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Tough interview questions to make your sales candidates sweat

Tough Interview Questions To Make Your Sales Candidates Sweat

 

Looking to hire a sales animal? Hiring a salesperson that will yield results can be challenging. We all know salespeople have the gift of the gab. But once the interview lights go down, how many of them can truly put their money where their mouth is? And how many of them will stay the course? To separate the good from the really good, you need to maximise the interview.

 

Check out these 9 sales interview questions to make sure you hire the best salesperson.

  • What makes you different from the other candidates?
  • What’s been your biggest failure?
  • What’s the most profitable sale you’ve achieved?
  • How do you close a sale?
  • What’s the toughest sale you’ve ever made?
  • What do you think the most challenging part of this role will be?
  • What’s your least favourite part of the sales process?
  • What are your current financial targets and activity KPIs and what percentage of them are you achieving?
  • What salary are you looking for?

 

9 tough interview questions for hiring a salesperson

 

1.   What makes you different from the other candidates?

What better way to test your candidate’s sales ability than to see how well they sell themselves? This is where their powers of persuasion can really shine. But remember there’s a fine line between being confident and underestimating your opponents. The ideal candidate will acknowledge the strengths the other candidates may have. They’ll be confident yet humble in their sales ability.

 

2.   What’s been your biggest failure?

One of the biggest reasons salespeople fail is that they can’t handle their losses. As you know, sales isn’t all closing deals and big commissions. You need a candidate that has resilience. Someone that can roll with the punches. So talking about failure is a great way to assess their attitude to losing. You want a candidate who is comfortable sharing their failures. In the process, they should be able to point out where they went wrong and what they learnt.

 

3.   What’s the most profitable sale you’ve achieved?

This is your candidate’s chance to impress you. If you’re looking for a truly outstanding salesperson, they need to have the proof to back it up. But sometimes, candidates embellish their answers. So you need to weed out the frauds. Get down to the nitty-gritty details of this sale. Get specific on any figures and their strategy behind the sale. As you get into the details, you’ll soon figure out how solid their story is.

 

4.   How do you close a sale?

Your sales staff can build rapport with customers until the cows come home. But if they can’t close a deal, it’s no good. Salespeople need to be assertive enough to make bold moves. And any good salesperson will have a variety of closing tactics to call upon.

 

5.   What’s the toughest sale you’ve ever made?

Sales aren’t always transactional, especially with high-ticket items. There are often lots of obstacles that can disrupt the sales process. And it can take several conversations before the deal is done. So you want to hire someone who’s worked hard to earn their crust. Someone who understands what can go wrong in the sales process. This will show you how determined and skilful your candidates are.

 

6.   What do you think the most challenging part of this role will be?

It’s important for your candidates to have realistic expectations of the role. You want to check they understand the difficulties that lie ahead. If they don’t, they may not be ready to take on the challenge.

 

7.   What’s your least favourite part of the sales process?

Everyone has parts of their job they don’t like. But you want to make sure those pain points aren’t central to the role. If the candidate’s least enjoyable part is sending invoices - that’s okay! If they hate travelling to clients, there may be a problem.

 

8.   What are your current financial targets and activity KPIs, and what percentage of them are you achieving?

Any good salesperson will know their current targets and performance. They’ll be happy to get down to the details of their KPIs. If they skirt around the answer, it could mean they’re underperforming. This may explain why they’re looking for a new job in the first place. But you want to hire salespeople who are thriving and hungry for a new challenge. Not the salespeople who are running away from failure.

 

9.   What salary are you looking for?

This question tests your candidate’s ability to negotiate. Can they handle an upfront conversation about finances? Do they simply tell you a figure? Or are they able to justify their salary expectation with a strong argument?

 

Need a stronger sales team?

Some sales roles call for extra help. Here at Fixed-Fee Placements, we’re experienced in hiring top salespeople for startups, small, and medium-sized companies. Contact us today to start building your new team.

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Vanessa Ramkissoon

Vanessa Ramkissoon | Recruitment Content Expert