Selection of cold sales managers. Difficult vacancy: how to choose a sales manager How to attract a good sales manager

April 2, 2015 Head of Recruitment and Personnel Development Department. OOO

How to select a sales manager?

Sales manager is one of the most sought-after specialties. A good sales department is the basis of any company that wants to confidently look into the future and develop. This is the link that connects it with the market and ensures stability. How to find the “right” manager? How to attract sales managers? What are the features of filling this vacancy? You will find the answer to these questions in this article.

What is the situation of supply and demand in the personnel market for this vacancy?

Sales manager is one of the most sought-after specialties. A good sales department is the basis of any company that wants to confidently look into the future and develop. This is the link that connects it with the market and ensures stability.

The salary of a sales manager, of course, depends on the results of his work. Since the sales manager does not produce a product, his main task is to ensure effective communication of the company with the external environment and its potential customers. The standard conditions offered to managers are a salary portion, a bonus for meeting targets and a percentage of sales. This payment system allows the company to reduce its costs for ineffective candidates - and such candidates also happen to successfully pass recruiter tests.

What is important to know about the company, vacancy and working conditions in order to complete the task correctly and on time?

Before you start selecting a sales manager, as when working for any other vacancy, you need to obtain the most complete information:

  1. about the employer's requirements;
  2. About company;
  3. about working conditions.

This clarification will help you write a job description and present it favorably to the applicant.

What you need to ask:

  1. Be sure to clarify what experience the company has in recruiting sales managers now? Is there a sales department now? In what composition? What is the company structure? What is the reason for opening a vacancy?

As a rule, during an interview, the applicant always wants to understand what company he will end up in, whether he already has experience in the market, whether the sales technology has been worked out, whether there is competition between managers and how this is regulated. They are also interested in growth opportunities and the level of pay that a manager reaches after a probationary period.

2. What does the customer tell the applicant about the company during the interview?

As a rule, the manager already has a set of standard phrases about the product and the company that will help create a favorable image in the eyes of the applicant. And you don’t have to make things up during the interview with the applicant.

3. Are there sales plans?

4. Finally, meet the candidate’s future manager.

Be sure to analyze all the information received before starting work and draw up an action plan to fill the vacancy. Be sure to schedule your recruiting work weekly and daily and track all tasks.

How to present a vacancy to applicants (nuances and rules for creating a vacancy presentation).

Try to compose the text of the presentation in advance, using key phrases about the product and the company that you found out from the employer.

Try to speak kindly and as fully as possible about the working conditions, emphasizing the merits of your proposal. Inform the applicant that there are sales plans, and that he will be able to talk about them in more detail with the manager at the second stage of the interview.

At the end of the interview, clarify how interested the applicant is in this vacancy? Typically, applicants can tell you their answer right away. You, in turn, take a break to make a decision. If you have made your choice, inform the candidate within 1-2 days. Remember that everyone needs good salespeople, and your competitors are not asleep, luring candidates into their networks!

Where to locate (search sources, including special and non-trivial ones). Search strategy (responses, active calling, social networks, advertisements, etc.).

To fill a vacancy for a sales manager, it is best to use popular sources: superjob, hh.ru, rabota.ru, avito.

Don’t get carried away with posting a vacancy; it’s better to gain access to the database and search actively. Remember that a good sales manager is in demand on the market and has been looking for work for less than 1 month.

How to conduct initial selection by telephone (important rules of negotiations and selection criteria).

To conduct a telephone interview, you will need a conversation script compiled by an experienced recruiter. The script takes into account all the important rules of negotiations and

those mandatory criteria that need to be clarified from the applicant before inviting you to the office: education, work experience, salary level, etc.

Features of face-to-face communication and candidate assessment.

It is better to prepare for the interview in advance. Prepare a list of questions that you absolutely need to clarify. During the interview, ask the applicant to talk about his experience in sales.

Since your vacancy involves an active search for a client, please specify:

  1. What experience does the applicant have in this field? How did he attract clients?
  2. What achievements does he have in his previous place of work?
  3. What was the payment system?
  4. Separately consider the reasons for dismissal.
  5. Find out what other vacancies he is considering, how urgently he wants to get a job, and what he wants to get in the end.

