Interviewing for a Sales Job

Interviewing for a Sales Job:

Over the years I have had the pleasure of interviewing many people for many different sales roles. Part of being a good sales person is your ability to identify with the customer and understand their requirements. Interviewing for a job is exactly the same as executing a discovery on a prospect.

Treat your interviewer just as you would if you were prospecting a customer!

You are selling the product and the product is you!


Here are some suggestions:

Qualify the interviewer:

- What are their buying criteria?
- Are certainly aspects of a candidate weighted with more or less consideration?
- What is important to the organization? Cultural Fit? Alignment with Company values and vision
- What is important to them?
- What are their Key Business Requirements?
- What attributes make a great sales person at their organization?

Presenting your information:

- Follow their lead of questioning but focus on high level successes
- be straight to the point
- Sales is all about achievement. Promote your % to quota and revenue. Frame anything less than 100% with delicate explanations that moves the focus away from your ability and back on the economy

Here is what every Sales Manager is looking for:

- Sales Ability. Do you understand the basic principals of the sales process and close deals
- Hard Work. Work Ethic is absolutely paramount. Work smart is for reps making over $200k a year. For them and everyone else, there is no substitute for hard work. Give examples of your dedication to your profession
- Self Improvement. Read and be self taught so that when an interviewer asks you the last book you read you can articulate the concepts of a business book back to them. Sales Managers don't become Sales Managers without reading business books. Reading also demonstrates how seriously you take your job
- Business Acumen. Do you understand how businesses work? What is important to specific industries? What each department does in a company? What are the key job functions of a CEO, CFO, CIO? Can you be confident and talk the language of a "C" level?
- Cultural Fit. Having someone who does not fit into the organization will not be successful. Do you share the same personal and business values? Will you be a good ambassador of the company? Will you get along with your piers and superiors?


Differentiating yourself in the interview process can be difficult. Hopefully these tips will help!

Best of Luck!

Susan Corcoran

Are there any good sales people anymore?

My GOD! What a frustrating experience my first 10 days of setting up a company has been! I feel like I have to beg people to give them my business! Are there any good sales people anymore?

Here are some of my expereinces:

Calling into a VOIP company to find out about phone service and the sales rep did not ask me my name (even when I asked him his), asked me nothing about my business and then proceeded to launch into an interrogation type discovery process. I told him I was late for another meeting and to send me some information which he completely ignored and when I said "I really have to go", he told me to call him back later. One hot prospect lost, with no means to ever track me down again.

Calling into another VOIP company. Rep is pleasant and clueless. He never asks me anything about my business but sends me a quote anyway. He quotes me 3 licences, installation and equipment. After sending out a search party for him to bet back to me, we review the quote. I tell him that I am looking at their web site and some of the items he quoted me say that they are included in the price, at which point he challenges me. "Could you just look into for me" was my closing remarks. He sends me back a quote for 75% less than the original quote. I suppose he read his own web site and decided to learn what exactly it was that he was selling. I don't think he was trying to deceive me, I really think he did not know the products.

I have to make one more comment about this guy. He leaves me a meandering pointless message and after he says good bye, but before he hangs up, he lets out a HUGE BELCH! As soon as I can figure out how to get the message off my cell phone, I will add it to this post. It is shocking.

Last Story: We have been working for months with a potential vendor who is uncooperative, condescending and a control freak. After months of going no where, I decide that we should part ways and a new account manager should be assigned to our company. This sparks a complete personality turn around. Not only is she pleasant, but she follows up and is diligent on seeing issues through. Unfortunately for her, the damage has already been done and we have lost all faith in her. She treated us so poorly during the sales phase, that we fear that once the contract is signed, we will see the old rep who treated us like commoners. The trust is gone.


As I sit on the other side of the sales table, as a buyer, it is a disappointing realization that most sales people do not know how to sell. Sales is such a simple, repeatable process and yet so many sales people skip important steps:

1) Call people back! Holy Crap! How hard is that to do?
2) Don't be a jerk! No one buys from people they don't like or trust!
3) Know your product! Read the PDF's your marketing department sends you!
4) Don't be a hard a$$! Negotiations are supposed to be a win win experience. We all get that both sides have to make concessions. Negotiating is a journey that should build upon your relationship, not ruin it.
5) Don't assume. Ask people about their business. They want to tell you! They want to help you! Ask the questions that are important to placing your product or services with their business and do a proper discovery so you can present an accurate solution.

