Sales Interview Questions & Answers

I was initially rang so a date could be arranged for a phone interview. I thought this was good giving me time to prepare for the interview as best i could. I felt the interview was fairly straight forward with there being no curve ball questions so to speak, with all the questions being similar to those of what i had prepared for, such as what can you tell us about QA? What do you feel your main responsibilities would be in such a sales role? etc. Overall the interview lasted no longer than 15 minutes and was simply told they would get back to me.

Didn't feel any of the questions were particularly difficult in this case as i had prepared for them in advance. However if i had not done so i may have struggled slightly.

Overall the questions asked were pretty basic and simple so if you prepare in advance you should breeze through the interview. So just make sure you know what the company does and stands for, have a clear understanding of why you are interested in the sales sector (or whatever the position is you are applying for) and make sure you know what your main skills are and how they would be fully utilized in such a role.

There was no assessment center.

My initial interview was with a member of the graduate recruitment team, this was basic questions about my motivation in applying for the job, skills and experience. On passing this I was required to pass a standard numerical test. Following this I was required to pass a role-play telephone interview in which I was required to sell a holiday to a member of the management team using a number of sales techniques. I was then invited into the office where a face to face interview was conducted with two members of staff. Detailed questions were asked regarding my CV, covering letter, motivations and experiences. Interviewers also explained the nature of the job, high pressure sales, working to targets, competition etc. as to assess whether I felt this was something I was comfortable with.

If you were hired to work with London and Country Mortgages which would you say you were more motivated by earning lots of money or by being promoted?

Be yourself throughout the interview process as by the time your face to face interview comes round you get to know interviewers prior to this fairly well on the phone. The face to face interview includes lots of challenging questions regarding other stages of the process, your CV and covering letter and therefore it is important to remain yourself throughout.

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Phone interview was with the recruitment agency (Certus) and I was spotted in the generic assessment day held by the recruitment agency. I later then had a quick one to one interview with them at the assessment day. I got invited for a trial day with them to see how I felt about being at the job and for the staff to see how I interact with their clients and colleagues.

What was the most difficult thing I have done
What are my weaknesses

Have to sound really optimistic and energetic at the initial one to one interview with management. The director had a very stern face on him so I managed to make him smile and laugh which I thought was a good sign. Give lots of examples to back up what you are saying, even if it is from the same job. It shows you are not just talk. Do mention you are money driven and can work under pressure or tight deadlines.

If you are offered the trial day, be really pro- active and energetic throughout the day, with clients or colleagues. The senior colleagues will be watching you throughout the day and providing feedback to management. If you impress them, they will pass on positive feedback and more likely to get the job I believe.

Split into a group of 6 and had to perform 2 exercises. The first exercise was to rate the level of importance of each question, and which should be used to qualify a sale with a potential client. The next exercise was how to go about gaining sales. There was a 30secs self- pitch after the exercises, it had to include education, qualification, location and why I would be good for a sales role.

20 minute initial phone interview through the recruitment agency which entailed how motivated, creative, and how much of a leader I was; next on that interview was what my 3 strengths were. After this I was invited to an assessment day in London. On the assessment day we were told about what the day would entail, and then given information about Amari by a regional head. Next were 3 teamwork exercises. Then we had to do a 3 min. presentation about why we should be sales-people; also an informal 1 on 1.

What internationally famous person has had the biggest influence on your life?
What is your greatest non-academic achievement?
What is it that you, specifically, could offer Amari that no one else could?

Focus less on trying to find out information on Amari--they divulged that they intentionally keep that close to the chest--instead focus on your own strengths, weaknesses, and what you can offer as a member of a sales-team.

Three team exercises: (1) You're on a life raft and you have to sell yourself as one of the people who won't be thrown off into shark-infested waters. This must be decided in twenty minutes (2) Your plane has crash landed in a desert 85 miles southwest of a town. You have 15 items and you must rank them in order of most to least importance in ten minutes amongst your group. (3) You and your group members interview one another, determining your strongest assets/skills. You then take these assets/skills and compile them all into a list and determine what ordering make the best sales-person. Whichever person in the group is closest to this ideal sales-person then presents your group's findings to the other groups and fields questions.

I received a call and was interviewed on the spot according to role requirements and I was subsequently invited to an assessment day after being sent an e-mail with how the day will go. At the assessment day, there were 20 people waiting outside. The company specialise in placing graduates interested in working in sales in companies recruiting graduate level sales people and offer a bit of training as well, even though I was looking for a specific role. After passing the tests, I requested more information about the role I applied for but my personal recruiter (who was really nice) told me that i couldnt go for any of these positions.
After being sent to a 13k job, I decided not to take the position, considering I had full-time experience and being a graduate. Although the training I was offered on the day was really helpful, I decided not to take it any further and will look further, even though I appreciate the advice given by the team.

