Sales Behavioral Interview Questions

In today’s evolving landscape, finding the right talent for your sales organization is critical. If you’re looking for key questions to ask during an interview, here’s a list we consider to be the top 10:

Describe when you realized your passion for sales
Explain your process for closing sales. How has it evolved?
Describe your process of negotiating terms with a client
What is the most challenging sale you’ve made?
Give an example of a sales goal you have set for yourself

Tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult customer

Tell me about a time where you had to adapt to a significant change. How did you handle it?
Tell me about a presentation you’ve given that you’re most proud of
Tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult customer
How do you handle conflicts between members of your sales team?
Outline your organizational skills and your daily routine

A Pitch Template That Stands the Test of Time

Today, buyers are more demanding than ever. They have shifted how they buy. Old-school tactics like scripted sales pitches and cold calls just don’t cut it anymore. Your sales team needs to be armed with the tactics and technology to stop chasing after buyers and start making it easy for them to buy. Hiring the right people who can build and perfect a sales pitch is the first step in achieving success. Here’s a framework to discuss with prospects.

Present Content that Resonates
Access content tailored to the prospect’s business challenges and unique needs

Include Advisors that are Prepared
Provide personalized expert advice that goes beyond a generic sales pitch

Start Conversations that Add Value
Be prepared to have consistent, high-quality conversations with every member of the customer’s team

Encourage Interactions that are Engaging
Collaborate during and after the meeting on the perfect solution for your customers’ business

How to succeed in sales

While there are many factors to successful selling, there are 4 top principles to consider. In simple terms, those 4 principles are: know your customers, know your products, know your solutions and build long-term relationships.

To know your customers, you need to research the marketplace and your customer, of course. Even more importantly, you need to experience your customers’ products and services. All the reading and research in the world won’t match actually experiencing your customers’ products and services.
To know your products requires focus and effort. It’s imperative that you understand the features and functionality of the products you’re selling. This can be especially challenging as the product you’re selling may evolve over the course of the sales cycle. Don’t rely on others in your organization to explain the value of your product to your customer. You must have this knowledge and the ability to expertly explain the features, benefits, and unique advantages of your product.
Beyond knowing your products, you must know how your products can become solutions to your customers’ needs. It’s not up to your customer to connect the dots for you. You need to be able to articulate how your product delivers solutions to real business problems. Often this means being able to provide relevant case studies and success stories at the right time and in the right words.
Ultimately, successful enterprise selling requires the building and nurturing of strong, long-term relationships.

During an interview, ask a candidate about these directly (or indirectly) to get a sense of their familiarity with the principles.

Challenges of selling?

There’s no denying, modern selling entails many formidable challenges. During an interview, ask how the prospect has handled these challenges. Facilitate an open conversation with the candidate. Understanding their level of comfort with the challenges is an important part of the interview process.

Sales cycles are nearly always lengthy, from many months to oftentimes more than a year.
The discovery process is far more complicated and involved than that required for a smaller, transactional sale.
The requirement for social proof and projected ROI is far more important in enterprise selling than in transactional selling.
Things change! Over the course of a lengthy enterprise sales cycle, the customer’s business, its decision-makers, the external business environment, your products, your pricing, your sales team and the positioning of your competitors may change, all with the potential to impact the outcome of your enterprise sales efforts.
Selling to a large company almost always means multiple decision-makers and often the very real and active presence of office politics. It can be challenging to identify key influencers from the outside and then win their support.

Pitching in Different Scenarios

An important step in being able to articulate a strong pitch is understanding how to tailor your pitch to different scenarios. Ask about the prospect’s familiarity with these four main pitching scenarios.

Short Customer Story Pitch: This is the pitch you will do most often during calls
Long(er) Customer Story Pitch: This is the pitch you will use if you have a longer more in-depth call
Industry/Persona Led Pitch: You will use this pitch when someone just wants to know what the product does from a practical high-level perspective, but you still want to tailor to their persona/industry or using your research
Elevator Pitch (General): You will use this pitch when your prospect is impatient and you can tell they are annoyed and won’t really listen until you give them a high-level explanation of the product

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