What To Look for In an Interview Candidate (from a Sales Recruiter’s Perspective)
For every role someone could be working toward, there will always be a combination of shared and unique qualities. There are a handful of qualities successful employees everywhere share. Those qualities make up part of what to look for in an interview candidate. Unique to each role, there are also specific skills and competencies necessary for employees to thrive. The reason behind the variability across positions is clear. A successful salesperson looks drastically different than a successful mechanical engineer.
From a sales recruiter’s perspective, what to look for in an interview candidate is quite black and white. Sales recruiters look for a mix of skills and competencies. Some are shared across most roles, and some are unique to sales. Let’s discuss the skills and competencies that embody what to look for in an interview candidate – regardless of role.
What to Look for in an Interview Candidate – Regardless of Role
First and foremost, it’s important to differentiate between skills and competencies. The earlier someone is in their career, the more they will use hard skills in their role. The further someone is in their career, the more they will use competencies instead. That fact won’t be a primary focus for us, but it’s important in establishing a standardized way of evaluating candidates. Instead, we will focus on what the difference between skills and competencies is. Then, we will outline key skills and competencies that make up what to look for in an interview candidate.
The Difference Between Skills and Competencies
It is easy to confuse skills and competencies – especially considering they are commonly referred to interchangeably. The more clearly you can understand the difference between them, the better you can evaluate an individual. Understanding skills and competencies also helps candidates better articulate their experience. The most black and white way to contrast skills and competencies is this: skills are what, competencies are how. Here is an example of how the two pair together.
A salesperson can overcome objection (skill) if they have interpersonal savviness (competency). You might also add in client focus as a competency to aid in the skill of overcoming objection. Overcoming objection is a specific skill applied in specific situations. The competencies that apply to it, on the other hand, are transferrable across many jobs, industries, and career stages.
What to Look for in an Interview Candidate – Skills and Competencies
As mentioned, what to look for in an interview candidate is a combination of unique and shared qualities. Across most positions, there are many skills and competencies employers want their employees to have. In thinking about the difference between skills and competencies, you can see that skills can become more job specific. Conversely, competencies are applicable to a broader range of roles. Nonetheless, here are some skills and competencies that make up part of what to look for in an interview candidate:
Written and Verbal Communication
Communication, both verbal and written, is a skill needed in any position. The balance of how much verbal versus written communication is needed can vary, but both are necessary everywhere. There are other qualities that build upon communication skills, such as interpersonal savviness (as highlighted previously). Those building blocks are how communication needs shift for differing positions. At a baseline, employers are looking for employees that can communicate verbally and in writing. Both of those communication skills are vetted during the interview process – largely indirectly.
Time Management
Time management is another skill all employers will look for in an employee. From waiter to CEO, everyone needs to know how to manage their time in order to be successful. Time management is certainly a skill that is most easily evaluated on the job. With that said, it is absolutely a quality screened in interviews. Demonstration of how well an individual juggles different responsibilities is a great indicator of time management skills.
Professionalism
Professionalism is the last skill we will highlight among those widely shared. The reason professionalism makes the list is transparent. When you become employed, you represent your employer in every interaction. Professionalism is an extremely important quality of what to look for in an interview candidate. It is exemplified in how a candidate interacts with recruiters, how they talk about their current role, and how they communicate. Professionalism leads us to commonly shared competencies.
Self-Development
As professionals, we should always be developing if we want continued success. Self-development is one’s ability to appreciate that fact and apply it consistently. A manager can only do so much to develop their people. Self-development is needed to apply coaching and feedback in a thoughtful way. It’s also a large quality behind motivation. A candidate lacking in skills, but one that has a strong self-development muscle, will always be a candidate worth hiring.
Adaptability
Change is the one constant in our world. Being able to adapt to change quickly is a competency appreciated everywhere because of that. Without the ability to adapt, employees can become stagnant and disengaged when their environment shifts. An employee that seamlessly adapts is relatively unaffected by change, making them more reliable in their performance.
