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Initial Talent, John de Mierre House, Haywards Heath (2026)

23/05/2023

"Soft skills" are crucial for success in a sales role as they directly impact an individual's ability to build relationships with clients and achieve sales targets. When faced with a tough choice between talented candidates, you should be looking for evidence of the following:

👉 Communication: Effective communication is crucial in sales as it helps build rapport with clients, understand their needs, and present solutions in a persuasive manner. To evaluate this skill, consider each candidate's ability to:

💡Listen actively and empathetically to clients.
💡Articulate thoughts clearly and concisely.
💡Use persuasive language to convey the benefits of the product or service.

Look for examples from their past experiences where they have demonstrated strong communication skills, such as successful negotiations or presentations.

👉 Teamwork: Sales teams often work together to achieve common goals. Assess each candidate's ability to:

💡Collaborate effectively with colleagues.
💡Share knowledge and resources.
💡Handle conflicts professionally.

Examine instances where they have worked well in a team setting or contributed positively to group projects.

👉 Problem-solving: sales professionals need to identify client pain points and offer tailored solutions. Evaluate each candidate's ability to:

💡Analyse complex situations.
💡Think critically and creatively.
💡Develop innovative solutions that address client needs.

Consider examples from their past experiences where they have overcome challenges or resolved issues for clients through effective problem-solving.

👉 Adaptability: The industry is constantly evolving; hence, adaptability is essential for success. Assess each candidate's ability to:

💡Adjust quickly to new situations or changes in the market.
💡Learn new technologies or methodologies rapidly.
💡Embrace change with a positive attitude.

Look for instances where they have successfully adapted to new environments or embraced change in previous roles.

👉 Leadership: Sales professionals often need to take the lead in client interactions and inspire trust. Evaluate each candidate's ability to:

💡Inspire and motivate others.
💡Take responsibility for their actions and decisions.
💡Exhibit strong decision-making skills.

Consider examples from candidates' past experiences where they have demonstrated leadership qualities, such as leading a project or mentoring junior team members.

17/05/2023

The latest publication in our series on 2023 technology trends. This month: Cybersecurity and Digital Defence. Enjoy!

19/04/2023

Lengthy, unwieldy processes with multiple interview stages and stakeholders turns candidates off. Fact.

If your recruitment process and time to hire is too long, you will lose talent to the competition.

Taking commercial roles as an example, a 3 stage process (4 max) is ideal over the course of 3-4 week period. If you take longer, you run the very real risk of candidates becoming disengaged and withdrawing.

It’s vitally important to maintain cadence/momentum.

17/04/2023

As we already know, the interview process is a crucial part of any hiring decision. It provides employers with an opportunity to assess the qualifications, skills, and personality of potential candidates.

However, it is also an area where cognitive biases frequently creep in, leading to unfair or inaccurate assessments of candidates.

So what is cognitive bias insofar as it relates to the interview process?

1. The "Halo Effect". This bias occurs when an interviewer forms an overall positive impression of a candidate based on a single favourable trait or characteristic, such as their appearance or confidence. This positive impression can then influence the interviewer's evaluation of the candidate's other qualities, leading to a biased assessment.

2. The "Horn Effect" is the opposite of the halo effect, where an interviewer forms a negative impression of a candidate based on a single unfavourable trait, such as being nervous or having a weaker resume. This can lead to overlooking other positive attributes and qualifications that the candidate may possess.

3. Confirmation Bias. This bias occurs when an interviewer seeks out information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs or assumptions about a candidate. For example, if an interviewer believes that candidates from a certain university are more intelligent, they may ask leading questions or give greater weight to responses from candidates who attended that university. We see this a lot where candidates are referred by a trusted contact.

4. Availability bias. This bias occurs when an interviewer overemphasizes information that is readily available, such as the candidate's resume or previous work experience. This can lead to overlooking other important factors, such as the candidate's potential for growth and development (for e.g.).

To mitigate the effects of these biases, it is important for interviewers to be aware of them and take steps to reduce their impact.

One approach is to establish clear criteria for evaluating candidates, such as a list of skills, experience, and attributes that are essential for the role. This can help interviewers to focus on objective measures of a candidate's suitability, rather than relying on subjective impressions.

Another approach is to use structured interviews, which involve asking all candidates the same set of questions in a standardized format. This can help to ensure that all candidates are evaluated based on the same criteria, and can reduce the impact of biases that can arise from unstructured or inconsistent interviews).

In our experience, the potential (and often serious) impact of cognitive bias is ignored more often than not. By taking steps to reduce its effects, employers can make more informed and fair hiring decisions, and select candidates who are the best fit for the role.

04/04/2023

It can be easy to forget (or just not realise) the sheer amount of hard graft that goes into putting a shortlist of candidates together!

I frequently use the "duck" analogy. Our lovely clients get to see the beautifully curated results at the end of a project. What they don't see is all the furious paddling taking place beneath the water's surface in order to get there!

16/03/2023

I’ve been privileged enough to coach 1000’s of sellers and sales leaders through interview over the years. While it’s impossible to predict the content and line of questioning any given interview will take, it’s fair to say that there are a number of questions that tend to come up. Here are 5 that we hear frequently:

1. What do you know about our company? This is all about seeing how you’ve prepared for the interview. Have you done your research. Have you read any White Papers or watched the YouTube vids? It gives an interviewer a strong indication on how you might prep for a customer call/meeting. Fluff this one and you’ll be on your back foot.

