Selecting a Sales Manager: Questions For Interviews

Thursday, August 28, 2003

The JS Group, http://www.thejsgroup.com

Selecting an effective sales manager is crucial to the success of an organization. The basic rule is be careful, the second rule is be careful and I'm sure you've guessed the third rule. You want someone who can both take charge and take direction; someone who is sure of them self, but open to change. Too often we think we are open, but unfortunately that is far from the case. To make a good choice you must know a lot more than your product or service. You must be able to blend training, experience, and intuition.

Is a sales manager really just a super sales person in disguise? If not what are the differences?

Many top salespeople are notorious for not liking to deal with the details. Many love to fly by the "seat of their pants". That may or may not work in these times, but consider the message that this gives the sales people in the organization.

Question #1:
“What do you think are the top 10 things necessary to be a good sales manager?”
This is a trick question, because no one can truly answer that question off the top of their head. What you are looking for is for the candidate to say "let me think about that." and not to "fire from the hip".

A sales manager should be a teacher.

Question #2:
“What do you think it's important for a new sales person to know?”

Question #3:
“What about a "seasoned sales person"?”

A sales manager should be planner.

Question #4:
“How did your company deal with sales?”

Question #5:
“What did you think of their plan? How would you have done it (the sales plan)?”
Here you are looking for 3 things:
A. Ability to think
B. Can they criticize in a positive way (Do you think that might have some carry- with the sales force?)
C. Over-all capacity to be positive (Attitude is everything. We don't want "Mary Poppins", we do want an optimist).

We want our sales managers to be motivators.

Question #6:
“You have a sales person who is not doing well, how would you handle it?”
Here we are looking for both a motivator and a thinker. We are interested in the type of questions the candidate asks about the sales person. (i.e.: How long have they been with the company? What has there record been in the past? What is their personality like?)

Question #7:
“Your entire sales force is doing poorly, what would you do?”
Here we are looking for someone who will not blame the economy or the company's efforts or whatever. We want a problem solver not a blamer or, worse yet, a whiner.
You want a sales manager who gets respect.

Question #8:
“How would gain the respect of your sales people?”
How does the person think on their feet?

Question #9:
“What's the toughest situation you have faced professionally?”
You want a sales manager with some insight and not only a strong ego, but mixed with some humility. It's hard to work with someone who has never made a mistake.

Question #10:
“What's one of the biggest mistakes you've ever made?
What would you do differently?
Why?”

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