Conflict Resolution
Change may be more prevalent than conflict, but hardly. Conflict is another part of life we all navigate. Because of that, all workplaces admire employees that can treat conflicts as problems to solve, learn from, and move forward. Those simple facts make conflict resolution an important competency in what to look for in an interview candidate.
What to Look for in an Interview Candidate – Sales Specific
What to look for in an interview candidate for a sales position is unique. There is a blend of all of the skills and competencies listed previously required. In addition to those, there are sales-specific skills and competencies all salespeople need to be successful. Below are the top seven skills and competencies necessary for a salesperson. Each of these skills and competencies make up what to look for in an interview candidate. There may be additional skills and competencies needed for the specific sales role you are hiring for (or interviewing for). In understanding the intention behind why each of the below seven skills and competencies are needed, identifying others is simplified. Let’s begin with the competencies that are required:
1. Customer/Client Focus
An unwavering focus on customers is vital to being a successful salesperson. Given that, it’s vital to what interviewers are looking for in sales roles. Customer focus is more than customer service. Customer focus can involve helping customers learn what they need. In contrast, customer service focuses on fulfilling the needs that customers already know about. Those two ways of working with a customer use different muscle. Customer focus is a driving force behind salespeople with integrity in their work.
2. Results Orientation
Salespeople need a perfect balance of caring about people while being driven by results. If that balance weighs too heavily in either direction, problems arise. Results orientation, in particular, is a motivator for great salespeople. Strong sales professionals want to hit goals, then set new, more challenging, ones. They want to be the best. That can only be done by consistently pushing to improve their results. Results orientation also ties into the next competency required for salespeople: resilience.
3. Resilience
Being a salesperson means you are going to be rejected. Often. Resilience is required to push through the rejection (relatively) unaffected. Without it, a salesperson would think they aren’t fit for their job before they even get their first paycheck. Being results oriented pairs perfectly with resilience. In order to achieve results, salespeople need to be resilient. They have to have confidence knowing that each “no” brings them that much closer to a “yes.”
4. Interpersonal savviness
A level of interpersonal savviness is needed whenever you work with people. That is largely because we want our coworkers to like us. However, few roles require interpersonal savviness in order to be successful. With sales, success hinges on a salesperson’s interpersonal savviness. They need to be able to be enough of a chameleon to connect with a wide array of people. With that connection allows them to make customers feel comfortable with them – key to instilling trust. Interpersonal savviness is also key to overcoming objections, which is the first skill to make our list of what to look for in an interview candidate.
5. Overcoming objection
After reviewing sales competencies, you can see how competencies work together when a skill is performed. Overcoming objection is a skill all salespeople need to be successful. That skill requires all of the competencies we shared: resilience, customer focus, and interpersonal savviness. By being focused on the customer, and using their resiliency and interpersonal strengths, salespeople can overcome objections.
6. Prospecting
Prospecting is a unique skill for a salesperson. Few roles outside of sales require it. Prospecting involves a strong customer focus to lay the foundation for what the ideal customer profile looks like. Once that profile is established, salespeople need to be extremely resilient as they reach out to potential customers to (hopefully) pique their interest.
7. Active listening
Active listening sounds much simpler than it is. In a sales role, a salesperson needs to digest every word a potential client is saying. Simultaneously, they need to formulate a thoughtful response to their client – without glancing over a single syllable. Doing that successfully requires a strong proficiency in active listening. Not taking the time to address even one concern from a client could make or make a deal.
How to Leverage Information About What to Look for in an Interview Candidate
Learning what to look for in an interview candidate is only helpful if you know how to best apply the information. Whether you are an interviewer or a candidate, the way this information is applied is actually quite similar. Before we discuss that, let’s outline how skill and competency knowledge can be uniquely leveraged for each type of individual.
Interviewers
Skills and competencies are a phenomenal way to establish an evaluation tool for a requisition. They allow for a black and white way to align on what to look for. Use skills and competencies to guide an alignment conversation for everyone involved in hiring for a particular position. Doing so ensures everyone clearly understands the ideal candidate. It also lays out a streamlined way of speaking about candidate feedback throughout the interview process. With a standardized way candidates are evaluated, regardless of the interviewer, your ability to hire the best fit amplifies.
