What I Look for When Hiring a Junior Inside Sales Rep

Before you make decisions based on your gut instincts, take a look at some of the questions I like to ask and what answers I should be hearing when I'm looking to hire a new inside sales rep for a B2B sales team.

Questions for Entry Level Inside Sales Reps

Initiative – Have they started a company, club, or organization?

• Is there a pattern of stepping in to offer solutions where need is going unmet?
• Is there a history of competing at a highly competitive level? (organized sports)
• Do they have basic inside sales experience (aka worked at Enterprise Rent a Car)?

Read top advice for new sales reps. Read this blog.

Drive - Can they sell themselves?

Ask them to present themselves and you'll learn the following about that candidate:

• Is there a concise beginning, middle, and end?
• Confidence/Quick thinking - Can they sell me our company?
• From what they understand, can they think on their feet well enough to make a pitch?
• If interrupted how do they react?

Coach-ability / Humility - Are they able to take direction?

• Have them sell you something during the interview.
• Ask them what they thought they did well and what they could improve.
• Then ask them to do it again.
• Defensiveness tells you they can’t be coached.
• How much “unlearning” will have to take place ?

Expectations – Can they sustain sales activities when there is no perceived positive outcome?

• Are they wired for activity rather than analysis?
• Is the default state to take action?

Don't Have the Money to Hire Someone?

The right sales engagement technology can save you from needing to hire more people while increasing the productivity of your current B2B sales team time and ease their stress. Sales engagement technology also removes the gruntwork of navigating through phone trees and getting past gatekeepers, so your sales reps can focus on what they do best — having sales conversations that lead to meetings and sales.

Reach out to us here at ConnectLeader today to learn more about our entire suite of sales engagement software, including Team Dialer, our human agent-assisted dialer. Simply click here or give us a call at 800-955-5040.