Sales Interview Questions & Answers

After completing the initial online application, I was invited to take part in a video interview. Comparing it to phone interviews, it was much scarier. I am not someone who struggles to communicate but I found myself struggling to get my words out, panicking and getting my words mixed up. Luckily, there was a practice sitting which you could complete as many times as you wanted. Once you clicked go, however, you had one minute to read your question, 30 seconds to prepare and one minute to record an answer. After that the programme automatically moved you on, whether you were ready or not. Luckily it was very short, only 5 questions, I also liked the fact that there was not an interviewer there, as it is only the first round of interviews, this made it less pressurising. At the assessment centre, the day was split into 4 sections: role play, case study, role play and the interview. The first consisted of attempting to sell a pair of glasses with a certain criteria, as laid out in the information pack provided. The second involved being the manager of a shop, who had to choose which stocking fillers to sell in the shop approaching christmas. You then had to place them within the shop and give a presentation explaining your choices, the finance and the shop layout. Questions were asked at the end by the assessors in which you had to justify your choices.
After the first two, some candidates were unsuccessful and were sent home. There were only 5 of us left in the afternoon compared to 14 earlier on. The third section involved you being a manager and the assessor being a lazy, unhelpful and unhappy sales advisor. After a number of customer complaints, as the manger you had to sit down and have a disciplinary with him. Next was the interview. This was the part of the day I was most nervous for as I had never had an interview before. The questions were about myself rather than the knowledge I had of the company or industry. Questions such as "what do you see yourself doing in 5 years time" and "why did you apply for this role" were put to me. Some questions that I didn't expect such as "how would you feel if you were 27 and earning 'x amount'". The interview went better than I expected, all I had to do was answer the questions as honestly as possible and to the best of my ability. It felt much more informal than I thought it was going to be, I was imagining something out of the apprentice! But it did feel much more like a chat about myself and where I see myself in life and in the future.

"How would you feel if you were 27 and earning 'x amount'?"
"So you've said where you see yourself in 5 years time, but what about after that? Where do you see yourself in 7 or 8 years time?"

Although I can understand the nerves, and often nerves are a good thing, I would say just relax. The thing with applying for sales (particularly cars) is that the ability to sell is based on your personality. Good interpersonal skills, good rapport and a likeable nature are all necessities in sales. One could be the cleverest person around but if they can't connect with their customer, they won't sell. This is portrayed in the interview, Pendragon are not looking for the cleverest or smartest, they're looking for those with a personality.

At the assessment centre, the day was split into 4 sections: role play, case study, role play and the interview. The first consisted of attempting to sell a pair of glasses with a certain criteria, as laid out in the information pack provided. The second involved being the manager of a shop, who had to choose which stocking fillers to sell in the shop approaching christmas. You then had to place them within the shop and give a presentation explaining your choices, the finance and the shop layout. Questions were asked at the end by the assessors in which you had to justify your choices.
After the first two, some candidates were unsuccessful and were sent home. There were only 5 of us left in the afternoon compared to 14 earlier on. The third section involved you being a manager and the assessor being a lazy, unhelpful and unhappy sales advisor. After a number of customer complaints, as the manger you had to sit down and have a disciplinary with him. Next was the interview. This was the part of the day I was most nervous for as I had never had an interview before. The questions were about myself rather than the knowledge I had of the company or industry.

On the initial phone interview. I was asked a serious of ten questions with a minute to answer each given question. The first few questions were basic and ones that you would expect to be asked in such an interview, questions like why did i apply for the role, what can i tell them about the company, why do i want to pursue a career in sales etc. After this the questions were ones i did not expect and did not plan for however did answer them comfortably. Questions were things like outside your academic achievements what is your greatest achievement? When have you had an idea and followed through with it?

What are your weaknesses? I always find this a difficult question, however recently i have decided this can be easily answered and even turned into a positive. Being a graduated my obvious weakness is my lack of experience in the sales sector, however you can then state how you feel the skills in which you have acquired through both university and any previous work experience can be fully utilized within your chosen sector.

I think preparation is essential when it comes to interviews, three things you need to know inside out. Why it is you want to pursue a career in your chosen industry, why it is you are suitable for that role and you need to have a clear and good understanding of the company you are applying for. I also recommend to be relaxed and just be yourself, at the end of the day if your not the right person for the organization, then they weren't right for you.

