Educational


- What classes did you do best in?
- What classes gave you the most difficulty?
- How was your education financed?
- What extracurricular activities did you participate in?

Work


- What are your major responsibilities?
- Any promotions?
- What do you like best about your position?
- What do you like least about your position?
- Why are you planning on leaving?

Planning and Organizing  - Establishing a course of action for self and/or others to accomplish a specific goal; prioritizing one's activities and planning needed resources.

- Describe a typical day . . . a typical week.
- How do you determine what are the top priorities in scheduling your time?
- What are your objectives for this year? Who else knows them? What are you doing to see they are reached? How are you progressing?
- How often is your time schedule upset by unforeseen circumstances? What do you do then?  Give examples.
- What are some recurring problems in your area of responsibility? What have you done about them?  

Initiative  - Self-driven, opportunity identification with action to achieve results; proactively dealing with sales opportunities rather than reactively waiting to be told.

- How do you obtain new prospects?
- What changes have you tried to implement in your area of responsibility? What have you done to get them under way?
- Give examples of doing more than required in your job.
- Give example of sometime you weren't satisfied with your performance. What did you do about it?

Sales Ability/Persuasiveness - Utilizing appropriate interpersonal styles and methods of communication to gain agreement or acceptance of an idea, plan, activity or product from clientele.

- How were your sales this year compared to last year?
- What have you learned about sales in the last year and how have you used this new information?
- What are some of the best ideas you ever sold to a superior and what was your approach?
- What are some of the best ideas you tried but failed to sell to a superior? What was your approach and why did it fail?
- What are some of your most satisfying sales experiences?
- Give examples of occasions when you had to approach several individuals for support, cooperation, etc., whom you considered quite different from one another.
- Give examples of the most different sales approach you have ever used.

Tenacity - Staying with a position or plan until the desired objective is achieved or is no longer reasonably attainable.

- What are some big obstacles you had to overcome to get where you are today? How did you overcome them?
- Related to this, what were some of your accomplishments?
- What were some of your failures?
- What is the typical sales cycle in your current job?

Resilience - Handling disappointment, rejection, work pressures while maintaining effectiveness.

- What percentage of your calls result in some kind of sale? How have you felt when someone turned you down? How did that affect you?
- Have you ever had a feeling of frustration or impatience when dealing with customers?  What was the situation?
- Give examples of when your ideas were strongly opposed in a discussion and how you reacted?
- What are some of your biggest disappointments at your current job?

Work Standards - Setting high goals or standards of performance for self, others and organization; dissatisfied with average performance.

- What are your standards of success in your job? What have you done to meet those standards?
- Compare and contrast the times when your work was above standard and times when you weren't satisfied with your performance. Why did things turn out differently?
- What are some of the longest hours you've worked?
- What are your normal working hours and schedule?

Ability to Learn - Assimilating and applying new, job-related information in a timely manner.

- How did you go about learning the technical knowledge needed to sell in your current job? How long did it take you and how does it compare to others?
- Give example of when you had to use your technical expertise in making a sale.
- How long were you in your current job before you felt at ease with their products and services?

Problem Solving - The ability to identify issues and problems, secure relevant information, relate and compare data from different sources, and identify cause/effect relationships. To develop alternative courses of action and make decisions which are based on logical assumptions, factual information, and take organizational resources into consideration.

- Describe any significant projects, ideas, etc., you have conceived within the past year. How did you know they were needed and would work and were they used?
- How have you gotten around obstacles that prevented you from completing projects?
- Describe a time when you had to gather a lot of data in order to solve a problem. How did you approach it and was there more information you could have gathered?
- Have you ever recognized a problem before your boss or others in the organization?
- What kind of decisions do you tend to make rapidly, and which ones have you taken more time on?
- Describe some of the most innovative solutions you have used to solve a problem.
- Have you sold a paradigm shifting concept?

Sensitivity - The skill of perceiving and reacting to the needs and feelings of others. Also, actions that indicate objectivity in perceiving the effect of self on others.

- When selling an account, how do you determine when you're pushing too hard? How have you known when to back off?
- Have you ever been in a situation when a customer had a complaint that wasn't your or your company's fault? What did you do?
- Can you describe a situation when you found you were dealing with someone very thin-skinned? What happened

Remember the Following Tips:

- Dress professionally - conservative is usually better.
- Be 5 minutes early. If for any reason you are running late, call the hotel and leave word or speak to the manager.
- Have a good handshake - not too hard and not too weak.
- Establish good eye contact throughout interview.
- Exude smiles and enthusiasm and confidence.
- Give specific answers - not vague generalities.
- Treat the interview like a sales call - probe, handle objections, and CLOSE!
- Call your recruiter immediately after the interview with feedback.