Interview Questions for Sales Managers

Ø      How to control sales force?

Ø      How to develop sales distributions?

Ø      What does effective Sales Management mean to you?

Ø      What personal qualities should a Sales Manager possess?

Ø      What are the personal qualities that you possess to make you a successful Sales Manager?

Ø      What is more important ‘managing’ or ‘leading’?

Ø      Talk me through the most difficult employee that you have ever had to ‘lead’?

Ø      What is the biggest learning curve that you have worked through in your path to becoming a successful Sales Manager?

Ø      What is your Management style? Do you think this style is the most effective?

Ø      Who is the best Manager that you have ever worked for? What qualities did they possess that you have modeled to improve your ability to lead sales teams.

Ø      How important is it that sales professionals are effectively managed?

Ø      How do you manage egos within your sales team?

Ø      What is the best example that you can give me that describes your management style?

Ø      What have you personally done to develop your management skills?

Ø      How do you handle responsibility?

Ø      How do you keep a distance between yourself and your reports?

Ø      Your worst performing sales executive has a personal crisis and needs significant time off how would you support them?

Sales career interview questions

Ø      Why did you go into the sales profession?

Ø      Why do you enjoy selling?

Ø      What attracts you to the industry you are in?

Ø      What are your long-term professional goals?

Ø      What do you do personally for your professional development?

Ø      What are your favorite selling books?

Ø      What is it you like about sales?

Ø      Where do you want sales to lead you in your career?

Ø      As a sales professional, what do you see as your primary and secondary roles within a company?

Ø      Describe a time where a creative approach to meeting an objective didn’t work and what you did next?

Ø      Last job interview questions

Ø      Tell me about the product you sold in your last job.

Ø      What is your biggest difficulty in selling?

Ø      Give me an example of a recent difficult sale and how you closed the deal.

Ø      Tell me about a recent sale that you failed to get.

Sales Skills interview questions

Ø      What things do you do to close a sale?

Ø      Describe a situation with a client or prospect where you could have taken a different approach. What would you have done differently?

Ø      Describe a couple of instances, big or small, where you took a different approach in achieving an objective outside the company direction?

Ø      What do you think are the most important skills in succeeding in sales?

Ø      What are your top three open-ended questions for initial sales calls?

Ø      What are the top two or three most important sales skills one should possess? Why?

Ø      Tell me about your two most satisfying sales deals and why they were your best.

Ø      Tell me about two deals you’ve lost. Why did you lose them? Who was the competitor you lost them to? What did you learn from losing them?

Ø      How do you deal with rejection?

Ø      What areas would your two most recent Managers say you should improve upon to become stronger?

Ø      How do you prepare for a presentation?

Ø      How do you handle negotiations?

Ø      Tell me about a time you made a mistake with a client and describe how you handled the error?

Ø      In your current sales environment, describe the process you go through to qualify your prospects?

Ø      What is your biggest difficulty in selling?

Ø      Tell me about a recent sale that you lost to a competitor.

Ø      Give me an example of a recent difficult sale and how you closed the deal.

Ø      Describe a time you led a group of people, the primary challenges you faced and how you handled them?

Ø      What would you say your one or two biggest failures or mistakes were? What did you learn from them?

Ø      What are some of the challenges you see that are facing this industry?

Sales Cycle interview questions

Ø      What do you like and dislike about the sales process and why?

Ø      What type of sales cycle is most rewarding to you? A long cycle for a big-ticket item or a series of smaller, more frequent sales.

Ø      What’s the average length of a sales cycle?

Ø      Describe your typical sales cycle.

Ø      What do you feel are the two most important things you need from a company to get off on the right track?

Typical Week interview questions

Ø      How would your present prospects and customers describe you as their sales representative?

Ø      Does your company support the sales force?

Ø      Describe a time your company did not deliver on its product or service and how you responded?

Ø      Describe how you present a solution to your prospective client?

Ø      At what stage in the sales process do you present the ROI to the prospect?

Ø      Describe one or two of the most difficult challenges and/ or rejections you’ve faced in the past and how you responded?

