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Sales Interview Questions and Answers as an Ex-Oracle Account Executive - YouTube
Channel: Patrick Dang
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in this video i'm going to share some of
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the most common sales interview
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questions you're going to get
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during your sales interview and i'm
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going to be pulling from my personal
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experience working in sales in silicon
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valley so you want to make sure you
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watch this video until the end because
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if you got a sales interview coming up
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and you want to nail it and you want to
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be ready for all the trick questions and
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things like that they're going to ask
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make sure to watch this video all the
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way through so that you can crush your
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sales interview what's going on everyone
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patrick here so before we get started
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make sure to give this video a like
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subscribe and turn on notifications and
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if you want to take and if you're
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looking to start and accelerate your
[34]
sales career make sure to check out my
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master class
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sales legacy at sales legacy.com or
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click the link in the description
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to learn more with that said let's go
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ahead and get started all right so the
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first question that
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most interviewers sales managers are
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gonna ask their potential candidate
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is tell me about yourself right and not
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even just in sales but in interviews in
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general people always like to start with
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that tell me about yourself
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and the reason for why this interview
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question can feel a little tricky is
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because
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it's a very vague question and you're
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not really sure where you should start
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should you talk about
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yourself why you want the job your past
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experience where do you actually begin
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so a trick that i personally like to do
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especially when i was you know doing a
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lot of interviews back in the day
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is i would actually just when someone
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asked me hey patrick tell me about
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yourself i would say okay sure i can be
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able to tell you anything you want
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i'm just curious to know where you want
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me to start and so what i do is i kind
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of reflect the question back to them
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because i'm trying to get a sense of
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what exactly they want to hear because
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if i just talk about myself
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and i'm not sure what this employer is
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looking for
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well what i say may not be as impactful
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or maybe they don't care
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so that's why i always like to say sure
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i can you know tell you anything you
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want to know but
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um is there anything in particular you
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would want me to talk about to make it
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you know as relevant for you
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so that we can see if it's a good fit
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for both sides and usually
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they're going to say something like well
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you know just tell us anything you want
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usually that's what they would do or
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just tell us about your past experience
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right they'll give you a more clear
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answer and if they tell you about if
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they say something like hey just tell us
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anything you want what i usually like to
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do
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is i like to tell them what i believe
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right because when you are
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interviewing for a job you want to stand
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out from the rest of the other
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candidates
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so if you just say something like oh
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yeah i used to work here and i want to
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do sales
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you're literally just like everybody
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else who walked in the door if you tell
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the recruiter or whoever's interviewing
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you
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what you believe and what your values
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are and why you may be a good culture
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fit for the company
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then that's a totally different game for
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me what i did when i was
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applying for jobs and stuff when i first
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started my sales career i would start by
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saying this
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my mission in life is to inspire others
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and the reason is because and i kind of
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go into why
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and the reason why i joined sales is
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because and i go into why i joined sales
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and so when i kind of do it in that way
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i don't want to bore you with the whole
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pitch but i tell them what i believe i
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tell them that my values is to inspire
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and help other people
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um and a lot of people resonate with
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that right so if you have a personal
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core value that you feel
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would be applicable or would apply to
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the job you're
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you know applying to then go ahead and
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share what you believe because
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you know people love that people love
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that personality and that's what makes
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you different
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now if you don't want to kind of share
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your beliefs and
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philosophies about life and you know
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you're not trying to go that deep
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instead what you could do is this you
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want to just quickly talk about you know
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your past experience
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and then you talk you shift the
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conversation and talk more about
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why you want this job and why and what
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value you can bring right
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so for example let's say i'm an
