- What motivates you to sell? …
- Sell me this mug. …
- How do you plan to build rapport with prospects? …
- What appeals to you the most about this sales position? …
- Why do you think you’re a right fit for a sales position?
SALES Interview Questions & Answers! (How to PASS a Sales Interview!)
Top 5 Sales Job Interview Questions to Know
They want to know you took time to understand the company and the role before the interview. If they see that you’re unprepared for the interview, they’ll assume you’ll be unprepared for sales calls as well. Not a good look.
Doing this research is a key part of being a great sales rep, but they want to hear that you are interested in what they specifically do. Everybody wants to work with enthusiastic people.
Think of this as one of your first (and best) opportunities to sell yourself, so do your homework!
Look at their website, and ask yourself who they are selling to (what title, what type of company) and what problems they are solving for that person.
If it’s a public company, look up their S-1 filing so you can see how they communicate about themselves to investors.
Connect with future colleagues and managers on LinkedIn, ask them about what it’s like to work there, and look at their social media activity to gather insights about what the job is like day-to-day.
Read reviews on sites like Capterra, G2, Yelp, or Google.
Most importantly: consider your “why”—the thing that motivates you to be who you are. Notice where it overlaps with the mission of the company and point out the similarities. Let them know specifically what it is about their company that is exciting to you.
“I’ve been following some of the sales leaders at your org on LinkedIn and I’ve seen a consistent message across the board: it’s about the people.
It’s about the customers, partners, teammates, and the broader community. It’s exemplified in the way your leadership recognises those people publicly.
Your mission to change the way companies engage with customers throughout their lifecycle really resonates with me, too. I want to help the sales community rise and adopt the best technology like the one you offer, while contributing to a greater social mission.
From everything I can see, your company provides a great environment to do that kind of work.”
Why [insert industry] sales?
They want to know that you understand what you would be selling, and that you have an interest in it. A disinterested SDR can kill a cold call (not in a good way), and an AE who doesn’t have an interest in their solution has little chance of closing a deal.
They’re also trying to make sure they won’t hire somebody who will do shady things just to close a deal.
This question is the hiring manager offering you a chance to highlight your passion and show you’re a trustworthy person.
Know the qualities specific to that industry and speak to why they interest you. For example, tech is known to be fast-paced with lots of growth opportunities, while pharmaceutical sales is more relationship-driven.
Make sure you know your “why” before going into any interview. Did you have a lemonade stand as a kid? Was a family member in sales? Did a class, internship, or club pique your interest?
Don’t be afraid to say you are financially motivated to be in a sales role. This is one of the only careers where your hard work literally pays off.
“I’ve always been a very competitive person and love a good challenge. Even early on, in my schooling days, I would compete in all academic programs (like speech and debate). I loved the process of researching, preparing, and the thrill of competing for the #1 spot.
I believe I’ll thrive in a fast-paced tech sales role and be motivated to hit my numbers and ultimately make bigger commission checks.”
Note: While this example features an answer for a competitive person, it can be adapted for so many different skills. Think: Creativity, making an impact, partnership and camaraderie with a team, growing in business acumen, and more.
25+ Sales Interview Questions and Exercises To Find The Best Talent
Sales interview questions and prompts run the gamut, from the classic “Sell me this pen” to some less helpful questions like “Which animal would you be and why?” Here are the ones to prioritize.
There will be plenty of time to talk through wins and losses. Most of all, you need insight into the candidate’s approach to selling, and that’s why this is one of the most common sales interview questions.
Can they clearly explain their step-by-step process, from preparing their pitch and contacting leads to closing the deal and keeping relationships strong? How does it change based on customer segment, territory, etc?
To achieve or exceed sales quotas, sales personnel need to be able to identify a worthwhile lead from a bottom-of-the-pile lead. What’s their criteria? What lead qualification skills and practices are they coming in with? How do they decide where to focus their energy?
Everyone from a brand-new sales representative to an experienced VP of Sales should have a great answer to this question.
Learning from failure is a huge part of being a strong salesperson and overall employee. Things won’t always go smoothly — mistakes happen, competitors get there first, and sales goals aren’t met. Listen for the lessons they learned, but more importantly, the concrete actions they took and the core values they’ve built from these experiences.
The golden rule of sales is to follow up, and then follow up on your follow-ups. According to MarketingDonut, as little as one in 50 deals are made in the first meeting, and it can easily take anywhere from five to seven touchpoints to close a sale.
Sales professionals have to expect and embrace the “no.” So, this question is great for digging into the specifics and understanding whether you’ve got a go-getter on your hands.
A great sales professional is someone who’s able to take constructive feedback and use it to become a better version of themselves. After all, the most successful people in life aren’t born that way. They understand their areas of weakness and they dedicate themselves to improving in this area.
