Sales Interview Questions

by Sam Parker (sales expert and bestselling author)

Interviewing your next sales superstar? Looking for your next sales position?

Here’s a list of 51 interview questions and queries (get a printable version).

If you’re interviewing candidates, use what you like and improve what you don’t.

If you’re in the hunt for a new sales position, use them as a prep tool. Work your way through and when you come out the other side … you’ll be completely tuned and ready for action.

Note to interviewers: You’d never want to use all of these questions (and certainly not in one session). Depending upon the enthusiasm, thoughtfulness, and communication style of the person you’re interviewing, 5 – 10 of the most important questions to you might be all you need.

51 Sales Interview Questions & Queries

Results

1. Tell me about your sales career and the results you’ve had over [the last few years, the last 12 months, the last quarter].
2. How would your current prospects and customers describe you as their sales representative?
3. How would those with whom you work now, across all areas of the company, describe you and the work you do?
4. What non-sales contributions have you made to your current organization over [the last few years, the last 12 months, the last quarter]?
   

   

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   Thinking

5. What are your favorite books about business or sales?
6. What do you do on your own for your professional development?
7. What are your long-term professional goals?
8. What are some of the challenges you see facing this industry?
9. What are some of the challenges you see facing your current industry?
10. Who inspires you and why?
    

    Experience

11. Tell me about your last three days at work – beginning to end.
12. How many first appointments do you have each week?
13. How do you find your prospects?
14. What type of sales cycle do you enjoy more … a long cycle for big-ticket items or a series of smaller, more frequent sales?
15. In your current position, how much time would you say you spend directly with prospects and customers throughout the sales day and what specifically do you do with them?
16. What sales skills do you think are most important to having success?
17. How do you build trust and rapport with prospects and customers?
18. What are your top three open-ended questions for initial sales calls?
19. In your current sales environment, describe the process you go through to qualify your prospects.
20. What’s the largest group you’ve presented to (externally/ internally)?
21. How do you organize a presentation?
22. What do you like about presentations and why?
23. What do you dislike about presentations and why?
24. What do you see as the key issues in negotiating?
25. What do you see as the key issues of closing?
26. How many rejections do you take in a typical week?
27. How do you move forward from a string of rejections?
28. Describe a time your company didn’t deliver on its product or service and how you responded.
29. Tell me about one of the biggest challenges or failures you’ve had and what you learned from it.
30. Describe a time you led a group of people, the primary challenges you faced, and how you handled them.
31. Describe a situation with a client or prospect where you made a mistake and how you handled it.
32. Describe a couple of instances, big or small, where you challenged a company standard and took a different approach to achieving something.
33. Describe a time where a creative approach to meeting an objective didn’t work and what you did next.
34. What would you consider to be your greatest professional strength?
35. What characteristics or skills are you most challenged with professionally?
    

    

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    Attitude

36. As a sales professional, what do you see as your primary and secondary roles within an organization?
37. What are your favorite things about the products/ services you’re selling now and why?
38. What do you dislike about the products/ services you’re selling now and why?
39. What do you like about your current sales process and why?
40. What do you dislike about your current sales process and why?
41. What do you enjoy about the people you sell to and why?
42. What do you not enjoy about the people you sell to and why?
43. What do you like about the team you currently work with and why?
44. What do you dislike about the team you currently work with and why?
45. What attracts you to the industry you’re in now?
46. What attracts you to our industry?
47. What do you enjoy about selling?
48. What frustrates you about selling?
49. How do you stay focused?
50. How do you stay positive?
51. Do you consider yourself coachable?

Now go sell something.

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