Ø      How many first appointments do you have each week?

Ø      How many rejections do you take in a typical week?

Ø      In your current position, how much time would you say you spend directly with prospects and customers throughout the sales day?

Ø      What do you see as the key issues in negotiating?

 Sales targets interview questions

Ø      How do you ensure that your sales targets are exceeded each month?

Ø      What is the largest account that you have ever won and talk me through the stages from start to close?

Ø      What is the largest account that you have lost and talk me through the stages?

Ø      Over the past three years, what percentage of your quota did you achieve?

Ø      Have you ever worked in a commission only job?

Ø      How were you rated in your last three performance reviews?

Sales associate questions

Ø      How do you attempt to sale when there are no customers in the sore?

Ø      What are your weaknesses?

Ø      Describe a time when you went out of your way for a customer?

Ø      If a customer came in and wanted to return an item they had obviously used extensively with not receipt what would you do?

Ø      Give me an example of when you received poor customer service. (Or: Tell me about a time when you went out of the way to give great customer service?

Ø      Describe your favorite salesperson or sales experience. What did they do?

Ø      Describe a situation where you heard employee gossip that may not have been true about another person, and what did you do about it?

Ø      Describe a high morale group or team you have worked in. What did they do to get that?

Ø      How does this job fit with your long-term goals?

Ø      Why did you pick this particular item and tell me why you like it. How would you try to sell this to a customer?

Ø      What would be the best approach to dealing with a potential loss prevention issue in the store?

Ø      What makes you a good sales associate?

Ø      Why do you want to get into sales?

Ø      What do you love best about _____? e.g.: plants, ropes, plumbing, western clothes, etc.

Ø      Tell us about a time you succeeded in selling something to someone

Ø      Describe a time when you had to work through a problem with a co-worker or boss?

Ø      Give us an example of a time when you worked under pressure and how you handled it?”

Ø      Which is worse: an employee stealing from…?”

Ø      What in your opinion is good customer…”?

Ø      How would you meet your sales goal, without…”?

Sales situational questions

Ø      What separates you from the rest of your sales team?

Ø      What obstacles get in your way at work and what do you do to overcome them?

Ø      Can you give me a specific time you had to deal with a disgruntled customer?

Ø      Give me an example of a time you went above and beyond the call of duty?

Ø      Why did you leave your previous position?

Ø      Describe your ideal position?

Ø      What would you bring to my company?

Ø      Give me an example of a time when you had to persuade a prospect to buy from you over your competition?

Ø      Give me an example of a goal you set for yourself in the past and the steps you took to achieve it?

Ø      Give me an example of a creative way you closed a sale?

Ø      What types of things do you do to increase your overall effectiveness on the job?

Ø      Tell me about a time when you worked really hard for something and you did not achieve your goal?

Sales and Business Development

Ø      What is the worst objection that you’ve ever had to handle?  Talk us through how you tried to handle this objection?

Ø      What is your preferred technique to handle objections?

Ø      How do you ensure that your sales targets are exceeded each month?

Ø      What is your favorite closing technique?

Ø      How do you pick yourself up after losing a potentially large order?

Ø      How do you create a sense of urgency to speed up the sales process?

Ø      What is the largest account that you have ever won and talk me through the stages from start to close?

Ø      What is the largest account that you have lost and talk me through the stages?

Ø      What is the most difficult piece of business that you have ever won?

Ø      Have you ever walked away from a sale and why?

Ø      What do you consider to be the single most important sales skill?

Sales Management

Ø      What does effective Sales Management mean to you?

Ø      What personal qualities should a Sales Manager possess?

Ø      What are the personal qualities that you possess to make you a successful Sales Manager?

Ø      What is more important ‘managing’ or ‘leading’?

Ø      Talk me through the most difficult employee that you have ever had to ‘lead’?

Ø      What is the biggest learning curve that you have worked through in your path to becoming a successful Sales Manager?

Ø      What is your Management style?  Do you think this style is the most effective?

Ø      Who is the best Manager that you have ever worked for?  What qualities did they possess that you have modeled to improve your ability to lead sales teams.

