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Ah, I thought the test was given during the in-person interview. We recently started putting sales candidates on the phone to cold call. The most critical thin

by zaidf 13y ago

Ah, I thought the test was given during the in-person interview. We recently started putting sales candidates on the phone to cold call. The most critical thing we measure is how many minutes they spend on the phone. It's been a pretty strong signal of how they would perform if we were to hire them.

tptacek 13y ago
That is a classic work-sample test.
mmorris 13y ago
This might be obvious to those with more sales experience, but can you explain what exactly you're looking for in regards to "how many minutes they spend on the phone"? In other words, is the success of the sales people about spending more time on the phone in total? Or is it about spending more or less time per call? Thanks in advance!
- zaidf 13y ago
  This might be obvious to those with more sales experience, but can you explain what exactly you're looking for in regards to "how many minutes they spend on the phone"? Our sales process is based on our reps cold calling businesses. We learned after a couple of mishirings that the most difficult part of the job is being able to manage emotion and taking rejection. For example, as a rep it is completely normal to be rejected in some manner 50 times a day. So if you get discouraged or upset after your third rejection, it is unlikely that you would have the motivation or drive to make more calls and therefore, you're likely not the right fit. All of this is usually summed up in the metric time spent talking across all calls. While ultimately the time on the phone translates into revenue, we like to emphasize factors that is in our control. We can't control whether someone ultimately signs up or not but we do control how much break we take in between calls.
fragmede 13y ago
Sales is a different beast. If you need 2 sales guys, hire 3, give them a month and fire the worst one. That is horrifying to me as a developer, but apparently this is fairly standard for sales.
- ahomescu1 13y ago
  First place gets a Cadillac, second place gets steak knives, the rest get fired? (a quote from Glengarry Glen Ross)
- ghaff 13y ago
  That's a BIT of an overstatement depending upon the particulars. Outside sales for complex products can require a quarter or two ramp-up so you want to be somewhat selective. If you're hiring someone for that sort of position though they probably have some sort of track record. For an inside sales position, you're not all that far off though. As I've seen it put in another discussion, "sales managers don't have any trouble firing people."

by zaidf 13y ago

tptacek 13y ago

That is a classic work-sample test.

mmorris 13y ago

This might be obvious to those with more sales experience, but can you explain what exactly you're looking for in regards to "how many minutes they spend on the phone"? In other words, is the success of the sales people about spending more time on the phone in total? Or is it about spending more or less time per call? Thanks in advance!

zaidf 13y ago
This might be obvious to those with more sales experience, but can you explain what exactly you're looking for in regards to "how many minutes they spend on the phone"? Our sales process is based on our reps cold calling businesses. We learned after a couple of mishirings that the most difficult part of the job is being able to manage emotion and taking rejection. For example, as a rep it is completely normal to be rejected in some manner 50 times a day. So if you get discouraged or upset after your third rejection, it is unlikely that you would have the motivation or drive to make more calls and therefore, you're likely not the right fit. All of this is usually summed up in the metric time spent talking across all calls. While ultimately the time on the phone translates into revenue, we like to emphasize factors that is in our control. We can't control whether someone ultimately signs up or not but we do control how much break we take in between calls.

fragmede 13y ago

Sales is a different beast. If you need 2 sales guys, hire 3, give them a month and fire the worst one. That is horrifying to me as a developer, but apparently this is fairly standard for sales.

ahomescu1 13y ago
First place gets a Cadillac, second place gets steak knives, the rest get fired? (a quote from Glengarry Glen Ross)
ghaff 13y ago
That's a BIT of an overstatement depending upon the particulars. Outside sales for complex products can require a quarter or two ramp-up so you want to be somewhat selective. If you're hiring someone for that sort of position though they probably have some sort of track record. For an inside sales position, you're not all that far off though. As I've seen it put in another discussion, "sales managers don't have any trouble firing people."