Assessment of the competence "Communication and persuasion"

The "Communication and Persuasion" competency is extremely important for the sales staff and for the management team. Competence involves the ability to easily establish contact andfind mutual language With different types of people. Below is a pool of assessment methods to analyze the level of competence of the applicant.

We can check the level of competence "Communication and persuasion" with the following questions:

1. Give an example of a situation where you failed to convince someone of the correctness of your point of view

• Why was this important to you?
• Why did your efforts fail?
• What conclusion did you draw for yourself?

2. Tell me about the last time you managed to convince someone of the correctness of your point of view.

• To what extent did your opinion differ from the initial position of the opponent?
• How did you persuade?
• What agreement did you end up with?

3. Tell me about a time when you had a hard time getting someone's attention.

• Why did it turn out to be difficult?
• What did you do?
• How well did you do it?

4. How often do you encounter opinions/points of view that are opposite to yours? Tell us about the situation when it happened and how did you behave?

5. How do you make sure that the interlocutor understands you. Give a specific example.

6. Thanks to what you manage to defend your opinion / prove your case. Give examples.

7. Tell us about a time when you were able to remain calm in a particularly difficult situation. How did you manage to stay calm?

8. Give me an example of a time when you were criticized unfairly.

• Why did it happen?
• How did you react?
• How did it all end?

The competency interview can be supplemented with projective questions:

1. Imagine that you have to communicate with a person who is very different from you in type. Your actions?
2. Why are there so many inadequate people?
3. Why is it difficult to engage in a conversation with all customers?

Particular attention should be paid to cases, for example:

1. Convince me that the loan product you offer is better than the competitor's product
2. Sell ​​me...

When reading questions, answers are possible: "yes", "no", "sometimes".

1. You have an ordinary business meeting. Does her expectation unsettle you?

2. Do you put off going to the doctor until things get worse?

3. Do you feel embarrassed or dissatisfied about the upcoming presentation of a report at any meeting?

4. You are offered to go on a business trip to a city where you have never been. Will you do your best to avoid it?

5. Do you like to share your experiences with anyone?

6. Do you get annoyed if a stranger on the street asks you?

7. Do you believe that there is a problem of "fathers and sons" that people different generations difficult to understand each other?

8. Are you embarrassed to remind a friend that he forgot to return a small amount of money borrowed from you?

9. You were served an obviously poor-quality dish in a restaurant. Will you remain silent or will you angrily push your plate away?

10. Being alone with a stranger, will you start a conversation with him or will you wait until he speaks first?

11. When you see a long line, will you give up your intentions to buy something, or will you stand at the tail of the long line?

12. Having heard somewhere on the sidelines an obviously erroneous point of view on a question well known to you, do you prefer to remain silent and not enter into an argument?

13. Do you have your own criteria for evaluating music, painting, art, and you do not accept any other opinions?

14. Are you afraid to participate in any conflict resolution committee?

15. Do you feel annoyed by someone's request to help sort out a particular service issue?

16. Are you more willing to express your point of view in writing than orally?

Answer scores: "yes" - 2 points; "sometimes" - 1 point; "no" - 0 points.

Calculate your score.

30 - 32 points. You are clearly uncommunicative and this is your problem, since you yourself suffer from this. But it is not easy for people close to you. It is difficult to rely on you in a business that requires business effort. And yet, try to become at least a little more sociable. Books by Igor Dobrotvorsky will help you with this. Even just by reading them, you will truly begin to attract success to you.

25 - 29 points. You are reserved, taciturn, prefer loneliness and you probably have few or no friends at all. A new job and the need for new contacts unbalance you. You know this feature of your character and are dissatisfied with yourself. It is in your power to reverse these character traits. After all, with any strong enthusiasm, you "suddenly" acquire complete sociability? You just need to "shake it up".

19 - 24 points. In a social and unfamiliar environment, you feel quite confident to a certain extent. New challenges don't scare you. And yet with new people you converge with caution; you are reluctant to participate in disputes and disputes. There is a lot of sarcasm in your statements without any basis. Remember: these shortcomings are correctable.

14 - 18 points. You have good communication skills. You are inquisitive, willingly listen to an interesting interlocutor, patient enough in dealing with others, defend your point of view without irascibility. Without unpleasant experiences, go to meetings with other people. At the same time, do not like noisy companies, extravagant antics; verbosity annoys you.