You want to hear that the applicant remembers and absorbs the feedback they receive and that they use it to fuel better results in the future.
This sales interview question tests their ability to think on their feet and understand how to communicate with their audience in a short amount of time, just like with prospects.
The topic doesn’t matter as much as how they explain the concept, engage with you, and keep your attention. They could teach you how to get on page one of Google, how to make a soufflé, or how a jet engine works. You’re looking for enthusiasm and clarity — candidates who are information-seekers and thinkers.
Tip: To step it up a notch for experienced candidates, give them a time limit like 30 seconds or three minutes.
Good salespeople won’t just talk about product features or their different SaaS plans. They’ll understand how their products served a particular need and solved pain points for different market segments.
The candidate may turn this into a mini sales pitch to show off their skills or simply give you an overview. Either way, this shows how well they understood their company’s role in their customers’ lives, whether B2B or B2C.
This is often a make-or-break question. Each of your sales candidates should have done extensive research into your business before the job interview. And if they knew who on your team they’d be interviewing with, they should have combed through any info they could, just like with a sales prospect.
Are they actually familiar with your product or did they send their resume out everywhere and hope for the best? This is also a shining opportunity for them to transition into pitching your product. But if they didn’t, follow up with our next prompt.
Roleplaying should always, always be a part of your sales interviewing process. It’s a prime chance for you to see each candidate in action and learn how they perform under pressure. But here’s the secret to getting the most out of this exercise: Don’t share your roleplay identity right away — see if they ask for it first.
Some candidates will jump into their prepared pitch, launching into an attention-grabbing fact or anecdote. Unfortunately, they’ve made the mistake of selling without knowing who they’re selling to.
Are you an enterprise company that’s used their software before? Are you a growing startup that’s wary of adding new costs? This info will shift their playbook in a major way.
Note: Keep in mind that this tactic works best when you’re interviewing experienced salespeople. A lesser experienced or brand new sales candidate likely won’t know the ins and outs of pitching yet.
Hopefully, the answer isn’t an immediate, “Yes, let’s do it!”
At this stage, the candidate simply doesn’t know your product, customer objections, sales process, or tools. They probably haven’t shadowed any of your salespeople either. If they jumped on a cold call right that second, they’d be selling with the intent to sell when they should be looking for their ideal customer profile and fit.
The answer you want to hear is, “I have a repeatable sales process that I can mold to your product right away. Once I learn enough to be a responsible salesperson, absolutely, I’ll be ready for a call.”
(Adjust these dollar amounts based on your business model.) The answer can say a lot about the person you’re considering. Will they always go for the safe deal? Or, do their eyes light up at big, risky numbers? What’s their thought process, and does it align with your company’s sales strategy?
Some sales leaders prefer their team members to go for the safe option — the guaranteed deal size — rather than taking risks. However, it really does depend on the nature of your business and the type of deals you’re working on.
The ideal answer here is that the candidate would be able to identify the opportunity for both, spend the appropriate amount of time on each deal, and shift their process accordingly. A great salesperson can flex their abilities to close the $10K and the $100K deal.
In addition, they should explain that they want a healthy amount of mid-sized deals they can close while they work through the larger, more time-consuming “whales”. You want to see that they’re thinking about their entire book of business versus a single deal.
This question offers a window into your candidate’s sales philosophy. Ideally, you’re looking to see that candidates recognize it’s a balancing act.
For instance, if you reach your quota but your clients are dissatisfied, you won’t be reaching your quota for much longer! However, if you aren’t reaching quota, it could be that customers aren’t happy or convinced they’ve made the right choice. There are many variables at play, so don’t be afraid to open it up to a conversation.
Help your applicants shine and talk themselves up. Did they exceed a sales target? Earn unprecedented customer satisfaction scores? Discover a sales enablement opportunity? Follow up with questions that help you understand their track record overall, and the work environment and actions that helped them perform well.
The truth is there aren’t many kids who say they want to be a salesperson when they grow up. However, many eventually realize they’ve got exactly what it takes. Maybe they’ve always had the gift of gab, or enjoy making complex things (products/services) easy for anyone to understand, buy, and use.
What is it about a sales career that drew them in? Understanding their motivation for getting started in sales can help you to learn about what drives them and what they want from their career in the long run.
We tend to perform our best when we’re happiest, so this is a good question to really get to know your candidate as an individual. What motivates them? What’s rewarding? What comes effortlessly? It clues you into the aspects of the job that will be easy for them and where you may need to coach or provide support.