I can't say there was a specific difficult question, just the regular interview questions and the group discussion was really constructive.

If you are looking for good training and a company that will put you in a sales role, then this company is right for you. But if you are looking to interview for a specific job and get it, then you should look somewhere else. It is very possible you will end up in an underpaid sales role.

We were split into three groups of five and given 15 minutes to prepare a presentation on the subject selling holiday packages.

The first interview was very much a getting to know you process and going over my CV and expanding on all my previous roles. There were no competency questions just - What are your best skills? Why do you want to get into sales? Why Medicina? Location? Why did you leave your last job? What attracts you to the medical sales market?

At this stage they said they were impressed with my enthusiasm and phone presence, both must have for a role in sales.

After passing this stage I was invited to a final interview - a face to face interview with teh sales director, this interview was going into more CV in more detail and the usual competency questions such as 'Name a time you've failed and what you learnt from this' 'tell me a time you've given good customer service' 'Tell me a time you've dealt with rejection' 'tell me a time you met a specific goal' 'explain to me a time when you were part of a team and showed leadership' 'explain to me what you can bring to the role' 'what do you know about our products' 'What do you know about our competitors, how would you sell against them'

It's key to use the STAR method - situation, time, action, result.

The most difficult question I faced and I didn't mention this in the description was 'what is your biggest weakness'. I always pray they never ask this question as I find myself either giving a very cheesy answer like - working too hard or drop the ball and say something silly like time management. This time I said that I can sometimes talk too much and I could be more succinct but that will come with experience.

Know your CV and know the experiences that you've had that will show off the skills you need in the role.

Research the company, the products, the competitors, read the news articles on the industry and the company - they will be impressed if you can say what industry leaders have said about the future, or what might change

Be confident, make yourself known, it just takes 1 day of being uncomfortable and embarrassed to get a good job, so don't leave thinking you could have done more.

Be presentable, get a haircut, dress as sharp as possible.

Enthusiastic and self motivating. Always mention you are good with managing your time. Don't be afraid of talking about your actual hobbies, because people will want to hire people they can be friends with.

Don't put anyone down in the group exercise, and always listen and tell people if you like their idea, put never put people down. Try to take a role like time keeper and or writing the notes.

In sales especially, do not be afraid to say you're motivated by money. That is the reason everyone gets into sales.

If you don't get the job it probably wasn't the right job for you. And who wants to be with a company that don't see your potential. On to the next one.

15 people 5 different tasks.

Role play - Individual - Given a product to sell, I was given a pen. I had to sell the pen to the director in front of me. I started by asking what pen he used now, what he liked about the pen, what he didn't, then started showing him the pen I had. I managed to close and up-sell.

Business Test - Much like a psychometric test, but with business case studies. Tell me which product sold the most in jan 2006. If revenue was not an issue which plant would you move to? The usual.

Face to face: As mentioned before.

Presentation: Each given a business proposal and we had 20 minute to plan and 5 minutes to present. The proposals all were very boring so no one could really show anything other than natural public speaking skills.

Group Exercise: As a team, come up with a new event to launch a new product. Our product was randomly an energy drink. I quickly took charge of the drawing board to note down the plans and manage the group.

Online application followed by video interview. This part was the same as all others with a little touch of BT. The invited to assessment centre.

4 exercises: group exercise, one-to-one presentation, differential and a one-to-one interview.

Group exercise consisted of working as a team to create a presentation, and then present that to the assessors in a timed scenario.

Presentation was something pre-prepared by yourself, which had to be on the BT values.

Differential was a role play exercised aimed at suitability for the role.

Interview... well that was an interview.

Most difficult task is the group exercise. Working with people that you met 10 minutes ago logically and as a team.

No difficult questions. There are no correct answers, assessors at BT genuinely want to know about you, not what google said was the best answer.

Be yourself, work as a team and don't try to fight to stand out. Prepare on aspects of the role that you could be questioned on. Look at and learn the BT values and make sure the company is the right fit for you.

Relaxed atmosphere, buddies are provided (current BT grads) and they help you throughout the day!

The initial phone interview was straight forward and after a brief conversation about my CV i was asked to write a page on why i want to pursue a career in sales and why i felt i was more suitable than the other candidates applying for the role.