There were 12 of us altogether, we were split into two groups. The first group went of to do a team exercise whilst we were taken to a separate room to do a numerical test. The test was split into two sections, the first section being basic maths and the second being more scenario based. We were given around 30 minutes to complete it. Once this was done we went into another room to carry out the group exercise, we basically were given 10 options as to what we felt were important characteristics of a great sales person. We then as a group had to discuss and rank these qualities. 1 being the most important and 10 being the least. It was basically an exercise to see how well we communicated and put our point across. I personally felt it was a well constructed task and related well to the job in which we were applying for. Surprisingly after that we were sent home and there were no further interviews, i was quite surprised we were not interviewed individually given the size of the company.

The application process began with an array of competency questions which judged what I would do in given situations. The next step was an online testing platform which included numerical, pyschometric and verbal reasoning tests. The following stage was a telephone interview, this involved the interviewer getting an idea of my motivations as well as an understanding of what knowledge i had gained on the company. Other factors were tested including competency questions including what best motivates myself and give a situation where leadership and other qualities were expressed.
The next and final stage was a two day assessment centre. The first day was an opportunity to meet the other candidates and was not assessed. We were greeted by our recruitment manager who took us through a presentation on the company successes and what would be featured in the roles that we had applied for.

The most difficult element of the interview process had to be the numerical reasoning test. Mathematical problems is an area where I lack confidence and technical ability as I possess interests and more inherited capabilities in other areas such as leadership and drive.

Get to know the organisation, how they operate, where and how. Search the internet for environmental influences and threats in their market as this was one area that i was recommended to look up after my telephone interview.

Be positive, confident and address each person you are presenting to and keep your presentation to the point and factual.

Try to contain your nerves, it helped to be relaxed in almost all of the exercises and I found taking an mp3 player while preparing for each exercise to be useful which was advised prior to the assessment day by the organisation.

The assessment centre was an extremely pressurised experience. It involved 4 exercises including a face to face interview, a presentation which i had 45 minutes to absorb a large amount of information and then present for 20 minutes relating to it, I had a role play where I was required to adopt the role of a member of staff at the organisation convincing another colleague who was difficult to influence to adopt new practices and then a group exercise at the end of the day.

It was an intense experience where i had to draw on many capabilities that i have gained and put into practise while at university and I was particularly tested on my communication ability.

The application process began with an array of competency questions which judged what I would do in given situations. The next step was an online testing platform which included numerical, pyschometric and verbal reasoning tests. The following stage was a telephone interview, this involved the interviewer getting an idea of my motivations as well as an understanding of what knowledge i had gained on the company. Other factors were tested including competency questions including what best motivates myself and give a situation where leadership and other qualities were expressed.
The next and final stage was a two day assessment centre. The first day was an opportunity to meet the other candidates and was not assessed. We were greeted by our recruitment manager who took us through a presentation on the company successes and what would be featured in the roles that we had applied for.

Get to know the organisation, how they operate, where and how. Search the internet for environmental influences and threats in their market as this was one area that i was recommended to look up after my telephone interview.

Be positive, confident and address each person you are presenting to and keep your presentation to the point and factual.

Try to contain your nerves, it helped to be relaxed in almost all of the exercises and I found taking an mp3 player while preparing for each exercise to be useful which was advised prior to the assessment day by the organisation.

try and think up as many potential questions as possible and think of answers, so you are prepared as much as you can be.

The assessment centre was an extremely pressurised experience. It involved 4 exercises including a face to face interview, a presentation which i had 45 minutes to absorb a large amount of information and then present for 20 minutes relating to it, I had a role play where I was required to adopt the role of a member of staff at the organisation convincing another colleague who was difficult to influence to adopt new practices and then a group exercise at the end of the day.

It was an intense experience where i had to draw on many capabilities that i have gained and put into practise while at university and I was particularly tested on my communication ability.

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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The role I was applying for was in the online division. My initial phone interview took a brief 10 minutes and was with their head of HR. It was a simple straight forward interview where we simply quickly ran through my CV looking mainly at my previous work experience. Then I was invited down for an interview at their head office which was to take place with herself and the head of the sales department. The actual interview lasted around 30 minutes and started of with me being asked to quickly run through my CV, after this we went through some questions that had already been set out. These were questions such as what I knew about the company, what is it that appeals to me about the company, name a time when I have given excellent customer service and what does excellent customer service mean to me. After the questions they then went through the role, what it entailed and asked if I had any questions.

