INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR MARKETING, SALES, ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT, SALES

DIRECTORS, AND OTHER PROFESSIONALS INVOLVED IN THE SELLING PROCESS.

Describe your sales experience.

Do you excel in in-person sales or telephone sales?

Who makes up your client base: consumers, businesses?

Do you have any supervisory skills?

What are your strengths/ weaknesses?

Are you willing to travel? Relocate?

List your key accomplishments.

What was your biggest failure in your Career?

How are you organizational skills?

What % increase in sales did you contribute to you previous companies?

What did you like best/ least in previous jobs?

How many active accounts have you handled in the past?

How do you describe your salesmanship style?

What revenues have you gained for your previous employers?

What sales challenge have you experienced recently?

Can I see your brag book? (Note: If you'd like to know the proper way of compiling, writing, and designing a
brag book, check out "How to Design, Write, and Compile a Quality Brag Book" written by Teena Rose)

What major clients have you closed over the last 6 months?

How much do you currently have in the pipeline with your current employer?

Have you ever been charged with training and coaching other sales professionals? What
success did you experience?

How much of your current client base consists of repeats and referrals?

What networking or business groups are you involved with?

Describe a typical day for you.

What has been your biggest disappointment with a prospect or client?

1. What did you find out about our company? (This question is asked to see exactly how
far you did go in your research. They are also asking to see how thorough you will be
when researching the companies you may be calling on when you work for them. Do
not just focus on the job description information. Focus instead on what is happening
today within their organization, the positive things, new product lines, etc. Perhaps

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

you know someone who has purchased something or worked with them in the past
who has said wonderful things about them. Talk about the fact that they have a
product or service that you would be proud to represent or be affiliated with. Perhaps
you can talk about their excellent training program. Do not focus on things such as
salary, vacation, benefits, etc. These are things that should be discussed once you have
an offer. Until you actually have an offer, you are selling you. Once you have sold you,
it is their turn to sell you themthis does not work the other way around. Most of the
time if the company is interested in you they will be selling you throughout the
interview process).
What is it that you are looking for in this new position? (Do Not Answer with me, me,
me answers like: a base salary, vacations, holidays, etc. Think about what the
company has to offer that sounds positive such as: I am looking for an employer who
has a product/service I would be proud to represent, with an excellent training
program, and room for growth. Of course everyone wants the things I listed first, they
know this. Let them know you are seeking an opportunity to excel. Be careful not to
appear to be so wrapped up in what they can do for you that you come off as selfish
and not as a team player).
Tell me about a time your manager asked you to do something that was not to your
liking and explain how you handled it? (The object here is to find what type of
personality you have. #1 Are you the type of person who finds fault in your superiors
or are you the type who accepts authority and rolls with it. #2 This question also
addresses the decisions you have made about who you will work for. If you have
chosen to work for a company who would ask you to do things that are unethical or
unfair, did you research the company well before accepting the position? Be cautious
about how you answer this one).
Why are you seeking employment at this time? (Again, attitude. Be aware this person
is looking for reasons to eliminate you from the running. If you quit your last position
because you didnt like something without another job to go to, how does that look
about your desire to support yourself and your responsibilities to your family. If you
left because you feel strongly that when you work for someone you should not spend
their time interviewing---that could say something else completely. If you left due to a
corporate downsizingno-one can fault you. If you left because you disagreed with
your supervisoragain, not good (even if your reasons were valid). Remember to
think of what you would think if a person was interviewing with you for a position).
Who is your role model and why? (This question is set up to get an idea of who you
most admire. It tells your interviewer a lot about you and what motivates you. A lot of
people will talk about a person who does something completely different from the
position they are applying forthis is ok, but it may be more appropriate if you are
interviewing for a sales position to give an example of a sales professional).
Why should I hire you instead of one of the other people I am meeting? (How do you
handle questions that put you on the spot? What do you think of yourself? If you
dont believe in you, why should they? Most people answer this question by telling
what a strong work ethic they have and how they will do a good job, etc. I would
suggest you go about it by addressing the other people by saying something like: I
dont know the other people you are interviewing, but I do know me. As my portfolio
clearly shows, I have excelled at every challenge I have attempted in the past, I see no
reason this would not also be the case here as well, do you?).
How do you handle rejection? (This question is intended to set you apart from other
candidates who shy away from any negativity. What they wish to find is the individual
who faces adversity head-on and handles it with reservation. A good answer to this
question is I dont like it but it doesnt stop me, or Its an opportunity for me to
learn about what I may have done wrong). To be continued in the next issue of
Resources.

