The rest of your sales team might become unmotivated around that team member or even frustrated about the lack of team spirit. When all else fails, however, there’s nothing like a handy list of sales interview questions to help identify both functional competency and the highly critical emotional intelligence needed for long-term success. These include prospecting, value articulation, problem solving, objection handling and negotiation, and relationship building. How do you communicate with customers the reasons why you can’t resolve a problem right away? So, how can you ensure you hire the sales representative with the ideal skillset, experience, knowledge and personality for the needs of your company. Try a role-play conversation in which you are a potential customer with a specific issue your product can solve. Sales acumen encapsulates the traits, experience, skills, and mindset that make a salesperson excellent at selling. This is another way of seeing how your candidate deals with rejection and failure. How would you handle this situation? Give me specific details on your previous compensation scheme and success record. We look for people who see opportunities rather than challenges.“The second question helps us understand how the rep operates, how much support they look for and what they need to sell.”, “Who are the companies that you truly admire and why?”, Why ask this question?“I love to ask this question to understand how passionate a candidate is about technology and entrepreneurship. While many of us are familiar with the way in which we position our solutions against the competition, what would happen if the tables were turned? How do you plan your day to make sure you can deal with multiple client accounts at the same time? Have you ever asked a prospect you lost why they chose not to buy? Unlike question #1 about the candidate’s overall superpowers, this question helps frame their winning tactics and behaviors in the context of their current sales environment. The Sales Acumen Survey strives to measure this knowledge. While having a good approach to high-impact coaching is important, having candidates self-identify skills you’d be coaching them on is great for three reasons: 1. Can you be a good team player and disagree with your manager? When interviewing for this role, make sure you assess the capabilities of your candidate to lead their team in the right direction, help them through rough times and missed targets, and stay composed in any situation. Ensure you’re not interviewing in silos. What would their kryptonite be? Given what you know about our company, how big of a sales team do you think we need? Sales is much more complex than having someone super pushy that never gives up.“On the other hand, answering ‘it would really depend on the company culture and the branding of the company’ would really show that this person cares about the marketing team and the company. Question3: Can you explain an occasion when you have had to motivate and boost the morale of your colleagues? The good news is, in recent years many clever interviewing strategies and technologies have emerged meant to improve our chances of identifying A-players and striking that delicate balance. Tell me about a sale you’ve almost lost, but managed to turn around and win. ... 2017 - Sales And Marketing Assistant - Detroit, MI. I simply use this question to evaluate if the candidate can speak with passion, authenticity and energy about the values and the mission of the company she/he admires.“Why? If a candidate were to list out all the things they would do on the job from day to day on sticky notes and separate them into two piles — things that are okay to mess up, and things that are not okay to mess up — what would be some of the things in those piles? I’m a sales rep who has missed quota three months in a row. Anyone can do that. But is it okay to mess up on everything? If Given the Opportunity, What Would You Invest In? For sales, being self-motivated, tenacious, and organized is strongly correlated with performance, so ask questions like: “Look for characteristics that are actually required in that specific sales process—if it’s not a direct door-to-door sales job, then being gregarious, cheerful and outgoing is actually not that relevant (so don’t judge based on the first impression or interview performance), but being organized and self-motivated definitely is.”, “If we spoke to your current/former bosses, how would they rate you on a scale of one to ten?”, Why ask this question?“I’m looking for an answer of nine or ten—a salesperson needs to be confident in their abilities and themselves. These interview questions for sales manager candidates will gauge the skills necessary to excel in this role. What are the most important qualifying questions you ask every prospect? Were you able to reproduce similar results on another occasion? I can teach sales techniques to a sales rep but I can not teach them passion.”, “What about our organization aligns with your personal values?”, Why ask this question?“You need to find a passionate, committed professional who wants to grow with your brand. It helps you assess whether or not the skill can or can’t be taught. Interview questions like this should make it easy to differentiate between candidates that have given career progression at your company serious thought from everyone else. In this article, you’ll find the 26 most common sales interview questions, PLUS the types of answers your interviewer is looking for, so you can raise the bar on your interviewing skills. Tell me about an especially challenging instance where you had to make such a connection.”). When you ask this, your candidate will have to recall their team experiences (negative ones!) Interview question for Assurance.Business Acumen: Describe a time when you had to use analytical skills to solve a complex problem. Rather, most questions will center on your networking ability and sales acumen. Failure and challenges are a regular part of sales. I interviewed at Acumen. It’s a task that requires finding the best communicators and relationship managers, made all the harder by the fact that salespeople are persuasive, and you must work past that to uncover their true personality—not just their memorized answers and sales techniques. The key to hiring a strong sales rep, who will be with your company long-term and will excel at sales, is to start with an effective sales interview process. 10. “Sell me Aircall like I am a guy you are cold calling.”, “As I am usually the last person they see in the interview process they usually feel quite confident about their knowledge about Aircall.“They are mostly making the same mistake, unfortunately. A friendly and highly detailed approach to this job is paramount. In my last 15 years as a professional sales recruiter, I have interviewed more than 6,000 sales candidates for sales jobs . Regional Sales Manager Interview Questions. 