Assessing Sales Reps’ Tech Skills
06 Oct 2011 |
Posted by Mary Storms | 0 Comment.
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My clients often want highly technical sales people. I caution them not to expect extensive or hands-on tech skills; rather, to look for brains & learning ability; technical interest, aptitude, & history.
Having said that, technical aptitude is important in a technical sale. So how do we assess it?
The interview can include true technical tests, but that may not be necessary. As the recruiter, here’s what I do to qualify sales people for technical expertise:
- Review candidates’ resumes & employers for the types of products & services they’ve sold. If they’ve been successful in those jobs, it’s reasonable to assume they’re technically astute enough to learn similar tech products.
- Review education & training for aptitude, interest, & knowledge in the technical realm.
- Ask about self-education & on-going activities that help them stay current .
- Ask about how much tech support they used in their previous jobs. This is a good time to use behavioral questions such as: How do you handle complex tech sales situations when your sales engineer is on vacation?
- Use terms that are critical in my client’s job, then assess the candidate’s understanding of them.
- Ask references about the candidate’s technical knowledge.
- Have the candidate give my client & its IT staff a sales presentation for the technical product/service the candidate sold recently. This creates opportunities to make tech-focused inquiries.
My advice to hiring managers? Assess whether the sales hunter is technically astute enough to learn the technology to a credible level, but focus on whether s/he has the critical sales traits & skills. If so, scarf him or her up quickly.