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interview somebody says hey patrick um
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tell me about yourself
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i'm gonna say something like okay great
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well you know as you can see on my
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resume i'm a business development person
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at oracle and everything's going great
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so far but over the past few months you
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know i've been really getting into
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blockchain and cryptocurrency
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technologies and you know it's something
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that i'm developing a passion for
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and so the reason why you know i applied
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for this job and we're talking now is
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because
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you know doing business development at
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oracle is great and all but then i
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really want to take my skills and apply
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to something i'm very passionate about
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and i really you know when i looked at
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your company and checked out your
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website i really believe in
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what you guys do and you know i want to
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be a part of it right
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and so you know you can kind of shift
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the conversation away from
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just being like a question answer like
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you know i'm patrick dang this is my
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experience
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i'm qualified for the job and shift it
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for away from that
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and say like look i got the experience i
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know i'm good but
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i really believe in what you want to do
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and i want to be a part of it it's
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exciting
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right and so just from doing that the
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employer maybe the founder or whoever is
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looking at you
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they're a lot more like wow this guy is
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really interesting right this guy
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seems like the type of person that will
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figure things out even if he doesn't
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have all the experience
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and that's how i would personally
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separate myself from all the other
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candidates now you know it's not like
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the basic thing that you'll probably see
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in other videos but
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if you do what everyone else is doing
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then obviously you're not going to stand
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out right and so
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that's just my personal tip on how you i
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would answer the question tell me about
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yourself
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the next question that um a lot of
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interviewers will ask you
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is they will say okay how would you sell
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my product right so
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basically they're gonna give you a
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situation where they're like okay try it
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and pretend to be
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like a sales person like you work at our
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company and sell us our product whether
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it's a software
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consulting service whatever it is right
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we want to see what you got the first
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thing is that
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you never want to go into any type of
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pitching situation or selling mode
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without first understanding their
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product right so if you're in that
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interview you have to make sure that you
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on the company's website you understand
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their products you understand like
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what pains they're solving and what
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value they bring because that's going to
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directly influence your ability to sell
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it's not about being the smoothest
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talker it's just understanding what they
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do and how they bring value and
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communicating that right
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and so from there it's all about you
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know what's the pain their customers
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have
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what is the desired situation their
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customer wants to be in
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and how does their product and service
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help that customer go from point a to
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point b
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and just communicate that right and so
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let's go ahead and give you an example
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so let's say you know i was trying to
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apply for
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a sales and business development role at
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lever lever is a recruiting software
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that allows companies to easily put up
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job postings and people can apply and
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they can manage all their
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people that apply kind of like a crm in
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a way and so
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it's a good technology i mean i've used
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it before and so let's say i was trying
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to work in i was trying to sell this
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right so if i knew
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that their customers were like small
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medium businesses who are using excel
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sheets or
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you know broken software that has to
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integrate with all these different
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things
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and you know it doesn't doesn't work
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that well and i'm trying to sell
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leverage to them i would say hey look
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you know i understand like a business
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like yours you have a ton of people
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you know applying to your company
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obviously because you're a great company
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but i can kind of see that the problem
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is that
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you know when you're trying to manage
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all your candidates you know right now
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you're
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i can see that you're managing
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everything on excel sheet although that
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does work
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but you're obviously spending a lot of
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time your recruiters are spending a lot
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of time just moving papers around
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you know copy and pasting things and you
