When starting a conversation about questions for an applicant for the position of sales manager, you need, first of all, to talk about the goals that the recruiter pursues when conducting the interview.

In general, the goal of any interview is to identify and hire the strongest specialist from the labor market who will fit the goals of the business and the company. As a rule, any interview involves choosing from several specialists, and here it is very important to accurately determine the competencies of each of them: identify strengths and weaknesses, find out what is needed from the company for compensation weaknesses, for maximum motivation effective work candidate, etc. This is where we can start talking about the questions that are necessary to find out this information.

What should you pay attention to first?

Appearance

The first thing that will be discussed at the interview is the specialist’s competencies. There are a number of things that need to be uncovered during the interview process, and this requires asking the right questions. But there are things that are already obvious. Those that do not require additional questions, but that you need to pay attention to during the interview. Firstly, this is the appearance of a person.

The only question you can ask in this case is why it looks like this (if it doesn't match your idea of ​​appearance). If a candidate is competent, but his appearance does not correspond to the potential position, it is recommended to find out whether this is a natural image for him or forced circumstances, force majeure, etc. It is necessary to ask such questions without demonstrating a negative reaction. This is absolutely normal and if this factor is decisive in the choice, then an adequate person will be grateful for the question.

Adequacy

The next point is to assess the adequacy of the applicant. It will be visible during the dialogue. Determined by observing how a person answers questions. The answer should be to a specific question asked, and not a lengthy story about a little of everything. Pay attention to how comprehensively the candidate answers the questions asked and how clearly he explains himself. The “correct” applicant does not constantly ask the recruiter again, perceives questions adequately and answers them essentially, does not jump from one thing to another in his statements, does not lose concentration on the essence of the question, consistency. The answers contain elementary logic, arguments, have their own point of view, position, present their arguments in an accessible way, in clear language. Does not show aggression or negativity, controls emotions.

Written speech

Sometimes in the process of dialogue and interaction with the applicant, it is necessary to determine the level of his written speech, if this is implied by the vacancy. To do this, you can simply ask to write a text, but this will take more time. In case your time is limited, and there is an option that would be great for an initial review, you should ask the question “How do you usually start your letters? Outline a letter to your business partner.” The answer will show how logically and structurally a person can express his thoughts.

Oral speech

Ability to hear

The next point is to check your ability to hear. When a person is asked a question and he clarifies some details, this is a marker that the person is trying to hear his opponent. Next, it is important to understand to what extent he heard the recruiter’s task. To do this, during the dialogue you can ask the following questions:

“Please tell me what my name is?” Naturally, this question is appropriate if you have introduced yourself before.

“What question are you answering now?” - it’s very effective when you ask it during the applicant’s monologue.

“What was the question before that, do you remember?”

“How did our meeting today begin?”

“What happened after that?”

"And then?"

Here, it is not so much the ability to hear that is tested, but attentiveness and memory.

Focus on results

Next, we check our focus on results. This is done by asking: “Please tell me, what did you do at your last job during the implementation process?” People who are process-oriented will talk directly about the process: communicated with clients, corresponded, organized, etc.

Candidates who are focused on results will say: made such and such sales, connected such and such clients, called, negotiated, achieved such and such conditions, they will give you at least an intermediate result, which will ultimately be tied to profit , some additional useful conditions for the company. It is also important to pay attention to what form of the verb a person uses - “did” he or “did”.

Sales technique

One of the main requirements for the vacancy of a sales manager is knowledge of sales techniques. To do this, we ask direct questions.

“What stages of sales techniques do you know?”

“Name the stages of sales technique.”

After the person begins to list them, pay attention to the confident listing and the presence of all stages of sales in the answer, the absence of pauses and water in the answer. If the candidate first starts talking about the presentation, and only then moves on to identifying needs, this is already a mistake. Most likely, he will begin sales with a presentation, and not with an attempt to penetrate the needs and interests of the client. If you need additional confirmation of your competencies, you can ask the question “Please tell me, how would you overcome the “expensive” objection?” There are several possible answers here:

Firstly, he can use a specific example to tell how he overcame this in his practice. It is important that he does not leave by offering any concessions, discounts, kickbacks, etc.

