Sales Representative - Interview Questions

Making cold calls to generate leads is an important part of the sales process, so the hiring manager wants to know you have experience, are comfortable doing it and typically find success. You may want to speak to how having an outgoing and personable personality helps you connect with the lead, and you enjoy talking to people you don’t know. 

Don’t just answer this question with “yes” or “no.” Try to provide concrete examples, such as “At my last job, I had to make _____ cold calls per week. My close rate for those calls was _____%.”

If you typically met your sales goals in past roles, it’s more likely that you’ll meet them for your new company. The hiring manager wants to understand how you perform, so while you should be honest, you should focus on the positives. If there were times when you didn’t meet your goal, explain what you learned and how you applied those learnings moving forward to improve and be more successful. Be sure to highlight any time you really exceeded goals, won awards, or were a top salesperson for your team or company. 

Nearly every sales representative has one sale they are more proud of than the rest. It could have been a difficult client you were still able to close, a huge sale in total revenue, or something else. The hiring manager wants to get an understanding of your sales strategy and persistence when it comes to closing a sale, as well as your qualities as a sales rep. Avoid bragging here, but showcase how you’re a strong candidate for this role. 

Sales representatives should be self-motivated to achieve goals. Not only do you have to generate your own leads, follow up, and be persistent, but you have to close sales to generate revenue for the company. Often, this is done on your own. 

The hiring manager wants to ensure you have the motivation and passion for sales that will make you successful. Try to go beyond an obvious answer, like salary, and it’s even better if you're able to tie your response to the company’s overall goals. 

“I’m always motivated to outperform myself and compete with my personal results from previous quarters. My goal is to see growth in my sales each new quarter, and I strive to beat each of those goals.”

There are a number of qualities and skills that make a good sales representative. You must understand technology and the product you’re selling, excel at lead generation, and have contract negotiation and closing skills. Your relationship building, communication, time management and critical thinking skills are also important. What makes you a great sales representative likely comes down to a few of these qualities. 

Highlight the qualities you feel are most important for a sales representative to be successful, and share examples of how you have those qualities. You should try to match your answer to what the company is looking for in the right candidate. 

“I believe _____ and _____ are the most important qualities or skills a sales representative can have because _____. These skills allow a sales representative to _____. In a previous role, these skills allowed me to _____.”

Working in sales can be both challenging and rewarding. It often takes a special type of person or personality to find success. You’ve likely faced both positive and negative scenarios during your time in sales, so briefly highlight them. Share why you love sales, why you’re successful, or at the end of the day, something you’ve learned. 

“The most rewarding thing about sales is _____. I’ve found that by _____ I’m able to feel/do _____.”

When discussing the challenges, be sure to still focus on the positives. Use this as an opportunity to showcase something you learned, or how you use the challenges you face to make yourself better. 

“In the past, I’ve faced the challenge of _____. But, I was able to learn _____ and apply that to all of my sales moving forward, which has _____.” 

Lead generation is a critical part of sales. Without leads, you’ll run out of people to sell to. Often, sales representatives are required to generate their own leads (vs. the company giving them to you) so the hiring manager will want to know that you have a strategy for ensuring leads are consistently in the funnel. 

Highlight any tactics you use to generate leads, such as cold calling, using online tactics (like social media), going to networking or other events, visiting a retail location or in other ways. Also, share an example of how you turn a lead into a sale. `

“To generate leads, I _____. Once I know someone is a lead, I _____, _____ and _____. A focus on lead nurturing and relationship building allow me to close sales with _____% of my leads.”

Once you generate a lead, you have to nurture them. Not every lead is ready to purchase at the moment you reach out to them, so explain to the hiring manager what you do to keep the lead warm and convert them to a sale.

Likely, the hiring manager is looking for an answer beyond “I send them an email every couple of weeks checking in to see if they have any questions or are ready to move forward.” Think outside of the box. And if you can, provide a concrete example of when you nurtured a lead for a long period of time and still closed the sale.

Growing the business in new territories or locations is part of the role. You may be dropped into an existing territory as a new sales rep there, or you may be asked to start from scratch in a brand new location or territory. Even if you don’t have experience with this, try to provide concrete examples of what you’d do, especially in the first 30 days, and after 6 and 12 months. 

The hiring manager wants to know that you can think on your feet, and you’re sales-ready all of the time. This question gives them an opportunity to test your selling skills, as well as your ability to build a relationship with a lead, and see in real-time what your sales process is.

For this question, pretend the hiring manager is someone you met online or at an event who is interested in your product. Follow your usual sales technique to convince them to buy.