You need absolute rock stars to build a strong sales team. That includes consistent quota hitters, thick-skinned rejection handlers, and persistent sales hunters, farmers, and trappers.
As the sales hiring manager, you know it’s risky to hire just anyone. The wrong candidates can keep your company from meeting important business goals.
To help you build a world-class sales team, we created this list of hiring-manager-approved sales interview questions so you can find the best candidates for your organization.
Table of Contents
Identifying candidates with strong technical skills is vital. These sales reps will be able to thoroughly understand your products. They can also explain your products in ways that meet customers' specific needs. Use these questions to identify those who know their craft vs. those who claim to.
With this question, you can gauge the candidate's level of preparation and understanding of the industry. It also shows if the candidate learns from renowned industry leaders and publications.
Even if the target market of their last job differs from yours, this will show their ability to find and keep up with relevant trade publications and blogs. Dig deeper and ask for recent information they’ve learned from one sales publication.
This question helps you evaluate the candidate's confidence and ability to think on their feet.
While this technically isn’t a question, assessing whether the candidate can effectively demonstrate a concept or process is essential. Listen to hear how concisely they can explain the topic.
Here, you'll assess the candidate's ability to balance and prioritize tasks. It also shows if the candidate is more of a sales hunter, farmer, or trapper.
Certain companies and roles call for people who are better at farming or hunting. However, you should look for someone who can do both, as these skills are essential to sales.
Here, you can assess the listening capabilities of the candidates. To ask good questions, reps must listen.
Good salespeople spend more time asking questions than pitching. Look out for reps who mention that they listen to understand a prospect’s needs before asking questions.
You can see if the candidate has a thick skin to accept lots of rejection without losing momentum.
Preparing to deal with objections — instead of improvising — is critical. Listen for evidence of a process.
This question helps you find candidates who follow sales trends and align with what’s working, like social selling.
Social selling is becoming critical in all industries. If the candidate has yet to use social channels to research prospects or look for leads in the past, make sure they are willing to learn.
You’ll find out if the candidate knows the role of content in building relationships, establishing credibility, and beginning sales conversations.
Again, it's not necessarily a deal breaker if the salesperson doesn’t actively share and engage with content on their social media accounts. However, they should be receptive to doing so.
This question shows candidates who can identify excellent icebreakers, create a positive atmosphere for prospects, and personalize communication.
Neglecting to use LinkedIn to research clients is not a viable option in today’s sales environment. Ensure candidates are searching for personal commonalities besides professional information.
You can identify candidates with a heightened sense of ownership and those who know how to get things done without supervision.
The answer to this question doesn't have to blow you away. However, the candidate should have an action plan to get started. No matter how much training you provide, it’s still smart to hire a self-starter when you can.
Here, you can see which candidates can find gaps in your organization and propose solutions.
This sales interview question serves two purposes: You'll learn how much research the candidate did before meeting with you, and you can see their creative thinking and entrepreneurial capabilities.
This question reveals the candidate’s understanding of your company’s mission and their ability to communicate them to potential customers.
This is another question that shows how much research your candidate has done on the company. If they can’t even slightly articulate the benefits of your product/service, it might mean you need to move on.
This question gives proactive, self-motivated candidates a chance to shine. You can see who has an excellent professional development ethic and who seeks ways to improve as a salesperson.
You want to hire salespeople who are hungry for new skills and eager to learn better selling strategies. This question helps you find those people. Listen to how thoroughly they describe what they’ve learned and ask which tools they used to learn about it.
This question reveals candidates who know how to identify a prospect’s need, budget, and decision-making capabilities.
Answers will differ based on what the candidate is selling and whom they’re selling to. But their response lets you gauge how they qualify prospects. It also gives you a sense of their sales training and instincts.
Candidates must be able to ask focused questions that decipher whether a prospect is a good fit.
Situational questions let you assess each candidate’s skills and personality. By asking these questions, you can learn what type of attitude the candidate can bring to the team and your customers.
Candidates can show their understanding of the sales process, their sales experience, and how they would adapt to different situations.
Short cycles call for reps that can close quickly, and long sales cycles require a much more careful, tailored approach. They’re drastically different, and your candidate should recognize this.
Everyone can claim they are rejection-tolerant. However, this question sifts those who are from those who aren’t.
The right answer depends on your company's process. However, the more persistent a rep is, the better. Trish Bertuzzi, the founder of The Bridge Group, recommends six to eight attempts before throwing in the towel.
