Car Dealership

Application process, basically, they want to know a little bit about your background, about your sales experience. Like me, I was in retail before I went there. My retail experience, I want to do something that was dealing with a bigger amount of money where I could make more money. Someone talked to me about the car business. I actually went and filled out the application. The process wasn’t hard. The interview was kind of hard because you talked to a couple of different management levels. The last manager you talk to is the general manager. He makes the decision right then whether he want to hire you or not.

Yes, I have always met or exceeded my sales goals over my ten-year career in the business. For example, last year I led my team to exceed our sales projections by 25% — and this was during a very difficult market when most of the other teams in our division came up short of goal.

Here’s your opportunity to make a big impression. Take it.

People remember richly detailed stories of success. When fleshing out your crowning achievement, talk about the time, the specific situation or problem, the people involved, the steps you took to achieve the end result, and what happened afterwards. Everyone loves a good sales story, so the more you can amp up the drama, the better.

Core sales skills remain the same regardless of industry or company. This job interview question seeks to uncover the maturity and suitability of your sales process. With this in mind, talk very specifically about how you execute your sales role from start to finish.

Address planning, preparation, targeting, engaging, discovering needs, providing solutions, resolving objections, and gaining agreement. Lay out how you tackle each of these tasks step by step.

Every salesperson has that one sale that took a year to close, went through 37 levels of bureaucracy, or required them to win over a whole team that wanted a different product. Tell that story -- and get specific. Talk about how much time you devoted to the sale and how you justified that time.

You want to demonstrate how you thought strategically about your time and your company's resources -- not how much time you wasted closing a small deal. So, make sure that deal had a big payout.

Similarly, don't just tell interviewers you closed the biggest deal in company history. Tell them how much bigger that deal was, how much time it took to close, and why it was worth it for your company and your quota.

This demonstrates your level of preparation and level of interest. Start by reading the organization's website and the Wikipedia entry if applicable, then search the company name on Google to read what others are saying about them.

Concisely summarize what you learned about the organization’s solutions, who they serve, who they compete with, and what industry analysts, employees, and other interested parties say about them. Finally, repeat these steps with the company’s top three competitors.

If you're not reading the latest industry books, listening to sales podcasts, or following the hottest blogs, how are you keeping your skills sharp? Always come armed with a few ways you're learning about and bettering your craft.

I am constantly motivated by the challenge of the sale. The success of landing a new client is a thrill, and building a well-thought out pitch that will explain the product is very satisfying.

When it comes to discussing your sales performance -- go hard on the numbers. Have them ready and explain how you achieved them. Did you exceed your quota three quarters in a row last year? By how much? And how did you do it?

If you can't explain how or why you succeeded in your role, it doesn't really matter what you achieved.