To succeed in sales, you need to be articulate, competitive, ambitious, empathetic, possess a strong work ethic and have strong writing skills. Most of those skills and attributes will be evaluated during an interview, so acing your sales interview is a make-or-break point in your hiring process. Aside from the usual things you should do before and during an interview (like reading the job description and researching the role beforehand) there are some specific things you can do to increase your chances of your interview resulting in an offer.
Decide how you want to answer the questions, “Why sales?” and “Do you see yourself in sales long-term?”
During your interview, you will be asked about why you’re interested in a sales role as well as if your long-term career goals include sales. You should have a clear answer as to why you’re interested in the sales role you’re applying for. But when it comes to your larger career goals, the reality is you might be unsure if you want to stay in sales long-term – especially if you’ve never actually worked in sales. However, it’s never a good idea in an interview to treat the job you’re interviewing for as a placeholder. Even if you’re unsure if sales is in your future, emphasize how interested you are in client-facing roles, as well as roles that can directly impact the trajectory of an organization. Your interviewer will be looking for someone who can stay with the company for years to come, not someone who is likely to jump ship after a year on the job.
Prepare yourself to answer common sales interview questions
Most interviewers will ask you behavioral questions about your past experiences to discover evidence of traits that are a good fit for their entry-level sales role. This is where you can pull from the experiences of clubs, activities, internships, and former jobs to show off attributes like perseverance and work ethic. While you can’t predict which questions an interviewer will ask you, you can come up with some specific ideas beforehand if you’re aware of the kinds of questions you might be asked. Below are some common questions you could face in an interview:
- What’s an example of a challenge you faced in a past job or internship? How did you overcome it?
- What’s something you have worked extremely hard on and what was its result?
- How do you approach mastering a new skill?
- Describe a time when you faced rejection, and how you responded to it.
- If you’ve held a sales role before, what was a challenge you faced and how did you approach it?
- How would people you have worked with before describe you?
- How would someone who has managed you describe you?
- During an especially busy time, how have you managed work and life?
- How do your past experiences make you a good fit for this role?
Practice walking an interviewer through the past experiences on your resume
Your verbal communication skills are one of the big things a recruiter or hiring manager will assess during the interview. They’re looking for evidence that you can explain concepts concisely, as will be required by your role. One of the ways you can come across as well-spoken is by preparing to walk a recruiter through the past experiences on your resume.
Organizations are looking for competitive, hard workers with strong communication skills and perseverance to join their sales team. While walking your interviewer through your past experiences, highlight which experiences gave you the skill set that could make you a great fit for the sales role you’re applying for. Whether or not you had previous sales experience, here are a few examples of experiences or positions you might have held that you can highlight during your sales interview:
Previous sales experience: Having previous sales experience is heavily preferred by organizations. Discuss your responsibilities, accomplishments, and the top skills you came away from the job or internship with.
Previous outreach experience: Whether it was fundraising for a non-profit or working at a call-center, having experience in either area shows that you’re persistent and comfortable with cold outreach.
Elected positions: Any position that required you to articulate why you were the best person to fill a role can illustrate your strong communication skills.
Sports: Whether you played D1 or intramural, your involvement in sports shows off your competitive nature, strong work ethic, and ability to get back up when you’re knocked down. Handling rejection well is another key component to sales success – anyone who’s played sports knows what it’s like to lose but get out there to play another game.
Before your interview, practice describing your experiences out loud to ensure you’re explaining them concisely. You might consider recording yourself and listening to the audio before the interview, which gives you the chance to tighten up any spots where you tend to ramble.
Prepare for a timed writing assessment in addition to your interview
Entry-level sales roles require strong written communication skills which can only be assessed through a (usually timed) writing assessment due to a lack of a previous sales track record. While every employer will have their own writing assessment, you can prepare for a writing assessment by timing yourself and writing something under pressure.
Try this: Pretend you’re from a non-profit and write a mock email to a foundation asking to apply for a grant. Briefly explain what your organization does, and what cause you’re trying to raise money for. Give yourself 15-20 minutes to write the mock email and see how you do with the time constraint. Even if your written skills are strong, adding in a timed element to an assessment can throw you off if you aren’t prepared.
Overall, you should present yourself as a competitive, hard-working, and ambitious individual who is extremely passionate about a position in sales. Besides that, an entry-level sales role isn’t all that different from an interview for any job. Research the organization beforehand, arrive on time for your interview, be articulate and engaging, and follow-up with the interviewer afterwards thanking them for their time. Keep the above tips in mind, and go into your interview with confidence. You got this!