This question assesses the resilience and positivity of the candidate despite going through tough days.
Appraise the person’s attitude toward rejection. Do they need time to shake off an unpleasant conversation? Or do they bounce back immediately? Know the strategies they use to recover and move on.
This question shows the candidate understands your product and is keen on having a strong, qualified pipeline of potential customers.
Selling to everyone and anyone — especially if a salesperson the prospect isn’t a fit — is a recipe for disaster. Make sure your candidate is comfortable turning business away if the potential customer isn’t a good match.
This question uncovers highly motivated candidates who are driven to succeed and have a process for bouncing back from failure.
Everyone has had bad spells, so beware of someone who claims they’ve never experienced a downturn. There’s nothing wrong with a temporary slump, provided the candidate learned from it.
This question helps you know if the candidate uses customer feedback, rather than guts, to improve their sales process.
Following up on deals to learn how to do better next time boosts the odds of winning in the future. A salesperson who takes the time to learn from both their successes and failures will be a valuable addition to your team.
Everyone will have some difficult prospects. Knowing how candidates deal with this prevents you from hiring people who’ll lose valuable leads in your sales pipeline.
The answer to this question shows how candidates approach difficult prospects. If they can put aside their pride to move a deal forward for the company's greater good, that’s a great sign.
Listen for a logical explanation of the situation, the steps they took to fix it, and the results of their actions.
The level of ambition and drive of a potential hire is crucial. You want people who can hit quotas but also those who’ll exceed their quotas by many miles.
Want to build a team of rock stars? Hire people who are thinking about going above and beyond their job description. This question is less about getting a certain answer and more about seeing how and if a candidate thinks outside their specific job duties.
This question provides insights into a candidate’s motivation, interests, goals, and entrepreneurial spirit.
Many salespeople get into the profession because they’re aspiring entrepreneurs. You’ll learn about their future goals and motivators by asking candidates about a fictional company. You’ll also get a taste of how they pitch business ideas.
You’ll find out if a candidate has cultural competence, can adapt to different communication styles, and can serve a diverse customer base.
Salespeople should be able to work with any customer, no matter their cultural background. By asking candidates how they’ve handled these scenarios, you’ll learn if they’re fit to work in a diverse and inclusive manner — and if they see the value of this skill.
Finding candidates who understand the nature of inside sales is an advantage over reps without that type of experience. These questions are more complex and assess how the sales rep candidates have worked through adversity.
This question shows candidates who use data to back up their communication skills and move prospects down the sales pipeline without being sales-y.
Get insight into how they approach and maintain prospect relationships. Communicating over email or via the occasional voicemail is table stakes. But if a candidate claims to collect lead intelligence and build strong rapport over the phone, that’s a good sign.
This question assesses the candidate’s ability to create innovative ways of pitching products instantly and addressing objections fast.
Anything. It could be the classic “Sell me this pen” or “Sell me what you had for lunch today.” Letting them choose what they sell turns a tired question into a glimpse of how well your candidate thinks on the spot.
A great candidate will ask qualifying questions like “What problem are you trying to solve?” and “What are you looking for in X product?” before selling the product.
You’ll get insight into a candidate’s understanding of the sales process, their level of experience, knowledge of sales methodologies, and their ability to manage the sales cycle from start to finish.
Look out for how well your candidate understands and considers the sales process. They should also explain how they organize their thoughts and communicate complicated concepts.
Do they explain their process clearly? And do they cover the key steps: prospect, connect, research/evaluate, present, and close? These are two things you should look for in their answer.
You’ll see how candidates handle objections and their ability to treat tough conversations with potential clients effectively. The ability to listen and show empathy takes center stage here.
Every salesperson has at least one objection that plagues them. Did the candidate listen to the prospect’s concerns? Did they validate them? Did they help them reach a different conclusion?
The answer to this question tells a lot about how your candidate solves problems and thinks strategically.
This question helps you assess a candidate's ability to communicate, present product information clearly, and convince prospects to buy.
Selling is about more than listing a product's or service's benefits and features. This question lets your candidate show how well they can share knowledge and walk you through a new concept.
Can they communicate the concept effectively? Do they have a deep understanding of it? If they nail the description and are genuinely interested in explaining the concept, they should excel in explaining your product to prospects.
