Recruiting and looking for leaders for business growth is half the fight. The second part is to be able to find the best sales applicants for your business development team efficiently and interview them.

What will make or break the ability to recruit the best market marketing agents for your team is getting the right sales interview process in place.

Interviews are time-consuming and you need to make sure that you don’t waste your time with others. You need to understand who is involved in the process of interviewing, how many steps are involved, and when a hire needs to be made. There are 4 main steps in the most productive sales interview process.

Here is a complete rundown of how business development reps can be interviewed effectively to recruit the best fit for your team.

1. First Interview/Phone Screen

A phone call as a first interview is a perfect way of screening applicants for business growth. HR or a recruiter may carry out this first move. Try to make the hiring manager run any phone screens, if necessary. Without having to arrange in-person sessions, you can run the interviews from 15 mins to 1 hour anywhere. It’s also a good way to get a feel for how on the phone the nominee is. You want to see how they sound and express themselves, because you are interviewing for a business development job that includes cold calling and talking to prospects all day long.

You need to recognize that they do not have ‘sales’ experience for an entry-level business development job, but have other intangibles needed to be successful in the role.

So how do you qualify for a suitable work ethic, capacity, and culture?

You want to ask them about their history, their priorities, and what’s not on their resume… who they are and what motivates them as a person.

Here are some sample questions about phone interviews:

• In no specific order, tell us about 3-5 important moments in your life.
• What characteristics in a boss do you want to see?
• In your new place, what will you change?
• What will you take and add from your current position here?
• Sales Recruiters – Send me an instance of being awkward on the phone? Predictive Sales Recruiting Evaluation Tool
• Give me an instance of how you organize yourself from the perspective of time management?

Throughout the process, you should also set goals. Qualification and re-qualification.

2. Second Interview/In-Person

When several candidates have been screened and top candidates have been shortlisted for the next steps, it is time to set up the second round of interviews. This involves taking the preferred candidates to the office to speak with some of the representatives of the managers and team.

Find out with whom the sales applicants will meet. To avoid the BDR applicants from having to come in multiple days, try to arrange one day of interviews with your team. Note, this is the market for job seekers, and top talent is increasingly moving. As a result of a lengthy interview period, don’t lose candidates.

Here is a rundown on how to conduct this second round of interviews and who should meet the BDR candidate.

• The hiring manager should qualify the applicant for numbers, accomplishment, goals, indicators, and performance. Meet the hiring manager. Reiterate the discussion on the phone and plan any extra situational questions to ask.
  • You should sell them for the job. Have them meet some team members if you think they are good, who will also sell them on your company, culture, growth opportunities, and leadership team.

• Meet a member of the BDR team, which is crucial, especially for entry-level applicants. They need to know what the day-to-day is like and what to expect firsthand. If necessary, make them meet someone who has been in the position for at least 6 months. Someone who can talk about the ups-and-downs, the obstacles they will face in the first 30/60/90 days, and how to get over the hump and continue to achieve success.
• If you have someone who started in the position of BDR and has recently been promoted to a new role (Senior BDR, Team Lead, Account Executive), they should also meet that person. Meet a promoted BDR. This helps the applicant to see the potential inside the organization for development.
• Finally, make sure you wrap up with and sell the nominee. Sell them on the chance, address any issues with them, further qualify them for their involvement, and talk about next steps.

3. Presentation/Exercise/Role-Play/Final Interview

The final interview step in your process should be his. You may opt to have the top applicants participate, finish an exercise, or role-play as part of a final interview.

You may have finalists complete various tasks if you want to see how they do on a BDR task:

• They may not have previous knowledge in leveraging for a presentation for an entry-level nominee. Instead, you should send them a hand-out of an e-book about How to hire recent college graduates – Sales Recruiters Conference that your organization attends or sponsors and ask them to invite research partners.
  • Search for the specifics of who should be invited, business names, titles, and personal names. This will provide insight into how they have trained and how they will work in a BDR role every day.

• Get them in the office on the phone with a rep to listen in. Then give them a 5-minute pitch to review and then make them do a mock call. This will show you their level of trust, willingness to deal with objections, and coaching.
• Request a writing sample/email to a ‘prospective customer’ after a mock call. See how well an email is written and articulated by them.

You should be able to round up the table with your management team after this final move and settle about who you want to recruit. Don’t forget, time kills all deals. Switch on to an applicant you need. You lose out on very great business development candidates if the process is too long and you don’t expand deals quickly.

If references are needed in your interview process, ask for them at this point. Discuss salary with final applicants.

4. Verbal/Written Offer

You should be prepared to make a bid within 24-48 hours after the final stages. First, the verbal offer should be extended, addressing base pay, OTE and fees, incentives, and start date. Give the written offer letter as soon as the applicant approves it. This should represent anything discussed and agreed upon by both parties.

Qualify once again and close the loop. Set standards on when it should be signed and returned when you submit the offer letter.

Then it’s time to rejoice and get ready for a rock star company growth rep on board.