Before interviewing someone, have the person fill out an application. You can get employment applications from a variety of sources for your state. You want to have a system for this that doesn’t require you to be involved.
Since it’s a sales process, I don’t like to break the connection. If this person is desirable, other people are going to be after him or her too, so you need to act quickly on the application and interview process. Go slowly from there; this is “setting the hook,” so to speak. Once you bait the hook, you don’t jerk too quickly, or you’ll yank the bait out of the mouth of the fish, you’ll bring in the wrong fish, or you’ll damage the good fish.
Have a simple application procedure where any employee can give the applicant the required paperwork for your state, a copy of the person’s driver’s license, and so on. If you don’t have employees or an office, consider a verbal application or online submission form and check it often so you can set the
hook. Once the application is completed, and you have the drug screening authorization, etc., you can review the application to see if he or she qualifies for the position.
If you are at the office when the candidate comes in, observing the behavior may give you an idea if this person is a good candidate or not (remember the pot-smoking guy I spoke about earlier). If you want to interview the person at that time, you can set the hook.
(Reference Pages 224- 225 of the 5 Secrets of a Phenomenal Business Book by Howard Partridge)
