Sales Representative Interview Questions

This is the standard screening question for commission-only roles.

Answer honestly. Saying yes when you haven't produces a resignation in month two, and the interviewer has seen it before. If you haven't, say so and say what makes you ready for it — savings that cover a ramp, or previous experience with a heavily variable package.

Reported by candidates at SGS North America as an expectations question and, more bluntly, at CTP Distributors as "will you accept $54,000 yr?"

Have a researched range. And interrogate the commission structure as hard as the base — see the questions to ask, below.

Reported by candidates at Comcast, and it has exactly one right answer.

Say no, clearly, and then say why it's also commercially stupid: false sales surface at installation or collection and cost more than the deal was worth. Don't philosophise; the philosophising is the failure.

Also reported by candidates at Comcast. If the role is field or door-to-door, they're checking you know what you applied for. Don't pretend it's glamorous. Say what you like about the immediacy of it.

Ask what the territory boundaries actually are before you agree to anything.

Reported by candidates at Cbeyond, Comcast and ADP in near-identical phrasings — one of the most consistently asked questions in the entire role.

Reported by candidates at Johnson & Johnson. A Wyeth candidate reported being asked about their most difficult sale.

Pick a real loss you understand. The trap is blaming price — the reflex of everyone who never analysed the loss. Stronger by far is naming your own error: you never reached the decision-maker, you qualified too late, you assumed a budget you never confirmed. Then say what you changed.

Reported by candidates at Charter Communications ("a time when you had to deal with an upset customer") and at TBWA\Chiat\Day (a client who felt the creative work didn't meet expectations).

In sales this question is usually really about promises. Show that you went in person and fixed the cause, not the mood.

Keep it procedural. Sales teams have territory and account disputes constantly; the useful answer is about how it got resolved without a manager having to arbitrate.

Both reported by candidates at Stryker.

Deliberately uncomfortable, and the point is your reaction rather than your answer. Stay level. A flat denial reads as dishonest; an over-eager confession reads as unstable. Somewhere human in the middle is the pass.

The single most frequently reported question in this role, appearing at ADP (in several forms), Marcus Evans, Frito-Lay, EMC, Citysearch, Keyence, Techtronic Industries and Cook Medical.

Sales gives you an easier answer than any other profession: talk about their product as something you would sell. Who they compete with, who buys it, why you think you could move it. That answer does two things at once — it proves you researched, and it demonstrates you think like a seller.

Reported by candidates at ADP, DISH Network ("what makes a good sales person?") and Eli Lilly ("what does it mean to be a salesman?").

Avoid "I'm a people person" — that describes a receptionist. Sales is numbers, discipline and follow-up, and saying so out loud separates you from most of the room.

Both reported by candidates at ADP; strengths and weaknesses also at inVentiv Health and Griffin Greenhouse Supplies. "What pressures you?" is an unusually good question — answer it honestly and say how you manage it.

Show neither desperation nor indifference: you have a direction, and this role is a choice within it.

The object is improvised and the exercise is constant. Candidates reported being asked to sell a pen at Pfizer, a phone at Johnson & Johnson, and a foam cup at Keyence. Hewlett-Packard candidates reported a sales role play framed as "give me your best sales…"; at Bella Pictures it was "try to get me to come to the meeting."

Almost everyone fails this the same way: they start describing the pen.

Ask first. "Before I pitch you anything — when did you last need a pen and not have one? What do you mostly write, quick notes or signatures?" Then connect what you heard to the object. Then ask for the close, out loud: "I can do two for the price of one if you take them today. Shall we?"

Three moves — qualify, connect, close. Skipping the close fails the exercise even if everything before it was fluent, because asking is the entire difference between presenting and selling.

And if the object is absurd, don't get ironic about it. Playing it straight is exactly what's being measured.

At Dell, an inside sales candidate reported a simulation, on the grounds that the job is a call centre. Prepare a ten-second open: who you are, where you're from, and why you're worth sixty seconds.

Expect to be interrupted with an objection on purpose. That's the test, not rudeness.

Reported by candidates at Saba Software, where a candidate was asked for the company's elevator pitch and value proposition.

If you get this, it's a gift — preparation alone wins it. Walk in knowing what they sell, roughly what it costs, who competes with them, and who buys it.

Reported by candidates at Kforce, in almost exactly those terms.

This is a planning question, not an enthusiasm question. Answer with arithmetic: how you cluster the territory geographically, how many dials produce one meeting, which day you protect for scheduling. "I'd work hard" is a failed answer.

Know the numerator and the denominator — how many qualified opportunities entered, how many closed, over what period. If the ratio is unimpressive, give it with its context (new territory, new product, long cycle) rather than inventing a prettier one. Inflated numbers die on the follow-up question.

Real stages with real durations: first contact, qualification, proposal, negotiation, signature — how long each transition takes and who actually signs.

Reported by candidates at Blue Coat, and note it was asked open-ended.

Don't name-drop a framework you haven't worked in. Describe how you actually qualify: how you establish budget, how you find the decision-maker, what problem is costing them money today. A methodology described in your own words beats a recited acronym — and it survives the follow-up.

At OfficeMax, a B2B outside sales candidate reported being asked whether they had Fortune 500 C-level experience.

Be precise about the altitude you genuinely sell at. Claiming the C-suite and then describing a meeting with a procurement coordinator costs you the room instantly.

Reported in several forms by candidates: at Zillow, what they would do in prospecting; at Boston Scientific, what steps they take to develop leads in their territory; at VMware, framed as "let's say we put you in the territory…"

Name real sources — existing relationships, trade shows, referrals, LinkedIn, cold field visits — and then quantify the weekly output. The number is the answer.

A practitioner-sourced question rather than a company-attributed one, from a set crowdsourced from sales leaders. It's a good one because it's a trap for people who only know the metrics that flatter them. Name one you watch that isn't revenue.

Reported by candidates at YellowBrix ("do you like to cold call?") and Jan Marini ("how do you cold call?").

Don't claim to love it. Say you're good at it and demonstrate how: your opener, how you handle the first brush-off, and how many you do a day.

Reported by candidates at Johnson & Johnson, in a truncated form that reads as exactly this kind of impossible-account probe.

Show multiple entry routes — an end user rather than the buyer, an event, a referral from a shared customer, a trigger event inside the company. Persistence alone isn't a strategy.

Reported by candidates at Business Objects and MicroStrategy, the latter also asking how the candidate approaches new customers.