In terms of overall impact on the value of an interview, asking the right questions is second only to understanding what you are looking for in the first place. For an in-depth structured interview, we advocate a “Cone Approach.”
When using this approach, the sales manager starts by asking open-ended questions which focus on a characteristic sought in the sales candidate. Coning questions often start with the broad inquiry, “tell me about.”
An opening sales interview question could be, “Tell me about yourself. How would you describe yourself in a work situation?” As the candidate answers, listen for areas of interest, then begin focusing more specifically in the cone.
A narrower, second-stage question would be, “What have been some of your biggest mistakes?”
This last question would lead you to the bottom of the “cone” with a very specific follow-up question intended to pinpoint what was learned from key mistakes as in, “What did you learn from _____ (one specific mistake)?” In this example, look for is a sales person who owns his or her mistakes. One who can persevere in spite of barriers. Having debriefed what went wrong in order to learn for the future, your candidate has taken responsibility for fixing the situation. Now start forming conclusions about the candidate, drawn from specific answers to your pinpoint questions.
© 2010 Growth Resources, Inc.