At this stage, you will notice the difference between the responses of a random applicant and your target “client”. In addition to general interest, you will also be able to evaluate attentiveness and ability to search for additional information in open sources.

Throughout the interview, observe the applicant's reactions and how he answers questions. Remember that this is a salesperson who not only has presentation skills, but can also pull the wool over the eyes of an inexperienced recruiter.

Preparing candidates for interviews at the company.

Preparing candidates for an interview at the company is as follows:

  1. Specify the time and place of the interview. Be sure to inform the candidate in advance that he has been invited for an interview. Please provide your address in detail and send directions. Make sure the candidate has your contact information in case of emergencies.
  2. Let the candidate know who they will be communicating with. If the company adopts an exclusively business attire, inform them in advance.
  3. Tell the candidate what strengths they should highlight during the interview.

No further preparation steps for the interview are required. A good salesperson successfully presents himself to the employer. Good luck searching!

How to choose a sales manager is the main task facing the department head and HR specialist. You need to understand that the effectiveness of the staff, and therefore business success, depends on the personal qualities and experience of a potential employee and a properly conducted interview. We will tell you about some of the stages, secrets and principles of selecting candidates for the position of salesperson.

  1. How to select and hire a good sales manager? Use a wide funnel. Your task is to get as many responses to the vacancy as possible. Three hundred responses will turn into 30 good resumes, 10 worthwhile applicants and 3 specialists, two will accept your offer, and only one will remain on a long-term basis. The funnel works exactly the same as in sales. Fill it up and monitor the conversion, that’s the whole secret.
  2. Use test working days- this is another answer to the question “how to choose the best sales manager.” If you have 2 good applicants for 1 position, invite them both, this is a great technique. Or test them on remote transactions. After a few days, you will understand which of them is better for you (or one of them will decide not to continue working). Look at the numbers, but don’t forget about subjective impressions: you have to work with this person. The criteria for evaluating a sales manager may be different, but we look at the effectiveness of lead generation and the number of calls. Don’t forget to pay honestly and express gratitude to the unsuitable candidate. And if both employees show themselves well, then we can only congratulate you, we would hire two at once, they will not be superfluous.
  3. Selecting and selecting a sales manager that is right for you. If you are building an effective department where there is a division into functions, do not forget that you are looking for an employee for a specific role. And if a friendly and smart person seems to you not active and courageous enough for cold calls, think about whether you need an account specialist. Don't look for perfect people, they don't exist. The first principle is not looking for unnecessary qualities in people.
  4. How to quickly find a sales manager in a short time? Search everywhere! Use all channels: work sites, bulletin boards, special chats and groups on social networks. Have an assistant hand out the job vacancy text (well written, of course!). Great coverage means a lot of responses, and we already wrote about the funnel in the first paragraph. Do not delay processing, read your resume on the day of admission.
  5. If you often need “fresh blood”, for example, you have a huge team, or constant turnover, then keep applicants “in reserve” and always have a database of potential specialists. Or create a technology for selecting a sales manager - this is a template by which any of your employees can start the entire chain of search actions; you can order such a service from recruitment agencies.
  6. Don't delay starting. Once you start working, you will quickly understand whether you need to restart the search. Conducted an interview, agreed on the candidate and call her to come to the place. Check with HR specialists in advance how to register a sales manager so that there are no problems if you don’t work out well.
We have shared with you our principles for selecting people for the sales department. We hope that they will help you solve an issue that is important to you. In any case, the one who walks will master the road. I wish you success!

Webinars and events:

Free course “Head of Cold Sales Department”

Take an online course on cold calling from the Skorozvon service and receive a personalized certificate.


Free webinar “How to increase sales by 2-3 times”

On October 10, Dilara Muzafarova will tell you how to build a sales pipeline using cold calls. You will receive a step-by-step action program.

  • Manager separation
  • Portraits of managers
  • Employee search
  • How to write scripts
  • Call and conversion databases
  • Control and efficiency

There are two difficulties in working with personnel: we hire the wrong people, we manage them wrong. And if from a management point of view we are only strong in how to increase efficiency.

We feel very comfortable in hiring sales managers (they are also retail salespeople), at least because we ourselves constantly practice searching for sales personnel for our company.

Hire, don't buy

Great surprise can be seen in the eyes of an entrepreneur who has just started hiring staff.

