The Internet is changing the staffing paradigm for many sales organizations. Face-to-face selling is being replaced by telephone sales follow-up after potential buyers use search engines to find solutions to their needs.

As a result, the critical component for success now is to hire sales representatives with telephone sales skills and experience levels that match up with the complexity of your company’s selling proposition.

For example, if your company sells inexpensive products that require little explanation, you may well hire part-time sales reps from a large pool of retired executives, housewives and college students with minimal experience and good telephone skills.

When calling present customers to sell upgrades, service contracts and supplies your customer service and other employees can be readily trained to be telephone sales people. In addition if you direct sales people, you can use telephone follow up positions as an entry-level to more sales and account management jobs.

However, if your company sells high-value products and services, the game plan changes: You'll have to recruit and hire full-time, highly skilled telephone sales professionals who have the knowledge to relate complex solutions to buyers’ needs. Just as importantly they must have the talent to build trust and credibility using only the spoken word.

As one software executive succinctly put it, "When your sales reps have ten seconds to engage prospects in a telephone sales dialogue, those sales reps better be good."

Therein lays a problem: Experience shows that only one in ten sales people have the talent and desire to achieve consistent success selling over the telephone. In addition, since conventional employment tests are about as effective as "spin the bottle" in judging telephone selling skills, a high failure and turnover rate is the norm.

To improve the odds of hiring successful telephone sales representatives we recommend a definitive pre-employment test, in which a job candidate's selling skills are assessed as he or she makes a sales presentation over the telephone to someone who plays the role of a prospective buyer.

To ensure a level playing field, each candidate is given information five to ten days in advance to help them prepare for their sales call. This information should include a description of your company and its products and services, as well as that of a prospective customer and a typical selling situation.

A specific day and time is assigned for the candidate to call and a basic scoring system is used to rate and quantify the sales skills of each candidate. For example, points are awarded from 1 = Poor to 5 = Excellent for each of the following factors:

• Previous Experience: Previous sales and industry experience count for a lot. Award one point for every year of related experience up to five.

Voice Quality: Listen closely and score for a regional-neutral accent, clear pronunciation, good vocabulary, moderate rate of speech, and most of all the tone of the voice. Tone is critical because it projects professionalism, enthusiasm and confidence. Deduct points if you detect nervousness, hesitancy, timidity or lack of confidence.

• Call Opening: Score how well the candidate opens the sales call. Did they give their name and reason for calling? Did they sound confident?

• Rapport Building: This key predictor of sales success is difficult to quantify but you’ll know it when you hear it. Did this person have the ability to make you trust them? Did they sound believable?

• Closing the Call: Did they ask for the order or to further the process of consideration? Did they paraphrase your comments and use them to reinforce selling points? Simply put, was the candidate persuasive enough to be on your short list?

After the telephone sales presentation circle the number that represents the skill level observed. Next, total the five sales skill areas for a final score. A salesperson who scores 20 to 25 points is good bet to succeed, while one who scores 10 to 19 probably should not be considered for a telephone sales position.

A final suggestion: If you already have a telephone sales team, put them through the same test as job candidates and compare their scores. I guarantee the results will be interesting.

Go to www.SalesJudge.com for more information on sales assessment solutions