How to Hire and Develop Your Next Top Performer, 2nd edition: The Qualities That Make Salespeople Great by Herb Greenberg & Patrick Sweeney

Author:Herb Greenberg & Patrick Sweeney [Greenberg, Herb]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Published: 2012-08-13T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

The In-Depth Interview

Here are some of the funniest things anyone ever said during a hiring interview.

These are true stories, shared with us by some of our clients.

One applicant said: “I will definitely work harder for you than I did for my last employer.” Another one said: “My résumé might make it look like I’m a job hopper. But I want you to know that I never left any of those jobs voluntarily.” One of our favorites is: “I don’t think I’m capable of doing this job, but I sure would like the money.” And someone actually said, “What job am I applying for, anyway?”

It would be great if every applicant who wasn’t right for the job automatically raised such red flags. But they don’t.

This is why the thorough process we are describing is so essential to selecting candidates who have the potential to be your next top performers.

As you prepare for the in-depth interviews, using the approach we are describing, you will have done everything to eliminate all but the finalists, those who deserve your full attention. The use of a valid psychological test should give some clear indications that the remaining people have some of the important attributes for a potentially good job match. What remains now is to bring together all the information that has been gathered by all the steps in the screening process, to use the in-depth interview or interviews to integrate the information, and to use every technique available to confirm, in as absolute a way as possible, the efficacy of the hiring decision.

These final interviews should be as long as necessary to help make that all-important final hiring decision. A further purpose of these in-depth interviews is to make certain not only that management wants to hire the candidate but also that the candidate fully knows and understands the opportunities that the job offers and also is aware of all its negatives. In this way, both parties enter the relationship with all the facts in hand and any potential concerns jointly worked through together. For example, it is far better to know that the amount of travel involved would create an impossible burden on a salesperson’s family life before making the hiring decision than to find this out a month or two later after time, money, and effort have been invested in the individual. It is not management’s job to sell the position to the applicant. Rather, management should arrive, with the applicant, at the best joint decision—whether negative or positive. If the proper screening has been carried through, by the time you reach the stage of the final in-depth interviews, you are dealing with people who clearly possess the potential to do the job.

And now it is your and the applicant’s responsibility to see if that potential can be translated into a practical on-the-job reality. This is why an oversell or a lack of honesty in presenting all aspects of the job can serve to defeat all the work that has gone before and ultimately contribute to an inappropriate decision.

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