Secondly, and even better, he will ask: “Expensive compared to what? What are you comparing with? This will show that he is finding out why exactly the person decided that it was expensive. Next comes an attempt to work through the objection. It is extremely important that when answering a question he speaks very confidently and reasonably. A good sales manager should have these things in the back of his mind - these are the symptoms of a good salesman, or at least a salesperson who has prepared for an interview.

Learning ability

It happens that the sales technique sags, but the candidate is liked. For example, a young, energetic guy who just graduated from university and has not had time to work, but he is smart and you are ready to consider him. This option is possible if the company has the resources to train an employee. Such a resource is time and a trainer or an entire training department within the company. In this case, it is important to understand how trainable he is. Learning ability is tested simply and has several testing options: again, you can take a more complicated route - prepare tests in advance, they also exist, but this requires time. If we are talking about the “question/answer” mode and at the level of assumption: learning ability is not bad or weak at all, we can use the following questions:

“Tell me, how did you study at school?” - this applies to young candidates who still remember how it was.

“How did you study at the institute?” - if the person is older.

What does this affect? As my practice shows, people who do not have very high academic performance, especially when it comes to school and higher education educational institution, where something always prevented them from studying well (inattention, poor memory, low motivation or any other things that slowed them down), they never learned globally. If a person studied poorly at a technical school, then what is the reason that he will study well after technical school? There are none, not one. The trend is approximately clear. If a person studied well, even very difficult topic he will memorize, dig up some information and will probably be more successful in learning than a C student. You just need to understand that it takes longer to bother with a C student, the worse the grades, the more difficult the training will be.

Of course, among the C students there are talented people. And if you doubt the candidate’s learning ability, maybe he is a talented C student, then this can be easily checked. I'll tell you how I did it using a case example. You need to take some item. A children's toy, a book with a drawing and inscriptions on the cover. The main thing is that this item has several colors, different fonts of letters, texture, and details. Then offer to study this subject in one minute. At the same time, he can hold it in his hands, examine it, and do whatever he wants with it. Next, you hide the item and ask a few questions about it.

Already at the stage of studying the subject by the candidate in the first 10 seconds, a conclusion can be drawn. People who are low motivated, not very trainable, look at an object for 5-10 seconds and put it aside and begin to get bored. Further questions: “Tell me, what is the name of this item?” (If this is not a completely obvious thing, and in order to understand that it was necessary to read it on it, or do some kind of action with it) people are “chopped”. About 30% of people simply cannot say what exactly this object is or make mistakes - they call a cow a horse, distort the name, etc.

If a person said what it is called, then you can ask “In what languages ​​is the description there?” “What is shown?” “What colors are present on the object?” Based on how many people guessed, how many they remembered, how many questions they answered, an idea of ​​their learning ability will be formed. If out of 10 questions you received 3 answers - this is a very low level of learning ability, the norm will be at least 50% of the answers to the questions asked, if it is not a meteorite that a person has never seen, but some more or less common object.

Variability, fantasy

How a person will cope with new non-standard tasks under limited time conditions. There is a simple case that is easy to carry out. For this you will again need any item, such as a plastic cup. You should ask the candidate to come up with the maximum number of any of its applications (sensible, logical, idiotic - whatever) in 10 seconds. Start the timer. Variable, flexible people begin to crumble.

If a person names less than 4 options for use in 10 seconds, the person has a problem with imagination, he lives strictly according to the rules, he needs to write everything down, give instructions and he will act. If your company expects to sell using scripts that cannot be deviated from, then this is an ideal option for you. He has no imagination - but he will be able to call stupidly and endlessly repeat the same thing. And if the work requires the ability to hear the client, actively integrate into different situations, change behavior tactics depending on the circumstances, come up with solutions, joke - you need someone who can come up with the maximum number of options.

