- October 3, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
John Musser, an OMG Partner in Atlanta, shared an observation with me. He found that when his clients didn’t care for a candidate who was recommended by our Sales Candidate Assessment, he was able to correlate his client’s perception to a single finding: Won’t Develop Relationships Quickly.
A number of clients misinterpret this finding, thinking it means that the candidate won’t develop relationships at all. But it’s not that they won’t develop relationships, it’s that it won’t happen quickly during the first meeting. When the client is left feeling indifferent, it’s often because the candidate wasn’t successful at making a connection in that first interview.
There are two ways in which one could look at this:
- Knowing that the candidate is a bit slow to warm up, cut them some slack, bring them back for a second interview, give them another chance and overlook their performance from the first interview.
- Know that what you see is what you’ll get and their inability to quickly develop a relationship will prevent them from making prospects comfortable enough to answer the types of good, tough, timely questions which are the hallmark of effective consultative selling.
Obviously, you’ll want to follow option #2.
Observing assessment findings manifested during an interview is a very common occurrence, but it’s more likely to occur when a candidate has some of the following findings:
| Finding | What You’ll See |
| Tendency to Become Emotional | Defensiveness, panic, louder volume, rash, sweat, etc. |
| Need for Approval | Saying what you want to hear, fear of pushing back, fear of tough questions, trying to make friends |
| Too Trusting | Optimistic when you give the candidate a put-off like, “We’ll be back to you next week.” |
| Uncomfortable Talking About Money | Stuttering, lack of confidence when asked about earnings history |
Of course there are many more, but this gives you a sense of it. If you would like to see more examples or read more, click for some assessment case histories.