This isn’t a “Gotcha!” question. We’re human beings and we all have job responsibilities and requirements we like to move to the bottom of our to-do list. The ideal candidate is honest about what this aspect is, whether it’s paperwork, unenthusiastic clients, clunky software, or last-minute deal rejections.
Tip: Be sure to follow up with questions to understand how they navigate these less-than-fun moments.
Self-motivation is critical, especially when many salespeople have had to adapt to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While previous questions looked at why they started in sales and what they love about it, this question is more about their specific self-management tactics.
Ideally, you want a team of exceptional self-motivators who can give themselves the boost they need to get results — and speak up when they need more resources (training, tools, team-building opportunities, etc).
The best professionals never stop learning, no matter what industry they work in. So, it’s critical to find out whether your sales candidate immerses themselves in the industry (past or present) and what they do to keep their knowledge up to date.
Example answers include following thought leaders on LinkedIn, reading relevant blogs, attending industry events, and quarterly lunches with clients.
This is a particularly important interview question for sales managers who will set the tone and coach their team to success.
Teamwork is at the core of outstanding sales teams. You need to know that your candidate is a good team player and can give and receive help while also keeping their eye on their own sales quota. This is even more important if your organization prioritizes team-based goals.
The overlap and collaboration between sales, marketing, customer success, revenue operations, and other business departments is stronger than ever. Can candidates communicate effectively with others outside their team? Even more, have they leveraged those relationships to take their selling to the next level?
Tip: Check out tactics for building trust between departments and our interview with Glassdoor Chief Sales Officer Kate Ahlering on how to unite different teams with common goals.
Being aware of how other people view you is critical to selling to prospects and excelling at a company. Without that self-awareness, your candidates won’t understand how they’re coming across in the eyes of the client, their team, or their manager, which means they can’t improve or self-coach.
Does the candidate ask for feedback and make an effort to understand and apply it? Do they agree or disagree with the strengths and weaknesses they’ve heard? Of course, if they claim their managers or peers would say they have zero weaknesses, that’s a red flag!
Technology powers sales teams today, so find out which skills each candidate is bringing to the table. Are they comfortable with Salesforce, HubSpot, Gong, etc? You can always train new hires on your preferred software or workflow. This question is more about their sales experience, adaptability, and familiarity with industry tools.
There are many “right answers” to this question depending on where they’ve worked and how they’ve been trained (or how they trained their team). From customer acquisition cost (CAC) to monthly recurring revenue (MRR), there are lots of different sales metrics that are worth paying attention to throughout the sales cycle.
The hope is that, first, they can clearly explain why they chose certain key performance indicators (KPIs) and second, they aren’t focused on meaningless metrics like number of dials per day.
You’ll get different answers based on whether they’re an exec, inside sales, outside sales, and so on, but the idea is to see how they strove to adapt and re-skill as the industry changed. Where did they succeed? What did they learn? How will they improve?
Whether you ask this question upfront or toward the end, it’s another useful way to get insights into their researching, prospecting, and sales process.
The best salespeople — and strong candidates in general — have questions for the interviewer(s). After all, this is the company where they’ll invest their time and energy, possibly for years to come. Remember to allot time to open the floor for questions.
It isn’t just about choosing the right person for the sales position in question. It’s equally important that they feel that your business is right for them.
After they’ve been in the hot seat for a while, this gives them a final opportunity to pitch themselves for the sales position. Your sales recruiters or hiring managers will get valuable feedback for future interviews, too.
Tell me about a time you succeeded or were proud of yourself
They want to understand your drive to succeed, and hear about one of your greatest accomplishments.
Plus, if when you get the job, your manager will need to know how to motivate you.
Questions that start with “tell me about a time” indicate that your answer to this question should use the STAR framework:
S = Situation. Briefly describe the situation you were in. T = Task. What were you tasked with doing in that situation? What was the goal? A = Action. Tell the interviewer what you specifically did, step by step.
R = Result. What was the outcome?
Remember that you are interviewing for a sales role, so keep your response focused on something relevant to sales. Share a time when you were persistent and it paid off, when you worked hard to knock a goal out of the park, when you accomplished a significant achievement, etc.
If you have data to back you up, that is gold!
FAQ
What questions are asked in sales interview?
- Are you comfortable making cold calls? …
- Have you consistently met your sales goals? …
- What motivates you? …
- How did you land your most successful sale? …
- How would your colleagues describe you? …
- Sell me this pen. …
- What are your long-term career goals?
Why you choose sales as a fresher?
What is sales best answer for interview?
How do I prepare for a sales interview?
- Approach it like a sales meeting. If you’re a good sales person, you should be able to sell yourself. …
- Do your research. …
- Questions to prepare for. …
- Take evidence of your achievements. …
- Take your contact book. …
- Have a list of questions ready. …
- Close the deal.