Speed ​​and logic

The next test that I will tell you is a speed and logic test. This is not my own development, I just love it and use it in my work. Sounds like this - accident in Hong Kong in 1999, death in New York in 2018, find the connection. There is no right answer here. Here you simply observe the speed and logic of reasoning. A candidate might say that someone hit someone in Hong Kong in 1999 and was retaliated against in 2018 in New York. Or a person had an accident, was injured, the consequences of which later led to death in another city, etc.

There can be a lot of options. Your goal is to see the speed with which a person gives an answer and see how he connects these two events with each other. This case will give you an understanding that a person is able to draw conclusions, build cause-and-effect relationships, and how quickly he can give birth to them. There are people who will sit for 10 minutes and not understand anything. Mostly the answer is given within the first 30 seconds.

Negotiation skills

Next we ask a question about negotiations. Direct question: “Name the stages of negotiations.” Again, this depends on the types of sales, because there are sales managers who make calls, and there are sales where personal meetings and presentations are necessary. All stages of negotiations are very important for us. As a rule, a person who does not attach much importance to the stage of preparation for negotiations skips this stage, will begin his answer with a meeting, greeting, then talk about the stages that follow in the negotiation process, but will skip the preparation. If the person did not mention preparation, ask the question: “Please tell me how you prepare for negotiations? Name the stages of preparation for negotiations.” Here the candidate should say without hesitation that naturally the first thing to do is to study the client’s assortment, study his needs, study the position, the personality of the client himself in order to understand what you can talk to him about, what his role is, what issues he oversees, what he needs it will be interesting in relation to me and my company, and most importantly - to set the goal of the negotiations.

Next, offer to share with you successful cases of negotiations from his practice. It happens that at this stage there is a jam, because either there are no such examples, or they were a long time ago, or he does not position them as successful. If there is a positive experience, then the candidate will definitely tell you 2-3 examples from practice. Ask an additional question: “Please tell me how you managed to achieve your goal or such a high result?” It's quite possible that I got caught good client or transferred from another manager and the role of our candidate was only to provide support for the transaction, meet, accept payment, send details, sell something. It is important that a person can argue that he did it. It was he who sat on the Internet until 2 am, looking for a phone general director, then for 2 months I tried to get through to this general director, looked for some acquaintances, took concrete steps to secure this deal.

Another possible question: “Please tell me, why didn’t other negotiations work out for you? What do you sometimes lack for successful negotiations? How will we have to help you?

Negative

Next we check for negativity. This is done by finding out the reasons for leaving/dismissal from the previous job. Here you can ask the question directly, but there is a possibility of deceit. Although, I recently had a case when a person directly said, “due to absenteeism.” To a logical question about the reason for absenteeism, the man replied that his friends gave him a bottle of whiskey for his birthday. This is an honest answer, after which we shook hands and said, thank you for your frankness, goodbye. But this case belongs to the category of anecdotal cases from practice and there are few such frank ones; usually people come up with some kind of legend both for themselves and for employers.

It will most likely not be possible to collect the completely pure truth; if a person decides to hide about the bottle, he will hide it. Here I suggest using this option: ask to list in 10 seconds the maximum number of reasons why employers fire employees, or why employees decide to change jobs. As a rule, in 80% of cases, the first 4 paragraphs will state the reason why a particular candidate left his last job. This is not a 100% option, but it can be assumed. Usually, if a person leaves peacefully, he will most likely say in the first 3 points that most likely the reason is career, or rather its absence, professional burnout, etc. And if a person is kicked out, then most likely he will either begin to talk about the truth only in other words: disciplinary decisions or problems with management, etc.

Then you can ask: “If we call you at work, what do you think they will say, what will be the reason for your dismissal?” Here a person doesn’t really have any options; there is a chance that he will say something similar in truth.

Ask him about the team at his previous place. If a person tells you with a smile how he still communicates with everyone, that they are wonderful guys, his negativity is unlikely.

