Shawnee Love   •  
October 7, 2010

I recently saw a job advertisement for a position in management of a union organization. What caught my eye was the requirement for the successful candidate to have values in alignment with trade unionism because it reminded me of hiring advice that I give to clients and colleagues:

Only hire people who like your products (or services) and can represent them well.

That doesn’t mean Viagra has to hire only desperate housewives and happy men (please excuse the stereotypes as they are for illustration only). It just means they should hire people who see the value in the product and are proud to work for them. I know someone currently working for a tech company in a management role that doesn’t even like technology! Why she wants to work for a company whose products hold no interest to her I am not sure, but I am even more curious about what her boss was thinking.

We live in a time when everyone in your company needs to be your ambassador. Amongst other critical company information, each new hire should be indoctrinated with the Cole’s notes version of what you teach your sales and marketing people so that when they are at an event or simply asked by an inquisitive friend, they can represent you well. While you don’t necessarily need to like a product to sell it, the most effective sales pitches include some version of “not only do I believe in it, but I use it and have seen it work”.

If you agree that your employees should have an interest in what you do or see the value of your work, then here are two good interview questions to ask:

• What do you know about our company?
• How do you feel about our products (or services or what we do)?

Don’t hire anyone who can’t give you good answers to those questions. They don’t want to work for you enough.