Many of us are experiencing a revolving door when it comes to hiring new people. We read through the résumés, we conduct what we consider are reasonably thorough interviews and we may even check some references.

You could use the 1 - 10 ranking scale to gain some interesting insights into your candidates.

There are a number of questions employers ask prospective employees, but a very key question to ask is:

"In your previous positions what did you PRODUCE?"

Yes, you should be interested in what positions the person held previously. But you want to narrow in on what the person produced.

While watching a bit of news on TV the other day, a short segment was done for job hunters. The theme of the segment was: “what not to say in the interview.”

Let’s take a look at a few of these:

“I’m really nervous.”

What if your candidate isn't a good fit for you but would be a great asset for another company? 

What if you you knew of a specific company where this would apply? 

Taking this one step further, what if this specific company was your competition? 

Should you make the effort to refer this candidate? Should you contact the other company and let them know about this prospect? 

I would say: yes and yes.

And yes, even with your competition!

Let’s say you’re hiring someone for the Office Manager position. What are some of the routine problems for this position?

Gather together a list of at least three of these and then ask your applicant how she would solve them.

Working with Millennials may be challenging for some. Invigorating for others. Here is a tip to help you in the hiring process.

In the previous Hiring the Salesperson tips, we covered preparation, motivation, prospecting, sales technique and closing.

In this tip, let’s discuss the salesperson who has sold something very different from you’re selling.

This Will Rogers quote can most definitely be applied to those giving hiring interviews.

Of course this is something you know, but how often do we see a fabulous résumé and then omit doing a thorough interview as we believe we’ve got the right person?

Another way to find out more about your prospective employee is to perform a Google search.

The previous tip discussed having the applicant work for a full day (or even several days) without assurances of the job. This tip is similar but with a couple of key differences.

Have your applicant work for an entire month on a conditional basis. He can leave at the end. You can let him go.

One idea that has been found successful is to have him work for a full day. Or maybe even several days. Give him a fairly quick understanding of what's needed and get him rolling.

In the first four tips on Hiring the Salesperson, we covered preparation, motivation, prospecting and sales technique.

In this tip, let's tackle the Holy Grail of sales: closing!

Let’s say you’re hiring an Office Manager. 

Fred has shown up for his interview and has Office Manager experience. 

How do we know how experienced Fred is?

Well, we can take Fred for a tour of the office. Here’s how it could go:

Most people have a pretty good idea of what’s expected of them. They’ve had some training for their position and ideally some apprenticing.

This tip could even include those who have considerable training, for example health care professionals or software programmers.

The question is, “What did you do when you didn’t know what to do?”

Today I read an interesting quote in a hiring book:

“Companies are notorious for hiring based on skill and ability, and firing based on fit.”

Certainly with regards to skill positions, I would agree with this.

What about the prospective staff who look and sound great but a month or so down the road quit unexpectedly or compel the owner to fire them?

If your candidate is very goal-oriented, it would be helpful to know how this particular job fits in with his goals.

When two employees near you were going back and forth in a heated argument, did you take steps to break it up? Or were you more inclined to let them sort it out?

Have you ever had a job interview with someone and you came out of it thinking:

She just rubbed me the wrong way.

From the perspective of making a hiring decision, what exactly does that mean?

I see the hiring process as pieces of a pie. Each piece can help you make a better decision.

“George, what was a typical work day like?” George might ask for clarification and you could say, “Well, I’d like to get an idea what you did in your previous job but from a different perspective than what is on your résumé.