Why sales interview question

That way, you can tailor your answer, by pointing out what elements of their work environment will work for you, specifically. For example, you can ask yourself: are you OK being in close quarters on the phone teleselling, or are you best independent, and love field sales work?

If you describe your best boss to favorably, you may paint a picture of yourself only being able to work with that level of support. This question can set up a trap by making you appear inflexible, or not-independent if a boss gave you a lot of support in the past. He agreed. But I realized that I was being more of a maverick than a team player and after a while, we adjusted that expectation.

He felt the team could learn from me and I agreed. We both thought I could learn from them, even though I was in major accounts. This is another tricky and revealing question. If you had a manager from Hell, you can say so, as long as you speak about their actions factually, and not emotionally.

Do: Separate the person from their behaviors. A disorganized, negative and indecisive manager makes sense to be awful! Talk about the impact of their actions on you and the team. Try to mention how you communicated clearly and responsibly to correct the problem, if there was one.

These words are judgmental, less factual and more emotional, and can sound like you are bashing the manager and thus can backfire. We always hit our number despite the difficulties she had in setting expectations, but the morale of the department started to decline, and turnover started to affect our ability to perform.

What they are looking for here is if you have an innate interest in sales, and might have harnessed that interest to learn quickly and become successful. A true story is good here. Or maybe sales came to you later in life by studying it in college, selling t-shirts for your fraternity, or when you stumbled upon a blog about sales. Did you finance any of your college tuition? Just be honest. This question lets the interviewer know what you value about your past experiences.

Practice answering this in a brief and meaningful way before the interview, so that you give an answer that is meaningful. Hiring managers want to learn your definition of good advice, and hear how you applied that advice to your life and work. One candidate in an interview for a national advertising sales position said that her father gave her the best advice.

She told me that keeping that in mind has made her a lot of money selling advertising campaigns and concepts. Say what you do for fun. Again, practice is key. Take a moment right now and answer this question aloud a few times. You might be surprised how difficult it is to summarize. Collect your thoughts. Say it again, and evaluate. Did it sound like it made more sense the second time around? People ask this interview question for all kinds of reasons. I am able to leave the day behind me and shift gears to spend time with friends and family.

Work gets the best of me. I am always thinking of the next step in moving the needle in sales. Everybody has a time they triumphed over some odds. It seemed everyone was in a holding pattern waiting to see what would happen next.

The market bottomed out at 6, My strategy was to keep making calls and meeting people. I knew at some point the tide would have to turn. It worked! Some panicked. Eventually, sales opportunities started to come back again. I know activity brings sales. They might even have been a top-performer!

I also like having the independence to get out of the office and grow my territory. This is a question about tactics and execution. You need to show that you actually know about sales, and you have a practiced and thoughtful approach to getting the job done. You cannot be guessing when answering questions like this, so prep is very important.

Second, asking questions to get to know them better and so I can really pay attention to and care about what they say. Third, would be making a connection by talking about what interests them, and any insights or experiences I can offer to add value to what they like, need or want.

Every salesperson will eventually hit a slump. What matters most is what you do to get out of it. With over five years in the industry, I realize how crucial those relationships are to my sales goals.

The most significant sales I have ever made came from customers with whom I had longstanding relationships because I had built that trust with them. When I offered them an upgraded package, they knew that I was doing it for their benefit more than my own.

I saw that your company has a customer-first mission, and that is exactly what I am looking to do. When I land a new client or sale, it gives me a sense of accomplishment. Figuring out how to develop a sales pitch or adapt my sales pitch to meet my customers' needs is like a fun puzzle for me to solve. I noticed that your company is readying the launch of its latest product, and I would love to use this passion to collaborate with your team and help develop sales pitches that make an impact on customers.

Find jobs. Company reviews. Find salaries. Upload your resume. Sign in. Why do employers ask why you want to work in sales. How to answer when asked why you want to work in sales. Assess yourself. Do your research. Structure your answer. You also want to listen to see if their previous employer had a culture that was inclusive or accepting of people with different backgrounds and self-expression. You want to bring on talent that is either already familiar with your team culture, or has a constructive opinion on how the last company could have done better.

Asking a candidate to describe their ideal manager shows you how autonomous they are, how they approach working relationships, and how they overcome challenges. Look for a candidate who's able to work independently and is comfortable taking direction from their boss.

To learn where their moral compass lies, look for answers like "Putting the needs of the prospect first," "patience," and "humility. This might seem like a huge ask, but the answer illustrates your candidate's values and motivations. If the candidate tells a story of overcoming great odds to achieve a specific goal, that signals a driven and highly motivated salesperson. If a candidate's most valuable accomplishment is finishing all seven seasons of The West Wing , you should probably move on.

When looking for a sales director, you need to look for candidates that can develop and implement strong sales strategies for a team. Use these questions to gauge their understanding of the market, trends, and their confidence to achieve.