The idea that if you give a good salary and conditions, then people will come in droves and each of them will become a superhero, collapses like a sand castle on the seashore.

Practice shows the opposite - people are reluctant to come, and if they come, most of them are not professional at all. suitable.

Sales personnel is one of the most difficult professions to recruit. Therefore, this process needs to be approached systematically.

And it doesn’t all start with creating an ad. This matter is not as complicated as it is made out to be.

It all starts with the formation of values ​​and working conditions. And this is not for you to carry bags of potatoes.

I focus on this because, from our experience, the reason for the weak flow of potential candidates lies initially in the lack of competitive conditions.

Now is the time when you do not choose, but you are chosen. This sounds crazy, especially if you look at the ratio of vacancies to resumes.

But we must take into account not a quantitative indicator, but a qualitative one. And there are already ten times fewer such managers.

Therefore, before proceeding to the instructions below, you need to take a fresh look at your company and then monitor the conditions that competitors offer.

If you initially lose, then it is better to invest a little money and effort to make the conditions as tasty as possible, and only then hold an open house for future sellers.

And one more important point. Clearly define the job profile. Portrait of the person you are looking for.

Most likely nothing will change if I say the following phrase, but still:

Important. There is no need to look for a multi-armed and multi-legged one. You must clearly understand who you are looking for and the tasks that he will solve.

Multi-functional employees are not found, they grow within the company. And this is a completely different song.

We are looking and not complaining

To conduct a selection, you need to have someone to select. The logic is ironclad, I know.

But even with finding people and inviting them for an interview, many have difficulties, as a result of which we hear the phrase: “People are completely screwed, they don’t want to work.”

Therefore, first of all, we will look at how to find, and only then how to select a seller or manager.

And I warn you right away, I am not voicing non-standard/labor-intensive ways to find a good sales manager.

I include these: “steal” from another company, grow from another employee, find at sales trainings, ask friends, and so on.

All this has its place, but it requires more professional skills and I will not be able to disclose them in this article.

WE ARE ALREADY MORE THAN 29,000 people.
TURN ON

Option 1. Passive search (ad)

The laziest way to attract a good salesperson is to place an ad on relevant sites and wait for a response.

It was not by chance that I called it lazy, since it requires minimal resources. But nevertheless, it also requires certain knowledge so as not to end up with nothing.

We monitored a huge number of ads and came to the conclusion that all successful companies use a similar ad structure.

Therefore, without thinking for a long time, we copied it and improved it from a marketing point of view. Therefore, you can also not invent a wheel and take our sequence:

  1. Briefly and vividly about yourself. In one sentence, tell us who you are and what you do;
  2. Position and reason. Write the position you are looking for and what it involves;
  3. Main benefits. Catch attention with compelling reasons why your position is better than others;
  4. Possibilities. Increase interest in you through future opportunities;
  5. Responsibilities. Describe what the person will need to do during the work process;
  6. No need to do it (individually). Write what you won’t need to do in your work;
  7. Requirements. Voice your wishes to the future employee;
  8. Conditions. Be as specific as possible about what the candidate will receive;
  9. Time limit. Create excitement by setting a deadline for applications;
  10. Call to action + contacts. Show what you need to do to submit your application.

If this is not your first day in business, you can easily compose your ad using this structure.

I deliberately do not post an example of our implementation of such an ad, otherwise everything will be like a template for everyone. You must be different, at a minimum, in your presentation.

For example (I’m exaggerating), write not “An experienced team of like-minded people,” but “A team of superheroes with 7 different abilities: from a human designer to a human who knows his place.”

Once again, this is important. You need to write an ad in non-dry language in the style of “reliable company” or “stable payments”.

This is the last century even for Gazprom. A real sales manager is an active and non-standard person, which means he wants to work in an equally advanced company.

In addition, you need to clearly understand that very soon this position will be filled entirely by a generation raised on iPhones, and not on bread stamps.

Important. It is optimal to indicate the average salary; this will not create high expectations (they often do not believe in them) and at the same time will not frighten you off with a low base rate.

Just don’t hide this number and hope that they will call you. It must be a very well-known company for people to knock on your door so actively.

Option 2. Active search (calls)

If the mountain does not come to Mohammed, then Mohammed must pick up the phone and call. Are you surprised?

