How To Interview And Discover Amazing Retail Employees [Hiring]

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I made an orange dessert for some friends the other night. When one of my guests took a bite, her face soured; she said it tasted bitter.

I took a scoop and realized there was a rotten spot on the orange I hadn’t noticed; I had ruined her dessert.

Like most retailers, you want guests to view your store in a positive light.

You spend a lot of time and money getting them to the front door but that’s where it all ends.

Once a customer steps into your store, your salespeople become the face of your business.

Whatever impression customers are left with after interacting with your salespeople is the only impression that matters.

And you never want bitter...

If you aren’t picky about who you put onto your sales floor, you can ruin the entire experience for your customer.

This is one of the many reasons why hiring the right salesperson is critical to your success.

A lifetime of experience and a boatload of charisma doesn’t mean anything if your salespeople don’t fit into your particular store culture. Every person is unique. Every store is unique. Finding the right person for the right store requires more than a resume. The interview process is your chance to learn about the potential employee as a person, not just an application.

Too many employers perform interviews on an ad-hoc basis, making them up as they go along. This is your first, best chance to weed out problem hires before they begin. If you’re not using a standard interview process - and you should - there’s a good chance that you’re missing some important questions. Those questions make all the difference between hiring success and failure.

There are thousands of questions youcanask, and some will give you valuable information. However, there are some questions that you mustask each applicant. These are the make-or-break questions that will let you decide if the applicant has the potential to be amazing and succeed in your store.

Getting to Know You.The content of this question isn’t all that important but it should be relevant to something you see on their clothing, their smartphone, or their car. It is the second part of the sale something I call opening a Window of Contact. The point is to put the applicant at ease and start seeing how they interact with people. Interviews are stressful for everyone, spend at least a few minutes discovering what you have in common which lowers everyone’s stress level. If there's no back-and-forth interaction with you, there probably won't be any back-and-forth with customers. Describe your toughest successful sale. Adversity is a part of the sales business. Customers can be difficult at the best of times, and it’s up to your sales staff to persevere and make the sale. Hearing them describe how they’ve overcome a difficult situation will give you insight into their process and how they’ll likely interact with your customers. Remember, past behavior determines future success. If they can’t give you one, this applicant probably won't be able to sell your premium merchandise. Describe a sure sale that you lost, and why you lost it.It happens to everyone in retail. You have a guaranteed sale standing in front of you when, suddenly, everything falls apart. You're looking for someone who knows how to close a sale. What you’re looking for is an awareness of mistakes the salesperson made, and how they’ve learned from the experience. You don’t care they lost it - unless it was habitual - you just want to get a sense of their process. Again, we’ve all been there so be willing to share your own brief story after they give theirs. I’m buying X, now sell me Y.Ask them to pick an item in their previous store, and tell the applicant that you’ve decided to buy it. It can be anything - a purse, a jacket, a watch… anything you can think of from that store. Now ask them to recommend and sell you a complementary item that was found in that store. Up-selling is the lifeblood of retail sales; find out now if they know how to do it. Give me five reasons I should hire you. Let’s be honest, they want the job to make money. That’s not the answer you want to hear. Instead, you want them to spend a few minutes trying to sell themselves. That’s when you’ll truly get to see their skills as a salesperson. If they can't sell you in five reasons on a person they should know a lot about, they sure can't sell an item they may not know much about that has a luxury price tag.

See also, 7 Skills Retail Employees Must Have To Deliver Customer Service

Amazing employees are out there to help you grow your sales but it takes going beyond the cliche, "Can you sell me this pen?" or What hours can you work?

Of course, this brief list doesn’t cover every question you should ask during an interview.

However, if you don’t get excellent answers to these five critical questions, you’re really taking a shot in the dark if you move forward and hire the applicant. And you never find amazing employees that way.

I've added a whole new course to my online retail sales training SalesRX.com called Hiring Smarter - learn more about it. 

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