Sales Rep Job Interview: A Step-by-Step Guide

A job interview for a sales rep is a sales situation: the candidate is selling themselves. That is why it is so easy to be taken in by a good first impression. Below is an interview plan that helps you assess facts and behaviour, not likeability. It is designed for about an hour.

Before you start, have your candidate profile ready. I explain how to build one in the B2B salesperson profile. Without a profile, you have nothing to compare the answers against.

Before the interview

• Read the CV with an eye for numbers: targets, attainment, size of clients, time spent in each role.
• Mark 3-4 points you want to probe (gaps, frequent job changes, vague wording).
• Choose 6-8 questions from the list of salesperson interview questions.
• Prepare a simulation scenario (I describe it in sales simulation in recruitment).
• Prepare a scorecard with the criteria from the profile.

Interview plan

1. Opening (about 5 minutes). Introduce the company, the role and how the meeting will run. Give the candidate a moment to relax. Notice whether they open with their own confidence or with an effort to understand what you are looking for.

2. Experience and numbers (about 15 minutes). Go through the last two or three roles. Ask about targets, attainment, conversion and sales cycle. Probe if an answer is general. A good salesperson answers specifically and without hesitation.

3. A lost deal and the lessons (about 10 minutes). Ask for the story of a deal the candidate lost but could have won. Watch whether they take responsibility and what they changed afterwards. This is one of the best questions in the whole interview.

4. Simulation (about 15 minutes). Play the client and let the candidate sell. This is the moment when you see the difference between someone who talks about selling and someone who sells. I explain why a simulation matters more than the interview alone in Recruiting a salesperson: how to spot a good one.

5. Candidate's questions (about 5-10 minutes). Pay attention to what they ask. A candidate who is good at sales asks about clients, process and goals, not only about pay and benefits.

What to watch for during the interview

• Do they know their numbers, or do they only tell stories?
• Do they take responsibility, or blame the circumstances?
• Do they listen, or just wait for their turn to speak?
• Do they push for a concrete next step, for example by asking what the rest of the process looks like?
• Are they self-driven, meaning they develop on their own instead of waiting for training?

The most common recruiter mistakes

• The interview turns into a chat. A pleasant atmosphere is not an assessment criterion.
• You talk too much. If the recruiter talks more than the candidate, you learn nothing.
• No simulation. You decide on the basis of stories.
• Judging on the spot, from impressions. Write your notes straight after the interview, before the emotions fade.
• Different questions for different candidates. Then you cannot compare them.

After the interview: assessment within 24 hours

Fill in the scorecard immediately after the meeting. For each essential trait, write down a score and one specific example you base it on. If you cannot give an example, you cannot give a score.

If more than one person is assessing, have them complete their scorecards independently before they talk. Only then compare conclusions.

Recruiting salespeople is one of the things I help companies with, from building the candidate profile through selection to simulations and onboarding. See the service: sales recruitment or book a free consultation using the button below.