Motivation

Next, you should find out what he wants from work, what are the main advantages he is looking for for himself? Here we deviate a little from the direct question and ask, “Why does he think people stay at work for long periods of time?” This answer will contain what he lacked at his previous job. The answer could be anything: career, relationships with employees, colleagues, some things that he lacked and that he is now looking for in work. One way or another, things will be voiced that he is motivated to do, or that he is used to, or that were missing, but he wants them.

Understanding the ultimate goal of work

Another good question that I ask at this stage is to understand the ultimate goal of the work of sales managers. It sounds like this: “Each specialty has a product that it produces. The street cleaner has a product called Clean Street. Please tell me what, in your opinion, is the product of a sales manager?” It is important here that the answer does not include some abstract things or processes, but money, profit, sales development - this is also about money, only in different words. Some final destination. Ask how he measured his product. It is important to see that he has numbers in his head and understands that the product of labor is not just money, but the growing income of the enterprise.

Salesmanship

“Please tell me, you worked, sold milk, why did they buy your product?”

“What made customers buy your product?”

A person should not be confused, but say that my product had such and such advantages: “The consumer trusts our milk, because... it stands in everyone retail networks“It is recognizable, and also won in the “test purchase” program in terms of taste, concentration of nutritional components, sanitary standards and ease of packaging.” A manager who has sold a product well clearly knows what the buyer needs so that he can purchase the product with minimal doubt. These are either advantages in the conditions, or in the quality of the product itself, which he must quickly formulate.

If he remembers for a long time and invents things, then the question is rather in his competence. Next, we ask a question about the ability to argue: “Why, in your opinion, will you be able to sell our product?” You should first talk about the product so that you have a rough idea of ​​what exactly is going to be sold. If the applicant is incompetent, then he will say that this is a cool product, good, high quality - a set of faceless epithets so as not to remain silent.. A competent seller will talk about his contribution, show how he masters sales techniques, what is his conversion from call to deal , will present as evidence an example of his results from his previous place of work. As a result, you should get the impression that yes, he will succeed. A candidate for the position of sales manager must be able to sell himself and argue to the employer that he is the one who can sell his product.

Positivity

Well, for dessert, we check the positivity, since it is not always visible right away. There are people who joke and smile from the first minute, but there are also those for whom an interview is stressful. If a person is in a difficult situation, he needs to pay off loans, he is urgently looking for a job, then he may well look tired, withdrawn, and depressed. In this case, the employer needs to check it for positivity. In this case, it’s worth asking “Please tell me, what were you happy about last time? How long ago was this?

Before interviewing a manager, you need to create a job profile for the employee. The fact is that this area has developed its own specializations.

And this is not to mention the fact that the commercial division staff has different levels subordination and functionality: ordinary salesperson, group leader/senior salesperson, department head, commercial director.

The good news is that there is a standard profile template that will work for any of them. Here is this template

1. Job title:

• hunter (cold dialing, call centers);
• closer (position for closing primary transactions);
• account specialist/farmer (specialist in working with the current database);
• shop assistant;
• Sales Representative etc.

1. Responsibilities:

• cold dialing;
• dialing a warm base;
• dialing using the current database;
• processing applications from the site;
• entering information into 1C;
• working with the system;
• accepting incoming applications;
• drawing up reports;
• organization of training;
• holding meetings;
• data analysis;
• measurements of development indicators and indices;
• working with incoming clients;
• display of goods, etc.

1. Requirements:

• age;
• competencies.
• experience;
• education;

1. Conditions:

• reward system;
• working conditions;
• work time.

How to interview a sales manager: features of hiring

You will have an interview with different types specialists. They have one thing in common - they either were, will be, or are already sales managers.

Their admission is made taking into account the level of the position.

Commercial Director

We are hiring a ready-made employee with experience in managing structures that include 15-20 people. Look for it in competing companies, or in businesses with a similar pattern of closing deals.

Head of Sales Department (ROP)

Here, too, you will need a mature specialist with good experience. You can scam him like a commercial director. But don't limit yourself to just this possibility. A professional ROP can be found not only through an acquaintance, but also through standard individual or competitive recruitment.

