Alternative Perspective for Interviewees

The content below provides interviewees for sales positions to properly prepare for forthcoming interviews.  The content is really adapable to other positions as well if you think about how the subject matter applies to you.

Source: Dave Dorman - The Ladders; 

Special Thanks to David Greenwald, President of i2i Placement

1.  How have you built a sales territory?

• Ideal answer:  You are looking for someone who can tell a story with real metrics and revenue.  The best answer can be recapped with specific examples and can be communicated ideally in the form of a PAR (problem, action and then result).
  

2.  Give me an example of an account you lost.

• Ideal answer:  You are looking for someone who can take ownership and responsibility and who can admit fault without arrogance.  The best answer includes the learnings they may have garnered from losing the specific account.
  

3.  What are your steps for finding and winning new business?  How do you get to the right decision makers?

• Ideal answer:  You are looking for an answer that includes a process; either categorizing their accounts by A, B and C accounts and/or an understanding (with examples) that sales has many moving parts and that it is a consistently changing process of evaluation and reevaluation.
  

4.  Give me an example of a risk that you had to take?  What were the reasons you decided to take that risk?

• Ideal answer:  Someone who can actually identify a risk (and their feelings about this risk) indicates how risk adverse they are and whether it could be a good match for your specific sales job.
  

5.  How do you establish good communication and information flow with others?

• Ideal answer:  You are looking for a bit of pushback; an answer that infers working with people the way THEY want to be worked.  The candidate needs to express, that they try to understand these people prior to how they will work with them, thus inferring that they are able to adapt differently with a variety of people.
  

6.  Describe a situation where you had to persuade others to your way of thinking.  What steps did you take?

• Ideal answer:  You are looking for someone who persuades diplomatically.  Listen for answers about how they would specifically question and probe, BEFORE they persuade.
  

7.  Have you ever had to turn down business and how did you handle it?

• Ideal answer:  You are looking for someone who has integrity and can readily give an example.  You want someone who admits that all prospects are not the right customer.
  

8.  How do you like to collaborate?  

• Ideal answer:  You are looking for someone who has the ability to both give and take.   The ideal candidate takes ownership and responsibility, has a thirst for learning, but also knows how to step back or retreat when given the right circumstances.
  

9.  How do you start your day?

• Ideal answer:  You are looking for someone who has structure and order to their day; there may not be one right answer, but rather a well-thought out approach of how they prioritize and plan their day.