Describe to me a time you have given great customer service and why was it great?

Be well prepared and you should be fine. Make sure you know the company, what they do, their competitors and why it is you want to have a career in sales. Customer service seemed to come up a lot in the questions, so make sure you have a good understanding of what makes good customer service and try to think of a time you have given good customer service.

There was no assessment centre

The interview process was smooth and organised, I was kept up to date with the progress of my application and told what each step would involve. I was asked about my previous sales and tailoring experience and how it would benefit me in the role. At the end of my interview, I was given the opportunity to ask any questions about the role that I may have.

Knowledge of the brand- as this took a lot of research

Research the company, knowledge on the brand is key and can aid both your presentation and sales techniques.
Research on tailoring techniques and current trends is also key, to ensure you can give great customer service and advise accordingly.

The assessment day consisted of tasks, groups actives and Q and A. I found it incredibly beneficial as it gave me a better understanding of what the job would entail. We were asked to prepare a presentation on 'The importance on Image' , followed by different sales exercises. This was helpful as it gave insight into different peoples views on image, and how the company would fit in to this. The team were approachable and friendly, giving advice as we went through the day.

The initial telephone interview lasted around 40 minutes with a member of the graduate recruitment team. It consisted of three parts: motivational questions, competency questions and what Nestle refer to as "strength based" questions. The motivational questions were pretty self explanatory, asking why I am interested in the role, what skills do I have to be successful in such a role, what do I understand about Nestlé's values etc. these took around 10 minutes. The competency questions were the usual teamwork, initiative, creativity etc which took probably the longest. The final part, the strengths based were more general questions (but personally I found more difficult to do well in) such as how important is teamwork, and some personality questions like reacting to management styles. Some of these were often followed up by asking for an example, similar to competency questions.
At the assessment centre interview with two senior sales managers began with general questions like what do you do in your spare time. The rest was very similar but with more challenging questions. For myself as I study law but applied for a sales position, was asked about why I'm not pursuing law and my interest in sales. My five years 6 years in sales heavy retail experience helped the difference between the two fields. The competency questions were more detailed than in the phone interview, such as describe a time when you acted to benefit both a client and the organisation you represented. The biggest difference was perhaps the heavier weighting of the strenghs based questions which took up the bulk of the interview with questions such as how important is networking and why, do you look to transfer your skills, why is it important to be able to work with people from different backgrounds etc again followed up by examples. The whole interview lasted for around one hour.

How would you deal with a team member who is not pulling their weight?

Ensure that you research the company thoroughly, in particularly their values. Also do not disregard the strength based questions and prepare as much as possible for them as Nestlé really like to distinguish themselves on those questions and place a lot of weighting on them. Ensure you have a genuine passion for the area you apply for as it will come up in the motivational questions. Think of plenty of examples and all should be well!

Apart from the introductory presentation and a networking lunch, the assessment centre was split into four tasks, a written exercise, a group exercise, presentation and interview. Each was given between 40-60 minutes. The individual written exercise was analysing reports and market research to respond to questions set by a fictitious supervisor. We were split into four groups of four for the group task which was a task about balancing and prioritising clients and their orders and then presenting to the assessors our decisions. The individual presentation required pitching a new product to potential clients. There were three products to choose from. The assessors were again two senior sales managers. They asked questions after the pitch, which then became a negotiation exercise with me and the "client" as to how many boxes to buy at what price etc. Though my assessors were reasonably cooperative, fellow candidates stated some of them had harsher questions and gave awkward responses to test their reactions. The panel interview is described above. The overall experience from the company was very friendly, the senior staff were more than happy to answer questions and interact with us which made the day less daunting.

The process had 3 steps.

Firstly, a telephone interview with a recruitment company lasting 30 minutes (presumably Thomson-Reuters outsource recruitment to this company for that initial stage). This was competency based as expected, with the interviewer asking a variety of questions based around my experiences and specifically asking for examples where I could explain instances of fulfilling the competencies required by the role. In addition, the interviewer asked some motivational based questions around why I had applied to TR, and why I had applied to sales specifically. The interview was fast paced but simple enough. It ended with logistical questions based on the role.