Senior specialist / group leader (subordinate to 3-4 employees)

Here you will have to interview an experienced manager who is found by your HR. Then we place him in the position of an ordinary salesperson and, with proper progress, promote him to the position of a senior salesperson in 1-3 months. If you want it faster, also look among your subordinates.

Telemarketer, hunter, sales representative, closeer, farmer

Depending on the segment, look for a person without experience, but with the necessary competencies, with experience and competencies. Last option more preferable, since in this case adaptation training followed by a test covering all sections of the product manual will be sufficient.

How to interview a sales manager: group selection

If with appearance everything is more or less clear to the seller, and it’s not worth focusing on this, then his personal qualities should have stopped. It is the personal traits of their subordinates that managers or business owners tend to pay the least attention to. Meanwhile, it is misunderstandings between subordinates and clients that deprive a company working with the premium segment of most of its revenue.

There is nothing for envious people to do in premium sales. Whenever a seller sees a buyer twice or three times, or even tens of times richer than himself, a buyer who is ready to spend on a trinket, he, the seller, experiences, to put it mildly, indignation on this score. No matter how hard he tries to hide his feelings, he still cannot do it. The buyer will read this both in the manager’s facial expression and in his manner of speaking and presenting the product - in this case he is unlikely to be able to sell. Are you ready to continue sacrificing your clients?

Give preference in choosing personnel to those who are better motivated to personal growth employees rather than those prone to complaining about universal injustice. This will come in handy when you conduct an interview.

How to interview a sales manager: individual selection

How to interview a sales manager: specific skills

You need to conduct an interview with the sales manager, checking for the presence of specific professional skills. This will mainly be needed when receiving a ROP or a senior specialist.

They have to:

1. Be able to work with CRM;
2. Use a funnel;
3. Understand why indicators such as deal length, average bill, and funnel conversion are needed;
4. Be able to compile reports, analyze and work with pipelines;
5. Monitor the execution of the business process and optimize it if necessary;
6. Understand what indicators are, LTV, ARC, CRR

If a future employee is confused in his “testimony” on these issues, then he is not professional enough.

How to Interview a Sales Manager: The Skills Model

You need to create a skill model for your company’s employees, and during interviews test candidates for compliance with this model. Different fields require different skills. Knowledge of the 5 stages of sales is required. When working with end consumers (B2C segment), this is the key to closing short transactions.

Long transactions in B2C are characterized by a higher price, and therefore buyers need to think about it. The manager will need to prepare, show expertise, arrange a meeting (test drive, apartment viewing, fitting) and negotiate.

When a company works with small and medium-sized businesses in the B2B field, the transactions will be similar to the previous ones. Manager skills when working with large companies expand - he must be able to negotiate with the decision maker.

We talked about how to interview a sales manager. Develop a job profile and consider the specifics of the position when interviewing.

1. You will receive 7 proven sales manager interview questions.
2. You will understand how to interview and find good sales managers.
3. You will learn how to evaluate a sales manager in 90 seconds.
4. You'll save over 30 hours of interviewing useless candidates.
5. You will save at least 40,000 rubles. This is a payroll that is paid for 1 month of the probationary period.

If you are the owner of a small or medium-sized business, head of the sales department, commercial director, or simply a recruiting manager, then you know for yourself that it takes at least an hour to interview each candidate.

And then it takes another month or two to understand whether this candidate is suitable or not, whether you will get results from him or not. And this time and money is your time and your money.

In this article, I will present you with 7 practical questions that, in 90 seconds, will allow you to find out the whole truth about a sales manager and clearly separate office plankton from good sales managers. Personally, I have used these questions in over 12,000 interviews. They work very well because even a non-specialist can easily “read” a candidate based on the answers to these questions.

Question No. 1. Tell me in one word what sales means to you?

This question determines a person's attitude towards sales.

Pay attention to whether the person responded with one word or launched into a lengthy discussion. This characterizes his ability to understand what the interlocutor wants from him, and this is a very important quality of a seller. And of course, the word he uses is important.

