Automate your Salesperson Interview

In an earlier post I outlined a best-case-practice for interviewing Salespeople. If you missed it, you can read about it here. I also talked about how much time you should spend on recruiting salespeople. You can read about that here.

I promised to follow up with a way to automate your interviewing process. It will take a little work up front, but save a ton of time on the back end.

Step 1 – Set up an Email address that you will include in all of your Help Wanted ads. You could have a different address for each different source making it easy to track where you are getting your most or best responses.

Step 2 – Set an auto-reply on the Email address account. When someone sends in a Resume, they will automatically get a response thanking them for their application and outlining the next steps. The response will include a link to an assessment that everyone will take. Tell them the next step is to take the assessment and that you will contact them if they seem to be a fit.

Step 3 – Use a high-quality assessment that allows you the ability to receive 3 different notifications after someone takes an assessment…

• Recommend – This is someone who meets all of your pre-selected criteria and needs immediate follow up
• Worthy of consideration – This is someone who has close to all of your criteria, and is worthy of a look ONLY if you have not received enough “recommend” applications
• Not Recommended – These people are not a fit for your organization. No need to follow up with them.

Step 4 – Send an Email from a template to the people you want to follow up with, informing them of a time you will call for an initial 5-minute phone interview.

If someone has a recommendation from your assessment, looks good on the resume and sounds good on a quick 5 minute phone conversation, odds are good they are worth a 45 minute face-to-face interview (in person or online). This process will save you a ton of time in the long run. If you need a high-quality assessment that is specific to hiring salespeople, Objective Management Group has the answer. Click here for a free sample assessment.