9 - 13 points. You are sociable (sometimes beyond measure), curious, talkative, like to speak out on various issues, which sometimes irritates others. You are willing to meet different people. Love to be the center of attention and never refuse anyone's requests, although you can't always fulfill them. And sometimes you don't. Is not it? It happens that you flare up, but quickly move away. What you really lack is perseverance, patience and determination when faced with serious problems. Do you agree? But if you want, you can force yourself not to retreat a single step. It would be only it, this desire ...

4 - 8 points. Yes, you must be just a "shirt guy". Sociability beats the key out of you, you are always aware of everything. You love to take part in all discussions, although serious topics can give you a migraine, even a blues. Willingly take the floor on any issue, even if you have the most superficial idea about it. You feel at ease everywhere. You take on any business, although you can not always bring it to the end. It is for this reason that managers and colleagues are internally wary of you.

3 points. Your communication skills are simply painful. You are talkative, verbose, interfering in the affairs of others who have nothing to do with you. Undertake to judge problems in which you are incompetent. Willingly or unwittingly, you are the cause of all sorts of conflicts in your environment. You are quick-tempered, touchy, often biased towards people around you. Serious work is not for you. People really have a hard time with you. Yes, you need to, you need to work on yourself, on your character. Cultivate in yourself patience and restraint, respect for others, and most importantly, think about your health. After all, the lifestyle that you are now leading does not pass without a trace. Is not it?

Perfect Search a new member to the support team looks like this: you like him, he likes you, he starts working, works great, everyone is happy. A real search often resembles Dante’s journey: make a test task and take into account all the nuances in it (this is impossible, but you will try), choose the most worthy from dozens, conduct interviews with them and finish them off with a “here and now” check, hire and educate, understand that in the field a person works very badly, get upset and look further.

In a large team with streamlined HR processes, all this is smoothed out and does not become a disaster, because it is a flow and everything is provided for by the procedures, but for a small team, where the head of the support department often handles the recruitment (or takes a very active part in the recruitment), this is can become a nightmare. Training a new employee and wasted investment in him is insulting, unfair and exhausting. At some point, I could not stand it and wondered what the catch was and where to put the straw at the stage of testing the candidate. That's what came out of it.

Problems

The test task is performed well (correct answers, correct approach to the client, literacy, and so on), but when it comes to working with real clients, the employee quickly stalls:

1. He does not apply previous experience well: if a few minutes ago he processed a ticket, and then a couple of hours later he received a similar one, the parallel is not drawn, the solution is not extrapolated.
2. “Does not feel” a real client: when performing test task there was time to think and rewrite, there is no second chance in battle, and time is limited, as a result - he communicates dryly, does not distinguish slight dissatisfaction from strong irritation, does not read user signals about which direction the dialogue is about to go.
3. He gets lost and confused in decisions: “I don’t know what to write / say to him”, “I don’t know how to solve this”, and so on. When stressed, he loses control and begins to slip instead of looking for and sorting out options.

Possible Solutions

The first and last points can be solved mechanically - just describe the algorithms for the most popular tickets, saving the beginner from the pangs of improvisation and thinking. With practice comes confidence and experience.

The second point can either be forgiven, or wait until experience is gained and a "feel" is developed.

However, all these decisions require time and patience, and some candidates do not turn into beautiful smart swans even after several months of practice. Moreover, when we give an employee clear instructions and write down all the algorithms, this is good and organized, but as soon as communication with the client deviates from the given template, the work stops, and the employee breaks down, so the task of the manager is to understand at the interview stage whether he has a candidate base suitable for the requirements of the team.

I spoke with several psychologists and HR specialists to understand in which direction you can try to move, and I invite you to join these searches and trials.

Important: all this is a theory and I will write about my personal practice of application later, when I have enough material, and now you have outlines and ideas on how you can test weak spots candidate before you welcome him into the fold of support.

Tells HR specialists and support managers how to identify a suitable employee to work with clients during an interview. Inside useful links on the psychological tests, which will help to measure the immeasurable and help not to make a mistake in choosing.

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The ideal search for a new support team member looks like this: you like him, he likes you, he starts working, works great, everyone is happy. A real search often resembles Dante’s journey: make a test task and take into account all the nuances in it (this is impossible, but you will try), choose the most worthy from dozens, conduct interviews with them and finish them off with a “here and now” check, hire and educate, understand that in the field a person works very badly, get upset and look further.