For example: The candidate answers this question clearly and distinctly without hesitation: “For me, the most important thing in sales is Money” - this is the answer to “5” if you are looking for a result-oriented salesperson. A performance salesperson is ideal in a business where there are no clear rules and procedures.

If the answer is JOB, that's a good answer if you're looking for a process salesperson. A process salesperson is ideal in a business where processes are assigned and they work well.

If COMMUNICATION answers, be on alert. Most likely, you are dealing with a person who has a poor understanding of the goal and technology of sales.

If this question leaves the candidate stupefied and the pause lasts more than 7 seconds, most likely this is not a salesperson.

Well, if the candidate indulges in lengthy definitions, sales is a process of implementation... - weed out these candidates, because not only are they not attentive, most likely they also do not hear the buyer well and, instead of selling, they prefer to show off their erudition.

Question No. 2. How much do you want to earn in our company? State the minimum and maximum.

The optimal answer to this question is as follows: In your company, I would like to earn at least 60,000 rubles, of which the salary is 30,000 rubles. And judging by your products and information on the site, plus my experience, I expect to achieve an income of 120,000 rubles. in 3-4 months.

Question No. 3. What minimum salary will suit you for the probationary period?

The answer to this question is compared with the numbers that the candidate named in question No. 2.

For example: The candidate named a minimum of 30,000 rubles. And the maximum: he wants 40,000 rubles. Firstly, this indicates that the candidate wants to consistently receive 80% of his income, regardless of the result. And such a small difference between min and max suggests that he is not very ambitious.

In principle, this option is acceptable if you are recruiting managers in the back office of the sales department, the essence of whose work is to service the incoming flow of clients according to a clearly described business process.

A good candidate will quote a salary of 30,000 rubles. minimum, provided that he wants to earn 60,000 rubles.

Question No. 4. What is your average monthly income for the last 3 months?

Compare the answer to this question with the numbers from the answers to questions 3 and 2.

For example, if the candidate answered 35,000 to the second question (minimum), and answered 35,000 rubles to the 3rd question on the minimum salary, and answered 30,000 rubles to the 4th question on the average monthly income, this means that you are looking at the average statistical office plankton who wants to increase his income level at the expense of your business.

It is very good if previously the candidate had a very high average monthly income, for example 100,000 rubles, and now he is ready to start with an amount of 50-60,000 rubles, expecting to reach his usual level of income in 2-3 months.

Question No. 5. What are you willing to do for minimum wage?

This question allows you to find out whether the sales manager is a “process maker” or a “result maker”, whether he understands the essence of sales, and what responsibility he is ready to take on in sales.

For example, he answered that his minimum salary is 40,000 rubles, and he is ready to work for this money and fulfill his job duties. This means that in front of you is a typical process processor, from which you most likely will not get results. Unless you have clearly defined, working business processes.

A good candidate will answer this question that he is ready to expand his client base, find new clients, fulfill the minimum sales plan, i.e. provide some result.

Question No. 6. Do you consider yourself a good seller? Provide facts about your sales achievements.

This question determines the type of reference, external or internal, that is: what will the manager focus on in achieving the sales goal, external opinion or internal conviction.

If you need a salesperson to communicate with a decision maker who will work his way through secretaries, then an internal reference salesperson will be better suited for you. And if your business model is built on inbound flow, then a seller with an external reference is suitable for you.

A salesperson with internal reference, arguing for his achievements, will rely on his own self and will say: “I was the best in the department,” “I sold the most.”

A salesperson with an external reference will answer - “my clients”, “my boss always praised me.” Those. argue based on external opinion.

In addition, this question allows you to determine the level of self-esteem:

Firstly, the candidate must clearly state the measurable indicators of his achievements in sales (in rubles, tons, etc.). If they are not there, most likely you are looking at a “shy” middle peasant in sales.

Secondly, his self-esteem should not be too high or too low.

