Recently a sales applicant who failed to read the job description before applying for the job replied to my email, politely saying that she did not read the "fine print" about the job being full commission.
What's remarkable and revealing about that statement is this very seasoned sales person is referring to the job description itself as the fine print. Making the job title the regular print.
As detailed in our Manual (Comprehensive guide to building remote sales teams) just about every single job applicant looks only at the job title, not the job description, before applying. Even the very intelligent, accomplished sales pros.
So what does that mean for you as a hiring manager, recruiter or business owner. It means your job title is very important. It also means much pre-screening is needed before the first interview.
Once you have pre-screened their resume, you'll need to encourage them to go back and read the job description, and this may take a few attempts. One technique that works well for us is to email the applicant a question about something you saw in their resume. They may simply respond to the question, but they may also go back and re-read the job description. At this point the applicant may have applied for several dozen jobs so it may take some time and some back and forth. After your applicant responds go ahead and instruct them to re-read (read) your job description in a nice way.
At this point you still cannot assume that they have done the necessary research about the job and company so before interviewing them we suggest you ask them a few quick qualifying questions by email in the context of setting up their phone interview. We usually go a step further and create an overview video and check if the applicant watched the entire video before finalizing the interview appointment.
The fine print: Make sure your applicants know what they are applying for before you speak with them.
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