It’s time to pull the cloth off of traditional interviews and reveal their
true identity. That’s exactly what recruiters in LinkedIn’s 2018 Global
Recruiting Trends report are doing. In fact, 63 percent feel traditional
interviews fall short when it comes to assessing candidate soft skills, and 57
percent said the same about understanding candidate weaknesses. That’s why companies are turning to job auditions. Unlike traditional
interviews, job auditions last an entire day and allow candidates to do real
work. This gives recruiters hiring for medical sales jobs the opportunity to
see a candidate’s true personality, sales skills, problem-solving skills, and
cultural fit in action. Here’s why you need to start incorporating job auditions into your recruiting
process today:
See how candidates interact with customers
Customers are the life of your company. Not knowing exactly how a
candidate will interact with your specific customer-base is a major risk. Unfortunately, asking scripted questions in a traditional interview doesn’t
get to the heart of the candidate’s personality. This makes it nearly
impossible to fully trust a candidate’s genuine ability to engage customers
before hiring and sending them out in the field. And leaving customer
experience to chance isn’t a risk you can afford.Narrow down the candidate pool by using one-way video for the first-round
of interviews. You can get a glimpse of their qualifications and personalities,
but won’t spend a large amount of time scheduling and interviewing.
Once you’ve narrowed it down to a few candidates, invite them in for a job
audition. Pre-coordinate with customers and your sales reps to schedule ride
alongs. As candidates interact with your customers, take note of how they
present themselves. Watch their posture, their confidence, questions they’re
asking, and if the customer responds well to the conversation.
Watch them sell first-hand
Years of experience, awards, goal-hitting records all point to an
accomplished sales rep. But all of these don’t show you how they reached
success.
Selling styles vary from company-to-company and rep-to-rep. Your current
customers may not respond to either an aggressive or softer selling approach.
Even if their style worked well at their previous employer, it could leave your
customers feeling devalued or neglected.
Give candidates an opportunity to sell. First, explain to customers the situation
and ask if it’s OK for the candidate to present a product. If you’re not along
for the presentation, be sure your sales rep is not only watching for sales
style, but how their customer responds to that style.
Give them real-time obstacles
A ‘what would you do’ scenario during traditional interviews only scrapes
the surface of a candidate’s problem-solving skills. Even though the scenarios
and questions are realistic, candidates can often prepare, giving scripted
responses. Give them an opportunity to take action on your current workplace
obstacles. Don’t be afraid to put them in high-pressure situations, like
dealing with a company error or customer complaint. Then, put them to work with
your team to brainstorm how they’ll fix the error.
Observe cultural fit
Traditional medical sales jobs interviews, even team interviews, don’t give
you and your team a full understanding of a candidate’s personality. On the
same note, candidates can’t get a feel for what your company’s and team’s
culture is like. Job auditions are like immersion therapy with your culture and candidate’s
personalities. Cut out the step-by-step interview processes and place them
directly in your team from the beginning. Give them the opportunity to interact
with employees on the sales team and in other departments. Then, ask for feedback on how they interacted with individuals and if they
can visualize them as part of the team. Additionally, ask candidates what they
liked about the culture and if there were any red flags that made them feel
they might not fit in well.