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know the whole system is kind of broken
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and so how lever can help is it can kind
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of just automate the entire process so
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instead of someone having to spend hours
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every single day you know moving these
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excel sheet data points around
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why not just have the software do
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everything in one complete system that
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everybody can see
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completely transparent and you know
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obviously the time you save will be well
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worth the price that you pay for the
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software
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right so i kind of would pitch it like
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that um you know obviously the situation
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might be different
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depending what they're asking for but
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essentially the whole goal is like
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what's the pain that someone might have
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and how do you solve that pain and
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that's pretty much it right so that's
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how i would sell
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you know any type of product and service
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whether it's in them you know a
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one-on-one setting or if it's a
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presentation
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the philosophy and foundations of how i
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would do it are exactly the same
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what's the pain what's the desired
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situation how does their product and
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servers get from point a to point b and
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that's all you need to do now the next
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interview question that you might get
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is that you know what's your 30 day
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sales plan or what's your 90 day sales
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plan if we decide to hire you right
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depending on the company i think most
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people ask for 30 days but sometimes
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some people are a little more complex
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and they want to see how you think long
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term so they might say something like
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okay what's your 90 day plan so here's
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how i would answer the question right if
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you are let's say doing
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sales and business development meaning
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it's your job to reach out to people
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generate a meeting get on the phone
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close a deal right
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what i would do is i would essentially
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say okay look when i get on the company
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the first thing i'm gonna do for the
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first few days is learn everything
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i can about the product who are your
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customers what pains do they have
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how do we solve those pains who are our
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top customers uh who spends the most
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money and
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you know really develop a outbound
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campaign of
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the people that i want to target based
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on the current customers that we have
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so that i have more likely of success
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right that's first step they want to see
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how proactive are you to learn about
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your the product and the customers
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and find more customers that are similar
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to the good ones that you already have
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and then within those three days you
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would say okay
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once i developed a plan my goal is to
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you know generate a list of let's say
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500 companies that we want to work with
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and find all the decision makers at
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these companies and do a campaign i'm
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gonna do a multi-touch campaign where
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we're gonna do email we're gonna do
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linkedin we're gonna do cold calling
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right depending on the company what they
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do
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and you know we're gonna create a
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cadence where i can consistently reach
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out to these people
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on a consistent basis and we can see
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whether or not these strategies are
[526]
working
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and if they're not working you know
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obviously we got a team we can talk to
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each other see what's going on what
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works and what doesn't and i'll refine
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the process over the first
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30 days so that's essentially how i
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would answer the first 30 days
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and then if it goes to 60 90 days all
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you're really doing is you're saying
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like look once i have that down
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it's all about refining and retuning
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finding more companies
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tuning the message increasing the
[548]
conversion rates knowing the best time
[549]
to send an email when the best call
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you know when when the best time to call
[553]
is and all these things that optimize
[554]
the process so that within 90 days
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we should have a well-ordered machine
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and i should be able to fit into your
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system generating leads and closing
[561]
deals like
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crazy what do you think about that and
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so you know if you have a plan like that
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that's 30 days 60 days 90 days
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people really respect that because it
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shows that you're proactive and you're
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not
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just waiting for someone to tell you
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what to do you're actually going out and
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making an effort to generate leads and
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close deals and that's what people
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want to see when they hire sales people
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another common question that people
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might have
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is why did you leave your last job or
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why are you leaving your current job if
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you already have one right and so
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there's many different ways to answer
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this question depending on what your
[592]
situation actually is right but the main
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thing you want to pay attention to
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no matter how you answer it is you never
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want to you know talk down on your
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previous job because that just doesn't
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show the right
