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It’s probably the most
common interview technique used for sales people all over the world...
Half way through the
process the interviewer pulls out a pen, sticks it on the table and asks
the candidate:
“Sell me this pen…..”
Most sales people will
make the mistake of then trying to literally sell the pen describing all
of its amazing features and benefits.
They go into some
desperate overdrive status where they feel the pressure of somehow trying
to convince someone that they can sell anything.
“Well this is the best pen in the world, it can do everything
you want, it’s made from solid plastic and makes wishes come true and is
magic and is just such an amazing pen blah blah blah”!
IMPORTANT NOTE - The best
response to this question is to ask them prospecting questions, identify
their need, find their pain and then offer the pen as a solution for
them. That’s how sales really works although a lot of people think it’s
about “selling” something.
This was made famous by
the one and only Jordan Belfort (Wolf of Wall Street) played by Leonardo
Dicaprio. In the scene he asks his new sales team to sell him the pen
with most doing the typical “features/benefits” approach to trying to
sell it.
One of his friends takes
then pen, asks Jordan to write his name down but without his pen,
suddenly there is demand! It’s not about selling the pen but creating the
opportunity to sell the pen. Whether it’s identifying demand, finding
their pain, understanding their needs, if you do that first you stand a
far greater chance of selling the pen as appose to trying to convince
them why they should buy it.
Having seen this used
countless times we’ve got to ask…..
Why are we still using this
technique to recruit sales people????
Is it really relevant or
helpful to do this activity?
It either shows that they
don’t understand it, or they have a basic understanding of sales. It’s
puts them on the spot and in our personal opinion doesn’t provide much
insight into their ability to be good sales people.
It’s more of a gimmick
and our concern is if you’re judging someone on their ability to sell by
how they react to that task, you may be missing an opportunity.
Here are my top 5
alternative interview techniques/questions to help you find the best TOP
sales talent out there:
The “Opportunity” Task – Give them a typical customer description and
ask them how they would approach that customer to create a sales
opportunity. You’re looking for the details they identify, the questions
they look to ask and how they approach the process to get to know the
customer and identify opportunities.
The “Priorities” Task – Paint the picture of a typical day in sales
where they have to juggle tasks to deliver a result. This could include
prospecting, account management, booked meetings, sending quotes, chasing
quotes, closing sales but then also include external factors like staff
being off sick, management asking for something etc. You’ll want to see
how they priorities work and what they put ahead of other tasks.
Find their motivation to sell – Don’t assume that all sales
people are selling for money, ask the question. You’re looking to
identify how much drive and passion is behind their motivation to sell.
It has to be strong to push them through the high targets, high activity,
rejections and objections.
The “Favourite TV Series” Task – Ask them what their
favourite TV series is or favourite film, sports team, band etc. Then ask
them to tell you about it, what they like about it, what makes it great,
their favourite song/episode/match etc. What you’re looking for is their
passion and ability to discuss something the should genuinely love and be
passionate about. You can take this a step further after asking them to
talk about it in a relaxed way to then get them to try and sell it to you
and look at the difference in the way they talk about it.
How do they overcome objections – Bring a list of common
objections found in your sales team and ask them how they would overcome
them. This will show you how their solve problems and process the
challenge but will also give them an introduction to those objections
making them less challenging if they’re successful.
Whilst the “Sell me this
pen” question is a bit of fun, and in a small way it can show you an
insight into their ability to sell, we think there are much better ways
to interview sales people to really see their potential.
What do
you think?
Do you like the “Sell me
this pen” task? Has it worked for you? What questions have worked for you
when hiring sales people? Please pop your thoughts and ideas into the
comments box below!
Let's see how many tips
we can get that might just inspire some sales managers out there.
Right,
we've talked about interview questions for salespeople, but once they
start you're going to need to give them a CRM to use that will help them
sell...
That's why we are so
passionate about Pipedrive, one
of the world's best CRM's used by over 100,000+ companies in
179 countries. You can try it for free right here. The best sales managers
choose Pipedrive because it is DESIGNED specially
for sales teams and has been voted the easiest to use
CRM.
They normally offer
14-day free trial but if you follow one of our links in this newsletter
you'll be able to get an extended 30-day free trial and as a
bonus, if you choose to use Pipedrive after your trial,
you'll get 20% discount on your first year (that's a pretty
amazing offer if we're honest!).
If you're potentially
interested in trying Pipedrive out, we have a
few extra resources that might help:
VIDEO - The 5 best features of Pipedrive CRM
ATICLE - 10 reasons salespeople LOVE Pipedrive CRM
VIDEO - Import prospect details instantly from LinkedIn
using Pipedrive
ARTICLE - Why salespeople are switching from their current CRM
to Pipedrive CRM
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