Sales Representative Interview Questions
Sales representatives represent organizations and sell their products and services to members of the target audience. When you interview for a sales representative position, you'll likely face questions that relate to the soft and hard skills needed to succeed in sales, as well as your previous sales experience.
Top Sales Representative Interview Questions & How to Answer
Here are three top sales representative interview questions and how to answer them.
Question #1: How do you stay motivated?
How to answer: A salesperson must be able to self-motivate, especially after dealing with rejection or challenging sales situations. In your answer, talk about what motivates you to succeed and helps you to keep going in your efforts. Examples of motivators include personal and professional goals, passion for the product or service, and financial stability.
Question #2: What type of work environment is most appealing to you?
How to answer: Working in sales might involve collaborating with a team or working independently. An interviewer asks this question to determine whether your work style aligns with how the position will work. You might research the company culture and work environment prior to the interview to point out specifics of the organization and its atmosphere that work for you.
Question #3: How do you build rapport with prospects?
How to answer: A question about building rapport allows you to demonstrate your sales skills. Examples include effective communication, listening skills, and making connections. Use the STAR method (situation, action, task, result) to describe a particular situation in which you built a strong rapport with a prospect.
How do you make people choose a product they don't want.
8 Answers↳
Highlight the must-have features.
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First of all I will build trust and communicate with his human basic needs I will explore his feelings and wishes; what he like and what he doesn't Then I concentrate on the benifits and advantages he may got with the new products Less
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Really? You don't. Understand their pain, their needs, their likely use cases, then sell them what they do need. In the long run, matching the solution to their needs is aligned with their wants and will yield a happier, more loyal, and better relationship with the brand. Less
What salesforce product would you sell and how would you sell it?
3 Answers↳
Hi - how did you create a preso? Did you have something to work off of as a template? I have to beieve it would be hard to present a product you have never sold before. Less
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Be well-versed in their products and services so that you can give a persuasive sales pitch. Make sure to be aware of any faults, weaknesses, or common concerns so that you can counter these effectively. Less
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Learn as much as you can about their products
Describe a time where you failed, then came back to succeed
3 Answers↳
No kidding...
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Tailor your response to focus on how you were able to recognize your error and then took action to turn it around and alleviate the situation. Since this is a sales rep interview, it's probably a good idea to highlight your communication skills if possible. Less
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Have to describe a bad incident and how you overcame it.
Tell me about a time you heard no over and over again, despite having a good rapport with the lead and how did you go about it?
1 Answers↳
I had a very specific story in mind for this STAR question. Basically, my attitude is never give up and continue being friendly though if it looks like they will never buy then I won't throw a lot of attention their way. Just maintain good rapport in case there's ever that open door of opportunity. Less
sell me this pen. And what's your biggest weakness?
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What sort of things do you like to write about? And when you do, do you enjoy a smooth reliable writing utensil? This is for you! My biggest weakness is that I take too much time providing customer service for clients to make sure they are happy. Some of that time could probably be spent acquiring new customers. Less
Tell about the time when you had to sale a product to someone who didn't know you.
1 Answers↳
I though this was a very elementary sales question. Any outside sales job is about prospecting potential clients through market research, obtaining meetings, and professionally pitching your product in ways that solve a prospects problem. I referred to a time I sold services to an entire board of directors. Perhaps I made it too difficult for a 3 minute response. Less
Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty and how you exceeded their expectations. Not just met them, but exceeded.
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Gave an example of a customer experience where I went to work on a saturday and sunday to do my job because that was the only time they were available. Spent over 16 hours in a weekend to educate them on a process Less
Give me an account in which you lost the business and what you learned from this situation
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Told of an account that was my largest hospital that I lost the business because of I was too confident that I had all the business. Little by little a competitor was taking my business until they proposed a turnkey solution and I lost the entire account. I learned never to be to confident in an account and spend most of your time there. Less