I hope not at all, because even contrary to the logic that a manager always makes the first step, you need to do the opposite.

You take sites with advertisements and start calling all the suitable resumes on the sites.

Unfortunately, now almost all sites have paid access to employee resumes. Either you pay for each open resume, or you simply buy access for a certain period.

And this was not done by chance. After all, now managers are mostly accustomed to posting their resumes and waiting for an invitation, rather than going to the front and calling themselves.

First of all, this is due to the fact that good employees are already working somewhere, and if they are looking for another job, they do it slowly.

I am not ruling out a situation where a super seller will be actively searching, but as practice shows, this happens much less often. Therefore, there is only one verdict - it is better to call yourself than to wait for responses.

Moreover, get ready, the conversation should also take place in a certain way.

You need to properly present your company and hook people so that they come to you for an interview.

This is difficult, because you initially find yourself in the position of a “begger,” but if you really have a strong offer on the market, then in just a few minutes the roles can change dramatically.

Interesting. Lately, we have been more likely to find professional sellers on Avito than on specialized job search sites.

We select and do not regret

At first, we, like everyone else, used the approach with individual interviews, until we got bored (sorry) and came across a book by Konstantin Baksht, where he talks about the mass approach.

I just want to warn you right away that ours differs from what is written in the book and from those that you will find on the Internet.

We have developed our own style, which brings the best results at the moment.

A mass approach is when you invite up to 10 people for one position at one time, without telling them about it. Yes Yes!

Don't panic, that's the way it should be. We do this in order to make it easier to see “Salesmen” and “Not Salesmen” with this approach.

In addition, during such a meeting, your company grows in the eyes of candidates, since they see that there are several applicants for one position.

Important. In big cities, mass interviews are nothing new; be prepared for the fact that potential employees may know the answers to your entire list of interview questions.

Stage 1. Introduction

Well, you invited everyone for the same time and are waiting. At this time, your future sales terrorists gradually come to the waiting room, looking at all the people in bewilderment and asking a banal question: “Are you all booked for 14.30?”

Some, upon hearing the answer, will be slightly surprised, but will sit down with a calm face to wait for it to begin; the other part, being at a loss, will quietly turn around under the pretext of “Where is the toilet?” and they will leave.

And let them go, we don’t need salespeople who are shy or afraid of competition in the company.

When the clock strikes the appointed time and all potential employees have gathered in one place, we begin our show program.

At the beginning, you need to introduce yourself, saying your name with your position and 1-2 sentences about yourself, for example, how long have you been working in the company and what have you achieved?

Then be sure to thank them for all coming, and then “program” the applicants for timing and sequence, telling them how events will develop further.

For many people, an interview is already stressful, but here you are with the masses (as a rule, people initially prepare for a personal interview, prepare answers to questions, imagine how they will sell a pen, etc.).

Therefore, just in case, I ask the question at the end: “Are there anyone who wants to just pick up and leave?”

Previously, the first person to leave would be followed by a couple more who were embarrassed to take the first step towards the door, but now I see a situation where people, on the contrary, demand the continuation of the banquet without even blinking an eye.

Stage 2. Presentation of the company and vacancies

At the second stage, our task is to present the company and the vacancy. True, I prefer to use the word “sell” instead of “present”.

We start, naturally, with the sale of the company. You need to make a pitch so that everyone wants to work for you and understands that this is not a company, but a tasty morsel.

After talking about the company, we must sell the vacancy. After all, it’s one thing to work in a large and well-known company, and another thing to work there with terrible conditions and inflated demands.

The sequence of your further presentation will be based on the following scheme:

  1. Reason for vacancy. We tell you why you decided to hire a new employee;
  2. Job profile. We voice the characteristics of a person who is ideally suited;
  3. Working conditions. We show that working for you is profitable and useful.

Pay attention to the second paragraph “Vacancy Profile”. In it you need to state as accurately as possible what qualities you will pay attention to when choosing.

And in the future, you should also monitor those people who resonate with them in their answers, and even better, voice them during self-presentation (the next stage).

Based on the results of this block, I finally ask what questions there are about the company, vacancy and conditions.

If there were too many questions, then congratulations, you were poorly prepared for the presentation, which means you also poorly “sold” your company. If there are no questions, then you are great and can move on.

