---
title: "Three Steps and Nine Questions: Helping Distributors Hire Top Salespeople"
description: "For many distributors, hiring a good salesperson is harder than finding a good product, since products rely on people to sell. High turnover among distributor sales staff is a reality. While many factors contribute to turnover, the recruitment stage is often the starting point for unreasonable attrition. This article uses sales ability as the standard, based on the formula \"sales ability = sales skills + work attitude + desire and motivation,\" to provide a practical recruitment plan."
author: "王飞飞"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-06-26"
language: "en"
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markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/three-steps-and-nine-questions-helping-distributors-hire-top-salespeople-1248f3d2.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/oVv5NieBpBsfuLrR_QWqmg"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E4%B8%89%E6%AD%A5%E4%B9%9D%E9%97%AE-%E5%B8%AE%E5%8A%A9%E7%BB%8F%E9%94%80%E5%95%86%E8%81%98%E5%88%B0%E7%8E%8B%E7%89%8C%E4%B8%9A%E5%8A%A1%E5%91%98-1248f3d2.md"
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---

# Three Steps and Nine Questions: Helping Distributors Hire Top Salespeople

> For many distributors, hiring a good salesperson is harder than finding a good product, since products rely on people to sell. High turnover among distributor sales staff is a reality. While many factors contribute to turnover, the recruitment stage is often the starting point for unreasonable attrition. This article uses sales ability as the standard, based on the formula "sales ability = sales skills + work attitude + desire and motivation," to provide a practical recruitment plan.

> For many distributors, hiring a good salesperson is harder than finding a good product, after all, products rely on people to sell. However, it is also a reality that distributor sales staff turnover is particularly high.
>
> Although there are many reasons for employee turnover, such as recruitment issues, training, coaching, and personal problems, the recruitment stage is usually the starting point for unreasonable attrition. Based on this, analyzing whether a candidate has potential or is suitable for sales work undoubtedly requires testing their sales ability.
>
> This article uses sales ability as the standard, following the traditional formula "sales ability = sales skills + work attitude + desire and motivation," to integrate a set of easy-to-execute recruitment plans for sales personnel.

**Sales Skills Are the Foundation**
Sales skills are a direct reflection of sales ability and are important skills in sales work, mainly including communication, expression, and interpersonal skills. Often, sales skills are understood one-sidedly as simply selling things. In fact, sales exists in every corner of life. For example, during the application process, a candidate's self-introduction is a form of selling oneself.

During the recruitment interview, distributors can choose to ask the following three questions to understand a candidate's sales skills.

**1. Give an example of your most successful and memorable sales experience.**
This question is suitable for candidates with sales experience, from working as a supermarket promoter to signing orders worth hundreds of thousands with clients. Through this question, distributors can learn whether the candidate has genuine sales experience and relevant product sales skills while they narrate their successful sales cases. At the same time, distributors can delve into the details of the candidate's sales case to judge whether they meet the standards in analyzing, judging, and solving needs.

**2. What do you think is your greatest strength? What is your greatest weakness?**
This question mainly concerns whether the candidate's own conditions meet the core requirements of sales work. Distributors can observe the candidate's response to this question, examining whether the strengths they mention meet the requirements of sales work and whether their weaknesses are potential hazards in sales. For example, if a candidate says their weakness is poor self-discipline, the distributor should consider that salespeople often work outside the office, and if they lack self-discipline, they may fall into various temptations, adversely affecting market work.

In addition, salespeople must have sufficient confidence and a strong desire for self-expression. If a candidate is too shy to talk about their strengths and advantages, they are generally not suitable for this job.

**3. What are your hobbies? What do you usually like to do?**
Many distributors casually ask, "What are your hobbies?" during interviews. In fact, through the answer to this question, distributors can assess how well the candidate's hobbies match the sales position. Everyone has their own hobbies. For example, if a candidate says they like reading in their spare time, the distributor can further ask what kind of books they like. If they are books about sales, then the candidate's hobbies have a positive connection with certain aspects of sales work, which can undoubtedly add points to their interview performance.

