Not everybody is cut out for sales. You need a particular affinity for taking constant rejection with grace. But it’s one of the most lucrative career paths out there.
Every business needs sales. There’s always a demand. The issue is that sales get competitive. Companies are looking for the best of the best. You need to stand out.
Acing your sales interview is the best way to do so. By the end of this guide, you’ll get a solid understanding of frameworks you can use to crush your next interview and land your dream job.
Interview Questions Most Companies Ask
Companies will always have their own set of unique questions. But, in most cases, recruiters will ask these sales interview questions to see if you’re a fit for the company:
The Classic "Tell Me About Yourself"
This one's a staple in any interview, but let's put a sales spin on it. You're selling yourself. The first step in any sale is understanding your customer's needs. Instead of launching into a pre-prepared spiel, try to:
- Take control of the conversation: Ask, "Is there anything in particular you'd like to know?" or "Is there a specific area you'd like me to focus on?" This shows you can reframe the conversation and demonstrates your interest in tailoring your response.
- Showcase your passion: If they give you the green light to start anywhere, talk about things you genuinely love. It could be a hobby, a cause you support, or even how you got into sales. The more passionate you are about a topic, the more you show authenticity.
- Use a simple framework: If you're unsure where to begin, try:
- Stating a fact: I’m John Doe, I worked at my uncle’s repair shop.
- Showing Evidence: I worked there after graduating to help my uncle over the summer and it became a full-time job for 2 years.
- Relating it to the job description: I learned how to effectively communicate with clients, address their pain points, and even learned how to upsell.
Tell Me About Your Past Sales Experience
No prior sales experience? No problem. Focus on transferable skills from other areas of your life. Have you ever been a leader in a club, organized an event, given a presentation, or even just navigated a tricky social situation?
These experiences show communication, initiative, and the ability to handle pressure—all essential sales skills. Highlight your eagerness to learn, adapt, and get the job done. They're not looking for a veteran; they want someone with potential who's willing to put in the work
Why did you choose a career in sales?
Don’t make it about you—make it about them. Sales is arguably the most important part of any business. If there’s no sales, there’s no revenue. If there’s no revenue, why run a business?
Here’s an example of how you want to answer this question:
“I am eager to pursue a career in sales because I recognize that sales skills are among the most valuable assets one can possess. These skills can be applied across various contexts, whether in social interactions, family discussions, or negotiating prices at a car dealership. I aspire to enhance my sales abilities by learning from your company, as I believe you offer the best products and have exceptional teams. Based on my research and what I've heard, your organization aligns perfectly with my goal as a representative.”
This type of question shows that you’re not just here for a paycheck (although this is important), but you’re passionate about learning sales from the best. It’s a career path. It’s long-term.
What can you do for the company? Even without experience?
First, you need to understand what a sales team does. In most cases, sales teams do lead generation and manage CRMs, you could be doing inside sales or remote sales, sending cold emails, LinkedIn messages, territory management, or doing discovery calls.
An underrated skill that many salespeople, even those with years of experience disregard is learning how to write a quality cold email that gets results. With how sales are going, many companies are investing in scalable cold email infrastructure.
You want to be a person who knows how to work in that environment. Because a lot of the time, the bulk of the sales process is doing prospecting, outreach, and nurturing. So show them that you can learn how to use technologies like sales CRMs, or specifically, a CRM for email marketing like Instantly CRM.
Why do you want to work at this company?
This is where you lift the company’s ego. Tell the company that they have the best products, which means they’re easy to sell. Say you believe in the products they’re selling. You have to convince them of how much you believe in them.
The next thing you want to say is that they have the best people. Having good products is one thing but having a positive work environment with the right sales enablement is the key to successful sales campaigns.
Tell them you’ve done your research and you know that this company is the best that you want to learn from the best, and that you have the potential to be one of the best.
Pro Tip: Research the company's compensation structure beforehand, but don't bring it up too early in the interview. Focus on showing your passion and potential first, then talk about it later.
Do you have any questions for us?
If you read some of the best sales books out there, they’ll all say that you need to ask prospects the right questions. You should too during your sales interview.
Asking thoughtful questions shows you're prepared and interested in the company. It also gives you a chance to gather more information and solidify your decision.
Clarify things about the work environment, the people you’ll be working with, and what the culture is all about. Here are some questions you could ask:
- Can you tell me more about the work culture here?
- How does the sales team collaborate?
- What does the typical career progression look like in this company?
Now they’re pitching you on why you should join them. It increases your perceived value. Just remember to reframe your questions to be focused more on the long term.
Technical Sales Interview Questions You Need To Prepare For
Recruiters use the common sales interview questions to gauge if you’re fit for the company. That includes soft skills, how well you present yourself, and your potential.
