Customer Sale Representative

You want to reply with the utmost confidence and integrity. Eagerness and motivation are good qualities to display, with replies such as:

"I love a good challenge and each prospective buyer creates a challenge in their unique way.

I like to be able to offer a quality product I can believe in and can truly serve the client."

"Your product is unique and offers good value."

"I take pleasure in offering a client goods or services that can truly enrich his life or grow his business."

Sandwich dislikes, if any, in between positive aspects of the job. Replying, "I have no specific dislikes" is fine.

Never relay that this challenge was easy. It is fine to state perhaps that you would believe their product might sell itself - complimenting its quality or marketability; remember they want to see that sales drive potential. Detail your most successful and challenging sale, giving honest but short details. Keep the story upbeat and positive.

Hopefully, your reaction to lost sales has been to analyze what went wrong, and how you might have succeeded. Perhaps you have studied motivational material, or consulted with colleagues to plan a better approach in the future. Discuss how you have grown in skills you're your losses, including the lessons you have learned.

Review your sales history carefully, with an eye to answering these types of queries. Prepare your answers, and consult with colleagues. If you have any paperwork to show, such as product description, potential earning power of product, thank you letters, bring them to the interview.

Keep in mind that selling is a positive and outgoing, self-motivating field of employment. Conveying that one has these attitudes will bring success.

At the same time, you may wish to express this point. Your time is valuable yet limited. Time spent on convincing an uninterested client could be perhaps better invested in a new potential client.

They will want to view an actual presentation. If you have experience in sales, you will have a few of these available; select the most interesting, unusual or successful.

It would be best to research the areas within the industry you are applying, so that you can speak intelligently about their products and potential client base. It would be wise to know as much as possible about the particular industry.

Talk about relevant experience, even if it wasn't a telephone service. Mention any job related to serving customers and interacting with clients. Speak about your ability to communicate with many customers each day while maintaining composure under a heavy workload and time pressure.

Mention educational qualification, including high-school diploma or higher or any professional coursework. Also specify any relevant job skills such as written and verbal communication expertise, ability to type efficiently, professional demeanor and strong work ethics.

Collaboration might be less important at some organizations than others, but candidates who aren't willing to collaborate at all won't likely make pleasant coworkers, not to mention their uncooperative attitude will block knowledge sharing.

Lack of growth opportunities was one of the top three reasons that would cause a salesperson to look for a new job, according to a survey from Glassdoor. If the candidate expresses a desire to pursue a career move your company can't provide, you might be interviewing again sooner than you'd like.

Preparing to deal with objections instead of winging it is critical. Listen for evidence of a process.

Being thrown for a loop by this question is a sign that your candidate isn't a life-long learner, which is becoming increasingly important in sales.

The right answer here will depend on your company's process, but in general, the more tenacious and persistent a rep is willing to be, the better. Trish Bertuzzi, founder of The Bridge Group, recommends six to eight attempts before throwing in the towel.

Following up on deals to learn how to do better next time -- win or lose -- boosts the odds of winning in the future. A salesperson who takes the time to learn from both their successes and their failures will likely be a valuable addition to your team.

Social selling is becoming more important in all industries. If the candidate has not used social channels to research prospects or look for leads in the past, make sure they have a willingness to learn.

Again, it's not necessarily a deal breaker if the salesperson doesn't actively share and engage with content on their social media accounts, but they should at least want to start doing so.

Selling to everyone and anyone -- even if a salesperson knows it's not in the prospect's best interest -- is a recipe for disaster. Make sure your candidate is comfortable with turning business away if the potential customer isn't a good fit.

Neglecting to use LinkedIn to research clients is not a viable option in today's sales environment. Ensure that candidates are searching for personal commonalities in addition to professional information so they can tailor their communication as much as possible. Looking into company trigger events would be the cherry on top.

Salespeople today should be asking questions more than making pitches. Open-ended questions that help a rep thoroughly understand a prospect's needs are as good as gold.

The answer to this question doesn't have to blow you away. However, the candidate should have some sort of action plan to get up and running. No matter how much training you provide, it's still smart to hire a self-starter when you can.