In this lesson, you follow a general sales manager for XYZ Corporation step by step as he constructs a sample structured behavioral interview.
So far, you've learned to begin the interview process with an analysis of the job to determine the mandatory success factors; you've learned how to review resumés and to prescreen candidates to interview; you've learned about the process of structured behavioral interviewing; and you've learned how to develop behavioral questions that seek out essential competencies.
Now it's time to put it all to work to construct an actual interview.
XYZ Corporation is about to lose an important member of its team. For the past 15 years, John Jones has occupied the position of district sales manager for one of the company's most profitable geographic regions. John is scheduled to retire in two months, and recruitment activities to find a suitable replacement are about to begin.
Pete Smith, the general sales manager for the company, provides direct supervision of each of the company's district sales managers, so he will take the lead in recruiting and evaluating candidates. Although the final hiring decision will be made by him, Pete decides to enlist the help of one salesman, one district sales manager, and one home office support supervisor to assist him in the selection process.
Pete begins by taking a hard look at the job being vacated. He reviews the formal position description and talks at length with John to learn John's perspective on what it takes to succeed as a district sales manager, and to learn about any unique requirements that may exist in his particular district. He talks with members of John's sales team to obtain their input on what's needed in a new sales manager. He talks with other home office managers and support staff who regularly work with district sales managers to get their advice on what to look for in a new sales manager.
As a result of his investigation, and based on his own knowledge of the job, Pete has developed the following position profile.
The following company-mandated competencies are required of all district sales managers:
A bachelor's degree in business administration, sales administration, marketing, or a closely allied field
A minimum of five years of successful experience managing a sales organization
From his own observations, and from talking with others, Pete makes a list of the functional skills that the new district sales manager should possess:
Communication skills (oral and written)
Management skills
Training and mentoring
Leadership
Independence
Teamwork
Initiative
Customer service
Sales ability
Public relations ability
Development of subordinates
Detail orientation
Listening ability
Supervision ability
Planning and organizing ability
In addition, here are some suggested personal characteristics that would help a district sales manager to succeed with the company:
Ethics
Honesty
Loyalty
Reliability
Accountability
Self-sufficiency
For the position of district sales manager, good interpersonal skills are important to the successful performance of the job, especially the ability to do the following:
Empathize and care about the concerns of others.
Listen actively and attentively.
Remain objective without becoming emotional.
Communicate effectively with others.
XYZ Corporation prides itself in the professionalism of its employees. Although it's an unwritten mandate, the company really wants each of its key employees (district sales managers among them) to adhere to the following:
Constantly be involved in some form of formal training that will contribute to their ability to perform quality work in a professional manner.
Attend all sales conferences and seminars sponsored by the company.
Actively participate in state and national associations in which the company holds membership.
Having identified the competencies, skills, and abilities that the ideal candidate would possess, it's time for Pete to narrow the field to those factors that are absolutely necessary for success on the job. With this in mind, Pete proceeds to rate each skill in order of its importance to job success, identifying the top five functional skills and the top two self-management skills from the other skills listed.
Tip
Rating skills in order of their importance to the successful performance of a job is also something that can be done by the entire selection team. This procedure may be a bit more time consuming, but the extra input is well worth it.
Here are the results:
Functional skills:
Teamwork (Weighted by 5)
Training and mentoring (Weighted by 4)
Communication skills (Weighted by 3)
Leadership (Weighted by 2)
Customer service (Weighted by 1)
Tip
For purposes of weighting each of the factors in the evaluation process, take the number of factors being considered (in this case, five), and assign that number to the most important factor. Weighting for functional skills indicated here would be: teamwork (5), training (4), communication (3), leadership (2), and customer service (1) (see Appendix B, "Interview Evaluation Summary" ).
Plain English
Weight factor . A number that is assigned to each mandatory success factor being evaluated. The score for each mandatory success factor is multiplied by the weight factor to determine the total number of points awarded.
Honesty
Reliability
Tip
You can identify as many skills in each category as you want. However, from a practical standpoint, it's best to identify a limited number of skills in each category.
The skills identified in this process are the mandatory success factors for the position of district sales manager. These are the factors that will guide Pete as he develops structured behavioral questions and associated follow-up probes; these are also the objective factors upon which he and his team will evaluate candidates.
Notice that technical competencies, interpersonal skills, and requirements of the corporate culture were not prioritized. That's because each of these requirements is already considered mandatory.
A review of the candidate's application and resumé will help determine whether the candidate possesses the required technical competencies. Specific questions concerning interpersonal skills (if not already covered in the functional skill area) will need to be developed, as will questions concerning the candidate's ability to assimilate successfully into the corporate culture.
Now that the mandatory success factors have been identified, it's time to begin constructing behavioral questions that will elicit real-life evidence of a candidate's level of competence with each factor.
This is the most important success factor identified. Teamwork involves working well with others for the purpose of accomplishing organizational goals, or to identify and solve problems.
Behavioral question: . "Tell me about a time when you used a team approach to problem solving."
Follow-up probes:
"How did the team work?"
"What solutions did you attempt before involving the team?"
"What were your responsibilities on the team?"
"What specific actions did the team take?"
"What obstacles needed to be overcome by the team in solving the problem?"
"What results did the team achieve?"