**Work Attitude Is the Guarantee**
Attitude determines everything. Even if sales skills are strong, without a positive work attitude, it is hard to achieve good results. However, work attitude is a dimension that is relatively difficult to assess in recruitment interviews, but that does not mean there is no way to assess it.

Distributors can use the following three questions to assess a candidate's work attitude.

**1. How do you view teamwork and cooperation?**
The "independent work" model is not the mainstream of current sales work; teamwork has become the most common management model. Cooperation spirit is a work attitude that every professional must possess, so distributors must assess this aspect during recruitment interviews. In fact, this question mainly requires candidates to explain how they will play their role within a team. If a candidate answers that they enjoy active teamwork and can play a role in checking details, filling gaps, and taking responsibility for finishing, then they will be a qualified team member.

**2. Ask a provocative question to see the candidate's reaction.**
During the recruitment interview, distributors can also use stress interview methods, asking provocative questions such as "I think you are too honest and not suitable for sales work" or "You don't seem very smart," deliberately disturbing the candidate's composure to see their real-time reaction. This helps judge their true attitude towards things and people, thereby eliminating candidates with poor psychological quality or slow reactions.

**3. Ask a tricky question that secondary wholesalers and end customers often ask during the sales process.**
In the process of sales work, salespeople inevitably encounter tricky questions from customers. Whether these questions become problems depends on the salesperson's mindset.

Distributors can ask a few tricky questions commonly encountered in work during the recruitment interview. For example, customers think product profits are too low and do not want to do it, think the brand is too small, or the product is not formal. Through the candidate's on-the-spot answers, distributors can assess their attitude orientation in the work process. For example, if a customer says product profits are low and they do not want to do it, if the candidate avoids the profit issue by highlighting advantages such as quality service and effective marketing, then they have a relatively good work attitude and mindset.

**Desire and Motivation Are Key**
People need desires; with desires, people have motivation and progress. Especially in work, it is important to determine one's motivation (i.e., desire) for doing things, because when encountering difficulties, potential desires generate the motivation to overcome them.

If an employee has no desires, they are difficult to motivate in the work process. For example, some young candidates do not have concrete plans for their future lives and do not value earning money or work achievements. Such people are hard to drive and hard to achieve progress in work.

To understand desire and motivation, distributors can assess candidates using the following three questions.

**1. Why did you choose to do our sales business?**
By asking this question, distributors can learn the driving force behind the candidate's choice to do sales work. From simply achieving self-sufficiency to realizing personal value, or even finding a lifelong career, these are all desire and motivation behind the candidate's application. In addition, through this question, distributors can also assess the candidate's understanding of the position and work details.

**2. How do you view overtime?**
Overtime is a sensitive topic in interviews, but during the recruitment process, distributors can use this question to understand whether the candidate is willing to sacrifice personal interests for work. In fact, doing sales work requires sacrificing personal interests, not just overtime, but overtime is the easiest way to test the candidate's desire for the job.

**3. What are your plans and goals for the next three to five years?**
This question can be used to understand the candidate's planning ability, and through this question, distributors can also learn whether their career goals align with the company's career planning for employees. Because no one likes to use a person who "looks at the mountain and thinks the other is higher," even if their sales ability is strong. Candidates who can answer with both long-term goals and short-term plans are more qualified.

Some distributors may worry that if such standard questions derived from "sales ability = sales skills + work attitude + desire and motivation" are accidentally known to potential candidates in advance, they may prepare standard answers in advance, but they do not meet the attitude requirements for hiring salespeople. To address this issue, distributors can actually avoid it by understanding the key points, changing the questions, and adding enough questions. Let candidates follow the right person and do the right thing; also let distributors hire the right person and do the right thing.

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