Every so often, someone I don't know will message me on LinkedIn asking for advice on interviewing for a sales position.

The questions are generally ‘What should I expect?’ ‘What might they ask?’ ‘What are they looking to hear?’ Much less frequently, they’ll ask ‘What can I do to stand out?’

Over the past year or so I've been working and reworking a response to that last one. I thought I'd share it here and get the community's feedback. Here goes:

A Sales Interview is a Sales Call

We are neck deep writing the 2014 edition of our BDR / SDR metrics and compensation report. This year we had 200+ valid responses and roughly 160 of those shared compensation data. A huge thank you to all who participated! 

Since 2007, we've reported SDR compensation as a national average. Every year, you've asked for more specifics (how about our region, our price point, our hiring profile, etc.).

Well, I finally have something to share.

This year, we isolated 6 variables that impact compensation. The result is our new BDR Compensation Calculator. See a sample 'output' below.

 
My friend and sales trainer extraordinaire, John Barrows, has a great line:

Wow. There’s an obvious problem here.

Companies need a pipeline of sales candidates; while many Universities are producing graduates who’ve never seen the word ‘sales’ on the curriculum. Full disclosure: my degree in 19^th century Russian literature left me unprepared for Day 1 at my first sales job.

Moving towards a solution

I recently met David McFarlane with the Entrepreneurship Center at UMass Boston. David has 25+ years in B2B with time as VP, Alliances, COO and most recently co-founder and CEO. He now serves as Director and Entrepreneur in Residence for the EC.

We had a good chat about ‘the state of sales education’ and David shared two ways that UMass Boston is addressing the problem.

 
Better, faster, cheaper – you can only have two.

I’ve decided to touch a third rail of the current selling spirit: the ‘double tap’ -- the process of leaving a voicemail immediately followed by an email.

I’m a little afraid of getting flamed on this one, but hey, what the heck. 

Let me give you the scenario.

A sales rep is prospecting you and actually picks up the phone to reach out. Maybe you ignore them or maybe you’re away from your desk. They leave a voicemail, referencing that they’re also sending an email.

So, what happens next?