An effective sales executive should be able to manage and inspire a team. As they share attributes about their management style, consider if these traits fit your company culture and the needs of your team.

Sales leaders are often responsible for inspiring and motivating reps. The answer to this question should give valuable insight into how they would develop their team members who need a little extra help reaching their goals.

Gain valuable insight into how they handle change management. You want to ensure your sales leaders can effectively manage the implementation of new systems and processes, and that they can address the concerns of your sales team during said transitions.

This is a fun question that is aimed at highlighting their leadership strengths and allows them to share what sets them apart from other sales leaders. Every successful sales professional has had to pivot at some point in their career. This question gives the candidate an opportunity to provide insights into valuable lessons learned. As a leader, establishing trust with a new team is a very important part of the job description.

The answer to this question will tell you how your candidate approaches building trust, and how important teamwork is to them. You want to bring in the best and the brightest, and this question gives you valuable insight into what kind of innovation the candidate is bringing to the table.

In a management or executive role, the candidate will face difficult situations like this frequently. On one hand, you want your team to meet their targets. On the other hand, a toxic team member can bring negativity into an organization even if they're exceeding quota. Keep in mind that there's no right answer to this question; it will depend on the candidate and the situation. However, the candidate should be able to give you insight into how they'd think about the problem and even the steps they'd take to correct either the toxicity or the underperformance or both.

The previous question may even be a good segue into this one where you get insight into how they approach team management as a leader, even when there's tough decisions to be made. You need to bring on sales reps that will advocate for your product on a technical level.

When asking software sales questions, assess the candidate for their experience, understanding of metrics, and their ability to create a strong narrative behind the software for a client. The field of tech is constantly changing. This question gives you a good idea of how your candidate would take the necessary steps to learn about new product offerings. The ability to explain complex concepts in a simple way is a necessary art form for software sales reps.

Have the candidate walk you through a hypothetical situation where they explain a software offering to you in easy-to-understand terms.

You want a team of creative problem-solvers and innovators. This question gives your candidate the opportunity to share their ideas, which should ideally translate to how they would share ideas as a member of your team.

Individuals who are committed to continuous learning make inspiring team members. By asking this question, you get a glimpse into what kind of content the candidate consumes, and how they continue to build their skillset. To hire a well-rounded sales rep, you have to ask the right mix of questions to see how a candidate really thinks. Editor's note: This post was originally published in February and has been updated for comprehensiveness. Originally published Aug 20, PM, updated August 20 Logo - Full Color.

Contact Sales. Overview of all products. Marketing Hub Marketing automation software. Service Hub Customer service software. CMS Hub Content management system software. Operations Hub Operations software. App Marketplace Connect your favorite apps to HubSpot. Why HubSpot? Marketing Sales Service Website. Subscribe to Our Blog Stay up to date with the latest marketing, sales, and service tips and news. Are you going to curl up into a ball and shut everyone out for a few weeks while you nurse your wounded ego or are you resilient, looking at the situation as just more motivation to close the next one?

An interviewer is going to want to hire someone who is ready to keep moving forward and take those rejections not as personal attacks, but as lessons to learn and grow from. When the contact ultimately made the decision to go with a rival of ours I was understandably upset and wanted to know what it was about them that had landed them the account. The contact told me that while my presentations were polished, and he genuinely liked me and my company, he felt our rival had better options for him in the industry he was in.

I took that information back to my team and we worked on making sure our products reflected that feedback. A hiring manager is going to want to know how dedicated to the sales process you are, but also how well you can recognize when enough is enough. Sales is all about walking the fine line between being persistent and being pushy and a hiring manager wants to make sure you recognize that difference.

A persistent sales person can sometimes help close a reluctant deal but a pushy one can drive one away. My boss kept telling me I was crazy and to just cut bait and let this guy go, but something about him kept me coming back. Time passed, and due to a family situation, I had to move to another city and therefore on to another company. I was honest with him and laid it all out again, exactly as I had so many times before.

This time he floored me by saying yes and asked me to put him in touch with someone from my former company, so they could finalize the deal. My old boss was so stunned by all this that he not only cut me a generous bonus check, he invited me to come back and talk to the current sales team about the importance of never giving up. Do all of my answers need to be that long? In these articles we often use longer answers to ensure that we easily convey the main points that you need to include in your real answers in your interview.

Similarly, the structure of the answers end up making the answers sound like paragraph rather than conversations. As you probably guessed, your sales interview will be much more conversational, so you need to ensure that you get the main points across without sounding like you're just spitting out a paragraph you memorized.

Practice writing out your Situation, Task, Action and Result in point form and when you are practicing, be able to have a conversation that touches on all those points. That initial miscommunication was such an effective ice breaker that I was able to not only pitch her our product but close the deal in record time.