Sales Girl

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.

Salespeople need to be able to deal with failure by critically analyzing failed attempts and learning from them. Knowing how you handle failure is as important as understanding how you succeed, and in fact, the two are interdependent. Be honest here, and clearly spell out one of your failures. Start with the goal you were pursuing, and then elaborate on why it was important to you, what did you do to achieve it, why you failed, who was involved, what you learned, and what you would have done differently. Far from damaging your reputation, the hiring manager will appreciate your candor.

Job candidates who set goals are perceived to be clear thinkers and motivated workers. Before your interview, talk to a few people who are where you would like to be and ask if your stated goals strike a healthy balance between realistic and achievable. Then, when you talk to the hiring manager, briefly describe your goals and hone in on why you want to achieve them -- your driving motivations and where you think achieving these goals could take you in the next few years.

It is best to prepare answers you can easily and briefly relate.

Detail your capability to handle a tough situation. Your confidence in problem solving should be narrated as well, with a suitable anecdote portray yourself in a positive light, without arrogance.

Give details of a sales related challenge, explain why you proceeded as you did, and end with the successful result.

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.

This question can be tricky, and should teach you to listen carefully to the question being asked. While running down the list of reasons you're suited the position may get a good point across and can help the interviewer assess whether you qualify for the position, it isn't exactly what they were looking for. Your interviewer wants to determine the reason/s you want the job in order to determine whether you are the right person for it. Being capable of doing the job and wanting it are different things, and these factors can affect your performance and how long you will stay in the company.

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.

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.

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.

Any interview questions about your discomfort in sales should always be responded to with a "no" without any elaboration. If you are uncomfortable, reevaluate whether the position is right for you.

Having to walk away from a prospective sale due to company protocols is something that I have yet to be able to come to terms with. I understand that it is necessary to do this at times but I do not like it very much.

A career retrospective highlights your ability to communicate in addition to bearing testament to the logic and rationale of your career choices. Start with your first professional job (note: not your very first job ever) and talk briefly about what you learned from each successive role. Don't forget to touch on what attracted you to each new opportunity, culminating in the one you are currently interviewing for. Frame each job change in terms of striving for something greater, not in terms of running away from a crummy manager or company.

The employer would like to know - what is your former sales experience?

What industries or institutions have you worked for in the past? What is your technical experience? What type of products have you sold? Do you meet your customers? How often?

It is good practice to supply any existing documentation not otherwise supplied with your resume. Any forms, newsletters, presentations, online marketing material, graphs or infomercials you have created, or any letters from satisfied clients will be well received.

Rejections are common within sales jobs, and one of the primary reasons that most personalities could not handle sales roles. Try to downplay how hard you take rejections, but feel free and be honest about a technique you use to handle rejection or answer with something like, "I simply move on to the next prospect, because a rejection is simply a sign that the individual was not yet ready for our solution."