
Sales Interview Questions
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
- Tell me about your sales career and the results you’ve had over [the last few years, the last 12 months, the last quarter].
- How would your current prospects and customers describe you as their sales representative?
- How would those with whom you work now, across all areas of the company, describe you and the work you do?
- What non-sales contributions have you made to your current organization over [the last few years, the last 12 months, the last quarter]?
Thinking
- What are your favorite books about business or sales?
- What do you do on your own for your professional development?
- What are your long-term professional goals?
- What are some of the challenges you see facing this industry?
- What are some of the challenges you see facing your current industry?
- Who inspires you and why?
Experience
- Tell me about your last three days at work – beginning to end.
- How many first appointments do you have each week?
- How do you find your prospects?
- What type of sales cycle do you enjoy more … a long cycle for big-ticket items or a series of smaller, more frequent sales?
- 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?
- What sales skills do you think are most important to having success?
- How do you build trust and rapport with prospects and customers?
- What are your top three open-ended questions for initial sales calls?
- In your current sales environment, describe the process you go through to qualify your prospects.
- What’s the largest group you’ve presented to (externally/ internally)?
- How do you organize a presentation?
- What do you like about presentations and why?
- What do you dislike about presentations and why?
- What do you see as the key issues in negotiating?
- What do you see as the key issues of closing?
- How many rejections do you take in a typical week?
- How do you move forward from a string of rejections?
- Describe a time your company didn’t deliver on its product or service and how you responded.
- Tell me about one of the biggest challenges or failures you’ve had and what you learned from it.
- Describe a time you led a group of people, the primary challenges you faced, and how you handled them.
- Describe a situation with a client or prospect where you made a mistake and how you handled it.
- Describe a couple of instances, big or small, where you challenged a company standard and took a different approach to achieving something.
- Describe a time where a creative approach to meeting an objective didn’t work and what you did next.
- What would you consider to be your greatest professional strength?
- What characteristics or skills are you most challenged with professionally?
Attitude
- As a sales professional, what do you see as your primary and secondary roles within an organization?
- What are your favorite things about the products/ services you’re selling now and why?
- What do you dislike about the products/ services you’re selling now and why?
- What do you like about your current sales process and why?
- What do you dislike about your current sales process and why?
- What do you enjoy about the people you sell to and why?
- What do you not enjoy about the people you sell to and why?
- What do you like about the team you currently work with and why?
- What do you dislike about the team you currently work with and why?
- What attracts you to the industry you’re in now?
- What attracts you to our industry?
- What do you enjoy about selling?
- What frustrates you about selling?
- How do you stay focused?
- How do you stay positive?
- Do you consider yourself coachable?
Now go sell something.
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