Out of all of the horrors of this week was one shining star - Kim Mackie at NetSuite. As a former employee of NetSuite and now a NetSuite customer, Kim had a polished and thorough Sales Process, a religious follow up, she is pleasant and between her and SE Robert Braderic, I felt that they were looking out for me. Granted, I know them but I have also seen them treat many other NetSuite customers the same way they treated me and really, they are just good people.

As I build my own sales team, I will use these recent experiences to remind them of the basics.

In sales, it's not about you, it's about them - the customer.

Have a lovely weekend!

Susan Corcoran

From Employee to Entrepreneur

I have embarked on a fantastic journey. The jump from employee to entrepreneur. As I say good bye to all of the fabulous people at NetSuite, I strike out with my business partner, Tony Sena, to build Recite Conferencing.

I look forward to sharing the lessons I learn in hopes that they benefit others.

Thank you for your support!

Susan Corcoran

The Story of Stuff

What a fantastic story of our uncontrollable consumption!

Dan (hubby) and I are saving and searching to buy an investment property. In the book we are following "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller, he echos a similar warning about consumption as it impedes building wealth.

Annie Leonard wonderfully illustrates the environmental impact of consumption.

It is worth the time to watch the video and it is suitable for all ages.

check it out at www.story of stuff.com

The moral of the story - less spending on "stuff" means more money in your pocket while being environmentally responsible. It's all good!

Enjoy!

Susan Corcoran


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Another Way
Many people who have seen The Story of Stuff have asked what they can do to address the problems identified in the film.

Each of us can promote sustainability and justice at multiple levels: as an individual, as a teacher or parent, a community member, a national citizen, and as a global citizen. As Annie says in the film, “the good thing about such an all pervasive problem is that there are so many points of intervention.” That means that there are lots and lots of places to plug in, to get involved, and to make a difference. There is no single simple thing to do, because the set of problems we’re addressing just isn’t simple. But everyone can make a difference, but the bigger your action the bigger the difference you’ll make. Here are some ideas:

10 Little and Big Things You Can Do
Power down! A great deal of the resources we use and the waste we create is in the energy we consume. Look for opportunities in your life to significantly reduce energy use: drive less, fly less, turn off lights, buy local seasonal food (food takes energy to grow, package, store and transport), wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat, use a clothesline instead of a dryer, vacation closer to home, buy used or borrow things before buying new, recycle. All these things save energy and save you money. And, if you can switch to alternative energy by supporting a company that sells green energy to the grid or by installing solar panels on your home, bravo!
Waste less. Per capita waste production in the U.S. just keeps growing. There are hundreds of opportunities each day to nurture a Zero Waste culture in your home, school, workplace, church, community. This takes developing new habits which soon become second nature. Use both sides of the paper, carry your own mugs and shopping bags, get printer cartridges refilled instead of replaced, compost food scraps, avoid bottled water and other over packaged products, upgrade computers rather than buying new ones, repair and mend rather than replace….the list is endless! The more we visibly engage in re-use over wasting, the more we cultivate a new cultural norm, or actually, reclaim an old one!
Talk to everyone about these issues. At school, your neighbors, in line at the supermarket, on the bus…A student once asked Cesar Chavez how he organized. He said, “First, I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” “No,” said the student, “how do you organize?” Chavez answered, “First I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” You get the point. Talking about these issues raises awareness, builds community and can inspire others to action.
Make Your Voice Heard. Write letters to the editor and submit articles to local press. In the last two years, and especially with Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the media has been forced to write about Climate Change. As individuals, we can influence the media to better represent other important issues as well. Letters to the editor are a great way to help newspaper readers make connections they might not make without your help. Also local papers are often willing to print book and film reviews, interviews and articles by community members. Let’s get the issues we care about in the news.
DeTox your body, DeTox your home, and DeTox the Economy. Many of today’s consumer products – from children’s pajamas to lipstick – contain toxic chemical additives that simply aren’t necessary. Research online (for example, http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/) before you buy to be sure you’re not inadvertently introducing toxics into your home and body. Then tell your friends about toxics in consumer products. Together, ask the businesses why they’re using toxic chemicals without any warning labels. And ask your elected officials why they are permitting this practice. The European Union has adopted strong policies that require toxics to be removed from many products. So, while our electronic gadgets and cosmetics have toxics in them, people in Europe can buy the same things toxics-free. Let’s demand the same thing here. Getting the toxics out of production at the source is the best way to ensure they don’t get into any home and body.
Unplug (the TV and internet) and Plug In (the community). The average person in the U.S. watches T.V. over 4 hours a day. Four hours per day filled with messages about stuff we should buy. That is four hours a day that could be spent with family, friends and in our community. On-line activism is a good start, but spending time in face-to-face civic or community activities strengthens the community and many studies show that a stronger community is a source of social and logistical support, greater security and happiness. A strong community is also critical to having a strong, active democracy.
Park your car and walk…and when necessary MARCH! Car-centric land use policies and life styles lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel extraction, conversion of agricultural and wildlands to roads and parking lots. Driving less and walking more is good for the climate, the planet, your health, and your wallet. But sometimes we don’t have an option to leave the car home because of inadequate bike lanes or public transportation options. Then, we may need to march, to join with others to demand sustainable transportation options. Throughout U.S. history, peaceful non-violent marches have played a powerful role in raising awareness about issues, mobilizing people, and sending messages to decision makers.
Change your lightbulbs…and then, change your paradigm. Changing lightbulbs is quick and easy. Energy efficient lightbulbs use 75% less energy and last 10 times longer than conventional ones. That's a no-brainer. But changing lightbulbs is just tinkering at the margins of a fundamentally flawed system unless we also change our paradigm. A paradigm is a collection of assumptions, concepts, beliefs, and values that together make up a community’s way of viewing reality. Our current paradigm dictates that more stuff is better, that infinite economic growth is desirable and possible, and that pollution is the price of progress. To really turn things around, we need to nurture a different paradigm based on the values of sustainability, justice, health, and community.
Recycle your trash…and, recycle your elected officials. Recycling saves energy and reduces both waste and the pressure to harvest and mine new stuff. Unfortunately, many cities still don’t have adequate recycling systems in place. In that case you can usually find some recycling options in the phone book to start recycling while you’re pressuring your local government to support recycling city-wide. Also, many products – for example, most electronics - are designed not to be recycled or contain toxics so recycling is hazardous. In these cases, we need to lobby government to prohibit toxics in consumer products and to enact Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, as is happening in Europe. EPR is a policy which holds producers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, so that electronics company who use toxics in their products, have to take them back. That is a great incentive for them to get the toxics out!
Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and most importantly, Buy Less. Shopping is not the solution to the environmental problems we currently face because the real changes we need just aren’t for sale in even the greenest shop. But, when we do shop, we should ensure our dollars support businesses that protect the environment and worker rights. Look beyond vague claims on packages like “all natural” to find hard facts. Is it organic? Is it free of super-toxic PVC plastic? When you can, buy local products from local stores, which keeps more of our hard earned money in the community. Buying used items keeps them out of the trash and avoids the upstream waste created during extraction and production. But, buying less may be the best option of all. Less pollution. Less Waste. Less time working to pay for the stuff. Sometimes, less really is more.

Prospecting: The Foundation of Sales

As a Sales Professional, Sales Manager and student of Sales from the Telecommunications and Software Industry, I found it ironic that a Real Estate book on sales could resonate with me.

My husband - Dan Corcoran, recently joined Keller Williams and one of their suggested readings is "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" by Gary Keller.

What is fascinating about the prospecting methodology from the book is that I can literally take the formula's and apply them to a software sales team.

At Netsuite we study our top performers and one of the key contributions to their success is their ritual of prospecting even when they are busy.

Similar to the Keller Williams philosophy, lead generation and prospecting have to be top priority no matter how busy or successful you are. It should be scheduled into your calendar and every day you should remind yourself - I am in Sales! Prospecting, Qualifying, Providing Solutions and Closing.

The Keller Williams model of converting the number of people you have not met, into people you have met is a numbers game. They just make it sound better and outline an actual plan of action. It is about increasing your sphere of influence and being able to create leverage from these people.

The 8 X 8 Marketing Plan: An 8 Week step by Step set of actions and the 33 Touch Plan can be modified for any business.

