Last time we showed you Step 1 of recruiting MVPs by demonstrating how to create a compelling ad that will attract high-level prospective employees for your dealership. But getting premium applicants is only part of the battle. You still have to weed out the ones who aren’t qualified or are not a culture fit.

We often hear of owners and managers who spend weeks interviewing and training new hires. This doesn’t make any sense to us. It’s not efficient or effective.

Inefficiency in hiring and training process creates a problem when someone isn’t a good fit. After you’ve invested so much time to find a candidate, interview them and get them trained, it’s disheartening to discover they aren’t a good fit once they actually start doing the job. Which brings us to Step 2 of Recruiting MVPs.

Step 2: Hone Your Interviewing Process

We recommend adjusting the interview process so as to uncover whether or not a candidate is a good fit before you invest so much time and energy in them.

Pre-qualify Over The Phone

Before you spend time interviewing a candidate, have a member of your staff contact them and ask them some prequalifying questions about their experience and what they are looking for in the position.

This is an especially effective tool for hiring for your call center and sales team. If these people can’t be personable and relatable on the phone with a member of your staff, they won’t be relatable with customers.

Interview Only Those Who Pass Pre-Qualification

After you pre-qualify candidates, bring in only those people who hit a home run. You can always work through your backlog if none of the stars work out. When you bring them in for an interview look for people who exhibit your core values. Get a feeling for their approach and process.

Ask All Stars Back For A Test Drive

This is probably one of those most innovative things we’ve started doing in our own hiring process. Before we hire any position, we ask the person to join us for a paid trial day. They get a chance to take the job for a test drive, and we get a chance to see if they are a good culture fit and if they can do the job.

The trick here is to actually see the candidate in action. It will allow you to easily weed out people who will note be able to do the job or will not follow the process. You can also assess how well they respond to coaching and development.

Check back next time for our list of the best questions to ask during an interview.