Sales Interview Questions & Answers

Before attaining the interview I had to pass three tests, these were numerical, verbal reasoning and abstract.

Once passed there was a phone interview which lasted around 45mins this was conducted by a member of the recruitment team who laid out how the interview would work, the questions asked were expected, however it is important you have done your research to give the best possible answers also why you applied to them specifically so remember to be positive.

After the interview I was told my answered will be put against a set of criteria and if I matched it then I would progress to the next stage, once explained I proceeded to ask questions myself.

Describe a time where you were told to change in order to improve performance.

Interview tips:
Research, Research, Research! It is important you know about the company itself and specifically for the marketing job it is important to research marketing campaigns they have recently done and give your opinion on how you would change it or what was good about it, showing initiative.
Have questions prepared aswel to ask at the end to show your interest

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My telephone interview lasted around 30 minutes and was with the HR Business Partner for the North. She was very pleasant which made the experience a lot less stressful. As I was being interviewed for the role of an Account Manager there were a lot of questions regarding my experience working in retail. After I was successful I was asked to the Head Office in Manchester for a face to face interview with the same lady and the Regional Sales Manager. They were very friendly and again focused on my experiences working in retail. There was a lot of questions regarding progression and development and why I wanted to leave my current part time job.

What do you think are the three main issues for an Accounts Manager?

Make sure you link your answers to the company values: Integrity, Courage, Teamwork and Commitment. They offer a lot of training so its obvious they are interested in people who want to develop themselves, work their way up and progress. Saying you are mobile seemed to be a huge bonus as well.

I had a field day instead of attending an assessment centre. This was a chance for me to shadow somebody for the day to see if the role was something I would enjoy. I was picked up at half 8 by an Account Manager and spent the day asking her questions and seeing what the role involved. It was very enjoyable and extremely helpful as I have never known a company to do this.

The application process began with an array of competency questions which judged what I would do in given situations. The next step was an online testing platform which included numerical, pyschometric and verbal reasoning tests. The following stage was a telephone interview, this involved the interviewer getting an idea of my motivations as well as an understanding of what knowledge i had gained on the company. Other factors were tested including competency questions including what best motivates myself and give a situation where leadership and other qualities were expressed.
The next and final stage was a two day assessment centre. The first day was an opportunity to meet the other candidates and was not assessed. We were greeted by our recruitment manager who took us through a presentation on the company successes and what would be featured in the roles that we had applied for.

Get to know the organisation, how they operate, where and how. Search the internet for environmental influences and threats in their market as this was one area that i was recommended to look up after my telephone interview.

Be positive, confident and address each person you are presenting to and keep your presentation to the point and factual.

Try to contain your nerves, it helped to be relaxed in almost all of the exercises and I found taking an mp3 player while preparing for each exercise to be useful which was advised prior to the assessment day by the organisation.

try and think up as many potential questions as possible and think of answers, so you are prepared as much as you can be.

The assessment centre was an extremely pressurised experience. It involved 4 exercises including a face to face interview, a presentation which i had 45 minutes to absorb a large amount of information and then present for 20 minutes relating to it, I had a role play where I was required to adopt the role of a member of staff at the organisation convincing another colleague who was difficult to influence to adopt new practices and then a group exercise at the end of the day.

It was an intense experience where i had to draw on many capabilities that i have gained and put into practise while at university and I was particularly tested on my communication ability.

My phone interview consisted mainly of the caller describing the different groups within the company and their respective areas. I was asked why I thought I would be good for the job, whether I liked targets, and why sales. She then invited me to the assessment day and emailed over the details.

Why Sales?

Listen to other people and take on board all of the teaching they provide.
Be good at public speaking.

On the Assessment day we were split into two groups and had to complete an assortment of activities. A lesson about the use of open questions. A dragons den style interview in which we worked in pairs to pitch a product, they gave us a small metal object and we had 20 minutes to work out what it was and how we were going to sell it. We had to role-play a board meeting in which each of us were given a character and their goals, in the end we were questioned on the other peoples goals and personalities. We also had to do a one-on-one role-play in which we had to incorporate all that we had learned into a sales call to the interviewer. There were also question and answer sessions with the interviewers as a group.