A candidate who says that he considers himself a bad salesman most likely does not like to sell and does not know how to sell. He has no passion important quality for sales. And that's why it won't suit you. Just like a candidate who says that he is the best in the world is an ordinary braggart, unable to be responsible for his words and actions.

Question No. 7. Why are good salespeople like you looking for work?

This question belongs to the category of projective questions and reveals the motivation of the sales manager.

For example, a great answer to this question is: I want the opportunity to earn more. A bad answer is: I was fired, I need to work somewhere, so I came to you.

In addition, it creates a slight element of stress in the interview because there is a catch in it and, accordingly, you have the opportunity to see how the candidate behaves during stress. And any sale is always a slight element of stress, so you can already see how a person will behave in difficult stages of sales, for example, in working out objections.

You have read the short guide, and if you did everything correctly, then you have a clear understanding of how to conduct flash interviews with sales managers. And now don't make the same mistakes because you have effective tool to weed out useless and select effective sales managers.

But this is only the first step; in fact, to recruit an intelligent sales team you will need:

1. Correctly determine the portrait of the candidate
2. Invite the required number of candidates
3. Correctly assess candidates' skills
4. Recruit candidates to come to work
5. Conduct the test day correctly
6. Correctly build a system for training and adaptation of candidates
7. Correctly build a system of material rewards

There are many possible answers to each question, and it is impossible to consider them all in a short instruction, so I especially recorded an explanatory video for you, in which I explain in more detail how to work with these questions.

In this article we will give you advice on how to answer questions, and also tell you how to answer questions “correctly”. Information about the features of the interview will be of interest to both experienced specialists and novice sellers.

• you are looking for a suitable vacancy on the Internet;
• fill out and send your resume to the vacancy you like;
• you receive a call and are invited to an interview for the position of sales manager.

How to pass an interview for a sales manager?

First of all, during the interview they will evaluate your appearance. To make the necessary impression, adhere to business style clothes, be confident and friendly - with your whole appearance you simply must win people over.

The recruiter's job during the interview is to assess your professional skills. You may be asked about what you did in your previous job, so think ahead about what you will say about your previous activities.

Your answers must correspond to what is written in your resume, otherwise you will not be able to successfully pass all stages of the interview for a sales manager.

Remember all your responsibilities, and then compare them with the requirements for the online job. Write down on a piece of paper and remember the answers to the question about job responsibilities, containing 2-3 phrases or expressions that the employer used in the requirements for the candidate.

If you are asked about personal qualities, you can mention initiative, communication skills, persuasion skills, stress resistance, and kindness. Preparing in advance will help you complete your interview faster and more successfully.

They may ask about your labor productivity, namely how many clients you could visit in a week, how many sales you made daily or for what amount (if you worked in retail). It is best to answer this question truthfully or talk about stable average or slightly above average results (even if yours were significantly higher), so that later the employer does not have high expectations or demands regarding you (if you are applying for a similar position).

If you are asked about situations where you failed or made a serious mistake, it is better not to talk about mistakes. Say that “you can’t remember such cases now.” But it’s worth remembering about your luck and success in sales and telling about a couple of cases (but don’t overuse it, otherwise your “self-esteem” will look like bragging from the outside).

When asked how often you attend sales manager interviews or when was the last time you attended one, you can answer that “I was invited to another meeting.” However, in this case you may be asked where exactly. To this, you don’t have to mention the name of the company and say that “the company also sells household appliances"or that the second employer who invited you for an interview for a similar vacancy also represents " famous brand fashionable clothes."

Interview: sales manager. Recruiter Questions

• What do you like about sales? (in the work of a salesperson, in the profession) - they want to hear from you that you like to communicate with people;
• The client does not look you in the eye. Why do you think? — They test how well you understand people. You must give a reason: the client is hiding something, he is deceiving, he is tired, he is not interested in the conversation, etc.
• Why do some sellers sell significantly more than others? — check your level of responsibility and focus on results (success). You must tell the reasons for success in sales, mention the qualities (performance, customer focus, dedication, ability to build trusting relationships with clients, etc.) that help achieve it.
  

