Some time ago, we began to develop behavioral event interview guides for our clients to help them to assess the potentials and capabilities of candidates during the selection process. This approach can be used to assess candidates for any type of job, but when the questions are designed, you need to be sure they are relevant to the content of the particular role.
You can learn a lot about someone from using this approach to interviewing. The notion behind behavioral event interviewing is to ask about a specific situation in which the candidate demonstrated a particular capability in order to determine the individual’s effectiveness in that situation. Situation, Action and Result, often referred to by one particular vendor as the STAR model…the T is for Task.
The trick to utilizing this approach is to pick questions that are key to the job and to understand that people who are good at a particular skill will answer the question differently than others might. Let’s look at sales people, for example. One of the primary skills required is that the individual has to be able to ask for the sale. To assess this capability, here is a question to use:
- Tell me about a time when you failed to close a sale. What did you do in this situation? What was the outcome? What would you do differently?
Effective sales people will have a unique tale to tell you about a nightmare buyer who was thought to be the decision maker, but was not, or was someone who was simply shopping the competition. They will include a myriad of details about the interaction and tell you how they reacted when they faced a similar situation in the future.
Less effective sales people will tell you that they were unable to connect with the particular buyer and that the buyer shut them out before they had the chance to ask for the business. They will also tell you that next time, they worked hard to identify the actual decision maker.
See the difference? One is more realistic (the effective sales person) and the other is more process driven, following the sales protocol. High performers in sales need to make an impact quickly and when they are faced with a challenge, they do creative things to get around the issues.
Here’s another question:
- Tell me about a time when you didn’t get the sale, when you were sure you would. Why did this occur? What would you do differently?
In this case, the high performer will give you an example and tell you why they believe they were beaten out. It is rarely about price! He/she will also give you a great analysis of why they failed and will look at the situation as an unique incident from which they learned something important to them. The lower performers will tell you “you can’t win them all” and that if you throw enough proposals at buyers, eventually something will stick. Not a very good way of focusing your use of time, if you are in sales.
You are probably asking, so how do I know what a good answer is and what a bad answer is so that when I interview I can tell the difference? There are so many variables in interviewing that the answer really is through experience. If you are new to interviewing, ask someone who is experienced in sales, for example, to sit with you while you interview the candidate. After the interview has been completed, ask your partner to discuss the candidate’s responses and to tell you what they think of him or her. Compare the results of your impressions with your partner’s results. Did you agree or disagree? Why? Can you see what the experienced sales person felt differently about the responses when you disagreed?
After you have interviewed several candidates and have some experience, you will learn how to assess the quality of the answers. Some questions have been proven to be more valid in assessing sales skills. That’s why you might want to consider calling ECI to assist your company in developing and focusing questions on the skills and abilities that count in your marketplace! You can select better people and enhance results for your organization.
Filed under: 1 | Tagged: Behavioral Event Interviewing, Hiring criteria, Interviewing, selection standards
Hi, good post. I have been thinking about this topic,so thanks for posting. I will certainly be coming back to your blog.
Thanks for the post. I never used this approach to interviewing when I was in the trenches but I wish I had. More evidence that most sales managers are dropped on the brink of hell (managing salespeople) without preparation.