My initial interview was with a member of the graduate recruitment team, this was basic questions about my motivation in applying for the job, skills and experience. On passing this I was required to pass a standard numerical test. Following this I was required to pass a role-play telephone interview in which I was required to sell a holiday to a member of the management team using a number of sales techniques. I was then invited into the office where a face to face interview was conducted with two members of staff. Detailed questions were asked regarding my CV, covering letter, motivations and experiences. Interviewers also explained the nature of the job, high pressure sales, working to targets, competition etc. as to assess whether I felt this was something I was comfortable with.

If you were hired to work with London and Country Mortgages which would you say you were more motivated by earning lots of money or by being promoted?

Be yourself throughout the interview process as by the time your face to face interview comes round you get to know interviewers prior to this fairly well on the phone. The face to face interview includes lots of challenging questions regarding other stages of the process, your CV and covering letter and therefore it is important to remain yourself throughout.

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I was initially rang so a date could be arranged for a phone interview. I thought this was good giving me time to prepare for the interview as best i could. I felt the interview was fairly straight forward with there being no curve ball questions so to speak, with all the questions being similar to those of what i had prepared for, such as what can you tell us about QA? What do you feel your main responsibilities would be in such a sales role? etc. Overall the interview lasted no longer than 15 minutes and was simply told they would get back to me.

Didn't feel any of the questions were particularly difficult in this case as i had prepared for them in advance. However if i had not done so i may have struggled slightly.

Overall the questions asked were pretty basic and simple so if you prepare in advance you should breeze through the interview. So just make sure you know what the company does and stands for, have a clear understanding of why you are interested in the sales sector (or whatever the position is you are applying for) and make sure you know what your main skills are and how they would be fully utilized in such a role.

There was no assessment center.

The interview consisted of someone going through your CV with you in detail asking you about your experience in sales and also why you think you are suited to this role. If successful in this stage a lady will send you an email confirming the second part of the interview, It will state a date and time and attached to the email will be a brief of a role play and questions you will need to prepare for.

When i was called back on a separate day for the second part of the interview, a lady went on to asked me some competency based questions. Such as describe a decision which you regret and what did you to avoid a repeat.

After this you had to perform the role play. You had to clearly explain the concept of Amazon merchant services, the key benefits of selling on amazon and the costs involved. You needed to act as the caller and the interviewer would act as a prospective business manager. The role play is roughly 15 minutes long and the purpose is to close a sale with the interviewer. They will not make it easy for you so be prepared to handle rejections and come up with solutions to their questions.

Describe an occasion where you had to structure a long term solution.

Make sure you have answers already prepared for the competency based questions as they will 100% ask you this. Also make sure you have practiced the role play previously with a family member or friend as you need to sound confident and sure of yourself. Also be prepared for extra questions to be added into the role play by the interviewer, try to improvise as best as possible and use your common sense to come up with an answer.

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The initial phone interview was straight forward and after a brief conversation about my CV i was asked to write a page on why i want to pursue a career in sales and why i felt i was more suitable than the other candidates applying for the role.

When is a time you have showed determination to achieve a goal?

Know as much as you can about DS Smith, show enthusiasm for the company. Also make sure to take a foot hold in the team exercises, there isn't time to sit back and allow others to take the lead.

The assessment center was by no means a short process. Proceedings began at 8.30 sharp and did not finish till gone 5. There were 12 of us in total, after a short initial briefing on how the day would plan out we were split into two teams of 6. The first team went to do a group exercise, whilst my group went to do our 1 on 1 interviews. There were two interviews, each with two managers of DS Smith. They made you feel relaxed and were easy to talk to, the interview questions were what you would expect, why is it you want to work for us? why have you chosen sales? along with going over the CV and so on. After this there was a team exercise where we were given a task to design a new supermarket store, most probably to see how we communicated, who would take the lead etc. They even provided lunch for us! after lunch there was another team exercise quite similar to the first. The final part of the day was a 6 minute presentation we had to do, we were notified in advance about this and had to do a presentation on a chosen business topic. Overall this was quite an enjoyable day and definitely a good experience.