These questions are mostly asked during the first rounds of the interview process. During the later stages, some companies do technical sales interview questions. Here’s what to expect:
Have you used a CRM tool before? If so, which one and how?
If the company you’re applying for still uses spreadsheets to track and manage leads and customers, walk away from the interview. The best companies all use some kind of CRM.
Learn the basics of these tools. Or try to find out what CRM the company uses during the earlier rounds of the interview process (questions like: “Do you have any questions for us?”).
All CRMs serve the same purpose—managing leads down the sales pipelines. However, some CRMs have features for specific workflows. Take the Instantly Dealflow CRM as an example.
Dealflow has everything a CRM needs and tools tailored specifically for cold sales emails. Everything from emails, calls, texts, and tasks is centralized in one Master Inbox.
It also has an AI inbox manager that can help even beginner sales reps close more sales. Instantly AI looks through the lead data, discovers insights, and personalizes emails for you.
You also get access to automated sales outreach with Instantly Salesflows. With Salesflows, reps can prioritize leads most likely to convert and even create campaigns with one click.
What sales metric is most important to you?
This is one of the more flexible questions as there could be multiple right answers. There isn’t one universal metric that’s “most important.” All of them serve a purpose.
Recruiters ask this question to see if you can explain why you chose a specific key performance indicator (KPI) and what you’d focus on when you’re doing tasks.
Here’s an example answer:
“Tracking customer acquisition costs isn't just about numbers; it's about finding opportunities. By analyzing CAC data, I can see which channels and campaigns are bringing in the most valuable customers, allowing us to double down on what works and ditch what doesn't. This data-driven approach ensures every dollar going towards our sales efforts is working as hard as possible.”
What do you know about our company and product?
A huge part of the sales process is research—finding out exact needs and figuring out how to angle your value proposition. If you’re applying as a sales rep, you best do research too.
Look through the company’s website, social media, news articles, and all sources you can find. Get familiar with the core products and services, you don’t have to memorize all of them.
More importantly, research the target audience and how you can align the company’s unique value proposition to fit their needs. This demonstrates your genuine interest and initiative.
Sell Me X Product
This is one of the most nerve-wracking questions out there. Not all companies ask this during the interview process. But you should still be prepared for some Wolf of Wall Street, “Sell me this pen” type of roleplay.
That’s why you always research the company's product and the target audience first. Don’t jump in and start talking about the features. Think of it as a discovery call. You’re here to know the needs and pain points of your prospect.
Try saying things like:
“Thank you for taking the time to talk to me about, XYZ. I’m curious what made you take this initiative? Is there anything that stood out for you about XYZ that could help with your issues?”
Now you’re reframing the conversion. Instead of you selling them the product, it’s like they’ll be selling the product themselves.
What does your sales process look like?
While every sale is different, salespeople must have a standardized process that serves as an anchor. You need to clearly explain your step-by-step process from prospecting to closing. Most sales processes include four fundamental parts: prospecting, outreach, nurturing, and closing.
Prospecting involves creating your ideal customer profile and buyer personas. You can do it manually or use tools like Instantly B2B Lead Finder and use its advanced filters to zero in on the perfect prospect.
Outreach, whether through cold sales or cold calling, should be personalized. If you already know how to use outreach tools for channels like email marketing, that’s always a bonus.
Nurturing is all about providing tailored content that provides prospects value and keeps you top-of-mind until they’re ready to close.
Show Me Your Sales Cadence
Sales cadence is a systematic approach to sales outreach. Remember, most sales close after multiple touchpoints. That could be through email, text, SMS, or outside sales.
Don’t just lay out an entire 8-step sales cadence when answering the question. Make sure to include your reasoning. The number of touchpoints isn’t what’s important, it’s the quality of the customer’s journey at each touchpoint. Here’s an example of a 5-step sales cadence:
- Day 1: Linked-In Message
- Day 3: Cold email in the morning, call in the afternoon.
- Day 5: Call in the morning, and leave a voicemail in the afternoon.
- Day 7: Morning email, afternoon call with a voicemail.
- Day 10: Morning email followed by a call in the morning.
Key Takeaways
Sales interview questions can be nerve-wracking, but they don’t have to be. All you need is to prepare, do your research, and answer each question with authenticity. To recap, here are the most common sales interview questions most recruiters will ask:
- Tell me about yourself.
- Tell me about your past sales experience
- Why did you choose a career in sales?
- What can you do for the company?
- Do you have any questions for me?
During the later stages of the interview process, recruiters might ask the following technical sales questions:
- Have you used a CRM tool before?
- What sales metric is the most important to you?
- What do you know about our company and products?
- Sell me this product.
- What does your sales process look like?
- Show me your sales cadence.
If you’re applying for a sales position in a company that focuses on cold email outreach, check out Instantly Dealflow CRM to get an immediate advantage.
