Questions to Ask When Interviewing a Potential Sales Rep
The commonly asked is for work experience, sales results and strengths but beyond that, there are questions that can help you easily evaluate and find the right fit.
Warm-up questions
Find the candidate that interests you the most even at the beginning of an interview. Here are some ideas.
Tell me about yourself, something that’s not here in your resume
- If you were a bird, what kind of bird would you be?
- Why do you love sales?
- What did you have for breakfast?
- Any advice you would like to give to your previous boss?
You see, some of these questions may be irrelevant to the job position but it’s a good way to see how well they do with communication. The ability to answer questions on the spot is an essential skill of a good sales rep.
The last one will probably stun them as they are not likely to expect that. Their answer to that let’s you evaluate them deeply on how they handle their relationship with their superiors.
Skill-based questions
- What are your methods to stay up-to-date in the industry?
- What are your favorite questions to ask your leads and prospects
- How do you handle customer objections?
- How do you utilize social media for selling?
- When do you stop chasing or pursuing a customer?
- Do you pursue selling even if everyone else in the team have given up?
- Your greatest achievement in your professional job so far?
Also ask questions about selling and technology tools that the candidate has used in the past. It would be better if you were to hire people who also know how to handle any technologies or tools your company uses.
Personality assessment questions
- What’s your most hated part of being a sales representative?
- What are your motivations?
- Describe yourself as a sales rep in three adjectives
- In a day-to-day basis at work, what does success look to you?
- Can you describe to me the people in your past company?
- Why did you leave your last job?
Closing questions
- If I were to hire you, what will you do in, say, the first week or month?
- How do you handle a hard day?
- By the way, where did you hear about us?
- What are you plans in the next 5 or 10 years?
- Why did you choose us?
Do not limit your hiring questions to these. Challenge the candidate with questions that they won’t expect.