When is a time you have showed determination to achieve a goal?

Know as much as you can about DS Smith, show enthusiasm for the company. Also make sure to take a foot hold in the team exercises, there isn't time to sit back and allow others to take the lead.

The assessment center was by no means a short process. Proceedings began at 8.30 sharp and did not finish till gone 5. There were 12 of us in total, after a short initial briefing on how the day would plan out we were split into two teams of 6. The first team went to do a group exercise, whilst my group went to do our 1 on 1 interviews. There were two interviews, each with two managers of DS Smith. They made you feel relaxed and were easy to talk to, the interview questions were what you would expect, why is it you want to work for us? why have you chosen sales? along with going over the CV and so on. After this there was a team exercise where we were given a task to design a new supermarket store, most probably to see how we communicated, who would take the lead etc. They even provided lunch for us! after lunch there was another team exercise quite similar to the first. The final part of the day was a 6 minute presentation we had to do, we were notified in advance about this and had to do a presentation on a chosen business topic. Overall this was quite an enjoyable day and definitely a good experience.

Following the initial application, I was invited to take online tests. One was numerical and the other was a logical reasoning test. Successful at this stage, I was given a sales task, where I had to create a Powerpoint presentation in order to sell one of TR's products to a client. Along with this, I had to send in a write up of the process I would go through. Following this was an invitation to a telephone interview. The telephone interview was competency based and not too challenging. We spoke about the client task I had done before as well. It was based on experience and how it could apply to the role within the Graduate program. The interview lasted for about half an hour and was with one of the Graduate coordinators. Following this, I was invited to an assessment centre which I enjoyed thoroughly.

Nothing springs to mind.

Make sure your personality shines through, even if you don't have financial experience or knowledge ensure that you are willing to learn!
Show creativity and innovation and do not be afraid to think outside the box.

The day was split up into about 4 tasks which were all scored. The first task was a presentation stating why we thought TR should hire us. Creativity was rewarded. This was followed by Q&A and an interview with two people. This was mainly CV based. Next was a group activity. Half of the 24 people were cut at lunch so we were left as the final 12. After lunch we were given an hour to prepare for a role play which we were to do after we had the opportunity to showcase a skill which we had learned in the seven days before the assessment centre. I don't think this part was assessed.

Interview starts with a telephone interview. It’s the typical questions like, why do you think your right for the role ? Name 3 traits that make you good for the role ? What are your strengths and weaknesses? They also go through your CV so you can explain any gaps you might have or relevant skills in sales. If you pass this stage you get invited to the assessment centre. Just be open and honest. They like if you admit you are driven and money motivated. I was told at this stage that the interviewer would be extremely surprised if I attended the assessment centre and was not accepted onto their books.

What is your main weakness?

I answered with anxiety in trying new things. Which they took as a an acceptable answer.

Just try to enjoy it. Speak clearly during the group interview process and try to get your inner sales person across. (They care more about energy and enthusiasm rather than the details of the group exercisies).

At the Interview stage do not offend the interviewer by overly expressing why you think a job in recruitment is not as good as other sales jobs. Because no matter how much they liked you before that, their ego will get deflated and they won’t take you on.

Make sure you eat lunch as the whole process took around 4 hours plus with no food break.

It was arranged to start at 13:00

We were split into 3 tables with aroud 6 people per table and went through various exercises. The first was a timed exercise about surviving on the moon. (There is a trick to this one). The second was about how to tackle under aged drinking. For the third task we were split into pairs. We had 4 minutes to interview each other and then create a sales pitch that lasted 1 minute on why our partner would be a perfect sales candidate.

The time now is around 16:00 and we were split into two groups around 8 people were kept to move on to the panel interview stage. I was lucky enough to be called first for my interview which lasted around 20 minutes. You are interviewed by some one new whilst the person that conducted the telephone interview is also in the room. You get asked the same questions you were asked at the telephone interview stage whilst they pick apart your CV. They ask what type of sales your interested in which is where I made a “mistake.” I showed too much passion for media sales which made the interviewer question if I should work in advertising instead of sales. This seemed odd to me as I was simply trying to get across my understanding of the role. Finally the biggest mistake I made was the way I expressed not wanting to work in recruitment and my reasons for this. This is where I should have noted my audience is working in recruitment and not have bashed on their job in front of them.

It was disappointing to be told no at this stage, not because of lack of drive or passion for sales, but because of offending the interviewers ego about their current job. For a company that seems as though they care about training and improving its candidates this was very disheartening.