Question

Tell me a little about yourself.

Walk me through your sales experience thus far.
How did you prepare for this discussion? What do you know about our company?
What are your compensation expectations?
How would you describe your working style?
Tell me about the last disagreement you had in the workplace. What happened?
What is your proudest achievement you've had outside of work? How did you do it?
Can you give me example in your career where you overachieved and how did you do against your peer g
Why should we hire you over any other candidate in our pipeline? What can you bring to the table that othe
What is your sales attainment % been in the last 12 months? What made you successful? (if over 100%) W
Tell me about the product or service you currently sell. What makes it valuable? How is it different from you
What would you say is the most important skill you’ve learned in your current role?
What can you tell me that isn’t on your resume that is important for me to know about you?
Why are you pursuing a career in sales?
Can you tell me more about the reason for leaving or exploring opportunities outside (your current employe
What are your professional goals?
If you started this job tomorrow, what would be the first 2-3 things you would prioritize?
What motivates you?
How do you keep tabs on your to-do list?
What questions can I answer for you?
What do you know about us?
If we hired you, what would you do to contribute to company growth?
Criteria
Job Fit
Job Fit
Job Fit
Job Fit
Leadership / Teamwork
Leadership / Teamwork
Leadership / Teamwork
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Passion / Desire
Passion / Desire
Passion / Desire
Passion / Desire
Work Ethic
Work Ethic
Work Ethic
Work Ethic
Preparation
Preparation
Preparation
Question
What do you see as the key issues in negotiating?
What do you see as the key skills in closing?
Walk me through a time where you leveraged urgency to close a deal.
Walk me through your forecasting methodology. How do you ensure accuracy?
Describe your approach in a closing call. What do you typically do at the end of a call?
In your current sales environment, describe the process you go through to qualify your prospects? What qu
When it comes to the quality vs. quantity debate, where do you stand?
What are some of the biggest red flags in the sales process that signal your prospect isn't a good fit?
Walk me through a time where you had a difficult time finding the decision maker? What questions did you
When does qualifying happen?
What are your sales weaknesses? What are you doing to help you overcome these weaknesses?
Tell me about your last review with your manager - what were areas that were recommended for improvem
What kind of relationship do you have with your manager? How do you apply feedback your manager prov
Describe a situation with a client or prospect where you made a mistake. How did you handle the error?
Describe what your relationship with your current manager. How do you prefer to be managed? Why do yo
What are your top three open-ended questions for initial sales calls?
What sales skills do you think are most important to having success in sales?
What are the biggest ways in which buyer behavior has changed in this industry over the last few years?
How do you anticipate the sales process, as we know it today, will change over the next five years?
Describe a time your company did not deliver on its product or service and how you responded?
Are you on monthly or quarterly targets in your current job? How many active opportunities do you have to
What sales metrics do you track for yourself? What is the frequency? What do you consider "high activity"?
Describe a day in your current role (may be in sales or not)?
How many leads do you work per day? How do you source them? How many new opportunities do you cre
What type of sales cycle is most rewarding to you? A long cycle for a big ticket item or a series of smaller,
If someone on your team was underperforming, how would you help them?
Tell me about a time when you had to deal with conflicting direction from internal stakeholders.
How do you earn the respect of your team and coworkers?
Give me examples of additional projects you've pursued beyond your current role? Projects could be both
Describe a time you led a group of people, the primary challenges you faced, and how you handled them?
What do you typically do when a prospect does not call you back?
What do you do when a prospect says at the close that "your price is too high"?
What do you do at the end of a call where the prospect says, "I need to think it over"?
What do you do when a prospect says "XYZ is just a fad"?
What do you do when a prospect says they are "too busy" to handle implementation and roll out?
As a sales professional, what do you see as your primary and secondary roles within a company?
Why do you believe you will be successful for us?
How do you go about your job that would demonstrate you are passionate about being successful in selling
What are your favorite selling books?
What are your personal goals?
Tell me about a time when you failed in your career. What happened? What did you learn?
Tell me about your worst month in sales ever. What did you learn?
What is your biggest pet peeve in the workplace? How do you deal with it?
Provide an example of when you've had to exhibit discipline (personally or professionally) over an extende
It's 2 weeks from the end of the Q, you only have 75% of your target and you are under pressure with a we
Who will you be selling to? What problems does [your company here] solve for that individual? What objec
What do you like most about our company?
What do you think are the top 3 skills needed to be successful here? Why?
What are your concerns about working here?
Who else are you interviewing with today?
What is your goal for new sales over the next 12 months? What keeps you from increasing the number by
Walk me through two examples of solutions that you were able to produce when behind on your sales targ
Do you consider yourself competitive?
Walk me through a deal you closed that you are most proud of.
How would those with whom you work now, across all areas of the company, describe you and the work yo
How do you keep your sales skills up to date? What do you do outside of work to continue building on your
Tell me about how you plan your day?
In your current position, how much time would you say you spend directly with prospects and customers th
What sales metrics do you track for yourself? What is the frequency?
Describe one or two of the most difficult challenges and/ or rejections you’ve faced in the past and how you
Criteria
Ability to Close
Ability to Close
Ability to Close
Ability to Close
Ability to Close
Ability to Qualify
Ability to Qualify
Ability to Qualify
Ability to Qualify
Ability to Qualify
Coachability
Coachability
Coachability
Coachability
Coachability
Industry Intelligence
Industry Intelligence
Industry Intelligence
Industry Intelligence
Industry Intelligence
Job Fit
Job Fit
Job Fit
Job Fit
Job Fit
Leadership / Teamwork
Leadership / Teamwork
Leadership / Teamwork
Leadership / Teamwork
Leadership / Teamwork
Objection Handling
Objection Handling
Objection Handling
Objection Handling
Objection Handling
Passion / Desire
Passion / Desire
Passion / Desire
Passion / Desire
Passion / Desire
Resilience
 Resilience
Resilience
Resilience
Resilience
Preparation
Preparation
Preparation
Preparation
Preparation
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Work Ethic
Work Ethic
Work Ethic
Work Ethic
Work Ethic
Role Play Scenario
Negotiating With Difficult Prospects