15 Toughest Interview Questions and Answers! Selling is more difficult now than ever. “What is your biggest sales success story and why?”, “When do you stop following up on a potential customer?”, Why ask this question?“Depending on the answer, it can really help the person stand out. In the previous section, we talked about what are typically considered soft skills, and have a lot to do with drive and interpersonal skills. Let’s move to some role specific brand management questions and how to answer them (in no particular order). How do you keep a smile on your face during a hard day? When your team missed your targets, what did you do differently the next month?’“To dig deeper, you might ask, ‘Tell me about the most challenging deal that you have closed?’ or ‘Tell me about the deal that you are most proud of?’ and again, follow up with questions that help you understand the specific situation, action, and outcome.“In case of candidates that don’t have a long track record in sales, look for behaviors that indicate they have the potential and drive to do the job. With this question, you’re looking for the way your candidate structures their tasks, sales meetings, calls and their calendar and sales dashboard in general. In their job, they are bound to deal with difficult people, roadblocks in the process, rejections and failed deals. Period. You don’t succeed automatically with it, but without it, you’re doomed. We’ve all heard that the best environments are the ones where people feel safe (and are sometimes encouraged) to fail and learn from their mistakes. It’s not only important that the candidate is right for you, you have to be the right option for them, too. Honesty is important, and sales is difficult. Tell me about a specific way you’ve improved a process for a sales team. What was your best month of sales in your previous role? 9. 1. Application. Some of the behavioral questions you can ask are: There are no perfect answers to these questions, but you can gauge the true intentions and the ability to empower others from your candidate’s response—both verbal and non-verbal. A good sense of business acumen is critical in analyzing the factors that drive a company's performance, like market orientation and strategic implementation. It highlights their degree of self-awareness of their strengths and areas for improvement. Use this as an opportunity to see both how the candidate assimilates the new concept and how they react to being coached through it. Can you pitch the product you currently sell using a “belief statement”? What is his business and how do you know it is relevant to him?’“It is very important to me that candidates understand that selling is not just pushing the person to buy, but it is listening to them and making sure that you are selling the right product to the right person. The process for me was 1) fill out an abnormally long application, with multiple short answer questions; 2) submit writing samples; and 3) have a phone call with three members of the team. A sales team that gets lead qualification right is arguably the best team you can have. Knowing what makes your company money will help guide your strategy and enable you to make smarter, better-informed decisions. Good Interview Questions for a Sales Position. Cookies make up 5%, and some days most of them are thrown out. Customer success managers should be able to handle demonstrations and product walkthroughs based on the individual customer requirement. Use these sample strategic-thinking interview questions to identify candidates who can craft effective strategies for your company's needs. Then "Tell me about a time" you aced the interview and got the job! Reviewing a list of sales and marketing interview questions and answers can help you feel confident and prepared for your next interview. The best way to do this is by speaking with each of your sales people individually to gain a deep understanding of areas your candidate might be particularly valuable. Practice 33 Acumen Solutions, Inc. Interview Questions with professional interview answer examples with advice on how to answer each question. Your new sales staff should become part of a group that’s productive, cohesive and complete thanks to the diverse range of skills, both soft and hard. Application. Do you know how to drive social selling? The cold call, … Question4: Have you ever been in a situation, at work, when you have been motivated to question an ethical issue? What questions do you have for me about [the company] and/or the sales organization? I want to know what's important to the candidate, how curious they are, and what their level of business acumen is. Like the leadership-style questions, these sales manager interview questions address specific parts of the position and situations a sales manager candidate would face day-to-day. Why ask strategic-thinking interview questions Strategic-thinking in the workplace is the ability to make business decisions by analyzing current and future scenarios. That’s a lot of responsibilities to carry. Hiring salespeople is a challenge. 6. Look for this skill by getting your candidate to walk you through a sales cycle of a hypothetical, or even your own, organization. The process took 3+ months. 7. The process for me was 1) fill out an abnormally long application, with multiple short answer questions; 2) submit writing samples; and … A competency–based interview is an approach used by interviewers to assess your performance in a particular key area or skill that is attributable to the job description.. As each interview question is asked, you need to provide a specific example of where you match the competency being assessed. Now, let’s look into traits that are more often called hard skills, which are considered more specific, defined and measurable. Use these sample strategic-thinking interview questions to identify candidates who can craft effective strategies for your company's needs. How do you keep up to date on your target market? 2. Their goal is to get off the phone with you as quickly as they can. This is a great question to ask after the candidate has proudly recounted their victory, because it reveals the intimate familiarity they have with their execution style as well as their company and industry. While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, it should help you work out how open your candidate is to reflect on their work, upskill on an ongoing basis and lift other team members up as opposed to aiming for individual goals only. Identifying top sales talent is never easy, especially when you’re looking to harmonize sales acumen with emotional intelligence. Interview. These 20 situational interview questions/answers show the right/wrong way to handle hypothetical situations. Here are 15 inside sales interview questions that will help you hire the best of the best: 1. Writing test 2. Communication Questions. They’ll be part of a sales team—a group of people that works towards big-picture, long-term goals for the benefit of the entire company. Bonus: Here’s my take on the top 3 superpowers that startup sales reps in particular need to have. How do you make sure you keep your sales skills up-to-date? One important part of building your list of interview questions is adding questions specific to the sales position you’re interviewing for. I call this the stress talk effect: you don’t listen, you talk.