  In no case should you talk about having a client base, a good area or luck.

• How do you know if you are a successful salesperson? - they expect from you quantitative indicators success - sales volume, amount of revenue, percentage of quality, number of upsells, etc.

Often the candidate will be asked to sell a pen or some other item. The point of this simple task is to find out how familiar you are with the stages of sales and whether you know how to apply them. How to do this, watch the video:

Now you know how an interview for a sales manager goes, and you can charm any recruiter. If you doubt your knowledge in the field of sales, on our website you can familiarize yourself with them for free at.

It is known that completely different people are hired for the position of salesperson, without preferences based on age, nationality or gender.

On vacant place They will accept an active person who wants to work, whose eyes “light up”, who knows how to make a pleasant impression, speaks coherently and smiles. If you can show all this with your appearance, you will definitely be hired.

We wish you to always successfully pass the interview and not only for the sales manager!

The average interview with a sales manager or other specialist for Sales Academy projects lasts about 15 minutes. That is, from two 2 to 1.5 hours.
During this time, we somehow miraculously manage to:
— To understand whether this employee is interesting to us or not.
- What companies can he be placed in?
- What positions will he hold? really useful.
- How many really the candidate earned in his previous job.
— At what minimum possible “price” wages we can hire this employee.

If you want to quickly weed out “empty” employees and cheaply, then we advise you to study our favorite recruitment technology - Interview in 5 steps.

The essence of the technology is that there are 5 blocks of sequentially asked questions, using which, subject to the rules and order of questions, you can get a real portrait of your interlocutor without revealing any of your cards.
The trick of the technology is that if you see that a candidate is not suitable for you, you can immediately say goodbye and send him home. The candidates you find most interesting will make it to the very end and are most likely to be offered a job.

According to this system, you do not disclose to the candidate all the details of the job and the motivation system before the interview.
I won’t bore you any longer, let’s see what we have there :)

Interview in 5 steps

1 Making contact
2 Analysis professional competencies (profile position)
3 Motivation analysis
4 Compensation Analysis
5 Selling a vacancy

1. Establishing contact

(The person’s excitement shuts him down, you need to establish contact - a couple of easy questions)

How was your trip?
Your name is “name”, right?
Was it easy to find our office?
Set meeting rules:
“My name is so-and-so, we will do this, I will ask questions - it will take 15-20 minutes, after that I will tell you about the position and then I can answer your questions” - something like this. Agreed?

2. Analysis of professional competencies

Education
experience
Describe 5 of your achievements
How many people did you have under your command?
Your 10 first actions in the workplace.

3. Motivation analysis

Why did you leave your previous job?
How is your relationship with management?
Hobby?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
What skills have you learned in the last six months?
We identify intangible needs.

4. Compensation analysis

Imagine how much you would like to earn in 3 years?
How long have you been happy with yourself and what?
What is the most expensive purchase in the last six months?
Who do you live with? Where?
Approximately how much do you spend on yourself? The candidate spends exactly what he earns.
The minimum threshold for which you are willing to work.

5. Selling a vacancy

Tell me, if we like each other, when can you go to work?
Among the many candidates, why you?
What do you expect from our company?

After that, tell us about your company.

Use it "his" words you heard or wrote down. Describe the vacancy in such a way that this candidate will no longer be able to refuse it.

Never say "You've been hired" right on the spot - let the person worry for half a day or a day.
If the candidate does not suit you, say that it was nice to meet you and you will call back later.

What are my favorite features of this technology?

— You have a strictly verified logical plan of questions.
— After each block of questions, you can say goodbye to the candidate.
— The best candidate, when he got to the last question, had already “surrendered” himself and you know what words to use to tell him about the vacancy and the motivation system for this position.
— By guiding a person through these questions, you get a complete portrait of a person with his history and desires.
- After this, you can hire candidates at the most favorable price for you.

I wrote down this interview script on paper and carry it with me in my diary. For 3 years now he has been helping me quickly and very clearly understand candidates during interviews.

I hope this technology will be useful to you too.