Hiring Salespeople - Poor Phone Interview Comes to Life

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I've posted many examples of assessments of non-hirable candidates coming to life, reprinting their emails as examples, pointing out the weaknesses coming to life in their words.

Here's a different look.  This was a hirable candidate who was unimpressive in his phone interview, failing to advance to the next stage.  I reprint the entire message here, leaving out the identity of this candidate:

"Mr. Kurlan, if this gets to you, I would just like to say thank you for the opportunity to take part in the "phone interview." In that interview, you told me I had five minutes to discuss the whole job description. You gave me two minutes to discuss hardly any of it. I'm not sure if this was somehow part of the test ot if you were just in a bad mood. I suppose I should have asserted myself and said "Excuse me but you haven't given me the proper time or allowed me to discuss the whole job desrciption as requested." I guess that is a learning experience for me for the future.

"If you had allowed me what you said were going to do, you would have learned that I was well qualified for the position and met all the criteria on the job description. I also was laid off on September 15th and had already made $105,000 this year. I would have made another 25,000 to 35,000 if I had continue through the end of the year. Last year I made $98,000. My base only rose by $5000 over last year so I greatly improved the profitability of my district.

"I'm not sure why you bothered to conduct these interviews if you weren't even willing to do what you said you were going to do. It gives me the feeling that there is something fishy to the whole thing. Perhaps you are trying to sell some of your books or doing research for a new one. I'm not sure if you are even offering a position or positions.

"Based on my first impression of you, I am glad I did not get moved to the next step."

Would it surprise you to learn that the assessment showed Need for Approval, Becomes Emotionally Involved, and Excuse Making as three weaknesses we identified in his assessment?  Would you reconsider this candidate after getting a sour grapes email like this? 

That's the magic of our phone interview.  In just two minutes you can filter out the weakest of the hirable candidates so that you interview only the cream of the crop.

© Copyright 2007 Objective Management Group, Inc.

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Thu, Oct 25, 2007 @ 08:00 AM