The initial face-to-face interview is an important factor in the hiring process. If the first interview goes well, the rest of the hiring interactions feel like they’re flowing downhill.
Do you think you’re effective at conducting interviews?
Most real estate managers believe this is one of their strengths. But, the recruiting performance metrics our company collects paints a different picture.
By isolating the interview component of the hiring process (through workflow design and software tracking), we’ve documented that successful interviewers experience much better recruiting results than those who are struggling.
How much better? It’s often two to three times more hires.
Of course this begs the question—what are successful managers doing during their interviews that make them so effective?
Research suggests it really boils down to one thing.
Learning from Research on Sales
In his outstanding book, The Best Place to Work, Dr. Ron Friedman addresses the issue of building trust in the sales process.
Consider the quandary faced by car salesmen, a profession that according to a 2012 Gallup poll is squarely at the bottom when it comes to perceived honesty and ethical standards.
What can a car salesman say to make himself more convincing? The answers, according to [researchers], is quite literally nothing.
Dr. Friedman goes on to outline two studies showing it’s not an ability to talk that leads to sales. It’s quite the opposite.
The ability to be quiet and listen effectively is the defining characteristic of high performing sales people.
For Complex Sales, Listening is Even More Important
Selling a car is a simple sale. What happens when things get more complex? Of course, the sales prospect would need additional information to make a good choice. Right?
In the financial services industry, a job where advisors are explicitly hired for their knowledge and ability to give advice, surely there would be a connection between skillful talking and success.
Dr. Friedman sites another study showing the opposite to be true.
“The higher financial advisers scored as listeners, the better their clients rated them on quality, trust, and satisfaction. Effective listeners were also more successful at minimizing their customers’ perceptions of financial risk, making them more likely to invest in the future.”
Naturally, this translated into higher sales with the clients, but researchers also found it had an unexpected effect.
[Effective listening] had sown the seeds for an upward cycle of sales. That’s because the more an advisor listened, the more their clients wanted to recommend them to their friends.
Listeners had created a defacto sales force. They weren’t the only ones focused on growing their business. So were their customers.
Listening Creates Influence
Exercising influence is the common thread among these research studies.
Those who have learned to listen effectively have much more success than those who are seemingly gifted talkers.
This principle applies to recruiting (and specifically interviewing) because the goal is to positively influence a person’s career decisions.
The hiring managers who make the most hires are those who are the most influential during the interview.
In the next WorkPuzzle, we’ll discuss what it takes to become an effective listener. Keeping your mouth shut during the interview is only the first step.
The rest of the process requires some attention to detail, but it’s work that will produce a high return on your investment.
It will move you into the group of hiring managers who hire more than 30% of the individuals they interview.
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