CAUTION! ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS BEFORE TAKING YOUR NEXT SALES JOB
by John Graham
If you’re in sales, you know the feeling. It’s the middle of the night about two weeks after starting a new job. You were enthusiastic and could hardly wait to get going. Now, your head is full of doubts. You try to shove them aside, but they don’t go away. “Everything is new,” you tell yourself. “I just need to give it a little more time.” However, the doubts keep coming back.
The gap between what you were told about the job and what’s actually happening grows wider by the day. After about three weeks, you finally ask yourself, “Have I made a mistake?”
Salespeople seem to make more job mistakes than others, becoming dissatisfied faster and moving around more. Maybe it’s because they’re naturally optimistic, always seeing the possibilities and ignoring the problems. On the other hand, perhaps they’re basically customers at heart and can’t resist a good sales pitch.
To avoid the wrong sales job, ask the right questions before taking a new position. Some of these might seem odd or even offbeat. However, the answers will give you the information you need to make the best possible decision.
“May I see your resume?”
This is a question you must ask the sales manager, who will be so flattered that you’ll have it in your hand almost instantly (salespeople always seem to have an updated resume readily available).
Now you have the SM’s employment record. Is this a job jumper? Have the moves been upward, lateral, or downhill? How would you rate the companies where the SM has worked? If the SM been in the same job for 30 years, is it coasting time? Is the fire still burning?
If you’re unimpressed by what you see, hand the resume back and come up with big smile. Thank the SM profusely, offer an excuse for leaving, and get out the door fast. If you go to work there, you’ll take the blame for the SM’s poor performance.
“Where will I get my leads?”
If the answer is unclear, assume this is a “DIY” outfit. If you want to spend your time looking for your prospects, instead of making presentations and closing business, take the job.
However, if, you’re a competent salesperson, never take a sales job unless there’s an ongoing prospect cultivation program.
It’s a company’s responsibility to invest time and effort developing qualified leads for the sales force. If this isn’t happening, then you’ll become a canvasser, not a salesperson your income will reflect your actual job status.
“May I see your office?”
Don’t be bashful. If you haven’t seen the SM’s office, ask to see it. Here’s why. See if there’s a “sales scoreboard” on the wall, listing the salespeople and their “results.” If there is, get out fast! This SM is only interested in pushing product—and salespeople. There’s no interest in developing customers, looking to the future, or building relationships. Your only value will be in terms of where you stand in the ratings. If you’re at the top, you’re great. But, if you’re down the list, watch out. You’re gone.
Here’s the point: Sales managers (and companies) that are only interested in short-term results hire short-term salespeople.
'May I review the company’s sales support system?
Although the SM will be impressed with your interest in learning more about the company, your objective is to uncover the company’s approach to marketing.
If the Web site and marketing communications are “customer-focused,” you can be certain that the company is committed to understanding customer needs, building relationships and delivering a high level of service.
On the other hand if what you see is “company centered,” describing only the wonders of the firm and filled with one “we” after another, start worrying.
If you see full-color photographs of the chairman and the president, don’t even bother to say “thank you.” Just head straight for the door!
Get out because this is a self-serving, self-satisfied and ego-driven company that’s more interested in looking in the mirror than in helping customers.
“When are the slow selling times?”
This question will catch the SM off guard and get you a straight answer.
“Well, May and June are never very good and we just write off November and December.” Now you know a lot more than just the company’s “slow times.” You’ve learned that the down periods are a “tradition.” Everyone accepts the fact that sales during one-third of the year are lousy.
Evidently, the company hasn’t thought seriously of implementing a marketing program to overcome the problem.
Here’s the point: When sales are down in the valley, you’ll have to scale the mountain without a rope other than the one wrapped around your neck.
“Could I go with you on a sales call?”
Asking this question will turn the SM into putty in your hands.
Once you’re in the customer’s office, you’re ready to go to work — without saying a word. Your goal is to listen for the “90-10 test:” The customer should be doing 90% of the talking. If the SM’s mouth is open most of the time, the company is probably a pure product-pushing sales organization with little regard for the customer’s needs.
If this happens, don’t go any further. Bail out!
“What is it that gives you a market advantage?”
Now you’re probing. Once again, the sales manager will be impressed because the question separates you from the applicants who talk endlessly about their “accomplishments.”
Your goal is to find out if sales are price-driven. What’s the sales manager’s philosophy? Is it to low-ball the price? If so, this isn’t the company for you. The only way you’ll keep a customer is to push to get the price down as low as possible —and then some. If that doesn’t work, neither will you.
“What can you teach me?”
Now, you’re on a roll. When you’re huddling with the sales manager as you wait to meet the vice president of something-or-other, quietly ask what the SM can teach you.
You can count on your question to trigger this response: “Hey, you’re good. If you come with us, I’ll teach you every trick in the book and then some. I’ll make you great.”
Who could possibly refuse such an offer? The answer is you. Without realizing it, the SM has let you know that clever techniques and tricks are what make sales.
“It’s all a matter of orchestrating the customer,” the SM whispers. “I’ll show you how to do it.” At this point, tell him that your mother is very sick and you must return to your family home in the Fiji Islands immediately.
Today, clever sales closes and manipulating methods don’t work and repulse customers. They want a knowledgeable, trustworthy expert who can be an adviser, not a huckster.
“May I visit your marketing department?”
If the SM takes you down the hall and says, “Turn to your right and it’s the second door on your left just beyond the restrooms,” then you know the marketing department is the closet where the sales materials are stored.
If the answer is, “You met Judy, our receptionist. She responds to requests for information. Gets everything out fast.”
Now you’ve made four valuable discoveries: 1) this company doesn’t understand marketing; 2) it has no interest in marketing; 3) it doesn’t know where it’s going; and 4) it has no plan to get there. At this point, head in only one direction —straight to the door.
There they are: the questions that make the difference in choosing the right sales job. Most of the time, it won’t take more than two or three. The answers will be obvious.