This question highlights the candidates’ wins and shows how they closed the customer.
Aim to better understand the candidate’s thought process. Their answers should showcase their strengths using a real-life example.
This question assesses a candidate’s ability to see loss as a learning experience.
Everyone loses deals, and it’s okay to talk about it. This question aims to dive into the lessons the candidate has learned and how they have improved their sales techniques from less-than-stellar deals.
You’ll see the candidate’s ability to take initiative and bounce back to hitting their quota after a poor month.
Look for processes that showcase the problem-solving skills of candidates.
Candidates can’t escape rejections. If this happens for an entire day, you need to know how they’ll deal with it.
Rejections are going to happen in this job, and this question can help you get an idea of the candidate’s mindset and how they motivate themselves during slumps.
This question helps you know candidates who can introduce themselves quickly, establish rapport, and use a positioning statement to instigate a response.
Phone calls don’t always go through to the prospect or even a gatekeeper. Reps are going to encounter the voicemail inbox many times during the day. This question can give you insight into how the candidate turns a negative (no connection) into an opportunity.
Watch for how they pique interest and show value while setting expectations for the next touchpoint.
This question shows a candidate builds rapport, establishes trust, and gathers vital sales information from prospects.
While this question may be tough to answer on the fly without information about a company or product, the rep should still be able to provide an idea of how they’d qualify prospects.
These interview questions evaluate if a candidate has the right motivation for the job. You’ll learn what drives the candidate to work hard and gain a better understanding of their ability to perform.
This question shows a candidate’s values and priorities. Some will opt for customer satisfaction over quota and vice versa.
Depending on your company’s goals, either answer could be right. But beware of reps who prioritize quotas over truly giving customers what they need — or withholding what they don’t.
This question helps you know if their weaknesses will be a problem. For instance, if cold calling is central to your process, a candidate who abhors it won’t be a fit for your company.
If their least favorite part is the most important part at your company, that’s probably a red flag. Ask them what they do to simplify their least favorite part of the process or make it more enjoyable. This question can also alert you to weak areas.
This question helps you align and match a candidate’s core values with yours.
Money, achievement, helping customers, being No. 1 — there are a lot of potential answers to this question. What makes an excellent answer versus a bad one will hinge on your company’s culture.
For instance, if teamwork is an important aspect of your sales team, a candidate who is driven by internal competition might not be a great fit.
You’ll find out if you can provide growth opportunities at a pace that matches what candidates want.
A lack of growth opportunities can cause salespeople to look for new jobs. If the candidate expresses a desire to pursue a career move your company can’t provide, you might interview again sooner than you’d like.
This question dives into the personal motivations of a candidate and helps you decipher if a candidate wants to be in sales for the long haul.
While perhaps part of the motivation, commission is not a brilliant response to this question. An excellent answer will include a personal story or real-life example illustrating why the candidate chose sales as a career path.
This question identifies candidates who prefer to be lone wolves versus those who believe in teamwork.
Collaboration might be less important at some organizations than others, but candidates who aren't willing to collaborate at all likely won’t make pleasant co-workers. Their uncooperative attitude will also block knowledge sharing.
This question reveals candidates' interpersonal skills, which are crucial for building and maintaining relationships with team members.
Conducting a business means working with all types of salespeople. You want a candidate who recognizes and respects these differences. Their response can tell you if they’re ready to join a winning team full of diverse individuals.
This question shows candidates who researched your company and know who you sell to.
Look for responses that describe an ideal buyer versus a demographic with no tie-in to the buying process. Depending on your product or service, the second type of response might pose a problem.
This question identifies candidates with a growth mindset.
Being thrown for a loop by this question is a sign your candidate isn’t a lifelong learner — an increasingly important trait for salespeople. An ideal candidate should communicate their willingness to learn and grow in their role.
This question proves customers love the awesome personality of your potential hire.
Listen for synonyms of “helpful,” as a consultative sales approach is becoming important in modern sales. It’s a plus if the candidate provides examples of when they exemplified each trait.
This question gives you an overview of a candidate’s last employer.
You’ll learn a lot about what the candidate values, how they work with others, and what kind of leadership they thrive under. If they complain about long hours or rigid goals and your company thrives off the energy created by late nights and challenging numbers, it’s probably not the right fit.
You’d also want to know if their previous employer had a culture that was inclusive or accepting of people from different backgrounds. You want to bring on talent that is already familiar with your team culture. If the client was not in an inclusive environment, look for a constructive response on how the last company could have done better.