11. Objective: Build and manage a sales pipeline of 30-40 prospects and clients in various states of close
within one year.

Anchor Question: Please describe your most comparable accomplishment.

Drill Down Questions:
1. How large was your pipeline?
2. How many prospects in final stage at any given time.
3. How did you manage it?
4. What tools did you use?
5. How did you deal with emergencies or sudden priorities and maintain momentum in your other accounts.

Visualize Question: If you were offered this job how would you achieve this objective.
Drill Down Questions:
6.
7.
8.
9.

What are the critical issues involved?

What information would you need before beginning?
What would you do in the first week or two?
What's the critical success factor?

2. Sell $1,500,000 of software to customers in the aerospace, automotive, and other industries within
one year. Approximately 60% of this revenue should come from existing customers.
Anchor Question: Describe your most comparable accomplishment.
Drill Down Questions:
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
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17.
18.
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20.
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Tell me about your performance as a salesperson, percent of quota,

What awards or other recognition for your efforts have you received?
How did this compare to others in your organization, in your industry?
Did it bother you that you were not the best or if the best how important is for you to be best?
What was your quota?
How many sales per year?
What was your average Sale?
What was your sell cycle?
Who did you sell to? (Same question stated differently) At what levels within an organization did you sell?
What kind of sales/technical support was available to you?
Were you responsible for managing technical resources during the sales cycle?
What percentage of your sales were from existing accounts?

Visualize Question: If you were offered this job how would you achieve this objective.
Drill Down Questions:
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.

What are the critical issues involved?

Is the timeframe reasonable? (What timeframe are you referring to here?)
What information would you need before beginning?
What would you do in the first week or two?
What's the critical success factor?
What kind of assistance would you want and expect to get and for how long
What assistance do you expect from management and once you are up to speed
What technical resources do you think are necessary to achieve your goals

3. Deploy our product horizontally within customer organizations to insure maximum penetration of
each account
Anchor Question: Please describe your most comparable accomplishment.
Drill Down Questions:
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.

How did you leverage your customers' established installation base ?

What resources did you utilize to effect the sale?
How did the nature of the account organization effect you strategy?
How did you know when you turned the corner?
What did you do right?
What did you do wrong? Alternative (Give an example of when you read an organization incorrectly how did
you know you made an mistake, how did you correct it?

Visualize Q: If you were offered this job how would you achieve this objective.
36. Drill Down Questions:
37. What are the critical issues involved?
38. What information would you need before beginning?

39. What would you do in the first week or two?

40. What's the critical success factor?

4. Create demand for a highly technical product which significantly improve and/or facilitate the
designers day to day tasks but is not essential to the design process
Anchor Question: Please describe your most comparable accomplishment.
Drill Down Questions:
41. What arguments did you use with the customer? I prefer How did you persuade the customer to want your
product (A good sales man never argues with a customer, at least not openly!)
42. Did you involve others from your company in this process?
43. What was the nature of the technical issues related to customer requirements and about the product that
you were selling that you needed to understand in order to make the sale
44. How long did it take to achieve a breakthrough?
45. Did you find this exciting?

Visualize Q: If you were offered this job how would you achieve this objective.
Drill Down Questions:
46. Are there differences between your current product and ours that would impact how you approach this
objective.
47. What are the critical issues involved?
48. What information would you need before beginning?
49. What would you do in the first week or two?
50. What's the critical success factor?

5. 40% of your business will be coming from new accounts, you need to efficiently search for new
accounts and get them into the sales pipeline.
Anchor Question: Please describe your most comparable accomplishment.
Drill Down Questions:
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.

How did you go about locating potential prospects to call ?

What resources did you get from your company to help with this process?
What is you strategy or technique during the initial moments of a cold call?
How do you deal with the VP secretary or others that will not let you through to your target contact?
In detail, what did expect from marketing, to help with this process?
How did you work with marketing when they did not give you enough leads or too many leads, many of
which are not qualified ?

Visualize Q: If you were offered this job how would you achieve this objective.
Drill Down Questions:
57.
58.
59.
60.

What are the critical issues involved?

What information would you need before beginning?
What would you do in the first week or two?
What's the critical success factor?