Both. Conduct the interview process as you normally would, but add some questions that pertain to the current economic climate.

Questions that might be helpful could include:

• Were you in sales during the prior or this current recession?
• How did that recession affect your performance against quota?
• What kinds of changes did you make in the way you did your job?
• Did any of your accounts go out of business?
• How did you make up that lost business?
• In what ways did the recession affect your ability to cold call?
• If an account had to stop doing business with you temporarily, how did you handle that?
• How has your competitive situation changed and what have you personally done to react to it?

Do not accept vague, glib responses like "I just kept an upbeat attitude and didn't let it bother me," or "The news media makes the recession worse than it is so I ignored the whole thing," or "Everything passes in time." If the candidate's initial response is not to your liking, probe for more information until they give you the detailed, mature and thoughtful response you are looking for. If their answers are not satisfactory, that should be a red flag.

Mix the questions up, so that some are applicable to past recessions and others cover this current one. If you are interviewing a candidate who, for whatever reason, has never sold during a recession, ask hypothetical questions such as "How do you think you would handle...?"

Along with asking questions about how past recessions have impacted their sales performance, there are certain qualities that help salespeople to achieve their quotas during more difficult times. Salespeople who can perform well during a recession would have the ability to:

• Listen well
• Think out of the box
• Ask effective qualifying questions
• Find business where others wouldn't look
• Look at each client as unique
• Understand when a sale isn't going anywhere

Be a good interviewer; ask the candidates to demonstrate, through a story or an example, how they have used these skills in the past.

Sales representatives in all industries are calling on companies that are desperately trying to stay in business and avoid laying off employees. Some companies may not be able to purchase any products or services for some time to come, and know that this might affect their ability to stay competitive. People are scared. While it's true that salespeople need to stay positive, coming across as a Pollyanna might alienate them from their customer base. They need to have the emotional maturity to be upbeat and remain in a selling frame of mind while still being sensitive to their client's situations.