Executives are searching high and low for ways to make better hires for their sales teams. They search the Internet, read books and ask colleagues for their best interview questions. They all come away disappointed as none of those questions help them make better sales hires.

Fret not, my friends! I have the questions…the ultimate questions… you must ask sales candidates before making hiring decisions. Are you ready for them? Get your pens ready!

These questions are the ones that expose synergies between the scope of the sales role and the candidates. In other words, the interview process is a version of a matching game. You have a detailed role profile on one side and a candidate on the other side. The interview should be structured so that you can determine the strength of the match between the two.

Don’t have a defined scope of the role? Hmmm. How can you adeptly screen sales talent without it? There are so many unique factors that cause salespeople to succeed, fail or underperform for your company. Without documenting the scope of the role, you are playing Russian roulette with your revenue every time you hire without having this tool in hand.

See you next time on the Sales Management Minute.