5 Awesome Interview Questions to spot a Hustler
I’d be a millionaire if I got a penny for every time I heard “a great sales person needs to be a hustler”. It’s not that I don’t agree, my point is that nobody tells you how to spot that authentic hustler amongst the many applicants who apply for sales roles!!
It’s always inspirational to come across a sales associate who is self-motivated and having a candid interview with such a person is refreshingly informative.
However, a person having his ambition, aspirations and perseverance all aligned is the real deal. He/She is the real hustler.
The best way to interview a sales marketer is to focus on the innate qualities that keep them attracted towards their work. Specific competencies are definitely required for effective sales performance and it’s interesting to know about them. Here are some traits and relevant questions to assess these hustlers between the work-mules:
Checking for high Emotional Intelligence
Sales is a highly communicative profession — you need to deal with people constantly on the job. The best sales people possess extraordinarily high levels of emotional intelligence and are aware of how their behavior will impact others. Great salespeople can pick up indirect cues from customers, adjust their behavior and adapt to selling situations which dramatically increases their chances of success.
To assess them for EQ, ask candidates questions on situations based on handling difficult clients, nurturing professional relationships, cold calling, handling a prospect who has had a previous bad experience with your company etc.
Assessing Self-Awareness
No matter how good your selling skills are, you will not succeed in the long run until you are fully aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Great salespeople introspect to find out how they can improve their craft and capitalize on their strengths to maximize their numbers. Harnessing the power of positive emotions helps a salesman to nurture a better relationship with clients and to succeed in the face of challenges.
During interviews ensure you ask candidates about their failures and missed opportunities to assess how pragmatic and honest the coping mechanism of the interviewee is.
Achievement-Orientation
A great salesperson is always a go-getter — someone who is highly achievement focused and hungry to win. It’s important for salespersons to possess a high drive for achievement, which motivates them to push hard to achieve time-bound targets. Goal-orientation helps a salesperson to strategize carefully, plan and attain measurable sales objectives. Top salespeople know that if they want to win the game, they need to work hard and fast on the playing field!
To assess this — ask the candidates about their 5 most important achievements in order of ranks. This question will help you assess what the candidate values most and why and if it is aligned to your company culture and needs.
Positive Demeanor
A healthy dose of optimism is an absolute essential for a hustler and more than that the ability to handle rejection and mould it into energy for a second inning. A hustler will always maintain an optimistic and cheerful demeanor even in the face of marketing failure, which will enhance performance in a progressive manner in the long run.
To assess this trait, ask the prospective candidate to tell you a story from his professional life where they handled rejection. Personal or professional, any.
Problem-Solving Attitude
A good salesperson needs to be a reliable problem solver — one who can satisfy every need of a customer and help them come up with the right decision. Visualizing a customer’s situation, making a correct assessment and communicating constructive solutions are the best way to win buyer confidence. Rational decision making, and problem-solving outlook will help any salesperson attain selling victory in a highly competitive market.
To assess this trait, give the candidate a situational case study which involves engaging various levels of stakeholders and complexities. E.g. How would the candidate handle a situation where an incorrect hypothesis has been used to base a negotiation with a prospect CXO and your company and the deal revolves around an event that is 6 days from now?
I can assure you that you probably won’t find the great hustler you seek in your very first interview but once you’ve reached a few promising CV’s or even better checked on their market reputation it will be half way to finding the sales star.
A sales star or hustler is more often than not — “extremely productive”, and we all want such people, don’t we?
This article was originally published on blog.alore.io. Please click here to read more such articles.
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