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Questions to Ask During a Sales Interview

Posted on February 15, 2018 by The Medical Sales Mentors' Team

Part 6: Questions to Ask During a Sales Interview

Welcome to the 6th part of our series: “How to Rock a Sales Interview.” I’m JD, and I will be your host for this series. A little on my background: I have 18 years’ of sales experience (16 in pharma/biotech), was a National Sales Manager, led a division of a biotech company, and have significant experience in sales interviews (on both sides of the interview table). 

In the last article, we focused on: “The Top 10 Sales Manager Interview Questions.” Today, we focus on “Questions to Ask During a Sales Interview.”

Preparing for an interview is a lot of work; you are selling what you have to offer to the interviewer in hopes of landing your desired role. However, this is also an opportunity for YOU to interview the manager and interviewers to learn more about the company and the position to ensure the opportunity and culture align with your goals. I have applied for jobs that I thought were the “perfect” job only to find out during the interview process that they were not a match for me. Therefore, it is important to make sure you are asking the right questions during the interview.

As a candidate, I always thoroughly researched the company and the position. Leveraging an inside contact is the best way to understand the culture and growth opportunities. As a manager, not only did I evaluate candidates on the answers to my questions, I also assessed them on their preparedness, knowledge of the company, products, and competitors, and the questions they asked. By doing this, I could gauge how strategic they were and how they would perform in the job.

Here are questions to ask during a sales interview:

What is the company culture? 

Hopefully, before the interview, you had an informational chat with an inside contact to give you the inside scoop. However, you want to hear how the hiring manager describes the company and the culture. This will be important for you to assess if this opportunity is right for you.

What are you looking for in a candidate for this role? 

In my personal opinion, this is one of the most important questions you can ask. Why? Because his/her answer will allow for you to understand what he/she wants and you can mentally take note of the characteristics/skills they mention and use them in your answers and use specific examples to show you are a perfect match.

What are the strengths/opportunities of the role?

You always want to know what you are getting into; both good and bad, so you can assess the situation. By answering these questions, you should have an idea how access, competition and insurance plans affect the territory.

What is the territory (are there overnights)?

If you are interviewing for a sales role, you need to know what areas you will be covering and if you are required to travel (if, so, how much travel).

Why is this role open?

I always ask this question as I want to see progress and/or promotions. This is one question you can ask if you are comfortable. Know that sometimes they may not share the answer depending on the situation.

What is the turnover rate?

What you are trying to uncover here is how people like the company. Do they stay? Do they all jump ship? Are there frequent promotions? Bigger and growing companies often have more opportunities for advancement. Smaller companies may not. Companies with an excellent culture may have limited movement, therefore, advancement may not be an option anytime soon. It all comes down to what you are looking for.

Tell me about the career path?

If you are looking to advance from a rep to other positions, you need to know what their promotion process is and what is required. If you are looking to advance from a rep to manager, you want to identify if they have specific protocols in place; some companies require that reps go through leadership development pathways, others do not.

What is your management style?

You are not looking to identify a micro-manager. You are looking to see if your personality will work with theirs. Although managers change over time, it is best to know who you are initially working for and if you will work well together.

What are the territory expectations?

If you did your homework well, you know what product(s) you will be selling along with the specialties you will be calling on. Any other information you can get about the territory and the expectations will be helpful for you to know.

What are the company’s plans for growth and development?

Here you are looking for how the company plans to sustain growth for the future. There are too many companies downsizing and making changes, and you want to do you best to start with a solid company. Of course, things happen, but you want to knock out anything obvious.

Other questions:

Prior to the interview, research the company, competitors, products and anything else you can think of. Usually, during the research, you will stumble upon things that you may want to know more about. This is entirely up to you.

Whether you are looking for a new career opportunity or want to be proactive in preparing for the next career opportunity, we at Medical Sales Mentors can help. We help experienced professionals land their desired roles in medical device – biotech or pharma sales. We guarantee your professional career fitness through customized personal branding. We pair you with others of like career fitness in the companies where you want to work. We confidentially leverage our industry network and our customized products and processes to help you land the next career role that is the right fit for you, because, hey, you’re worth it! Our background is in HR, Sales, Medical Devices, Biotech and Pharmaceuticals = we give you what works, no theories.