Challenge Prospects on Why They’re Stuck

Get Comfortable "Breaking Up" With a Prospect

Players
1) Salesperson 2) Prospect

1) Salesperson 2) Prospect

1) Salesperson 2) Prospect
Guidelines
1) The person playing the difficult customer chooses two to four behaviors to use during the role play. Idea
changing your mind, bringing up irrelevant details, using critical language, becoming excessively loud, shu
2) Run a standard negotiation for 10 minutes.
3) Switch roles and go through the exercise again.
4) Switch roles and go through the exercise again.
5) Compare your notes. What worked? What didn't? Identify the most productive ways to respond to a hos

1) The person playing the prospect should choose which stalled behavior they’ve been exhibiting. Are they
Are they asking for more minor tweaks to the contract in the eleventh hour?

2) On several pieces of paper, write down and distribute the real reason a prospect is stalling (i.e., their bu
Stalled prospects have many different emotions when a salesperson pushes them to be honest. Anger, fru
3) Have each salesperson ask their prospect questions to understand why they’re being evasive. Question
priority for them at the moment. Is that the case here?” can help your prospects confront whether they do o
4) Once the salesperson understands why the prospect is stalling, and have successfully either moved the
prospects feel uncomfortable, and what they could do better next time.

1) Write down a variety of situations in which you would need to break up with a prospect. Perhaps your pr
ready for your offering (but might be in a year or two).
2) On separate slips of paper, write down possible prospect responses, including anger, dismay, and thank
3) Choose who will play the salesperson and who will play the prospect(s), and cycle through these slips o
4) At the end of each exercise (when a resolution has been reached), write down what worked and what di
Question
How do you know this person and how long have they worked with you?
Can you tell me a little more about this person's job responsibilities when you worked together?
Do you feel this person is qualified to serve as a [job title] at our company? Why or why not?
How did this person support their coworkers?
Do you remember a situation where this person put the team first?
Would you say this person elevated the average of the team?
What did this person excel in and what areas do you feel they need to improve?
Can you tell me about this person's performance as a sales person? How often did they beat quota? How
What this person ever promoted while working at company XYZ?
What did this person fail to do in their current position? What this failure preventable?
Did this person demonstrate a desire for growth in their current position?
What unique skills did this person possess?
Would you hire/buy from this person again?
Are there any concerns you think we should be aware of before hiring this person?
Is there anything that I haven’t asked? Anything else I should keep in mind?
Criteria
Job Fit
Job Fit
Job Fit
Leadership / Teamwork
Leadership / Teamwork
Leadership / Teamwork
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Prior Success / Competitiveness
Passion / Desire
Passion / Desire
Passion / Desire
Work Ethic
Work Ethic
Work Ethic