10 Interview Questions for Salespeople That Help You Identify Top Talent

There’s no denying the importance of a great salesperson. Hiring the right one can translate into your sales team’s success. They can build strong customer relationships and be the driving force behind your company’s growth and revenue.

However, identifying the right candidate in a competitive job market can take time and effort. To do this, you should craft different types of interview questions for salespeople to elicit the right information during interviews. This can help you make the right choice when hiring onsite or remote salespeople for your company.

10 Interview Questions for Salespeople

Sales representatives make good interviewees, and there’s no surprise why. They connect with their audience daily, speaking to their pain points and overcoming objections. Salespeople can apply these same tactics to nail your interview and get a job offer.

Whether you are a seasoned hiring manager or just starting to build your sales team, here are some of the best sales interview questions to help you identify top talent:

1. What Makes You a Good Sales Rep?

This question requires candidates to sell themselves, demonstrating their skills and competencies. Candidates should be able to explain why they stand out from the rest of the applicant pool. Listen carefully to their language, tone, and delivery as you pick up comments about important qualities such as good communication skills, the ability to listen, and trustworthiness.

2. Can You Pitch Our Company’s Product to Me?

Roleplaying when hiring salespeople can help assess their abilities to create innovative pitches under pressure, and this question also helps you determine how much the applicant prepared for the interview. It’s a prime chance to see every candidate in action and identify the ones with the most compelling pitches. A great candidate might include statistics and social proof, highlight the benefits of your products or services, and address how they connect with customer needs.

3. How Do You Know a Prospect Isn’t the Right Fit?

To meet their quotas, your sales reps should be able to identify worthwhile leads from miles away. What makes a prospect stand out? What criteria do they use to filter prospects? How do they decide where to focus their energy? This will enable you to gauge whether candidates effectively use their time and resources in light of prospect characteristics.

4. How Do You Follow Up With a Prospect After Losing a Deal?

The golden rule of an effective sales team is to follow up on follow-ups. In fact, research shows that approximately 60% of customers reject offers four times before buying, and 80% of successful sales require five or more follow-ups.

Salespeople should expect and embrace “no” and understand that lost deals don’t mean lost relationships. They should understand the prospect’s needs and demonstrate a positive attitude, creating a clear follow-up plan that shows an unwavering commitment to maintaining customer relationships.

5. Would You Rather Close a Guaranteed $10,000 Deal or Try Your Luck at a $100,000 Deal?

The answer to this hypothetical question tests a candidate’s viewpoint on strategic planning and risk management. Will they settle for a safe deal, or will their eyes light up when they think of big numbers? A candidate should be able to recognize opportunities for both small and big deals and account for factors such as possible rewards and resources required.

The correct answer to this question may depend on the nature of your business and the type of deals your sales representatives handle. A great salesperson should flex their abilities and close both deals while maintaining relationships with both prospects. They should also be able to identify the most viable deal for the company.

6. What’s More Important: Achieving Your Quota or Keeping Customers Happy?

This interview question evaluates a candidate’s values and priorities. Some candidates prioritize their quota over satisfaction and vice versa. Ideally, you should aim for candidates who wish to balance both.

If a sales rep hits their quota, but their clients are dissatisfied, they may not hit that quota for much longer. The connection between a salesperson’s quota and customer satisfaction highlights the role happy customers play in achieving targets through repeat purchases and positive feedback.

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7. Which Sales Metrics Do You Focus on and Why?

Ask candidates about specific numbers that matter in sales, such as customer acquisition costs and monthly recurring revenue. An ideal sales candidate should explain why these key performance indicators are important and how they help them improve in their sales job. This question also enables you to understand whether they are focused on the right metrics, such as the number of meetings set, rather than insignificant ones, like the number of dials per day.

8. How Do You Keep Up With Your Target Audience?

A salesperson should know what customers want. The best salespeople never stop learning, no matter their industry. They back up their pitches with facts and statistics about their products or services. Beyond current trends, experienced sales reps look to the future and position their products to meet current and future customer needs.

9. What’s Your Favorite and Least Favorite Part of Being a Sales Rep?

Asking a sales candidate this question helps identify potential strengths and weaknesses, such as their dislike for certain aspects of the job. You can learn what motivates them, what they find rewarding, and what comes effortlessly. It also clues you into what does the opposite, be it preparing sales reports, getting last-minute rejections, or meeting with unenthusiastic clients.

Look for candidates who can open up about their dislikes while demonstrating adaptability and problem-solving abilities to address and overcome them.

10. What’s Your Proudest Sales Achievement?

This question allows candidates to highlight career milestones. Did they exceed their sales targets or attain unprecedented customer satisfaction scores? Did they land a huge client or deal for their former employer?

With these answers, you can understand their track record, work ethic, morals, and capacity, as well as the work environment that helped them excel. An ideal candidate should respond with passion and a sense of accomplishment.

Hire the Right Team With These Interview Questions for Salespeople

Hiring salespeople can be challenging, but with the right questions and mindset, you can find the best team to drive business growth and success.

Explore our Resource Center for more interviewing guidance, or start your search for qualified sales talent today with iHireSalesPeople. We are dedicated to helping businesses like yours find the right hires!