How to Close your Most important Sales Call

I know what you're saying NO ONE likes “Salesy” but hear me out and let me prove you wrong.

Everyone today talks about how you need to be yourself, be authentic and don’t try and be anyone else. I agree with everyone and also encourage salespeople to sell their way and be authentic, except in one critical situation. The situation that requires all salespeople to be a little Salesy is during the job interview.

Often my clients will include me in their hiring process for new salespeople. During the interview, I will focus on the candidate’s experience and approach. I will ask about their last deal, their largest deal and their most competitive deal. I will give them typical challenges that they will face and see how they react. Once I feel they are a match I will have them interview with the VP of Sales and the feedback is often the same... “They seem smart and experienced but not Salesy enough”.

Here is the problem. CEO’s, VP’s of Sales and Sales Managers have a cognitive bias to want their sales candidates to appear Salesy. What do I mean by Salesy? They want gregarious personalities who take charge of the interview. They want to know how the candidate won deals based on their charm and personality. They want to be closed hard with a crunching handshake. They want all this despite knowing how ineffective it is. This paradox of wanting to hire the candidate that is less likely to succeed is a bizarre mystery. All too often the clearly more qualified and talented salesperson is dismissed because they did not appear Salesy enough.

Of course, the hiring manager does not want the candidate to be too Salesy. They do not want gold chains, nightclub attire or too much hip slang. They do want a high energy, take control and forceful personality all of which may work in some situations but be ineffective at others.

What it really comes down to is that a job interview is a sales call but one that may be very different then the sales calls you are used to. The interview is typically limited to a one hour, one-on-one meeting. The interviewer may feel that they know a great salesperson when they see one versus having a process to determine someone’s selling skills. Here is where we run into trouble if someone does not know how to determine someone’s selling skills they will fall back to how the candidate appears.

So if your a salesperson interviewing beware that after the interview is over you will be judged on how Salesy you appeared. Play it safe by being high energy, have a couple of stories of how you saved the day by closing big deals and close strong for feedback and a next step. Of course, do not overdo it because too Salesy is just as bad as not enough.

I’m just the messenger for this issue you, of course, can do what you feel is best for you.

If you listen to PodCasts, check out mine “The Brutal Truth about Sales & Selling”.

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I welcome connections and thanks for reading this post,

Brian