In the world of business, companies are required to constantly evolve their sales tactics to get the desired return on investment. Only through effective sales efforts can they stay ahead of the competition. This makes it all the more important to hire sales professionals with the right skills and expertise. A seasoned sales executive will have the in-depth product knowledge and an understanding of competitor products: They will also possess the ability to:
- Pitch products and help customers relate with the product
- Think quickly and address customer queries
- Transform prospective customers to consumers
- Achieve customer loyalty by maintaining a cordial relationship
- Receive customer feedback to improve products and services
Most of these abilities are innate but can also be nurtured through experience. You can make use of situation-based sales interview questions to assess if a candidate has the desired personality traits and abilities.
Sales Interview Questions
Here is a list of commonly-asked sales interview questions. These questions can help analyse personality traits such as self-awareness, empathy, ambition, conscientiousness, optimism, etc. A candidate’s answer to these questions can be subjective and will depend on their own experiences.
- What skills do you possess that distinguishes you from other members of your team?
- Explain a creative idea you use, to close a sale.
- How do you conduct a typical sales call?
- What difference can you make to this organisation if you are hired?
- Have you lost a deal? If yes, elaborate on that experience?
- What was the key take away from a deal that you lost?
- What is your opinion about making cold calls?
- What motivates/drives you?
- What was your most successful sale, and how did you achieve it?
- Sell me this “product”? (Now, this could be the classic pen or any other product of your choice.)
- Do you have any long-term career goals?
- What do you know about the products we offer in our company?
- What is our organisation’s USP?
- What makes you interested in this sales job?
- What is your opinion about long and short sales cycles
- What is the most rewarding factor about a sales job
- How do you update your knowledge of the target market?
- Do you use social media platforms for research, if yes, how?
- What are the steps you take to generate more leads
- What are the strategies you use to handle a demanding customer?
- What forms of communication do you use to follow up with clients?
- How do you build and maintain rapport with a prospective client?
- What are the essential skills a salesperson must-have?
- What is the least exciting thing about a sales job?
The candidate’s response to the interview questions should include personal examples of their sales achievements. Their answers should also reveal how they can help your organisation achieve its sales goals.
Use Online Assessment Tests to Evaluate Sales Skills
It is not an easy task to assess all of the above behavioural traits and skills through written tests or face to face interviews alone. Traditional recruitment methods are time-consuming, and they do not facilitate an elaborate analysis of character traits. Online assessment platforms simplify this task. It provides many sophisticated tools that enable secure, quick, and accurate sales candidate assessment. There are many sales interview questions available on these platforms that can be used to administer tests quickly and efficiently.
Applications of MeritTrac assessment solutions - hiring and workforce development
Assessment platforms create a dramatic shift in the way recruiters test, engage, and hire candidates. Finding the right sales talent is easier when you have the right tools. With readily available sales interview questions on assessment platforms, recruiters can cut down their hiring time in half. You can conduct a detailed analysis of the test results that are tabulated automatically to ensure accuracy and eliminate the chance of any bias in the evaluation. With such fast results, you can complete the hiring process quickly and improve your organisation’s sales outcomes.
MeritTrac’s assessment solutions also help you understand the training needs of existing employees. With timely assessment, you can quickly identify any skill gaps. The insights in the comprehensive test reports help to create training and development programs that can help sharpen the sales skills of the employees.
MeritTrac Solutions for Evaluating Sales Skills
Online assessment tools can help you recruit skilled sales personnel for your workforce. MeritTrac’s scientifically valid assessment platforms make it easy for you to narrow down the right-fit candidates. You can make use of the expert-curated sales interview questions or customise your own based on your hiring needs. By employing online assessment platforms, you will also be able to prevent a drop in your company’s sales that may result from hiring unfit candidates. Some of the popular platforms used for sales assessment are:
SSPQ, also known as the Sales Situational Personality Questionnaire, lets you evaluate six must-have personality traits of sales executives. The situational judgment questions featured in this test reveals a candidate’s sociability, integrity, motivation, flexibility, organisation skills at work, and stress tolerance. The top features of the sales situational personality questionnaire are:
- Suitable for different sales roles and job levels
- Enables detailed analysis with descriptive feedback
- Benchmark test scores against ideal candidate profile
Pariksha is an online examination software platform with smart features for efficient test administration. It offers a unified assessment platform where you can author, design, and deliver tests. The top features of Pariksha are:
- Secure and accelerated online assessment delivery
- Integrates with other tools and enables device-agnostic test-taking experience
- Smooth information exchange for improved QTI compliance
- Rapid results tabulation and report generation
SmartTest is a talent assessment platform that offers customizable catalogues. The top features of SmartTest are:
- 10,000 assessments to evaluate behavioural and cognitive skills
- Plug and play feature for use across platforms and devices
- Options to administer automated assessments
- Test delivery with catalogue selection, candidate mapping, and test delivery