Candidates
As a candidate, insight into what an interviewer is looking for will always be beneficial. Skills and competencies are applicable to every stage in your application and interview process. If you are applying to sales roles, use the skills and competencies listed above as you draft your resume. By incorporating specific skills and competencies into your resume, you help your candidacy stand out in a positive way. Maintain that momentum by speaking about your past experiences using skills and competencies as a guide. That leads us to how insight into what to look for in an interview candidate is shared: interview questions.
Interview Questions Based on Specific Skills and Competencies
As shared in the ”interviewer” section above, skills and competencies create a standardized evaluation tool. If you know you are looking for a candidate that is resilient for your sales team, then you know you need to ask questions related to that. For both interviewers and candidates, here are example questions for each of the seven sales skills and competencies listed previously. Using skill- and competency-based questions, interviewers can screen candidates more effectively. Additionally, candidates can better understand how to advocate for themselves.
Customer/Client Focus: “Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a client”
This question relates to the “client focus” competency in an obvious way. It also is clear to the candidate what you would like to hear, as an interviewer. However, the response can still differentiate between candidates that have a strength in this competency (and those that don’t). Example: if a candidate responds sharing client requests they followed through on, that is more of a customer service skill. If the candidate replies to the question clearly, putting themself in their client’s shoes and delivering focused support, they are proficient in this competency.
Results Orientation: “What motivates you as a salesperson?”
Results orientation is extremely important in what to look for in an interview candidate in sales. Digging into a candidate’s results orientation can be done in a multitude of ways. Some seem less directly related and others very directly related. Less directly, you could ask a candidate what motivates them. This may require you to peel to focus the question more directly on results. You could also ask the candidate about results they recently achieved and how they hit them. An ideal response to either highlights how focused on results the candidate is in their day-to-day work.
Resilience: “Tell me about a challenging week you recently had as a salesperson. How did you persevere?”
Resilience is another competency that can be screened for several ways. Keeping the question focused on past performance is always best in behavioral interviews. Ask your candidate about a recent week that was particularly rough. If they don’t proactively offer how they persevered, ask them what kept them going. Mindset is a large part of resilience, which takes a great deal of intention when it’s challenged. The more intention you hear behind how the candidate got themself through the week, the better.
Interpersonal savviness: “Walk me through how you build rapport with potential clients quickly”
Interpersonal savviness is next on our list of competencies that make up what to look for in an interview candidate. It’s a competency you may begin to see in a candidate within your interactions. Regardless, asking a question that allows you to specifically evaluate it is beneficial. After all, you and the candidate may just connect well. If they have strategy behind their interpersonal savviness, you can feel confident they’ll be able to build connections with clients.
Overcoming objection: “Tell me about a rejection you recently received and overcame”
Evaluating skills feels more black and white than competencies, as exemplified with this question. Thinking back to the difference between the two, it makes sense why. Skills are what someone does, competencies are how they do it. In screening a candidate for skills, you should also listen to the way they apply competencies that align with the skill. As a candidate, ensure your response to a question such as this one incorporates applicable sales competencies.
Prospecting: “What does your prospecting process look like?
A candidate’s response to this question will uncover what their experience level with prospecting looks like. Depending on the experience level you expect, you will get a sense of what type of training is needed. Conversely, you might also learn they don’t have the experience you’re looking for.
Active listening: “Tell me about a time your active listening skills worked in your favor”
An ideal response to the active listening question is similar to the last. A candidate that has strong active listening skills clearly recognizes the need for them to be successful. Given that, they will likely have many situations to choose from. Whichever they choose, active listening will have been done and leveraged clearly and intentionally.
What to Look for in an Interview Candidate, Sales or Otherwise
In an interview candidate, regardless of the role, you will always be looking for a combination of skills and competencies. The more clearly those competencies are defined and discussed, the more seamless your hiring process will be. Sales roles require a very unique set of skills and competencies. Now equipped with the top seven things a sales recruiter looks for in an interview candidate, both employers and candidates can excel. To take even more guesswork out of the sales interview process, leverage the team of experts at Sales Recruiters Denver.