Interviewing for success in the restoration industry

By Timothy Miller

February 03, 2012

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As a long-suffering Cubs fan, it’s hard to not notice some of the recent internal developments taking place with the baseball team on the north side of town.

Since Theo Epstein took over as president of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs in October of 2011, it’s been interesting to watch the organizational changes taking place to help try and break the organization’s more than 100-year streak of not having won a World Series.

Close examination of Epstein’s media talking points make it clear that he is relentlessly focused on the idea of processes and the adherence to these processes to ensure a greater probability of success. Take, for example, his approach to finding the team’s new manager.

Epstein installed an interview process that was far more involved than just asking the candidate about their experiences in baseball and what they know about the history of the Cubs franchise. Candidates were given a lineup card and a stat sheet among other relevant facts and placed in a simulation situation involving the analysis of recorded game footage.

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The game footage was paused at specific moments and Epstein would ask the candidate what, as manager, he would do in that particular situation. As Epstein told the Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan, "We weren''t looking so much as to what the managerial candidate said, in terms of the strategy he would employ, but what pieces of information he would use — what his thought process would be in trying to make a decision under pressure."

Epstein’s approach to baseball operations is not unlike the approach we take when working with our clients to find the right marketing representatives for their restoration companies.

When we screen and interview a candidate for a marketing position, we must determine if they are the type of salesperson who is going to have the instincts to gather information and ask questions, or if they are conditioned to rely on a more traditional (and lower percentage of success) features and benefits selling approach.

During the interview, we place candidates in specific sales simulations to role-play and show how they’ll react to the situation when out in the field. What is their approach? How do they handle pressure or resistance from the target? Will they fold upon the first sign of resistance from whoever they’re tasked with building relationships with? Are they coachable and trainable?

This last question may be the most important of all. To be successful at selling, you need more than just personality and luck. You need both a selling model and a selling process that lets you keep control of the selling situation, know exactly where you are in the process and what needs to be done next to move the prospect closer to making the decision to work with your restoration company.

The implementation of proven processes is absolutely necessary for finding, training, managing and tracking a successful salesperson. The same is true for running a successful baseball team. After more than a century, it looks like the Cubs may finally have figured that out. Better late than never.

Timothy Miller is the president of Business Development Associates, Inc., a marketing consulting firm that works exclusively with clients in the cleaning and restoration industry. With more than 25 years of industry experience, Tim helps restorers truly understand their differentiation and branding and develop strategic and tactical marketing plans that include specific, actionable tasks that increase sales and profits. He is also the co-creator of Sales Mastery for Restorers, a unique program designed to teach restorer salespeople to generate commercial and referral business easily and consistently.