve these goals. For example, if you are hired to sell the new ISO3000 in the west coast territory, you will want to work with the product team to learn as much possible about the ISO3000 while simultaneously becoming familiar with the sales territory.
· Learn about the Product/Solution:
1. What problem your product/solution is solving
2. How does it solve the problem?
3. Why does the problem need to be solved?
4. Who is impacted by the problem and needs your product/solution?
Hint: Practice by explaining your solution to your parents. If they understand it and can repeat it to their friends, you are in good shape. If your parents don’t know what you sell or what you do, keep working on your pitch. For me, I would say “I work with committed organizations to drive revenue through sales training and consulting.” In reality, I do a lot more, from being a certified Salesforce CRM Consultant to completely overhauling an organizations sales strategy, but that one sentence gives plenty of contexts to understand my business.
· Metrics – Learn what metrics an organization uses to track sales. This is different than expectations and goals. The metrics are used to monitor your success towards a revenue goal. Understanding the metrics means knowing how they impact you and how you attain your goals through these metrics. A lot of sellers think the CRM and activity report is just for management, but they are metrics in place to help sellers drive revenue.
· The Process to Close– Become a student of the organization’s sales process. You may not go through it the first two weeks, but by the end of week two, you should know it. Some organizations refuse to provide pricing until a client has seen a demo where some organization race to send an IO after the first call. Different organizations have different processes to close, and it’s important to know and understand the process.
· Learn the Lingo – Every organization and industry has their own culture. A primary component of culture is language. Learn the internal lingo to sound knowledgeable when talking with individuals both internally and externally.
