Why are managers asking this question? It is a standard question that is often asked, but the question is why are you asking it? Anything could happen between now and five years’ time. What is the benefit of asking this question in the first place?

Potential employees often answer with
“I’ll be in your job”
“I’ll be running the place”
“I’ll be running my own business”

None of which is very useful for assessing if they are the best person for your open position. Often, the general point of the question is to find out how ambitious this potential new employee is. Some people have reasonable ambitions, some have none at all and would be quite happy to be working in the same role for the next five years or more, others would like to push you out of your job ASAP!

The answer should help you decide if you have someone that is likely to be moving at around the same pace that will fit with the company. Some companies need someone that is happy to sit in this job for the next two, three four or more years. Others are quite happy to hire the upwardly mobile and ambitious.

I find this first question is not so important, the follow up question is critical. Your next question should be:

“What skills and experience do you think you need to acquire in order to be able to take on that role?”

I like a bit of ambition, what I don’t like is blind ambition. If the person in front of you is clueless as to what they need to do to get there, don’t hire them. If this person has really thought about where they want to be in five years’ time, then they’ll have an articulate answer about the experience they would like to acquire to fill in the skill gaps to help them get from A to B.

Someone with a plan and some forethought is far more useful to a business than someone that wants a job and has no idea of the heavy lifting required to get promoted.

I have been quoted on the Seek blog talking about unconscious bias previously. Sales Managers often hire people like themselves. Which makes sense – it is great to work with someone who is likeminded and similar to you. You are pretty confident you have a good culture fit and it is so easy to work with someone like you.

At the same time, hiring someone like you might contribute to a lack of diverse opinions, options and strategies. There is a benefit to hiring a broad range of personalities. Most sales people are social, gregarious and outgoing. But not every customer is going to be delighted to see a high energy, A type, high achiever. A sales team needs quiet achievers too. I have seen far too many instances where a quietly spoken candidate misses out on a role because the gregarious sales manager can’t see past their quieter personality.

But how do we recognise a good hire when the person sitting in front of us has a different personality to what we habitually hire into the business? A high energy, high achiever is easy to spot, someone who is a high achiever, but more quietly spoken, may not be as easy to pick up on for some of the socially strong among us.

Regardless of personality, look for the sales achievement, look for the value add to their territory. Has their portfolio of business increased? Has it increased faster than the current rate of market growth? How have they achieved this and how much is a direct result of their efforts, as opposed to the execution of someone else’s bright idea. How strong is their planning and analysis skills to develop a plan of action on their territory?

Look first for the achievements, their results and how they achieved this. Then consider the mix of personalities in the current team and what will provide a good fit, along with a bit of diversity to help match to a variety of different types of customers.

I have seen the benefit many times over, when a sales manager undertakes a review of client lists and switches out a dozen customers in each territory to a new sales consultant to better match the personality of the customer. Often the new sales representative thrives on the challenge of cracking that new account and everyone wins – the company, the sales manager, the rep and the customer.

Happy interviewing!