I suppose that the reason that there are so few Millionaire Real Estate Agents, just as their are so few Sales Reps over quota is that anyone can read a book, but very few can turn it into a repeatable action process.

How can any company survive without CRM?

Having moved from the Telecom Industry to Software, CRM was an epiphany of what Sales and Reporting could be like in the promised land! How can anyone work, thrive or be successful without CRM!

I came across some stats on CRM adoption by the Sales Lead Management Association (www.salesleadmgmtassn.com) and was surprised and not surprised by the results:

Their 2nd annual Sales Lead Management Study, conducted with 144 businesses in Southern California, revealed the following results:

68.8% don’t qualify leads before sending them to their sales teams
52.4% have no formal process for compiling sales forecast reports
82.8% don’t track ROI for lead generation investments
55% rated low satisfaction with their SFA/CRM system, at 5 or less on a 10-point scale
52.1% use no SFA/CRM system to track the lead process


Prior to joining NetSuite, I had the pleasure of working for mid size companies and most recently a start up. We used Outlook for Sales Force Automation, and with the consistent turn over in our Direct Sales Force, leads would be lost with every rep turn over. We must have misplaced thousands of leads and lost millions of dollars in unrealized revenue.

When the start up I worked for was going through the due diligence of being aquired, there was no doubt in my mind that not having a CRM cost them millions as well. Without CRM, they had excel spread sheets of corrupted prospecting data that took the reps and the Managers hours (more like days) to compile.

My old company not only lost leads every day but also in the lost multiples they would have received when the business was sold.

CRM is not only a day to day must have but also an exit plan! No matter what your exit plan is: go public, buy out, merger....

I have to put a plug in here for NetSuite. I bet if you surveyed every current and past employee, all of them would tell you what an unbelievable product NetSuite is. The reason is because we all use it all day, every day and I am Wowed consistently.

Whether you choose NetSuite or another CRM solution, do your company a favour, buy it, use it, spend the money and have it implemented properly and force your employees to adopt it. Without a corporate culture of CRM adoption, your results will be less than stellar.

Honestly, how can any company survive without CRM?



Susan Corcoran

Interviewing: Tips on how to Seperate the "Sayres" from the "Doers"

Interviewing and hiring Sales people is a difficult role. How do you separate the people who tell you they have sold many successful deals from the people who actually do?

I have taken a few seminars on Interviewing and what strikes me as amazing is the infinite amount of articles on interviewees tips however there is very little information on how Managers can overcome the fictional lives of sales people to get into the facts.

The answer: Deep continuous probing into the details......

What do I mean? The trick is to isolate a few key sales successes and dig!

What were the 3 most successful sales opportunities that they closed?
Let them pick what in their mind was a reflection of their skills and by asking for 3 stories, allows us as Mangers to pick the one we want to focus on or allows us to change direction and dig into another example.

How did they enter the opportunity?
We want to understand how the lead came to them? Did they cold call? Internet lead? Referral? Existing Customer? and then we can ascertain if they are truly a hunter or a farmer.Will their skills match what you are looking for?

Who participated in the Sales Cycle?
We want to know if they are part of a team selling process, if they controlled the process or were along for the ride, and if they negotiated the end deal. Can they manage the sales cycle through every step or did someone else assist?

What types of activities in the sales process are the tipping point for a lead to become a sale?
The reality of sales is that there is no substitute for activity. Is it demo's? Meetings? Executive Sponsorship? what is activity that moves the probability up to a close? By understanding what this is and how often it has to happen then we can forward or reverse engineer how much activity they are actually doing.

What was their favourite part about working for their last employer? What would they change at their last employer?
Used to determine cultural fit and attitude.

Do they keep in touch with any of their old Managers?
This is to understand if they left on good terms, if they had issues with managers and their ability to respond to guidance. Really, it is a CLM (Career Limiting Move) to not keep in touch with your old employers.

Lastly, watch for the obvious closing questions but more importantly, you as the buyer (or Hiring Authority) - did they qualify your buying criteria? How do they know what you are looking for? Here say? Speculation? If they do not ask you what your buying criteria is, will they ask a prospect or leave it to chance.

To summarize, it is important to continue the questioning to uncover the truth.

Wishing you good luck and successful hiring!