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um salesmanship and like right
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personality is too negative right
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you want to look at your transition as
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something positive for everybody so
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if you didn't like your past job and
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you're leaving your past job or you quit
[613]
you could say like hey you know i did
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pretty well there i did this and that
[616]
but i felt like you know my ceiling was
[618]
capped and i wasn't able to
[619]
reach my full potential and grow and so
[622]
that's why i want to look for different
[623]
opportunities
[624]
where i could better utilize my skill
[626]
sets uh with a company that i really
[628]
believe in which led me to
[629]
interviewing with you right and so again
[631]
don't talk bad about your previous
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employers you know try to say good
[636]
things if they are good but then
[637]
kind of show like where the cap is or
[639]
the reason for why you left
[640]
you don't have to lie about it you don't
[642]
have to like make things up or anything
[644]
like that just
[644]
it's the truth right if you felt like it
[646]
was a dead-end job and you want to
[648]
move up in your career then that's what
[649]
it is right remember to keep that in
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mind
[651]
so whether you are currently have a job
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and you want to transition or if you
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don't have a job
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that's what i would do an important step
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is also um
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when you do transition jobs and they're
[661]
asking you this question you want to
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show them number one that you
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are looking to learn you're looking to
[666]
find a place where you can learn a lot
[668]
gain a lot of experience and provide a
[669]
lot of value right
[670]
people want to see that you also want to
[672]
say things like you want to invest in
[673]
your long-term growth because
[675]
you don't want to stay the same forever
[676]
you want to evolve and grow as a person
[678]
and grow in your career
[679]
and so by saying these things people see
[681]
you more as a long-term candidate versus
[683]
someone who's just
[684]
trying to find another sales job right
[685]
and so that's how i would handle that
[687]
question
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and the next question we have is towards
[689]
the end of the interview the interviewer
[691]
is going to ask you something like are
[693]
there any questions that you would like
[695]
to ask us
[696]
right so you know in an interview the
[697]
interviewer is obviously asking a lot of
[699]
questions to the
[700]
potential candidate and then the
[702]
candidate you know has
[704]
opportunity to ask questions back
[705]
usually at the end of the interview okay
[708]
and in a way this is a test to see like
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how
[711]
curious you are about the job and also a
[714]
way to flex your sales skills
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so what i would do and what i did
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actually is i would ask that person the
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interviewer
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um you know why exactly they decided to
[722]
work at this company
[724]
right and what i'm trying to do is i'm
[725]
trying to say like they're going to tell
[726]
me why they joined and they're also
[728]
going to tell me
[729]
like what the experience is like right
[730]
so i would say something like you know
[732]
based on your experience so far you know
[733]
what is the culture like at this company
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do you guys help each other a lot or is
[737]
it more of a cutthroat environment
[738]
because i'm really trying to see if it's
[740]
good fit culturally for both sides
[742]
and usually they're gonna say like oh
[743]
yeah you know everyone helps each other
[745]
i love how
[746]
you know they do this and that and it's
[747]
a great experience right
[749]
and basically you're trying to match
[751]
what they say with who you
[753]
are right because at the end of the day
[755]
when you're interviewing it's not just
[756]
about your sales skills it's
[758]
does the person can they see themselves
[760]
working with you right
[761]
so if they see that you are a good
[762]
culture fit and you know your values
[765]
align with theirs then they're going to
[766]
be highly likely to hire you right
[767]
and the last question i would ask is is
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there any reason for why i wouldn't be
[771]
able to
[772]
be hired for this job right this is
[774]
quite um
[775]
a question that most people don't ask
[776]
because they're afraid of that no
[778]
but essentially why you want to ask that
[779]
question is because
[781]
you want to know whether or not you're
[783]
going to get the job by the end of that
[784]
interview
[785]
right you want to know if you're moving
[786]
to the next step or not you don't want
[788]
to maybe you want a yes or no
[790]
because if they say yes great you're
[791]
moving on to the next step no problem if
[793]
they say
[793]
no you have an opportunity to handle
[796]
those objections and you might say like
[798]
okay i totally respect uh you know your
[800]
decision on that but
[801]
you know just curious you know what
[803]
exactly is preventing me from being
[804]
hired here because i felt like it was a
[806]
really good fit for us to work together
[807]
but
[808]
um from your perspective that doesn't
[810]
seem to be the case
[811]
and they're gonna say yeah you know we
[813]
really like you it is good culture fit
[815]
but
[816]
maybe it's something like you don't have
[818]
enough sales experience but
[820]
there are three other candidates that
[821]
are also really good right there's so
[822]
many different objections you might be
[824]
getting
[824]
the point is you need to know what that
[826]
objection is so on the fly you can
[827]
handle it on the spot
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okay so that's why you need to ask the
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question is there any reason for why i
[832]
want to be hired for this job
[834]
and if they don't want to give you an
[835]
answer then you would say like okay well
[837]
what's the next step to move forward
[838]
with this
[839]
and they would tell you like oh we're
[840]
going to talk to our team we're going to
[841]
reach back out to you
[842]
and then you you know whatever it is
[844]
right and you if they don't want to give
[845]
you a straight answer
[846]
right you can say like okay so are you
[848]
ready to extend an offer
[850]
within today right and then they would
[852]
say uh
[853]
no we're not ready to and i say okay why
[855]
not it seems like
[857]
everything's right but i'm not really
[858]
sure what you're saying or you know i
[860]
mean
[860]
so essentially you need them to get give
[862]
you a straight answer and you're
[863]
essentially going for the close right
[865]
you have to close the deal in that you
[866]
have to close the
[867]
job interview so that you can actually
[869]
get it and this kind of shows your
[870]
your selling ability because you're not
[872]
afraid to ask for the clothes people
[874]
respect it
[874]
and it's not too rude if you do it in
[876]
the right way and for the most part when
[878]
i every time i did that people liked it
[879]
right because
[880]
a lot of times i get objections and i
[882]
handle those objections
[883]
or they appreciate the fact that i go
[885]
for the close and i'm more likely to be
[887]
hired right
[887]
and so definitely you want to do that
[889]
don't just be like oh yeah you know
[891]
great interviewing with you you know
[892]
please reach back out to me when you're
[894]
ready blah blah blah
[895]
sometimes it's too soft you want to
[896]
stand out from the rest of the other
[898]
candidates
[898]
so definitely ask that question and so
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with that said those are going to be my
[902]
best tips for some of the most common
[903]
questions you will get in your sales
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interview so if you enjoyed this video
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make sure to give it a like and
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subscribe because it's absolutely free
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to subscribe and i know a lot of you
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guys haven't subscribed quite yet
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and turn on the notification bell and
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also if you want to take your sales game
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to the next level and start and
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accelerate your sales career make sure
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to check out my masterclass
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saleslegacy.com where you're going to
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learn everything you need to know when
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it comes to starting your sales career
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getting a high paying sales shop
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accelerating in your sales career
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so if you're interested in that i got a
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free one hour training at
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saleslegacy.com link is also
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in the description where you can you
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know take the one hour training
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see if it's a good fit for you and then
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from there you kind of understand if you
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want to move forward so that said
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my name is patrick day and i will see
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you in the next one
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