In a large team with streamlined HR processes, all this is smoothed out and does not become a disaster, because it is a flow and everything is provided for by the procedures, but for a small team, where the head of the support department often handles the recruitment (or takes a very active part in the recruitment), this is can become a nightmare. Training a new employee and wasted investment in him is insulting, unfair and exhausting. We wondered what the catch was and where to put the straw at the stage of testing the candidate. That's what came out of it.

Problems

The test task is performed well (correct answers, correct approach to the client, literacy, and so on), but when it comes to working with real clients, the employee quickly stalls:

1. Poorly applies previous experience: if a few minutes ago he processed some kind of ticket, and then a couple of hours later he received a similar one, the parallel is not drawn, the solution is not extrapolated.

2. “Does not feel” a real client: when performing a test task, there was time to think and rewrite, there is no second chance in battle, and time is limited, as a result - he communicates dryly, does not distinguish slight dissatisfaction from strong irritation, does not read user signals about which way the dialogue is about to go.

3. Gets lost and confused in decisions: “I don’t know what to write/say to him”, “I don’t know how to solve this”, and so on. When stressed, he loses control and begins to slip instead of looking for and sorting out options.

These nuances, when using only one test task, cannot be checked before the candidate starts the real work.

Possible Solutions

The first and last points can be solved mechanically - just describe the algorithms for the most popular tickets, saving the beginner from the pangs of improvisation and thinking. With practice comes confidence and experience.

The second point can either be forgiven, or wait until experience is gained and a "feel" is developed.

However, all these decisions require time and patience, and some candidates do not turn into beautiful smart swans even after several months of practice. Moreover, when we give an employee clear instructions and write down all the algorithms, this is good and organized, but as soon as communication with the client deviates from the given template, the work stops, and the employee breaks down, so the task of the manager is to understand at the interview stage whether he has a candidate base suitable for the requirements of the team.

We talked to several psychologists and HR specialists to understand in which direction we can try to move, and we invite you to join these searches and trials.

Important: this is a theory and we will write about the practice of application later, when enough material has been collected, but now you have outlines and ideas on how you can test the candidate’s weaknesses before you welcome him into the bosom of support or the customer service department .

Empathy

The ability to sympathize, empathize, put yourself in the place of another person - all this is empathy, without which you would not work in support (well, you should not). You can also go too far - if the level of empathy is too high, the employee will not withstand the load and stress. Bottom line: we need a golden mean.

How to check:

Mehrabian and Epstein's Empathy Test: http://psytests.org/emotional/eets.html

Boyko's empathic ability test:

Baron-Cohen's Empathy Quotient (EQ) Questionnaire, Wheelwright

Sociability

The simplest skill that can also be tested. The ability to communicate cannot be overestimated when it comes to customer service, it's all about it. Is it easy for the candidate to make contact, does communication bother him, does the client become a burden for him, and is he prone to displaying aggression in communication?

How to check:

Assessment of the level of sociability of Ryakhovsky:

Boyko's method of diagnosing communicative tolerance:

Boyko's method of diagnosing communicative aggressiveness:

Emotional intellect

Recognizing emotions, managing them, slowing down in time - this is all emotional intelligence, very necessary in work, indispensable for customer service.

Test for emotional intellect Hall:

Speed ​​of response and application of knowledge in practice

These are difficult indicators, but worth a try. You can measure anxiety and self-control, which together will give a simple result: the higher the anxiety and the lower the self-control, the worse the employee will behave under stress, in situations where he is required to make a quick decision (preferably the right one).

Spielberger Anxiety Test (Khanin's adaptation):

Taylor's Anxiety Measurement Method (Norakidze's adaptation):

Snyder Social Self-Control Test:

Intelligence, thinking

One of the most important skills of a support employee is to think. You can do this efficiently, quickly and for two (for yourself and for the client), so you can test your thinking skills, the ability to build reliable logical connections both in a test task and in separate tests. It certainly won't be redundant.