On the initial phone interview. I was asked a serious of ten questions with a minute to answer each given question. The first few questions were basic and ones that you would expect to be asked in such an interview, questions like why did i apply for the role, what can i tell them about the company, why do i want to pursue a career in sales etc. After this the questions were ones i did not expect and did not plan for however did answer them comfortably. Questions were things like outside your academic achievements what is your greatest achievement? When have you had an idea and followed through with it?

What are your weaknesses? I always find this a difficult question, however recently i have decided this can be easily answered and even turned into a positive. Being a graduated my obvious weakness is my lack of experience in the sales sector, however you can then state how you feel the skills in which you have acquired through both university and any previous work experience can be fully utilized within your chosen sector.

I think preparation is essential when it comes to interviews, three things you need to know inside out. Why it is you want to pursue a career in your chosen industry, why it is you are suitable for that role and you need to have a clear and good understanding of the company you are applying for. I also recommend to be relaxed and just be yourself, at the end of the day if your not the right person for the organization, then they weren't right for you.

There were 12 of us altogether, we were split into two groups. The first group went of to do a team exercise whilst we were taken to a separate room to do a numerical test. The test was split into two sections, the first section being basic maths and the second being more scenario based. We were given around 30 minutes to complete it. Once this was done we went into another room to carry out the group exercise, we basically were given 10 options as to what we felt were important characteristics of a great sales person. We then as a group had to discuss and rank these qualities. 1 being the most important and 10 being the least. It was basically an exercise to see how well we communicated and put our point across. I personally felt it was a well constructed task and related well to the job in which we were applying for. Surprisingly after that we were sent home and there were no further interviews, i was quite surprised we were not interviewed individually given the size of the company.

The initial telephone interview lasted around 40 minutes with a member of the graduate recruitment team. It consisted of three parts: motivational questions, competency questions and what Nestle refer to as "strength based" questions. The motivational questions were pretty self explanatory, asking why I am interested in the role, what skills do I have to be successful in such a role, what do I understand about Nestlé's values etc. these took around 10 minutes. The competency questions were the usual teamwork, initiative, creativity etc which took probably the longest. The final part, the strengths based were more general questions (but personally I found more difficult to do well in) such as how important is teamwork, and some personality questions like reacting to management styles. Some of these were often followed up by asking for an example, similar to competency questions.
At the assessment centre interview with two senior sales managers began with general questions like what do you do in your spare time. The rest was very similar but with more challenging questions. For myself as I study law but applied for a sales position, was asked about why I'm not pursuing law and my interest in sales. My five years 6 years in sales heavy retail experience helped the difference between the two fields. The competency questions were more detailed than in the phone interview, such as describe a time when you acted to benefit both a client and the organisation you represented. The biggest difference was perhaps the heavier weighting of the strenghs based questions which took up the bulk of the interview with questions such as how important is networking and why, do you look to transfer your skills, why is it important to be able to work with people from different backgrounds etc again followed up by examples. The whole interview lasted for around one hour.

How would you deal with a team member who is not pulling their weight?

Ensure that you research the company thoroughly, in particularly their values. Also do not disregard the strength based questions and prepare as much as possible for them as Nestlé really like to distinguish themselves on those questions and place a lot of weighting on them. Ensure you have a genuine passion for the area you apply for as it will come up in the motivational questions. Think of plenty of examples and all should be well!

Apart from the introductory presentation and a networking lunch, the assessment centre was split into four tasks, a written exercise, a group exercise, presentation and interview. Each was given between 40-60 minutes. The individual written exercise was analysing reports and market research to respond to questions set by a fictitious supervisor. We were split into four groups of four for the group task which was a task about balancing and prioritising clients and their orders and then presenting to the assessors our decisions. The individual presentation required pitching a new product to potential clients. There were three products to choose from. The assessors were again two senior sales managers. They asked questions after the pitch, which then became a negotiation exercise with me and the "client" as to how many boxes to buy at what price etc. Though my assessors were reasonably cooperative, fellow candidates stated some of them had harsher questions and gave awkward responses to test their reactions. The panel interview is described above. The overall experience from the company was very friendly, the senior staff were more than happy to answer questions and interact with us which made the day less daunting.