Behavioral Sales Interview Questions
Confidence, self motivation, persuasiveness, impressive presentation skills, strong interpersonal skills, ability to negotiate etc. are some of the prerequisites for a sales professional. Behavioral interviewing is an integral segment of a sales interview that reviews the behavior of a salesman in a particular situation.
Situational questions are asked to gauge your technique of handling situations and consequent reactions. Behavioral questions, thereby review your skills. Here are some of the situational interview questions that can be asked.
- Describe recent presentation that you have made.
Briefly talk about your presentation that was highly appreciated and commended by the target audience. Give specific details about your preparation for the presentation, like your research, analysis and compilation of data, the manner in which the data was presented etc. Establish the importance of good presentation skills that positively influence the potential clients.
- During a presentation, what would you do if you realize that you have gathered some wrong information? How would you rectify your mistake?
Providing wrong information in a presentation can cause drastic damage to the company's reputation. Hence, begin your answer by saying that you would apologize for the error, verify the facts and continue with the presentation by replacing the errors with correct information.
- How would you convince a customer of a product's reliability?
Here, the interviewer seeks your convincing power. Your response should reflect the ability to make the product desirable in the eyes of the customer and, convince him about the quality and performance of the product.
- Describe a problem that you have faced with potential clients. What was your approach? And, what was the outcome?
Choose to speak about an incident with a favorable outcome. Explain your approach to the problem and the manner in which it was resolved. Your response should demonstrate your effective communication skills and logical thinking process.
- How do you achieve your monthly sales target?
This question aims at bringing out your planning techniques. Achieving monthly target is praise-worthy and it requires accurate planning. Present a meticulous outline of your plan to the interviewers.
- Tell me about an instance where you had to handle a group of unsatisfied customers.
Appeasing a single unsatisfied customer is a task. Therefore, solving problems faced by a group of customers requires immense patience and resilience. You must propose a step by step solution to such a problem.
- Tell me about a deal that took a very long time to negotiate. What was the result?
Negotiations are a crucial part of the sales sector. Again, this question challenges your persuading technique and communication skills. Thus, provide the interviewers with an example that highlights these skills.
- Describe a situation where you were unsuccessful in closing a sale.
Elaborate your experience of an unsuccessful sale and provide reasons for the same.
- How did you feel when all your attempts to make a sale failed?
Naturally, a salesman feels a lot disappointed when his sincere efforts to make a sale fail. You can admit your initial dejection. However, be sure to say how that incident turned into a valuable learning experience.
- Give me an example of how your assertiveness influenced a difficult sale.
An optimistic approach and a positive attitude are the two inherent qualities found in sales professionals. Make sure your example underlines these two qualities.
