We realized that our traditional interview process for sales and presales staff was seriously flawed: It had a very strong bias towards hiring people who were skilled at “telling” but not at “asking.”
So, we made a change!
Previously, after a candidate “survived” our first-round phone interviews, we invited them to deliver a presentation or a demo (topic and/or tool was their choice). If they “passed” this round, we would likely extend an offer letter.
After tracking their performance in the field, we realized that they were skilled at making presentations or showing demos: They were good at “telling.” But we also realized that they weren’t necessarily skilled at doing discovery: “asking.”
This was a major problem, as our offerings were complex, and prospects needed deep discovery to enable happy outcomes as customers.
W. Edwards Deming noted, “Every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it does.”
So, we changed our system.
After the initial phone interviews, we asked candidates to perform a discovery call with us (again, topic or tool was their choice), and then, if they did well, we invited them back to do a demo or presentation based on what they learned in discovery.
The result? Much better hires and rather dramatically improved performance with prospects. Oh, and crisper sales/buying cycles and much happier customers, as well!
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