When hiring a sales manager ideally you want someone who is wired to coach and grow your team.
Many sales people are wired to compete and win, not to be nurturers and coaches. When interviewing for sales managers, I’ve found this one question is a tell all.
The fact is, I’ve had only a small handful of candidates answer this question really well.
How a candidate answers this question will reveal –
- Whether this person should be a sales manager
- That the candidate if hired will need skill development
- The candidate understands their role as coach and has effective in field coaching experience
Pretty important stuff to know isn’t it?
So, here’s the question:
Can you walk me through, step by step, how you go about setting up a day in the field with one of your sales representatives?
And here are a few probes, if they don’t cover it –
What do you do before each meeting? During the meeting? After each meeting?
If they haven’t planned for the meeting, ask questions like, what do you do if the meeting is going sideways?
If you want to discuss this further and have a clearer understanding of what answers you are looking for, give me a call. I’m happy to be of help.
