One Single Spaced Case
One single spaced page.
1. You are a sales manager for the 3M Corporation (Health Care Markets Division). You are interviewing a sales person candidate for a position as a relationship account manager. You are running behind schedule and only have 15 minutes to spend in this interview.
2. Using the interview guide from your lecture material, pick the 5 best interview questions that you will use to make a decision on this hire (or not). Specifically list each of these questions and explain why you choose them? Note: A one page single spaced write up will suffice.
Grading Rubric to be used
Criteria
Points
Answers cover all parts/aspects of the questions, are in-depth, incorporates concepts from the course material, and contain proper spelling and grammar.
18-20
Answers cover some but not all parts/aspects of the questions, are somewhat in-depth, may lack adequate incorporation of concepts from the course material, and contain some spelling and grammar errors.
15-17
Answers cover only a few parts/aspects of the questions, are lacking depth, are void of concepts from the course material, and contain many spelling and grammar errors.
0-14
Late submission of work
50% deduction from earned score Intensive Interview Guide
From the question sets below, mark the questions that you like (apply best to your recruiting situation). Use the blank box to add questions that you see relevant to your hiring initiatives.
ATTITUDE
Ask Yourself
Ask the Candidate
Like?
Can he bounce back easily
What is her ability to compete
1. Think about a time when you lost in a competition. How did you feel? What did you do as a result?
Is he loyal
Is she a cooperative team player
2. Think about your most challenging boss. How did you deal with him/her? Give an example.
3. Think about a time you were part of team. What was your role? How did you contribute to the success of your team?
Does he take pride in his job
4. Give me an example of a challenging task you were given. How did you go about completing it? What was the outcome?
5. What is your greatest accomplishment to date? How did you achieve this?
MOTIVATION
Ask Yourself
Ask the Candidate
Like?
What is important to him
What rewards are most satisfying
6. When and how did you develop an interest in selling? What do like most/least about selling? Why?
7. How will this job help you get what you are looking for?
What level of effort is she willing to put in the job
8. What obstacles might stand in the way of you achieving your goals? How would you handle these?
Does he understand that success will be measured based on performance
9. Tell me about a time when you did not achieve your goals for a given period. How did you feel and what did you do?
INITIATIVE
Ask Yourself
Ask the Candidate
Like?
Is he a self-starter
10. How (or why) did you choose to get into sales?
11. What do you like most or least about selling? Why?
How does she go about completing tasks
How does he follow through on assigned tasks
12. Tell me about a particular challenging task that you had to complete by a deadline.
Can she work independently
13. What is your preference for working alone or with others? Give me an example.
14. Tell me about a time when you had to complete a task on your own. How did you go about doing this and what was the outcome?
STABILITY
Ask Yourself
Ask the Candidate
Like?
Is he excitable or even tempered
Is she impatient or understanding
Is he poised or impulsive
Is she controlled or erratic
15. What things disturb you most at work? Give me an example of how you handled (one of these things).
16. Think of a customer (or person) you dislike; how do you typically deal with him/her.
17. What was your most unpleasant work experience? How did you handle it?
Will he rise or fold under pressure
18. Tell me about a make or break situation that your were in (sales or personal). How did you handle it? What was the outcome? What do you attribute to this outcome?
PLANNING
Ask Yourself
Ask the Candidate
Like?
Ability to plan and follow through
19. What do you do to plan for your work day?
20. What do you do to plan for your work week?
21. Do you consider planning an important part of a salespersons success? Why or why not?
How does he plan and utilize time
22. Take me through how you spend a typical work day?
23. Give me an example of what you consider time spent at work wisely?
24. Give me an example of what your consider time spent at work wasted or unwisely?
Where does she plan to be in the future
25. Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? How do you plan to get there?
INSIGHT
Ask Yourself
Ask the Candidate
Like?
Is he realistic in appraising himself
26. Give me an example of how you demonstrated one of your strengths.
27. Give me example of how you overcame one of your weaknesses.
Desire for self-improvement
28. Given one of your weaknesses, what are you doing to improve in that area?
29. How will improving on one of your weaknesses will impact your job performance?
How does she respond to constructive criticism
30. What is the most useful constructive criticism that you have received? From whom? Why did you consider it useful? What did you do with this feedback?
31. What was the most useless constructive criticism you have received? From whom? Why did you consider it useless? What did you do with this feedback?
LEADERSHIP and SOCIAL SKILLS
Ask Yourself
Ask the Candidate
Like?
Is he a leader or follower
32. Tell me about a time when you had the opportunity to organize a group? How did you go about doing it? Did you consider it effective? Why or why not.
33. Would you prefer to lead a group or be led? Why?
Interested in new ways of dealing with people
34. Tell me about a time when you had to convince someone or a group of people to do something your way? What methods did you use? Why was it effective (or why not)? Going forward would you use the same or different method(s)? Why?
Can she adapt to all kind of people
Is he willing to be exposed to new people
35. What kinds of people do you best get along with? Why?
36. What kinds of people do you least get along with? Why?
37. Do you prefer making new friends or are you satisfied just keeping old friends? Why?
38. If you were at a party where you knew nobody, what would you do?
SALES RELATED COMPETENCIES
Ask Yourself
Ask the Candidate
Like?
Is he goal setting focused
Is she goal accomplishing focused
39. Give me an example of a time when you set a goal that you were able to meet or achieve?
40. Describe how you set your goals last year. How did you measure attainment of those goals?
41. Tell me about a time that you were assigned a goal that you felt was unattainable. How did you handle it? What was the outcome?
Does he possess effective oral communication skills
42. Tell me about a time when you had to convey or communicate a very complex or difficult idea to someone (or a group). How did you explain it? Were you successful? Why or why not?
43. Give me an example of a time when you successfully communicated an idea to a customer that you did not like. How did you do this?
Does she possess effective presentation skills
44. Describe a time when, after a presentation, you were faced with a hostile questioner. How did you handle this? What was the outcome?
45. Describe a time when, while making a presentation, you could tell your audience was confused. How did you handle this? What was the outcome?
46. Describe the most important presentation that you ever had to make. What did you do to prepare? What was the outcome?
