Perform well at interview

When the recruitment process moves off line into the more familiar sales territory of networking and personal contact, make sure you are fully prepared.

Off line, doesnt always mean face-to-face. Telephone interviews are fast becoming the norm for a range of jobs except the most senior roles, cutting down the time it takes to hire. Given that the telephone is a crucial sales tool, its also a great way of assessing a candidates performance.

Do your research before the interview
You wouldnt dream of meeting a new customer having done nothing more than read the latest annual report so never turn up for a job interview without being fully up to date on how the business, the industry and the market are performing.

Find out as much as you can. Start by looking at the corporate website and competitors websites and search the relevant trade journals for market information many have online archives you can access. Use your network to get in touch with people who already work for the business. In addition to impressing the recruiter, you want to be sure that the business is in a position to enable you to fulfil your career ambitions. This is as true for candidates new to sales as for those looking for a senior post.

Create the right impression
Recruitment has become more sophisticated over the past decade but selection decisions are still often taken within the first few minutes of an interview. If you make a bad impression when you walk in, recovering your position can be a struggle. Most interview skills are common sense but easy to forget:

• Dress appropriately find out before the interview if there is a dress code. As a rule of thumb for sales, the smarter the better. A suit and tie wont do any harm. Employers want to know that their sales team can be smart when required even if the job is in telemarketing and you will never meet a customer in the flesh.
• Keep background material to a minimum and in a smart folder. You dont want to end up with messy papers strewn all over the place.
• Treat everyone you meet as a customer from the doorman onwards. You want them all to have a good impression of you.
• Arrive a few minutes early and turn off your mobile phone.
• The usual body language rules apply make eye contact, shake hands firmly, and dont sit down until you are asked.
• Try to address your responses to everyone if it is a panel interview.

Get your message across
You want to convince recruiters that you can sell or inspire others to sell; that you will exceed targets, develop the business and deliver profit and value to the company. The best way of proving that you can deliver for them, is by demonstrating what you have done in the past.

Illustrate your answers with examples of previous successes or ways in which you dealt with difficult business issues. Let your ego come to the fore: recruiters want to know that you are a driving force, rather than a cog in the wheel of a great team selling great brands.

You need to leave interviewers with a sense that you understand the value of what you sell and with an idea of what you will achieve for them in your first three, six and twelve months in the job.

Ask questions
It can be hard to get much information out of a first interview but in second or third interviews, you have to be certain when you walk out that you have enough information to accept or reject the job. While you dont want to let this get in the way of recruiters finding out about you, you need to know:

• Are you convinced by the product or service you would be selling or encouraging others to sell?
• Are the targets achievable?
• Will you have the back up and resources you need?
• Are the estimated earnings realistic?
• Will the job move your career forward?
• Do you want to work with these people?

Debrief
At the end of the interview you should have an idea of what happens next. A true salesperson never lets a lead dry up so e-mail or phone the corporate recruiter, or the consultant if one is involved, and make it clear that you are impressed with the business and keen to take your application further.

After the interview, it is important to think through your performance and how you can improve on your answers next time whether it is for this job or another.

Presentation skills
You are likely to be asked to make a presentation during the interview process. For a straightforward sales job this could be to pitch a product or service or for a more senior role, you might be expected to present a recent campaign success.

The exercise will seem straightforward to experienced sales professionals but dont be lulled into a false sense of security. Always remember the essential rules of any presentation:

Know what its about. Get as much information about the presentation as possible:

• subject matter
• purpose
• length
• audience

There is no harm in ringing your recruitment contact to talk these things through in advance.

Make it look good. Visual aids work. If you are limited to 2-D slides, keep them visual using graphs and diagrams where appropriate. Avoid bullet points and lists.

Keep it simple. Three or four points with a visual aid to illustrate each one is ample. This could be the sixth presentation interviewers have sat through that day and you want them to remember your message.

Rehearse your presentation. Practise out loud, against the clock to critical friends and family and take their comments seriously. Its likely that at least one interviewer wont be an expert in the field either.