“Selling is not about talking but it is about listening. How do you determine the most pressing or critical priorities at a given time? 8. Acumen tries to cut corners by getting rid of the initial HR phone screen. Why ask this question?“Objections and rejections in sales are one of the only certainties of the job. 5. Role-specific questions for various sales positions. If they can’t name any tools, I know they’ll have a problem—particularly in a sales environment.“Successful sales is getting the right combination of people, processes and tools to fit with the way your offering is best sold. In the past, sales acumen may have been enough to help you succeed; you now also need business acumen, something that is rarely taught or trained. The process of selling has changed forever. ... What candidates say about the interview process at ACUMEN. Do you know how to drive social selling? The key to answering any interview question (whether on this list or not) is to be prepared. I’ve often found the answer to this interview question for sales to be one of the most helpful across many dimensions of the assessment process. This question helps you uncover the expectations they have of their ongoing workload, their team, the office atmosphere and even the way tasks are planned and delegated. “[A sales rep's] goal is to intrigue the prospect by being engaging, exposing pain, and positioning the realm of the possible. Sales Interview Questions to Ask Reps. 1. I interviewed at Acumen. I interviewed at Acumen. It’s quite a personal question when you think about it; it has a lot to do with their personality and the internal drive to make the most of every situation. Ace your sales interview with these helpful strategies for responding to interview questions, along with examples of common sales interview questions and sample answers. If anyone gives below a nine, I question whether they really believe they are/can be exceptional and an A player.”, 1. “What is your working method?”2. (You already know why this matters in sales.) Taking a lead from early stages through to sales is a complex process. What do you think a sales rep at our organization needs to be good at in order to be successful? “What’s the most challenging goal you have set for yourself recently?”. If they don’t know anything insightful about your company or you, then they are not someone you want to hire. First of all, it reveals how much of a numbers person they are. Why do you want to work in this industry? It doesn’t really matter which companies are mentioned by the candidate (there is no perfect answer to this question). How would you describe our company based on what you’ve seen so far? If business priorities change, how would you help your team understand and carry out the shifted goals? Talk about the importance of brand management? A VP of sales plays a critical role in building a resilient sales machine that carries the entire company forward. If you worked for your top competitor, how would you beat yourself? Another question that has no perfect answer, but it’s important for any industry and any type of role. What type of things would we coach you on? What would you say in the first 20 seconds of a cold call to keep the prospect from hanging up on you? finding the perfect salesperson for your team, The best sales interview questions and answers, Curveball questions: the ones their not prepared for, Role-specific questions for various sales positions, The experts' favorite questions and answers, How Pipedrive helped Railsware streamline their hiring process. How do you deal with angry prospects on the phone? The Top 10 Sales Interview Questions for Assessing Emotional Intelligence. Why do you think is important? with highly responsive prospects, which helps them hit their targets each time, but their less responsive leads go cold quickly. A great answer will reveal they’re always aiming to learn from unsuccessful deals. Talk about the importance of brand management? Get this page going by posting your interview experience. Skip to main content. Why ask strategic-thinking interview questions Strategic-thinking in the workplace is the ability to make business decisions by analyzing current and future scenarios. What do you do? Do you know how to drive social selling? 5 Common Brand Management interview questions and answers . This is why the interview is one of the most important steps during the hiring process for this role, as it gives the hiring manager the opportunity to evaluate the candidate's skills in person. What was your favorite/least favorite thing about your previous role? Everyone’s drawn to leaders, especially buyers. Interview. What information do you look for? They also set sales quotas, expand a company’s customer base and track competitors. What To Watch For: Here are ten of the most common sales interview questions as well as brief explanations behind why these questions are asked and an example answer. 5. Sales directors have to think about the big picture in everything they’re doing while being aware of the day-to-day progress. The answer should show you the books, newsletters, courses, blogs and other resources that your candidate frequently consumes to stay on top of the industry. What are they the best at? Few things put even the most accommodating of people on the defensive like a cold call from a sales rep. As a sales rep, your goal is to intrigue the prospect by being engaging, exposing pain, and positioning the realm of the possible. Ace your sales interview with these helpful strategies for responding to interview questions, along with examples of common sales interview questions and sample answers. The answer to this question will help you see how they truly feel about a career in sales, as well as how they think they fit into that. Here are some of the best ways to make sure your candidate has humility, hunger and smarts, and would quickly and easily get used to their new team. Download this checklist complete with all of the best questions to ask during an interview with a sales candidate. High levels of organization. Tell me about a time in your sales career where you needed to start a territory from scratch. Look for this skill by asking how they manage their calendar on a weekly and daily basis, their emails, to-do lists, as well as which tools and techniques they use to keep track of their tasks. So hiring driven people is critical. The basic question is, “How does their understanding of the relationship oriented sales role contribute to long term sales success?” Relationship selling has processes and methods that contribute to successful sales performance. How do you research prospects before a call or meeting? 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