There is an art to interviewing an Inside Sales Agent (ISA). If you want to bring on skilled employees to work the phone and deliver ROI, use these four tips when you interview candidates for the position.

Tip 1. Interview candidates over the phone

My first tip is a response to one of the biggest mistakes I see when managers, team leaders, and brokers interview an ISA—they only conduct face-to-face interviews. Since an ISA is going to spend the majority of their time on the phone, you need to conduct at least one of your interviews (preferably the first) over the phone. You need to assess their phone skills, and you can’t do that during a traditional interview. You need to get on the phone with them to hear how they sound, whether they have the appropriate tone and inflection, and if they have a habit of interrupting the other party.

Tip 2. Keep it vague

The second tip is to avoid explaining to the candidate exactly what you’re looking for. An interviewer will commonly tell a candidate everything they want, but what you should do is approach them in the opposite way—ask the candidate what they’re looking for. An ISA is a salesperson, and if they hear everything that you want for the position, they’re going to hear that, latch onto it, and then repeat it back to you to ensure they give you everything you want to hear. Instead, work to find out what their passions are, what you would call their “why.” What are they after? What drives them? If you find that out, you can assess whether what they want aligns with your business needs.

Tip 3. Put together a plan

The third tip is to make sure you come prepared for your interview with an outlined and detailed process. Develop your questions and then a scoring system for ranking answers. For example, the best answer will include x, y, and z; the next best answer will include x and y, and so on.  Ensure that every candidate is asked the same questions so you can measure apples to apples.

Tip 4. Allow time to roll-play

Then the last tip I’ll give you is to ensure that you leave ample time to role-play. Just like you want to hear how an ISA will perform on the phone, you’ll want to assess how they pitch your service or something they’ve sold in the past or, if they haven’t sold before, how they pitch themselves for the position. Importantly, leave time to assess how well they overcome objections.

The takeaway

So there you have it—four tips to apply to your interview process to help you hire a killer ISA. If you like these tips, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check us out on Instagram and Facebook but most importantly, take action on this today!