Stage 3. Mass survey

Now we come to the interview itself, where you will learn how to choose the right sellers. This stage consists of a questionnaire, questions and a meeting.

These three stages occur sequentially and each of them has a specific task.

Based on the results of these stages, it will be clear which of those who came will advance to the next stage, and who will be the weakest link and will leave your place of execution.

Questionnaire

Before meeting with applicants, you need to print out a form with selection criteria.

It is a list of 10-15 criteria that employees are guided by when choosing a future place of work.

Among these criteria must be: high salary, comfortable place of work, friendly team. The rest is individually tailored to your area of ​​business.

You give this questionnaire to each person with the words: “Sign the questionnaire and mark the 3 most important criteria for you when choosing a future job.”

In order not to get lost in last names, I also ask everyone who comes to pay by serial numbers from left to right, and sign it next to their full name.

Literally within a minute after distribution, you will receive all the materials back, where you can see who pays attention to what when choosing a job.

Initially, I thought that people would be cunning and write what the employer wants to see. But as practice shows, people more often write the truth in these questionnaires, even if only 70%.

Questions

This part is the most stressful for those sitting in front of you. You start it with a fairly simple task - everyone must present themselves within 30 seconds.

To do this, you take out a stopwatch and everyone talks about themselves in any format. During a strict selection, I recommend not setting the beginning of the queue, but asking who wants it first.

As a rule, those who are the most suitable for the position in terms of activity are the first to raise their hands.

Some of the speakers won’t even do it in 30 seconds, but for others, on the contrary, 5 seconds will be enough.

But the main thing for you is not the duration of the presentation, but its quality. A person must sell himself from the side you need.

That is why at the very beginning you described in such detail who you are looking for and what requirements you provide for candidates.

After the presentation, it is already clear who has the potential, but we do not give up and continue the selection. The next test is three tricky questions of your choice.

My most frequently asked question is: “What does selling mean to you?” The ideal answer is “Result”. But when it comes down to it, there is no perfect answer. What matters is how a person speaks and how he thinks.

For example, those who voice that selling is the ability to identify a need, then I see that the person is more focused on work and does not always consider this a bad answer.

Lifehack. In order not to get confused in the answers, I put a plus or minus (like or dislike) for each answer in the participant’s questionnaire.

Meeting and results

Having thanked everyone for their answers, you, together with all the selectors, retire to a separate room and make a verdict - who will advance to the next stage.

First of all, you should rely on self-presentation (how the person was able to sell himself), then on the questionnaire (how similar you are in values) and then on three answers (what kind of thinking the person has).

Based on the screening results, you publicly name those who made it to the next stage.

And also, to cheer everyone up and end the interview on a positive note, you can give out mini-gifts or discount cards from your company.

After all, today they are your potential employees, and tomorrow they can become your current clients.

Your gifts from partners

Stage 4. Personal interview

This stage is familiar to everyone; it is no different from what you do during standard hiring.

Only you no longer communicate with everyone, but with the best. This saves your time enormously and increases the efficiency of screening.

Question answer

How did the famous detective Sherlock Holmes solve mysterious murders so easily? He paid attention to detail. You need to do the same at this step.

When asking questions, you should notice details in the answers, look for investigative connections and inconsistencies in them with other known facts about the candidate.

In a short period of time (about 20 minutes), you need to ask the most piercing questions in order to decide whether to take a person on probation or not.

All these questions are divided into three zones, which show a person from all sides. We call them analyzes and some of the questions look like this:

  • Analysis of professional competencies (how good a salesperson is)
  1. Describe your 5 biggest accomplishments at work.
  2. How many calls did you make per day/What was the conversion from visitor to deal?
  3. What's your biggest deal?
  4. 10 of your first actions in the workplace
  5. Do you have experience in our field?
  • Analysis of motivation (what motivates and how)
  1. What didn't you like about your previous job?
  2. What ideal motivation do you see for yourself?
  3. What are your hobbies?
  4. Why the profession of a manager/sales consultant?
  5. What are you willing to work for if it’s not money?
  • Compensation analysis (how much money is needed)
  1. Minimum threshold for which you are willing to work?
  2. What will you buy first with 100,000 rubles?
  3. How long ago and what did you please yourself with?
  4. What is the most expensive purchase in the last six months?
  5. Approximately how much do you spend on yourself?

