A Sales Management Candidate Shows His True Colors

I was conducting short phone interviews today and one candidate told me that he managed 100 reps at various insurance agencies that his company sells to. I said that while I was sure those reps knew who he was, certainly, they didn’t report to him.  He said they provided him with weekly data as to who they were calling on.  I questioned him again, saying that while that sounded like nice data to have, collecting data and having reps reporting to him were two different things.

He said, “Forget this.  It sounds like you’re running a shady organization and I’m not interested.”  He hung up on me.  And guess which weaknesses he had?

Difficulty Recovering from Rejection; Need for Approval; Gets Emotionally Involved; Low Self-Esteem.

Don’t you just love this? I only had to invest 45 seconds with a candidate that my client wouldn’t want working for him!