Interested in taking a quick interview quiz? Test your interview skills now.
Answer the following questions candidly to see if you’re helping yourself get a winning job offer or hurting your chances at securing a top sales job.
1. After the First Interview, You Don’t Get Moved Forward. You:
A) See the interview as a learning experience. Looking back, you know you could have done better. You’ll make the necessary adjustments for next time. You know you’re worth the time you invested in checking out the opportunity, and you won’t make the same mistakes twice.
B) Brush off the feedback quickly. This opportunity wasn’t something you were 100% interested in anyway. Seemed like the hiring manager was unprepared, and he came five minutes late. Who wants to work for a guy like that?
C) Declare it a complete waste of your time. You spent four hours preparing, and the hiring manager was late. You feel certain you should at least have been moved to second rounds, and you’re sure the hiring manager’s feedback is ridiculous.
2. The Hiring Manager Asks If You Have Any Questions. You:
A) Pull out a list of 10 prepared questions tailored to the company and the person you’re meeting. You ask the three most appropriate for the hiring manager, including one about your candidacy. Your questions showcase your homework and relate to the goals of the position and your ability to perform on the job.
B) Ask the same three generic questions you prepared years ago. They worked on your boss back then; they should work on this guy now. You utter the same boring question the last two candidates asked: “Where do you see the company going in five years?”
C) Don’t have any questions. He answered everything you want to know. Except one thing: you’re secretly wondering how much vacation time they give, since you’re taking a two-week trip in July. You contemplate whether it’s the wrong time to ask about benefits.
3. The Sales Manager Asks You to Describe Your Sales Cycle. You:
A) Take her through the fundamentals of your process: lead generation, prospecting, qualifying, demo, proof of concept, and close. You hit every stage, then ask if she’d like more detail on any part.
B) Stumble and fumble around. You do your sales process daily, but you don’t talk about it much. You wing it and make the most of what comes out of your mouth. That’s what great salespeople do, right?
C) Review every piece of the process, at length. You spend about 13 minutes on the answer and barely notice the hiring manager starting to yawn. He glances at his watch a few times, but you don’t get the clue. You keep talking.
4. You’re Asked What You Sell and Who You Sell It To. You:
A) Clearly describe in simple terms what you sell, the types of companies you sell to, and the titles of the prospects you call on.
B) Use acronyms and current-employer jargon the hiring manager might not know. You feel confident he’ll pick it up, and it makes you sound smart, at least to yourself.
C) Give the most convoluted explanation you can think of. When the hiring manager asks you to explain further, you give it a shot. That takes another 10 minutes. When he digs deeper, you say, “It’s complicated. What we sell is complex. Sorry I’m confusing you.”
5. The Hiring Manager Asks Why You’re Looking for a New Sales Job. You:
A) Explain you’re looking for a role like this one, with real opportunity to hunt new business, earn big commissions, and contribute to a team that’s dedicated and strives to exceed goals. The role matches your skill set, and after investigating the organization, the solutions, and the leadership, you’re excited to learn more. (Ready-made versions of this answer live in the ego post’s reasons-for-looking scripts.)
B) Talk about your company’s inability to deliver the solutions you sell. You mention your lack of belief in your current company’s capabilities, products, and leadership team.
C) Mention your current boss communicates like a child and the company lacks respect for salespeople. You back up your desire to leave with the three CEOs you’ve had in three years, and your negativity seeps out little by little at first, until it pours out like a tidal wave.
Answer Key
Mostly A’s: you’re on the right track to sales success. You’re on your way to winning a sales job worthy of your hard work, determination, and willingness to learn. You take corrections with a positive attitude and improve the quality of your work, and those skills will carry you throughout your sales career.
Mostly B’s: you know what you’re doing, but you’re giving an average interview. That makes your job search more difficult than it needs to be. You’ll get called back for second rounds. But in the end, when things get competitive, you’ll get beat out by more prepared candidates. Learn how to interview, apply corrections, and develop more enthusiasm, starting with the seven basic interview mistakes.
Mostly C’s: it’s time to reflect. People want to hire positive, happy, well-adjusted, eager, hardworking, high-performing people. And the time to showcase those qualities is in the interview. Don’t let negativity get you down, and notice how many C answers involve talking too long or blaming someone, which is exactly how candidates tank interviews without realizing it.
The good news about this quiz: it allows unlimited retakes. Every interview is another attempt at a perfect score. Whatever your score, the study material is in the sales interview preparation hub.