2. Tell me about your most successful deal/the deal you’re most proud of closing. Your interviewer is pushing for evidence of your drive/motivation here. They are also likely looking for evidence of structure and process orientation. Make sure you build these into your answer. An easy one to prep for up-front

3. If we hire you, what will you do in your first 30/60/90 days? Again, a relatively straightforward question to prep for up-front. As above, this is all about structure and planning. If you get it right internally, chances are you’ll get it right in front of a customer.

4. What’s your current quota and how have you achieved against it? Binary this one. Important: don’t lie! Hopefully you’ve nailed 100% year in, year out, but there’s absolutely no shame in coming up a little short now and again. We’re all human, right? And you can’t account for every single extenuating circumstance. If you have missed, just ensure that you’re prepared to explain why.

5. Tell me about a time that you failed to achieve your goals. What went wrong and what could you have done differently? Leading on from the above. This one is all about learning from mistakes. The better able you are to deal with failure (we’ve all been there), dust yourself off and move on, the better equipped you are to not make the same mistake twice. It’s just as important to overcome setbacks as it is to celebrate success. An interviewer wants to see that you are resilient and tenacious enough to overcome obstacles.

Note. Most interviewers will also ask you if you have any questions for them. You should always take the opportunity to do so. You will be measured just as much upon your questioning as you will on your answers – particularly as a seller. I commonly have clients pushing back on a candidate because “he/she had no questions for me”. It’s a golden opportunity for you to find out more as well as to showcase some of your discovery tactics!

Final point. CLOSE. This might sound obvious, but you would be amazed how many sellers – people who spend their lives closing deals – don’t ask for feedback/close for the next steps at the end of the interview. You’d do it with a customer – make sure you do it with your interviewer!

17/02/2023

We all know that a prospective employer will ask you a bunch of questions at interview.
BUT
Have you prepared a list of questions for them?
In sales interviews particularly, you will be measured just as much on your questions as you will on your answers. Treat it like a discovery meeting with a prospect. After all, you need to ensure that the opportunity is right for you and not just for your prospective employer.
Asking good open-ended questions about the company and the role not only gains you insights you may otherwise have missed, but it also demonstrates your potential capability in front of a customer. Importantly, it demonstrates that you are doing your due diligence.
Here are some examples:
• Can you tell me more about the daily role responsibilities?
• What is my quota likely to be?
• How is the current team performing against their numbers?
• What did your top biller achieve last quarter/year
• What’s the company culture like
• Why did you join the organisation
• Where do you see the company in 5 years’ time
Obviously, you’ll tailor your questions to your audience, but the underlying principle remains the same. Demonstrate curiosity and interest through your questioning – it’ll give you a massive boost in your interviewer’s eyes.

15/02/2023

Absolutely delighted to report one of our most recent placements with one of our newest clients: The Global Channel Sales lead (and one of the first people on the ground in Europe) for an early-stage leader in the cyber space.

I've written a lot recently about the length and cadence of a good hiring process. This is a great example. 3 candidates submitted, 2 of them taken forward to interview and the entire process wrapped up within 4 weeks. The new employee had a total of 4 interviews with 3 different stakeholders during this period and was able to join just in time for SKO. Ou client runs an exceptionally slick process - great to see everything work so well.

It really makes me happy when a placement comes together like this - it's why I get up in the morning 😊. Great candidate and a fantastic client - a real meeting of minds.

13/02/2023

Reality vs. LinkedIn. Sometimes, a healthy dollop of cynicism is required as you scroll - whether it's social media or a CV!

10/02/2023

These days, with so much information at our fingertips, identifying is relatively straightforward. Just scroll through LinkedIn and you are effectively presented with a full CV: Work history, testimonials etc. The lot. So should be easy, right?

Wrong.

While the identification process is much more straightforward than it ever was in the past, candidate engagement is more challenging than ever.

As recruiters, we talk a lot about "passive" talent. These are your potential candidates who are gainfully employed and successful, but are open to having a conversation if the right opportunity presents itself.

They're not going to respond to a job posting. They are not going to apply to you directly. They are not "actively" seeking a career change.

To engage them, there's a dance that needs to be done. A courtship. A "wooing" if you will.

Recruitment, like sales, is all about relationships. Transactional job postings may get you a result, but they're never going to get you the best result. Job postings are reactive at best. You are hoping that the right person will apply.

Do you want to hire the best person who responds to your posting, or do you want to hire the best person in your market?

Everyone wants the latter of course. And engaging that person effectively can ONLY be done proactively.

08/02/2023

Is cold-calling dead?

As a young salesman – back in the dark ages before LinkedIn was even a twinkle in Reid Hoffman’s eye (and orders being sent by Fax was still a thing) – I was busily hammering the phones by way of drumming up new business.

Am I still doing it today? No. Well, not quite, anyway.

You see, what’s changed, is the approach. 25 years ago, we just didn’t have the same ready access to information that we do now. Nowadays, we gather data online and are able to learn a lot about a prospect before engaging them.

So if I’m really honest with myself, I only ever really make “warm” calls these days.

Why?

Because I approach every interaction with a prospect armed with infinitely more information than I ever did in the past. I’ve probably even already engaged with them over email or social media.

So perhaps we should actually call it Warm Calling, or do people genuinely still adopt the approach that I did 25 year ago?

Initial Talent

23/05/2023

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