Interviewing for a Sales Representative Role

Why use us?

Sales representatives are the key point of contact between a business and its customers. A big part of their job is to ensure that current customers have the right products and services while also identifying new markets and customer leads.

Sales is a huge industry, nearly 13% of the jobs in the US are full time sales positions (1 in 8). With so many people working in the industry, you will need to find the best if you want your business to thrive. That’s where our quizzes come in!

Skills to look for when employing Sales representatives

• Communication - Solid communication skills are the foundation of a strong seller. With these skills, sellers can build meaningful relationships with clients. It’s important to realise that clear communication is necessary with not only talking, but also through interacting over email, social media or on video conferences as well.
• Prospecting – Prospecting is an important part of the sales process. Your employees should be able to effectively identify potential customers (prospects) and find a way to systematically communicate with them in hopes of converting them from a potential customer to a current customer.
• Presentation skills - Sales reps deal with different people, therefore different circumstances every day, which makes it even more important if they can practise their presentations and demonstrations ahead of time.
• Social selling - Sales reps should understand the power of social media. They should at least know the basics of how to use major social networks and tools such as LinkedIn.
• Storytelling - Being able to incorporate stories into your speech is a distinct skill and an incredibly effective component to selling and communicating effectively. When you tell an engaging story, you educate and it helps appeal to buyers’ emotions and encourages action.
• Active listening – Not only should a sales rep be good at talking, they should be great at listening. This is in order to find out what the client is looking for, and see what they can offer them.
• Negotiation skills - Reps need to be good at negotiating and disciplined as to not offer discounts that are too steep.
• Judgement - There won’t always be someone there to tell your rep what to do, so they need the ability to make good judgement calls in real time on their own. Sometimes a seller’s vibe might be off and your reps should be able to determine that.

How can you find these qualities in your employees?

So, you have advertised your job online or in the paper and people seem interested… Instead of arduously sifting through all of their CVs, make use of our quizzes and get them to prove their knowledge and skill, instead of taking their word for it!

Construct your unique interview quiz

You are free to choose whichever 4 categories you want but here are our 4 suggested quizzes for the job of a sales representative:

1. English Advanced – This will test just how well adept your candidates are with the English language. Find out if they will be able to clearly communicate with their prospects and others.
2. Maths Advanced – Anyone working in sales should be good with numbers. Work out which one of your candidates is the best with numbers by testing their maths knowledge.
3. IQ - This is a good way to find out which of your candidates can think fastest under pressure and solve problems quickly.
4. IT Basic – The world of E-commerce is growing rapidly. If your employees will be using computers we recommend either IT Basic or Advanced (or both!)

At the Interview

When it comes to the job interviews, you will be armed with a page showing the results of the candidate’s online tests. This will highlight who is good at what and it will be the ideal tool to help you formulate the best interview questions to ask.

Conclusion

We can't decide who is best for you but we can provide the tools to help you MAKE BETTER DECISIONS, FASTER.