Sales manager interview questions are all pretty banal.

That is why there are entire articles for sellers, where they teach how to correctly say who they see themselves in 3 years and why they change jobs so often.

By this I am not saying that your task is to be different from everyone else. The goal is to get an answer “from the heart,” and not a prepared template.

And for this you need to be able to ask ordinary questions, choosing other words.

But in order to be able to reformulate questions, you need to understand their essence. For example, by asking the question: “Where do you see yourself in 3 years?”, we want to find out how big the person’s ambitions are in the long term.

Therefore, we can easily replace it with “What do you choose: now a small salary, but in 2 years the position of a manager with a 90% probability and with a salary 5 times more, or now a high salary, but no promotions for 3 years?”

Case stage

The seller sees the seller from afar. Therefore, it is very important that a person knowledgeable in sales be present at this step, because this is where the applicant will show his skills in the business.

Namely, you propose to simulate a real sale of a product. Where he is the seller, and you are the buyer.

For purity of selection, we always suggest depicting the sale of a fictitious product. For example, an anti-baldness cream or a chair with three legs.

This is necessary so that a person is not afraid to make mistakes in technical details and shows his ingenuity, and most importantly, how he behaves in non-standard situations.

Pay attention not only to creativity and acting skills, but also to the use of the 8 stages of sales techniques.

A real seller will first make contact, then find out the need and only then present the product.

And don’t forget to check how it will be from the series “Expensive”, “We need advice”, “Give a discount” and so on.

Important. At the end of the interview, we never give an answer right away. We need to show what we choose. Therefore, take a break until the next day (in rare cases, until the evening).

Briefly about the main thing

Now you see that the questions “Where to find a sales manager” and “How to choose a seller” do not look as simple as it seems at first.

To successfully implement them, you need to go through 4 stages + preliminary search.

And most likely, if you have a constant flow of clients, it is better to hire a separate person for this and give him these instructions.

According to statistics, to select the right employee you need to review 50 candidates.

For you, this means 5 mass interviews and about 5 people accepted for internship.

That’s right, until you get people into internships, you won’t understand whether this is your person or not. Therefore, after reading and implementing these instructions, you can then begin to develop an adaptation plan.

April 2, 2015 Head of Recruitment and Personnel Development Department. OOO

How to select a sales manager?

Sales manager is one of the most sought-after specialties. A good sales department is the basis of any company that wants to confidently look into the future and develop. This is the link that connects it with the market and ensures stability. How to find the “right” manager? How to attract sales managers? What are the features of filling this vacancy? You will find the answer to these questions in this article.

What is the situation of supply and demand in the personnel market for this vacancy?

Sales manager is one of the most sought-after specialties. A good sales department is the basis of any company that wants to confidently look into the future and develop. This is the link that connects it with the market and ensures stability.

The salary of a sales manager, of course, depends on the results of his work. Since the sales manager does not produce a product, his main task is to ensure effective communication of the company with the external environment and its potential customers. The standard conditions offered to managers are a salary portion, a bonus for meeting targets and a percentage of sales. This payment system allows the company to reduce its costs for ineffective candidates - and such candidates also happen to successfully pass recruiter tests.

What is important to know about the company, vacancy and working conditions in order to complete the task correctly and on time?

Before you start selecting a sales manager, as when working for any other vacancy, you need to obtain the most complete information:

  1. about the employer's requirements;
  2. About company;
  3. about working conditions.

This clarification will help you write a job description and present it favorably to the applicant.

What you need to ask:

  1. Be sure to clarify what experience the company has in recruiting sales managers now? Is there a sales department now? In what composition? What is the company structure? What is the reason for opening a vacancy?

As a rule, during an interview, the applicant always wants to understand what company he will end up in, whether he already has experience in the market, whether the sales technology has been worked out, whether there is competition between managers and how this is regulated. They are also interested in growth opportunities and the level of pay that a manager reaches after a probationary period.

2. What does the customer tell the applicant about the company during the interview?

As a rule, the manager already has a set of standard phrases about the product and the company that will help create a favorable image in the eyes of the applicant. And you don’t have to make things up during the interview with the applicant.

3. Are there sales plans?

4. Finally, meet the candidate’s future manager.

Be sure to analyze all the information received before starting work and draw up an action plan to fill the vacancy. Be sure to schedule your recruiting work weekly and daily and track all tasks.