How to check:

Test with Raven's standard progressive matrices:

Intellectual lability (offline testing to check the assimilation of new material when changing activities):

Eysenck tests for measuring intelligence quotient:

Clue

Without specialized education and experience, correctly interpreting the results of each test can be more difficult than it seems, so if you want to start testing applicants, but do not understand what is considered the norm, take a closer look at existing subordinates and colleagues whose work you like (and yourself). Ask them to take tests and study the results, with a sufficient sample, they can be taken for your personal norm.

On December 5 at 11:00 a.m., we will organize a Customer Service Business Meeting, where Zoya Volkova, ex-training project manager at Yandex, will tell you more about how to hire, fire and work with support staff. Come:)

You are a very communicative person. k, only beyond measure, because you get into conversations that do not concern you, you don’t know how to listen to the interlocutor at all, and you don’t really worry about what exactly you are saying yourself. And all because you are trying to talk about topics that are completely unfamiliar, even approximately, you give out advice when they are not asked for it, and in general, you are intrusive, which is why others avoid meeting you. Pull yourself together and learn to endure, to suspend your impulses to talk. If you can notice and respect the interlocutor even a little, you will notice how life is gradually changing, because then you will be entrusted with more responsible work. In the meantime, you tire everyone with your presence, study the article.

Usually you are aware of all events occurring not only in the lives of friends and acquaintances, but also in the city. You feel comfortable in any situation, even the company strangers you will be interested and excited, not alarm and anxiety. You are loved by others, but one minus is that they are not taken very seriously. Maybe because trying to be in time everywhere, because you need to get information, you rush to all tasks, not really getting involved in one? Or do you usually follow only your own interest, so you are engaged in a project until it gets boring? In general, it’s fun with you, but if you want to be perceived not only as a “shirt-guy” or a jester, then work on yourself a little by studying, for example, an article.

You enjoy meeting new people, love to learn something new and prefer to have at least superficial knowledge about different areas of life. You are a very curious person, you don’t sit still, and if you don’t chat with necessary quantity people, you don't feel very well. In the event of difficulties and conflicts, you lack the courage and courage to express everything that you think, as you are afraid of losing the favor of relatives and friends, or appearing inappropriate. Be attentive to yourself, you should not endure something because of the fear of rejection. I recommend looking at the article.

Average level sociability, it is quite possible to say that you are a harmonious person. They are able to support almost any conversation, at least it is interesting and pleasant to communicate with you. They are not intrusive, you always notice that the interlocutor does not want to continue the conversation, and also that it is time to change the subject. You can stand up for yourself, and without resorting to violence and without losing control of emotions. You are annoyed by excessive talkativeness and empty talk “about nothing”, as well as extravagant antics to attract attention. You prefer a chamber atmosphere more, fun in noisy companies tires you. To improve your communication skills, I recommend that you read the article.

Be a bit wary of new acquaintances, preferring first to look at the person, and then to reveal some details from his life. When you don't like or annoy someone, you don't tell him about it directly, preferring to express aggression indirectly, using sarcasm. Sometimes you are excessive in your sarcastic remarks, although they show the sharpness of the mind, it still repels others a little. Although you are a fairly sociable person and are not afraid to be in an unfamiliar environment, at least you do not experience confusion and embarrassment. You can, just in case, read the article, perhaps in some situations you will then be able to do without caustic remarks, speaking directly about your feelings, but not offending the interlocutor.

You don't have many friends, but at least they are very close and loyal, tested over the years and all sorts of difficulties that you coped with together. Acquaintance with a new person causes you anxiety and anxiety, but if the interlocutor manages to captivate you, you are transformed right before your eyes, which cannot be said that some time ago you were embarrassed and nervous, not knowing what to say. Prefer solitude, it is alone with you that you relax and rest. Do not demand changes from yourself, maybe you are just an introvert, so you are not as active and sociable as your other acquaintances and colleagues? Look at the article, suddenly you recognize yourself.

You are having a very hard time, because every conversation with someone is given with great effort. In addition, you tend to replay in your head all the moments that, in your opinion, failed, engaging in self-flagellation, which is why the tension grows, and with it the resistance to repeat the previous experience. But not only you suffer from your lack of sociability and anxiety, but also your loved ones, whom you also try to avoid. They worry and do not understand what is going on in your soul, because you do not talk to them about your feelings, thoughts and desires. You should believe a little in yourself, that you are capable of something and have the right to live freely and happily. Take the first step, love yourself, and gradually you will be able to improve your life. And the article will help you.