Talk Less. Listen More… A Tip for Conducting Better Interviews.

This is a very quick and very simple salesperson hiring and interviewing tip for you. You probably already know this, so it’s probably not a problem. I’m probably going to say it, and you’re going to say, “Thank you, Captain Obvious. I already know that!”

I was working with one of my clients today, and we were going through their whole interview process; and not just their interview process, but also the way that they fill up their funnel with salesperson candidates – the way that they screen those people.I was helping them install some efficiency improvements, and one of the things that came up, and they knew that they were doing it, and they knew they shouldn’t do it… but…

My client told me that they felt like during the salesperson interview process, that THEY were the one being interviewed!

These sales leaders were training their sales people to follow the rule of talk less and listen more, but during the interview, what they were doing is.. the interviewer was talking about 70% of the time, and the candidate was talking 30% of the time!

At the end of the process, they really hadn’t found anything out about the candidate that they’d be able to go back and put on a scoring sheet, and compare to the other people that were in their interviewing process.

So…your quick homework and something to check yourself and your team on today is:

How much are you talking during an interview, and how much is the candidate talking?

If you’re not talking about 30% of the time, with your candidate talking 70% of the time, you’re really probably not finding out enough about how well they’re going to be able to sell in your culture and how well your culture will fit them!