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Comment by codys | Hacker News Reader

Not in sales, but:

Author expects interviewees to "tell you what you want to hear", recommends requiring their W-2, admits that companies oversell themselves too, but doesn't appear to offer the interviewees the same insight into company data, expecting them instead to "probe for related information and same truths 20 different ways".

Maybe I'm just a bit cynical (or not familiar with how sales works), but it seems that this is a mechanism to give an interviewer more cards.

That said, it is an article from an interviewer's perspective, so I suppose that's a bit expected.

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Yeah, he starts by talking about how the power dynamic is so key, especially in sales recruiting, and can get in the way. Good point. But as you say his proposed solutions all seem to put him, the interviewer, in more of a power position.

It's supposed to be because the company is doing it for their benefit. He's demonstrating being a salesperson as he describes it. ;)

Totally agree.

Author talks about bullshit when he, himself, spews it too.

"Before the interview, have recruiting (or you can) ask the candidate to submit their W2 and fill it in with information that foots to their W2 — the previous years payroll — including commission in the last X-years they’ve been a sales rep."

There is zero chance a seasoned job seeker who knows what they are doing regardless of the position would give out this kind of information.

Interviewing is like playing poker. Why the hell would I show you my cards before placing a bet. It's my job to negotiate the most and it's the person doing the hiring's job to do their homework to figure out what the market bares and how much they can afford or are willing to spend on someone.

I came away reading that article that the author is some pompous young buck who thinks he knows how to recruit.

kids these days... yea, maybe I'm old fashion too but this seems more like a lack of plain old simple common sense.

This might work for identifying steady transactional salespeople that are really desperate to work for a particular company, but the type of salesperson that's actually good at doing the $20million deals - a skilled negotiator who's selective about the leads they pursue - can and will think at best I'm getting lowballed on compensation; at worst I'm wasting my time justifying not closing any deals in two quarters of last year to an interviewer that doesn't understand how enterprise sales work if asked to produce a spreadsheet of their commission payments for the last couple of years. Especially since they know many commission schemes are far too opaque for the interviewer to achieve their stated intent of establishing deal size and volume, but there's one glaringly obvious figure the interviewer will get out of those W2 forms.

The OP says that if those people won't apply it's a "bullet dodged", but I'm not convinced.

You will only get the ones that desperately need a job and no sensible salesperson is going to give up there comp before you even start the negotiation.

Actually he points out a number of questions the interviewee could/probably will ask in the section "Questions rock star sales reps ask". I think his overall point is that the best scenario is one where company/employee are well aligned...and whatever information gets you to finding that aligned relationship is the information you should seek/offer.

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