Having successfully passed this stage I was invited to a face-to-face interview at the canary wharf office in London. This interview was undertaken by a HR manager and a Sales representative from TR, who took turns to ask motivational and competency based questions. There were also a number of situational type questions around what I would do personally in a difficult sales type scenario etc. I was then asked to perform a 5 minute, on the cuff sales pitch for any item or service I wished (I was given 10 minutes to prepare in private). That was a difficult task, and felt pressured. The face to face interview took around an hour in total, was good natured and other than the sales pitch exercise, not particularly pressured or difficult.

The final stage was a full day assessment centre, detailed in the question below...

I was

The most difficult questions were undoubtedly the situational job-related questions which I was essentially unable to prepare for, because they were presumably designed to test my decision making abilities on the cuff. These included questions like...

"A senior manager (in a different service line) has asked you to prepare a report immediately but you have a particularly full workload, how do you react?" (or along those lines).

Remain calm. Preparation is absolutely essential, including researching the company, role, industry, competition, and latest news relating to the industry - and will give you the confidence to answer in the correct manner. Attempt to establish an early rapport with the interviewer by answering confidently with eye contact and clear, calm speech.

Remain professional throughout and try your very best to show some passion about the job role/industry (In my feedback this was apparently lacking).

The assessment centre was the most difficult of 3 that I have now experienced. A high level of industry and company knowledge was expected and tested at various points. There were 3 tasks.

1. Another face to face interview. This time based around my CV application to TR and why I believed I was suited to the specific sales role I had applied for. This was more formal than previous interviews, and particularly testing. It was fantastic experience. Not quite Apprentice-esque it was nevertheless difficult.

2. A group exercise in which 5 candidates had to together solve a complex logistical question in half an hour and present our solution back to 4 ever-present assessors. The problem was inherently unsolvable (at least I believe it was!) and clearly the aim of the exercise was to test team working skills as well as leadership and presumably some element of problem solving individually.

3. A presentation exercise (on my own) in which I was given a pack of materials and half an hour to prepare a presentation (given to two assessors), without the use of notes. The presentation was on a made up business solution TR had implemented at a made up client.

My initial telephone interview was with Jim Selley recruitment manager and lasted about 30 minutes. It was competence based questions where you were asked general questions like why have you applied for the job, where have you were before. What targets have you have to achieve, how successful you were. Examples of where you have worked hard etc. I was then invited to do a maths and English test online. This I found fine, you may want to have google open as there were some word association tests and some unusual words used. I then took part in a sales role play over the telephone where I was asked to play the part of a travel agent selling a trip to mexico, I had to identify which holiday was most applicable and sell it to the caller. I passed this stage and then had another online quiz which was more of a personality test this is very straight forward.
The face to face interview was took by Jim Selley and Geoff Spours contact centre manager. I would definitely recommend you wear shirt and tie as everyone is well dressed as you would expect. I would say theres a greater men to women ratio. The people all seemed nice and friendly.

I don't think any questions were difficult it was more a chance to get to know each other. They asked me about my history and my CV. I asked if they were looking for me to identify anything particular and he said no. I should have asked what is it your specifically looking for me to demonstrate as I felt Jim got a bit closed off when I asked this and he was like no just a general idea of your history. This left me in the dark about what they wanted me to show and I felt I waffled on a bit. I can sell Im a top seller in my current role but nerves got the better of me and all of my facts and figures went out of my head. I was asked about specific results and I actually under sold myself. I think the warmth of the office had a big impact as it was making me feel sick. I know if I was given the opportunity I would have earned £45,000 in year one as Im hard working, conscientious and thorough. Ive a sound understanding of mortgages having worked for Abbey in the past and Im very determined. Its a shame that they couldn't see this due to my nerves. I felt slightly uncomfortable selling myself as its a long time since I had a interview.

Find out about company knowledge and sell yourself at interview. Have some questions ready for the end about the business. I had these ready but time was running out so I didn't ask them. There was a maths and English test online and sales role play. All very straight forward, when selling the holiday make sure you offer the travel insurance and extra leg room and asked if they wish to book. Have a pen, paper and calculator ready for the online tests

there's no assessment day,.