Stanley Says - Group Selection Day

If you’re reading this week’s Stanley Says you’re more than likely:  A) an avid reader of this blog; B) curious about our recruitment process or C) you’ve received a letter to invite you to our SERE Group Selection Day.  I hope if you’re actually reading this you’re all of the above but if you are one of the successful people to receive a letter, congratulations and we look forward to meeting you on the day.

A ‘Group Selection Day’ may sound familiar to those of you coming from a sales background but at the same time, it may sound completely alien to the rest of you, especially if you’re used to formal, structured styles of the interview.  That’s why the aim of this week’s blog is to help answer any questions you may have about the day ahead… but if there’s anything I’ve missed, don’t be afraid to contact us beforehand.  

First of all, the point of the selection process is that it gives us and yourself the opportunity to decide whether car sales would be suited for you.  Unlike most car dealerships that recruit for sales positions, we believe we get to know the individual a lot better from the day itself rather than from a brief 5-10 minute interview.  The exercises and activities throughout the day can’t really be rehearsed so we believe we get a much more truthful idea of each individual.

One thing we’d like to stress is that there’s no typical successful candidate, all we’re looking for is friendly positive people who can work as part of a team.  Sales can be taught, being a genuine, good person can only come naturally and that’s what we’re looking for.

Currently, female sales executives are underrepresented at SERE and this something we would like to change, so any ladies reading this blog, please do not be discouraged as we assure you, everyone, that who applies for positions at SERE will be treated equally and fairly.

SERE Group Selection Day

On the day, we’ll meet for morning registration and a coffee and this will be the first opportunity to chat with SERE staff and get to know the others attending the selection day.  I’ll then deliver a presentation on the company and tell you a little more about the culture and way of life at SERE.  You’ll have lots of opportunities throughout the day to ask us questions and you’ll get a really good idea whether SERE is a company you would like to pursue a career with.

Next up, you’ll be put into groups to discuss a topic of our choice; this will be our first ‘real’ impression of you and will be observed by our SERE senior staff. This is an opportunity for us to rate your levels of persuasion and confidence and gauge how you interact in a group environment.

Following on from the group discussion, we’ll ask you to give an individual 3-minute presentation that will be delivered to the panel. The purpose of this exercise is to witness how you present yourself, if you’re offered a position at the company you’ll be an ambassador for us so we need to access how you act individually outside of a group dynamic.

You’ll be pleased to know after the personal presentations is lunchtime and we’ll provide you with food so no need to bring anything along with you. Straight after lunch, we’ll tell you there and then whether you have progressed to the next stage of the recruitment process.

If you’ve been successful, we’ll brief you on the next activity which will be a role-play sales exercise.  You’ll have plenty of time to prepare for this, but typically you’ll be in a sales scenario in which you’ll either have to handle a complaint or use your powers of persuasion to convince a customer to purchase their new car from you.  For obvious reasons, this is a good way for us to gauge your selling performance and your strengths and weaknesses.  It’s a useful predictor of future job performance but will not be used solely to decide whether sales is for you.

Finally, we’ll conduct individual interviews as this will give us a final opportunity to assess you overall.  All of the exercises collectively will determine whether you’re suited to a sales position at SERE, so don’t panic if you feel you didn’t perform well in one of the tasks.  Just try your best, stay relaxed and be yourself. We look forward to meeting you on the day, best of luck.