Do You Have the Right Stuff?” Questions

The Good Cop and Bad Cop spend a lot time around each other at the workplace. Sometimes, just

like “real” cops in a police force, they may take a donut break together. Or they may stroll down to the water cooler together. Or they might hang out at the company gym for an hour or two during a slow week. Occasionally, amidst their travels around the office, one cop may turn to his partner buddy and say: “Boy, you and I couldn’t be more opposite. And we’re both doing pretty well at this firm. What do you suppose is the one quality it takes to really succeed at this company?” When both cops seem intent on figuring out if you have this one special trait, realize that, in their estimation, it’s the secret elixir for success, and the one critical ingredient you need for them to both unanimously want to hire you.

165a.

Good Cop Q: How creative are you?

A.

I consider myself extremely creative in terms of solving problems. A couple of years ago, I used to work for a telephone sales company. Once I was promoted to management, I started reviewing the numbers, and noticed that pretty much 10 percent of the time, the person was able to close the sale on the phone, no matter which product or service they happened to be “selling.” Clearly, the sales solicitations that we were creating weren’t compelling enough. And they were only designed to sell the product if the customer stayed on the phone!

I challenged myself to find a way to intrigue customers the second they picked up the phone, so that they would stay on the line—instead of just hanging up. I worked with a team of people to create what we called “promise language.” One of our most successful promotions started with a promise that the customer would hear in the first three seconds of the call. “Good morning, Mrs. Starkey. I promise that I can save you $25 on your long distance service, and just for listening to me today, I would like to reward you with a free iced coffee at a Starbucks in your neighborhood. Do you like iced coffee, or might I tempt you with a large cup of black tea instead?” On that promotion, sales jumped 30 percent.

165b.

Bad Cop Q: Well, that’s pretty good, but it sounds like what you really have is

“business acumen.” Is that the same thing as “creativity”?

A.

Perhaps we should call it something else entirely, like “the ability to startle and amaze people.”

In our business, we need to always search for ways to shake people out of their reality, just for a moment. Let’s face it. Everyone is super-busy. They’ve got better things to do than listen to our sales spiels and solicitations. I know what it takes to make people stop and pay attention to what our clients have to offer.

Fresh innovative language impresses interviewers. Try to think of new ways to describe your skills, and pull out your vocabulary toolbox whenever anyone tries to put you in a semantic stranglehold.

166a.

Good Cop Q: How are your fact-finding skills?

A.

I’m extremely diligent about uncovering the facts, even when they don’t conform to what our clients wish to hear. In our field, we have to be honest with ourselves, or else our business will die on the vine. When I used to work at the oldies radio station, the station manager assumed that our listeners, all forty-plus, enjoyed listening to all music from the 1970s. Even heavy metal bands, he figured, brought our listening audience back to “the best years of their lives,” high school and college.

There was a particular DJ who was a huge Led Zeppelin fan. He used to play a lot of ’70s metal during afternoon drive time—even though we knew for a fact that our audience hated the newer heavy metal bands that were coming up at the time, like Nirvana.

I recommended surveying our listeners to find out how they felt about heavy metal. Our station manager sort of ignored me, until the Arbitron ratings came out and our numbers were way down.

Then, overnight, surveys were developed that asked our listeners to list their two hundred most favorite oldies. And guess what? Heavy metal bands didn’t even make it to the very bottom of their lists!

I suggested doing even more research.. For the next three weeks, every person who called in was asked his opinion about ’70s heavy metal. Perhaps one person in forty said they could tolerate it. The rest of them hated it passionately, and always had! We promptly removed all heavy metal from our programming mix, and, miraculously, our numbers shot back up again. Facts reveal all.

166b.

Bad Cop Q: But what if the station manager had refused to listen to the facts?

A.

Station managers know that ratings are their bread and butter. It may have taken a while to convince my station manager to look into the heavy metal issue, but the second that our ratings dropped, he was eager to investigate the facts, and make the necessary changes.

Why This Technique Works

1. You realize that soliciting feedback is an important component of success. And if the feedback happens to be negative, you don’t mind making adjustments.

2. You’ve proven that you have one of the most important skills that interviewers look for:

perseverance.

167a.

Good Cop Q: Please describe a complex situation in which you had to learn a lot quickly. How did you go about learning?

A.

One of our subsidiaries wanted to do a special promotion for Black History Month, but there

was no time to test it through focus group research. I decided that it was important to conduct our own research on the promotion to figure out whether or not we had a home run. So, I stood on different street corners for two weeks, and asked total strangers their opinions about it!

What I learned from this was:

1. Always wear sneakers.

2. We were almost there—but not quite.

We made some changes to the promotion, and then had an outstanding success on our hands.

167b.

Bad Cop Q: So, if we find ourselves in that situation—we need focus group research, but there’s no time to do it—we’ll just come to you, and you’ll stand on a corner, asking people questions?

A.

I’ll be delighted to conduct a focus group for you any time you need one, Victor, but next time around, I’m going to try to do it through a message board or blog!

Why This Technique Works

1. Persistence is the ability to get things done in spite of all obstacles. You refused to let the fact that there was “no time to do it right” hold you back.

2. You had the confidence to respond to the bad cop’s query with some humor and flair.

168a.

Good Cop Q: Did you ever have to make a split-second decision on the job?

A.

On the recommendation of our ad agency, we were using “bad boy” Matt Eagleton in a national advertising campaign that cost our company $700,000. Matt was in all of our TV spots, print ads, and even on the radio. Then, one day, Matt was at the center of a huge public scandal, and he really got a great deal of negative publicity.

Our company had always been very conservative, and there were a lot of people in positions of power who wanted to pull Matt off the air immediately. While I identified with them, and was actually quite shocked over Matt’s behavior, the truth was: we had no back-up plan. Pulling him off the air would have creamed our sales for the entire year. I made the split-second decision to ride it out with Matt, although I agonized about it for weeks afterwards. I argued for this decision with management based on the idea that Matt’s time in the spotlight—bad or good—would ultimately mean free publicity for us.

168b.

Bad Cop Q: And then, let me guess: they said, “No, we have to pull Matt off the air.”

A.

No, actually, top management listened to me. The scandal blew over, and our sales actually increased by 20 percent last year. Now, they’re insisting on using Matt again!

Why This Technique Works

1. You made a ballsy decision in an instant. And you had the courage to stick with it.

2. You were also lucky (because your judgment turned out to be correct).