How to present a vacancy to applicants (nuances and rules for creating a vacancy presentation).

Try to compose the text of the presentation in advance, using key phrases about the product and the company that you found out from the employer.

Try to speak kindly and as fully as possible about the working conditions, emphasizing the merits of your proposal. Inform the applicant that there are sales plans, and that he will be able to talk about them in more detail with the manager at the second stage of the interview.

At the end of the interview, clarify how interested the applicant is in this vacancy? Typically, applicants can tell you their answer right away. You, in turn, take a break to make a decision. If you have made your choice, inform the candidate within 1-2 days. Remember that everyone needs good salespeople, and your competitors are not asleep, luring candidates into their networks!

Where to locate (search sources, including special and non-trivial ones). Search strategy (responses, active calling, social networks, advertisements, etc.).

To fill a vacancy for a sales manager, it is best to use popular sources: superjob, hh.ru, rabota.ru, avito.

Don’t get carried away with posting a vacancy; it’s better to gain access to the database and search actively. Remember that a good sales manager is in demand on the market and has been looking for work for less than 1 month.

How to conduct initial selection by telephone (important rules of negotiations and selection criteria).

To conduct a telephone interview, you will need a conversation script compiled by an experienced recruiter. The script takes into account all the important rules of negotiations and

those mandatory criteria that need to be clarified from the applicant before inviting you to the office: education, work experience, salary level, etc.

Features of face-to-face communication and candidate assessment.

It is better to prepare for the interview in advance. Prepare a list of questions that you absolutely need to clarify. During the interview, ask the applicant to talk about his experience in sales.

Since your vacancy involves an active search for a client, please specify:

  1. What experience does the applicant have in this field? How did he attract clients?
  2. What achievements does he have in his previous place of work?
  3. What was the payment system?
  4. Separately consider the reasons for dismissal.
  5. Find out what other vacancies he is considering, how urgently he wants to get a job, and what he wants to get in the end.

At this stage, you will notice the difference between the responses of a random applicant and your target “client”. In addition to general interest, you will also be able to evaluate attentiveness and ability to search for additional information in open sources.

Throughout the interview, observe the applicant's reactions and how he answers questions. Remember that this is a salesperson who not only has presentation skills, but can also pull the wool over the eyes of an inexperienced recruiter.

Preparing candidates for interviews at the company.

Preparing candidates for an interview at the company is as follows:

  1. Specify the time and place of the interview. Be sure to inform the candidate in advance that he has been invited for an interview. Please provide your address in detail and send directions. Make sure the candidate has your contact information in case of emergencies.
  2. Let the candidate know who they will be communicating with. If the company adopts an exclusively business attire, inform them in advance.
  3. Tell the candidate what strengths they should highlight during the interview.

No further preparation steps for the interview are required. A good salesperson successfully presents himself to the employer. Good luck searching!

A sales manager is a person who needs to make decisions independently, act quickly and respond adequately to the situation. The set of competencies depends on the specific position, on what company the person works for and what products they offer.

The experience of the MarksMan company shows that a specialist with precisely this set of competencies most effectively performs sales-related work. A sales manager is a person who needs to make decisions independently, act quickly and respond adequately to the situation.

A person cannot have more than five clearly expressed competencies; the rest, if present, are expressed to a lesser extent. When we interview a candidate, we focus on the three or four most important competencies for a certain position. The set of competencies depends on the specific position, on what company the person works for and what products they offer.

Sales can be “quick” and multi-stage, but in any case, the person who initiates the sale and leads it is responsible for the result. Therefore, competencies such as initiative and the ability to make independent decisions are among the most important for effective work in this area. If a sales manager is lacking initiative, this means that his work requires constant monitoring and intervention from management. Accordingly, the manager loses the most valuable thing - his own time - explaining obvious facts.

The main task in sales is the ability to convince a potential buyer to purchase products or services. If the manager is not convincing, this will immediately affect sales volumes, and for the company this will mean losses. After all, lack of results means lost profits.