This question dives into a candidate’s expectations from their management. It also tells you the management and leadership style a candidate vibes with.
Asking a candidate to describe their ideal manager shows you how autonomous they are, how they approach working relationships, and how they overcome challenges. Look for a candidate who can work independently and is comfortable taking direction from their higher-ups.
This question shows candidates who may have the exact values you want in a salesperson.
To learn where their moral compass lies, look for answers like “putting the needs of the prospect first,” “patience,” and “humility.” You want candidate values to align with company values to ensure a good fit.
This might seem like a huge ask, but the answer illustrates your candidate’s values and motivations.
If the candidate tells a story of overcoming great odds to achieve a specific goal, that signals a driven and highly motivated salesperson. If a candidate’s most valuable accomplishment is finishing all seven seasons of The West Wing, you should probably move on.
Sales directors must be capable of developing and implementing strong sales strategies for a team. Use these questions to gauge their understanding of the market, trends, and their confidence to deliver.
You can see which managers help their teams hit their quotas.
An effective sales executive should be able to manage and inspire a team. As they share attributes about their management style, consider if these traits fit your company culture and the needs of your team.
You can identify managers who can turn underperforming reps into quota crushers.
Sales leaders are often responsible for inspiring and motivating reps. The answer to this question should give valuable insight into how they would develop their team members who need a little extra help to reach their goals.
This question reveals a candidate’s ability to enact change and handle resistance from reps who want to stick to the old processes.
You can gain valuable insight into how they handle change management. You want to ensure your sales leaders can effectively manage the implementation of new systems and that they can address the concerns of your sales team during said transitions.
This question highlights a candidate’s leadership strengths and lets them share what differentiates them from other sales leaders.
Look for specifics. An excellent sales manager must have done many appraisals and identified their superpower over the years.
This question allows the candidate to provide insights into valuable lessons learned.
Every successful sales professional has had to pivot at some point. Keep an eye out for the unique lessons they share.
This question vets for team builders who every rep can count on.
As a leader, establishing trust with a new team is essential to the job description. The answer to this question will tell you how your candidate approaches building trust and how important teamwork is to them.
This question gives you insights into what kind of innovation the candidate is bringing to the table.
You want to bring in the best and the brightest. So look out for thoughtful answers to show preparation and familiarity with your company’s current practices.
This question shows how the potential sales director uses feedback to iterate on their processes and drive results.
Although difficult feedback can be challenging to give and receive, it can be necessary to grow in one’s career. Having the candidate share feedback they’ve taken to heart and acted upon lets you glimpse how they’ve grown over time.
This question gives insight into how a candidate thinks about the problem and the steps they’d take to correct the toxicity, underperformance, or both.
In a management or executive role, the candidate will frequently face situations like this. On the one hand, you want your team to meet their targets. On the other hand, a toxic team member can bring negativity into an organization (even if they’re exceeding quotas).
There’s no right answer to this question; it will depend on the candidate and the situation.
This question reveals a potential manager who can make the tough call when necessary.
See how the candidate approaches team management as a leader, even when there are tough decisions to be made.
You need to bring on sales reps that will advocate for your product on a technical level. When asking software sales questions, assess the candidate for their experience, understanding of metrics, and their ability to create a strong narrative behind the software for a client.
This question helps understand which candidates can learn about products quickly.
The field of tech is constantly changing. This question gives you a good idea of how your candidate would take steps to learn about new product offerings.
This question assesses the communication skills of the candidate.
The ability to explain complex concepts is an art for software sales reps. Have the candidate discuss a hypothetical situation where they explain a software offering to you in easy-to-understand terms.
You’ll see which candidates can find gaps in software and propose solutions.
You want a team of creative problem-solvers and innovators. This question allows your candidate to share their ideas, which ideally translates to how they would share ideas as a member of your team.
This question identifies candidates with a growth mindset who learn from the sales industry's best.
Individuals committed to continuous learning make inspiring team members. By asking this question, you get a glimpse into what kind of content the candidate consumes and how they continue to build their skills.
To hire a well-rounded sales rep, you have to ask the right questions to see how a candidate really thinks. This will help you improve your team’s performance and help you hit your business goals.
We hope you’ll use this guide in your next round of interviews — and find the candidates you’ve been looking for.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.