3 ms·

"But unlike a technical interview, give the candidate a few days’ time to come up with a plan. This will involve researching the market, doing some preliminary

by powera 14y ago

"But unlike a technical interview, give the candidate a few days’ time to come up with a plan. This will involve researching the market, doing some preliminary analysis and would require some back and forth for the candidate to understand how your product would fit with the market." - why would good sales candidates be more likely to want to spend days preparing for an interview than good technical candidates?

ananddass 14y ago
Great question powera. Two reasons 1. This is a self selection hack: The renaissance sales rep will be drawn to the problem and will want the intellectual challenge of thinking through a new problem. The coin operated ones will instinctively get turned off by your request for a plan and will self select out. You anyway don't want to hire one of those. Also, most sales reps spending their days staring at spreadsheets, CRM systems and drab presentations. This will be a welcome break. 2. Helps them research their probability of success: Good sales reps don't like to lose in the marketplace. These are individuals who are motivated by winning deals. They love the chase. Preparing a plan helps them evaluate their chances of success.From a career standpoint they wouldn't want to join a company only to be let go after sometime because they couldnt make quota. It reflects really badly in their next interview. So a smart sales guy would want to research before hand if the market is hot, is the product unique?, who is competition? what are the prospective customers that he has connections with? He is going to do this irrespective of whether you ask him or not (red flag on his caliber if he doesn't). Why not make it a part of the process? Btw, judging the specifics of the plan is not as important as judging the process of his planning.

3 ms·

"But unlike a technical interview, give the candidate a few days’ time to come up with a plan. This will involve researching the market, doing some preliminary

by powera 14y ago

ananddass 14y ago
Great question powera. Two reasons 1. This is a self selection hack: The renaissance sales rep will be drawn to the problem and will want the intellectual challenge of thinking through a new problem. The coin operated ones will instinctively get turned off by your request for a plan and will self select out. You anyway don't want to hire one of those. Also, most sales reps spending their days staring at spreadsheets, CRM systems and drab presentations. This will be a welcome break. 2. Helps them research their probability of success: Good sales reps don't like to lose in the marketplace. These are individuals who are motivated by winning deals. They love the chase. Preparing a plan helps them evaluate their chances of success.From a career standpoint they wouldn't want to join a company only to be let go after sometime because they couldnt make quota. It reflects really badly in their next interview. So a smart sales guy would want to research before hand if the market is hot, is the product unique?, who is competition? what are the prospective customers that he has connections with? He is going to do this irrespective of whether you ask him or not (red flag on his caliber if he doesn't). Why not make it a part of the process? Btw, judging the specifics of the plan is not as important as judging the process of his planning.