Follow Up To Hiring Sales Pro

In yesterday's post, sales pro Gill E. Wagner, owner of Honest Selling, LLC, shared an interesting take on hiring a sales pro.
Gill mentioned that he asks candidates: "Pretend our roles are reversed…that you hired me…and that I start next Monday. What are you going to have me do next week when I show up?"
A reader responded and wondered, "What should the right answer be?"

The following is Gill's response:

"You should look for a few things:

* How easily does the candidate come up with a list of tasks that
include both learning and getting started? (If he struggles to even fill
one day, you're in trouble.)

* How accurately does the list of tasks match what the candidate has
bragged about doing to generate business himself or herself? (If they
brag about their ability to cold-call, then that should be one of the
major things they include.)

* What percentage of the tasks are learning related and what percentage
are prospecting/selling related? (If it's heavily weighted toward
learning, you have a scared rabbit on your hands. Any good salesperson
will have the "give me something I can start selling now" attitude,
because we all know the only way to justify our employment is to close
deals. And anyone worth his or her salt will not be afraid of diving in
with both feet, so they won't need to learn much.

In one hour I could learn enough about superconductor parts to start
selling them."