Notice that each of the follow-up questions is designed to guide the candidate's response. Remember the STAR formula: Behavioral responses should discuss a specific situation or task, provide detailed information concerning actions taken by the candidate, and conclude with a discussion of the result achieved.
District sales managers for XYZ Company are responsible for training and mentoring new sales staff, as well as continually developing existing staff. This function involves formal training sessions at the district office. It also involves regularly working with each member of the sales team in field situations, providing one-to-one coaching and skill-building activities.
Behavioral question: . "Describe a time when you hired a new salesperson who knew very little about how to succeed in selling your company's product. What kind of help did you provide?"
Follow-up probes:
"What kinds of training techniques do you think work particularly well?"
"What kinds of one-to-one activities have you participated in with new salespeople to help them achieve success?"
"Tell us about a time when a salesperson refused to see things your way. What did you do?"
"What is a mentor? Give us an example of a time when you mentored someone."
"Tell us about the impact that your training and mentoring activities have had on your past success as a sales manager."
The job of the district sales manager for XYZ Company requires the ability to express ideas orally and in writing. Over the years, many of those who have failed in this job lacked the ability to communicate effectively.
Behavioral question: . "Describe a situation in which you made an oral presentation of a written proposal that you prepared."
Follow-up probes:
"What were the most important elements of the proposal?"
"What are some things that you did to strengthen the presentation?"
"What could you have done to make the presentation better?"
"What kinds of things have you done since that time to enhance your communication skills? What do you intend to do in the near future?"
"Tell us about the outcome of your proposal."
The district sales manager must be a leader and must lead by example. At XYZ Company, sales managers succeed only when they are able to lead others to success.
Behavioral question: . "If I were to call your present supervisor, how would she describe your leadership ability?" (For this factor, Pete decides to use a self-appraisal question.)
Follow-up probes:
"Tell me about a time when your ability to lead really paid off."
"What kinds of things do you do that mark you as a strong leader?"
"What results have you achieved through your leadership abilities?"
At XYZ Company, customer satisfaction is a high priority. Listening to the needs of customers, understanding them, and responding in an appropriate and timely manner is essential.
Behavioral question: . "Tell us about the most difficult customer service experience you've ever had to handle."
Follow-up probes:
Developing behavioral questions for self-management skills is accomplished in much the same way as it is for functional skills. However, follow-up probes are often noticeably different.
Because the self-management skill set usually involves strongly held beliefs and attitudes, follow-up probes tend to be more exploratory in nature. The STAR response is not always what's needed to properly assess this type of factor. This is especially true when questions are phrased as continuum or self-appraisal questions.
XYZ Company believes that honesty is the cornerstone of its business. The company prides itself in dealing honestly and fairly with its customers as well as its employees, and expects the same kind of treatment in return.
Behavioral question: . "On a scale between being absolutely honest and absolutely committed to making things work at any cost, where do you fit?" (For this factor, Pete decides to use a continuum question.)
Follow-up probes:
"Tell me about a time when you bent the truth a bit to accomplish an important goal."
"Describe a situation in which telling the truth lost you the sale or caused you to lose in some other way."
"Give us an example of a time when you discovered some dishonesty in someone reporting to you. What did you do?"
"A man's word is his bond." That's hardly a twenty-first century idea, and many might even consider it old-fashioned and antiquated. But at XYZ Corporation, it's more than a motto; it's a performance expectation.
Behavioral question: . "Give us an example of a time when keeping your word to a customer or an employee meant having to endure a good deal of personal difficulty."
Follow-up probes:
Now that the behavioral questions and follow-up probes for each mandatory success factor have been developed, the next step is to plan the interview process itself. Here's a step-by-step interview model that I've used several times and can highly recommend.
Tip
Be sure to make any modifications necessary to customize the interview plan for use in your organization. Also, times indicated are merely suggested and should be altered to fit the needs of a specific interview.
Introductory phase: . 5–10 minutes
Introduce the candidate to each member of the interview team and ask panel members to introduce themselves.
Inform the candidate of how the interview will be conducted (who will be asking primary questions, follow-up questions, and so on.)
Inform the candidate of when you expect the interview to be concluded.
Ask any questions necessary to clear up questions concerning the candidate's application or resumé.
Information-gathering phase: . 1 hour
Ask primary behavioral questions. (5 percent)
Probe for specific actions. (65 percent)
Probe for additional information or clarification. (20 percent)
Probe for results. (10 percent)
Repeat this process until each of your mandatory success factors has been probed.
Position description phase: . 5 minutes
Provide the candidate with a job description.
Explain the duties and responsibilities of the position.
Offer specific examples of work performed.
Offer to answer questions concerning the position.
Be sure to assign one member of the interview team the responsibility of "selling the company" to the candidate. This should be a true sales effort outlining the major benefits involved in working for the company.
Begin with an analysis of the job—be sure to solicit the input of others.
Identify required technical competencies, "ideal candidate" functional skills, "ideal candidate" self-management skills, interpersonal skill requirements, and any special requirements of the corporate culture.
Rate the "ideal candidate" functional and self-management skills to determine which of them are mandatory success factors.
Develop behavioral interview questions and follow-up probes for each of the mandatory success factors, the interpersonal skill requirements, and the requirements of the corporate culture.
Develop an interview plan that will provide an agenda for the interview process and define general time allotments.