Today we will dive into uncovering what to say when you hear those commonly asked interview questions that can make or break your shot at receiving the job. Over the past two years, multiple companies have interviewed me regarding a sales role. Some interviews have been pretty and some have definitely not been pretty at all. During the periods when I was job searching, I was asked many different questions, and through this, I gained more confidence and knowledge in answering these interview questions, which has led me to have more impressive and successful interviews with companies.
In this guide, I will go through a series of sales interview questions and help by assisting you with what to say and how to absolutely blow the interview out of the water, even with a grumpy hiring manager. These questions are never meant to be scary or even hard, all it takes is preparation and knowing yourself. Let’s plunge into digesting these sales interview questions and get you prepared to conquer the world, one question at a time.
Research
Sales is a massive industry and is extremely competitive, so when you are going into an interview it is important to have knowledge about the company beforehand. By doing this, you will stay ahead of the competition, allowing you to:
- Demonstrate Interest in the Company: Hiring managers appreciate a candidate that has done their homework about the company beforehand. Looking at their About page, company news, blog, and solutions/products displays genuine initiative and interest in a company, which will set you apart. Hiring managers want candidates that are passionate about the company, its mission, and its vision.
- Adapt Your Responses: Once you have effectively researched the company and have a good understanding of its mission, vision, and values, you can adapt your response to reflect how your skills and experience relate to its values. This shows the hiring manager that you understand how you can contribute to the company’s success.
- Ask Specific Questions: When going into an interview, many people see it as only the hiring manager interviewing you. Hiring managers will always give you a chance to ask questions at the end of the discussion, so take advantage of it. Now you have the chance to interview them and see if this is a company that you would like to even work at in the first place. Ask all the unanswered questions that you have and any questions about the research you did. This will demonstrate your curiosity and ability to engage in meaningful conversation.
- Demonstrate Initiative: You demonstrate your initiative to the company by communicating effectively after the interview. Following up, showing your appreciation for the call, and nurturing the relationship after the call with the hiring manager will really portray your initiative to get the job with the company. Communication can be done through LinkedIn, email, or even text depending on what your hiring manager prefers.
Personal Strengths and Weaknesses
Before hopping on a Zoom, a Teams meeting, or the interview room it is important that you understand yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, and everything in between. This process helps:
- Leverage Strengths: Identifying your core strengths enables you to speak confidently about your experience and how you developed those skills. Furthermore, when you get the chance to share your skills, it is important to provide data and prove to your hiring manager that your skills have generated results. Leverage your strengths as much as you can, so you can show the hiring manager you could be a valuable asset to any sales team.
- Identify Weaknesses: Once you’ve identified your weaknesses, it is important to share your strategy and plan on how you are going to build and grow those weaknesses. This shows the hiring manager that you are self-aware, driven, and have a growth mindset.
- Uncover Unique Selling Points: What have you done that all these other candidates haven’t? What makes you stand out? Be sure to share unique experiences in a related field and any accomplishments/results you have had in the past. This is how they will remember you, so always be ready to share it. Hiring managers love to hear an interesting story about you because they will get to see who you actually are as a person.
Building Confidence
Finding a sales job is literally sales in itself. You have to prospect for companies that are hiring, you have to reach out and apply to get an interview, you have to conduct an interview/meeting to see if this is the right fit, you have to sell yourself, and you either get the job or you don’t. The only way you get better at these interviews is by doing it over and over. Either through practicing what you are going to say or just doing a lot of interviews in general.
Practice makes perfect and I have come to learn that the more interviews you do, the more comfortable and confident you become in sharing your experiences and not stumbling up on what to say in the interview. Also, the more interviews you do, the more you talk about yourself, which leads to you learning more about yourself. Every interview you have is another opportunity and you could be one meeting away from your next job, so do not stop and get discouraged.
Now that you know a little bit about how to prepare yourself for a sales job interview, let’s get into some common sales questions you might hear in an interview.
What do you know about our company?
This is where the company research comes into the equation and you use your knowledge to explain to the hiring manager everything you appreciate and know about the company. Being enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the company will show the interviewer you actually care and want to be working at this company.
What are you looking for in this job opportunity?
Hopefully before the meeting, you learned the roles and responsibilities from the job description. From that list, you should have a couple of things from the roles and responsibilities that you are looking for and would appreciate learning, doing, and growing. Connect the dots and let the interviewer know the things that you are ecstatic to learn more about and do on the job.
Why did you choose sales in the first place?
This is where you have the ability to separate yourself and share a story about your upbringing in sales. This is why it is important to know yourself and all the experiences you have been through, so you can articulate a compelling, truthful story about how you got into sales.
Tell me a time you failed at something and how did you recover From It?
Thought you were done sharing stories and talking about your experiences, well think again. Understanding your experiences, the results you get from the experiences, and how you grow from them is something you need to identify and truthfully share with the interviewer. They want to see how you react and adapt to things that don’t go the right way. In fact, they want someone who can work hard and problem-solve if something fails, not someone who quits and strives for mediocrity.
Share with me your time management process. How do you organize your day?
More storytelling here, and here you just need to be honest about how you manage your day. If you don’t manage your day very well, with school, a job, or whatever you are involved in, tell the truth and explain to them the steps you are taking to improve that and be more productive. Sales is a stressful role and there is a lot going on most of the time with scheduling meetings and being organized with prospects and customers. Make sure to share with them how you are an organized person and will be an organized person working for their company.
How do you think you could be a good fit for this position and for our company?
When this question comes up, it is important to previously know your experiences and what skills you learned from them. Also, the values the company is looking for when hiring salespeople. Once you can connect the company values with the skills you possess from your experiences and explain the data behind each skill, you will see a lot of success. By sharing data it shows your credibility and proves to the hiring manager that you are capable of that specific skill.
What software are you familiar with using?
With this question, if you have not used any of the software they mention, then be honest and tell them that you have not had any experience with those softwares, but that you are willing to put in the time to learn them. Lying and saying you’ve used certain software, and actually haven’t, it will be extremely awkward and embarrassing when you start using it for your job and have no clue what you are doing. Simply be honest in everything you talk about throughout this process.
Those are some examples of common sales questions and how to go about them. The most important thing is your authenticity and your honesty. Hiring managers aren’t going to hire you based on just your resume, in fact, they want to see the real you and get to know you on a personal level. So be truthful throughout the process and be yourself.
I hope this guide helped you even a little bit and you learned something new that you could implement into your next sales job interview.
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