Playing by the Rules Never Works Out
I once interviewed for a company where the VP of sales asked me to give him a mock discovery.
By the end of the call I had him and another teammate of his on the calendar for my next call. I asked for his feedback at the end of the fake disco.
He told me I did well, but
I missed asking a few questions. These questions were completely unnecessary given how the mock disco played out. (I was clearly talking to a person who was testing me for my competency and not a prospect who was evaluating my product for purchasing)
I've been selling for a while now and it's really difficult for me to act along in such cases.
That's when I knew, the whole 15mins of the mock call, I was a seller but the opposite party was an interviewer, not a prospect.
He had everything planned out ahead of time. He was waiting for me to ask the questions he had in mind.
Clearly, he was trying to figure out if I was familiar with something he had read on LinkedIn or heard on a podcast a few weeks before by a "Sales Influencer".
When I reviewed the call with a buddy in the industry, it appeared that he had a similar experience.
Sales isn't like chess, where the rules are written in stone. Every sale is unique, as are every customer.
I've said it a million times, and I'll say it a million more. You CANNOT sell your product to everyone. And that day I realised it's 100% impossible to sell a product to an interviewer who wants a mock call but can't pretend to be a prospect.
They say a good salesperson can sell ice to an Eskimo. But a truly great salesperson would NEVER do such a stupid thing.
Interviewers, stop getting on a call with your candidates with a predetermined plan in mind. If you're going to expect your applicants to continually mimic your thoughts, offer them the script ahead of time.
Because what you're looking for is a person who can memorize a script, read a book and implement everything in it with every prospect, not a seller who treats every prospect differently.
By the end of the call I had him and another teammate of his on the calendar for my next call. I asked for his feedback at the end of the fake disco.
He told me I did well, but
I missed asking a few questions. These questions were completely unnecessary given how the mock disco played out. (I was clearly talking to a person who was testing me for my competency and not a prospect who was evaluating my product for purchasing)
I've been selling for a while now and it's really difficult for me to act along in such cases.
That's when I knew, the whole 15mins of the mock call, I was a seller but the opposite party was an interviewer, not a prospect.
He had everything planned out ahead of time. He was waiting for me to ask the questions he had in mind.
Clearly, he was trying to figure out if I was familiar with something he had read on LinkedIn or heard on a podcast a few weeks before by a "Sales Influencer".
When I reviewed the call with a buddy in the industry, it appeared that he had a similar experience.
Sales isn't like chess, where the rules are written in stone. Every sale is unique, as are every customer.
I've said it a million times, and I'll say it a million more. You CANNOT sell your product to everyone. And that day I realised it's 100% impossible to sell a product to an interviewer who wants a mock call but can't pretend to be a prospect.
They say a good salesperson can sell ice to an Eskimo. But a truly great salesperson would NEVER do such a stupid thing.
Interviewers, stop getting on a call with your candidates with a predetermined plan in mind. If you're going to expect your applicants to continually mimic your thoughts, offer them the script ahead of time.
Because what you're looking for is a person who can memorize a script, read a book and implement everything in it with every prospect, not a seller who treats every prospect differently.
Have you had a similar experience?
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