Selling is a psychologically uncomfortable situation for most people, so stress tolerance for a sales manager is certainly important. Nowadays competition is especially high, the consumer has the right to choose from a large number of offers, and accordingly the chances of purchasing the products of this particular company are not so great. Of course, monopolists have a completely different attitude towards sales, since their products are unique on the market, and they simply have no reason to be nervous. Stress is a constant companion of a sales manager, because at different stages force majeure circumstances may occur: the customer may change his mind, market conditions may change. All this jeopardizes the implementation of certain plans that a person faces, and this, in turn, is a strong stress factor. If a person is not resistant to stress, then the employer runs the risk that the sales specialist will not work in a specific position for a long time. In addition, stress needs to be released somehow, and this can lead to conflict situations with colleagues, management or - in the worst case - with the client.

The ability to sell is, first of all, the ability to understand your buyer and create his trust. This skill can be acquired if the sales manager well understands the specifics of the buyer’s business for a particular product (this is especially important for corporate sales). The buyer's trust in the seller arises precisely on the basis of an understanding of common goals. To do this, the manager needs to be able to receive information, process it and build communication with the client. Customer orientation is also an important competency, since this is directly the ability to love the client. Only in this case can the sales manager build a successful and long-term relationship with the client. The buyer will return to the seller who takes into account his needs, and such a seller can count on repeat sales.

Knowledge:- Education doesn't matter. Knowledge of the industry, product, psychology, office organization is required. equipment, etc.

Personality: Type also does not play a serious role; I know both choleric people and complete phlegmatic people who successfully work in this field. The main thing is experience and professional skills. Of course, extroverts are much more common among sales managers than introverts.

Motivation: A sales manager is a job, first of all, for results. Classic motivation - % of sales. Representatives of this profession will not work for a fixed salary.

Table: Competencies of a sales manager

Competence Main manifestations in action Possible questions
Initiative
Actions aimed at achieving results; action to achieve a result higher than required; proactivity
Replies quickly
Takes independent actions
Does more than is required
Give an example of a time when you went above and beyond what was expected of you in your current job in _____________
What steps have you taken to improve your performance or develop your skills? Give an example of this
What is your main achievement in __________? What did you do to achieve this?
Selling ability/persuasiveness
Using appropriate interpersonal styles and communication tools to ensure that a product, service or idea is accepted by the interlocutor or client
Asks questions and paraphrases
Acts in accordance with its strategy
Reaches mutual understanding
Demonstrates ability
Gets commitment
What is one of the best ideas you presented but couldn't sell to a manager/supervisor/team leader/colleague/client? What did you use in this process? What wasn't successful?
Give an example of a time you were able to reach an agreement with a customer that significantly increased the use of your product or service. What have you done?
At what level in the client's organization is your audience typically located? How often do you sell to this level? What is the highest level in the hierarchy that you have sold something to? tell me
Resistance to stress
Maintaining a stable level of performance under pressure or opposition (for example, deadline pressure or uncertainty); managing stress in a manner acceptable to others and the organization
Focused
Maintains relationships
Effectively copes with stress
Have you ever encountered an ethical or values ​​conflict in your work? Give an example of when this happened to you. How did you react?
Have you ever worked in a job with a high level of ambiguity? Give an example. How did you behave?
We all have days when we feel overwhelmed with work. Give an example of a time when you were overloaded at work. How did you react?
Communications
Ability to provide and receive job-related information
Expresses itself clearly and precisely
Can absorb new information without difficulty
Listens carefully to all information given in the conversation
Informs relevant people, uses appropriate communication channels (email, telephone, letter, personal conversation)
Writes clearly about complex things
Tell me about a time when you had to absorb a lot of new information. How was it for you? What helped you in this situation?
Do you like listening? Tell us, when was the last time these skills helped you?
Do you like sharing information? Tell me about a time when information you shared was helpful to complete a task or project
How do you determine which communication channel to use? What do you prefer?
How would you rate your writing skills? Can you write a message now about your last holiday so we can look at your writing skills
Customer Focus
Helping others achieve their goals
Communicates well with clients
Good at dealing with difficult customer situations
Constantly strives to satisfy customers
Seeks and tracks customer feedback
What is a difficult client for you? Have you ever encountered a client who was more difficult than others? Please tell us how you communicated with him/her?
Tell me about a time when you were faced with a difficult client situation. What have you done?
Is it important to you to satisfy all your customers' needs? Tell me about a time when it wasn't easy. What have you done? What did you get?