SalesHQ

I remember when I was first interviewing with companies to enter their sales dept. There is SO much pressure during sales interviews, more than any other profession, because you have "sell yourself." If you can't convince them to hire you, how can you convince clients they should buy a product or service?

Exactly SellYa.  You have to sell yourself.  I've always just been myself in interviews...because I look at it this way, I'm interviewing them too.  I think feelings need to be mutual...if both parties find interest in each other than it's a notion to move forward.

That is super smart 5050,

You are right...better to "thoroughly vet (my new vocab word from this election)" your applicants than spend all the hours after the fact cleaning up their messes and/or hiring a replacement. 

I like the idea of a "ride a long" and of setting up multiple meetings (for them to show up on time to).  So many people present themselves well during an interview but end up being flakes.  The last few people let go from our company were actually smart...but I believe they had substance abuse issues and they ended up being flakey and lazy.    You just don't get a feel for that after a 30 minute interview...most people can pull that off.

When you feel the pressure try to give yourself a Zen moment.  Take a deep cleansing breath, clear your brain, organize your sentence and speak slowly and confidently.  Don't figit in your chair or tap your pen or pull your hair or pull on anything.  Stay calm, relaxed and speak slowly and with authority.

It's called "grace under pressure" and goes a long way to show that you are in control

iam...the company I currently work for has a serious interviewing process too.  I think they told us the invest about 50K in each rep before they even start actually working on their own.  They do all kinds of checks and interviews... my last boss knew I already had been accepted for the new job before I told her I was leaving..they wrote her a letter telling her.  I had 2 interviews (but you could have more).. then you have to go to training for4-6weeks in another state...where every day you have testing and testing and meetings and planning and did I say testing.  Even after that process you still weren't sure if you had the job...at the end you find out.  I swear...in my training class I woke up in my hotel room  from a dead sleep with a splitting migrane..I had never had that happen before...it's intense..and people drop off along the way.

Barcode -

You are spot on -  out industry has heavy turn over (Copiers).  The typical life span of a NEW rep with no industry experience is 14 months.  It takes about 2 months of training and depending on person 6 months - year to get it.....

We are a publically traded comapny so we do not "color outside the lines" - in refernce to handling people.  that would be illegal....We are supportive of individuals and do not look to criticize, only assist and by positivity, rewards, and compensation.   To criticize someone wouldn't help anything.....

Our salesforce is a mixture of brand new reps and tenured vets.   We always meet and leran together.  We are paired randomly and all learn from each other.  The sales managment handles people with care.....We live by the simple philosophy of treat people the way you want to be treated....ALthough today I Start a brand new role w/ no managment responsiblities, all of my reps know they can still come to me for help, and I will always make time for them...Last weekend, I helped one of the move into their new house...Carried furniture all day long.  Is that the support of managment?

Curious to learn from you though.....What specificallt makes your atmosphere so sucessful and what industry are you in?

Sellarina-

Quite Frankly, it is very hard.   It is hard to learn the product, it is hard to learn the industry, and it can be stressful.  I think that this industry has high turn over for a couple of reasons beyond that.

Competition is oversaturated, even by brand so for younger reps it is difficult to identify competitive distinction.

There is alot of good old fashioned knocking on doors, and it requires alot of hard hard work day in and day out. 

If 6 months go by and someone is not producing they are not happy, because they are not making money, and they are proabbly being reviewed to see what can be done to help them.  I am proud that we have instituted many layers of insulation to protect that from a MANAGERIAL / MENTOR Role.  This is one reason why our interview process is designed  the way it is.  It really exlempfies the process of a transaction in our business.

Thankfully, by the grace of god, I have been doing this for 9 years and have passed by that benchmark many years ago, but I go out of my way to help the new reps as much as possible.  It is amazing what you are able to learn from these people - just need to keep your eyes open.

Finally, most will say on exit interviews that they have found another poistion - most do not stay in sales, and alot of people use this as a stepping stone for pharm sales.   Alot of industries will target copier reps for positions due to the nature of our business.  It is quite alluring to someone in their mid 20's who is struggling to get a car and a 50k base....Even though they will be pretty much tapped out on their income.  

I only have a few freinds who are pharma reps that made more than 100k per yr and it wasn't until they had moved up the ladder signifigantly....On the flip side all they do is travel, so how great could life be at that?

I've been  working in Advertising Sales for about 9yrs with a background in marketing before that.  I had been working for probably the largest Communications Company in the world for about the past  5yrs helping people grow their business through print and internet mediums.  Turn over in my industry I think is a couple of things...for one quotas...the what was expected of you...you really have to sell alot.  The commitment to being on the phone and making calls.  Being able to multitask and make deadlines regardless of the meetings and other interuptions of the job.  I always looked at it as a way for me to get better and over come the challenges...some people would complain of stress.  However, I look at stress in a different light...that you can control stress.  Everyone is different as is Advertising is not for everyone. 

Hey Rich~~~~~~~I like the idea of those questions.  It would open people up more I would think, allow the other person to get to know them a little bit---some insight as to who they are, how and what they think,  what their interests aree  Yeah  GREAT IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     That is a great idea Winn. I do something similar. I have a yearly  daily planner that shows where I have been and what was done and how it was done.I started doing this back in 1993 and I have all of the years since then.It has become  part of my daily journals  that I write  on the computer.I never gave that a thought to use it  the way you described that would be a wonderful gift to a prospective company.