Ø      How important is it that sales professionals are effectively managed?

Ø      How do you manage egos within your sales team?

Ø      What is the best example that you can give me that describes your management style?

Ø      What have you personally done to develop your management skills?

Ø      How do you handle responsibility?

Ø      How do you keep a distance between yourself and your reports?

Ø      Your worst performing sales executive has a personal crisis and needs significant time off – how would you support them?

Ø      From the choice of Churchill, Gandhi, Alex Ferguson or Richard Branson, who is the most effective leader and why?

Planning and Prioritizing

Ø      How do you plan each day?

Ø      What are your objectives each day?

Ø      How do you measure yourself against your objectives?

Ø      What importance do you place upon planning each day/week/month/quarter/year?

Ø      Think of a sentence that would describe your mission each day – your personal daily mission statement?

Ø      How do you priorities your accounts?

Ø      How do you ensure that you are the most effective that you can possibly be?

Ø      Why would you priorities one account over another?  What criteria would you use to priorities accounts?

Presentation and Pitching

What experience do you have in making presentations?

Ø      What is the largest audience that you have ever made a presentation to?

Ø      Talk me through an example of a piece of tender led business that you have won?

Ø      What makes your presentations a success?

Ø      What techniques do you use to handle difficult clients during a pitch?

Ø      What is the typical structure of your business presentations?

Ø      How would you describe your PowerPoint skills – non existent, Basic, intermediate or advanced

Ø      Talk me through the most difficult pitch that you have made?

Decision Making, Risk and Judgment?

Ø      What is the greatest risk that you have taken in your business career?  What happened?

Ø      What would you detail as the biggest failure of your business career?

Ø      For every decision that you get right how many do you get wrong?

Ø      How do you make a decision that potentially carries enormous risk?  What steps do you go through?  What minimum information do you require?

Ø      What experience do you have in working in pressure situations?

Ø      How do you make decisions in these pressurized situations?

Ø      How would one of your reports describe your decision making ability?

Ø      What is the worst decision that you have ever had to make in your business career?  What happened?

Ø      What is the best decision that you’ve ever made in your business career?

Teamwork

Ø      Are you more effective on your own or as part of a team?

Ø      What is the best team that you have ever worked in and why?  What part did you play in the team and what contribution did you make to the success of the team?

Ø      What are the characteristics of a great team?

Ø      How important do you feel the ‘leader’ is in creating a successful team?

Ø      What types of characters do you work best with?

Ø      What kind of people do you find difficult to work with?

Personal qualities - Confidence

Ø      On a scale of one to ten how confident would you describe yourself?  Why?

Ø      How would your existing team describe your confidence?

Ø      Talk me through a situation that demonstrates the level of confidence that you have in yourself? 

Personal qualities –Interpersonal

Ø      How would your best friend describe you?  5 adjectives

Ø      How would your closest work colleague describe you?  5 further adjectives

Ø      Describe the relationship with your current/previous line manager?

Ø      How would your current/previous line manager describe you?  5 further adjectives

Ø      What is the single biggest issue that your current/previous line manager has with you?

Ø      Describe a confrontation that you have had with your current/previous line manager when they were in the wrong?  What happened?

Ø      When was the last time that you lost your temper at work?  What happened?  What did you learn from this?

Ø      What kind of people do you find difficult to work with?

Ø      How do you handle criticism?

Ø      Who is your worst enemy?  What happened?  How would they describe you?

Ø      What is the most unpopular decision you’ve ever taken?  What happened?

Personal qualities – Values

Ø      What are your values?

Ø      How would you like to be remembered?

Ø      What is an ethical line that you will not cross?

Ø      Have you ever lied to win a sale? What happened?

Ø      Would you ever lie in the interests of your company?

Ø      Have you ever gone over your current/previous line manager’s head to get a decision?

Ø      On a scale of one to ten how would the term ‘maverick’ describe you?

Ø      What habits or behaviors that you possess would you like to change/improve?

Ø      Who have you worked with that you have the most respect for?  Why?  What did you learn from them?