The sales department comprises different responsibilities including sales representative, account executive, sales manager, customer relationship manager, marketing executive, leadership development specialist, and many more. And each of these responsibilities has its own requirement and deliverable to the company. That is why this sales interview question becomes important.
While interviewing for a sales job, it is your primary responsibility to prepare for the particular field. Aspirants often tend to consider sales as a large field and miss out on the small but important core details. To avoid such unexpected mistakes, here is the complete guide to follow to answer sales interview questions like this.
Why is the interviewer asking you “What interests you most about this sales position?”
The main idea behind an ultimate selection round which is an interview is to measure the candidate in person and find his/her qualifications in a particular field that ensure the company’s growth. This sales interview question is asked to understand your specific knowledge of the position, your awareness of the responsibilities, and your relevant skills.
These types of questions are generally asked after you answered questions like why did you choose sales or why are you interested in sales. As the interviewers have an introduction about your skills, they would dive deep to analyze more.
Why do the interviews ask this sales interview question?
- To get an idea about the candidate’s understanding of the job role.
- Check whether requirements are meeting the candidate’s qualifications and experience.
- How well prepared the candidate is and how much they know about the company.
What do you need to do in your response to this interview question?
- Show a positive approach to their questions and to the point answer.
- Share relevant example to your answer to add clarity.
- Exhibit excitement and enthusiasm for the role.
For a detailed approach to handling this sales interview question, follow the next segment for detailed preparation.
How to prepare and answer ” What interests you most about this sales position?”
How to Prepare:
Before going into the details of the tactics to handle this question, there are some basic things that you need to be 100% sure about and can’t afford a single mistake.
Firstly, you need to do detailed research about the company and then the job requirements. This research must include additional expectations, work environment, company’s mission, and vision, their social activities, etc.
As the job interviewer is asking you a specific question, answer it with relevant, well-planned points. While preparing for these types of questions where you need to share your professional goals and abilities with the company requirements, you need to be careful about the answer.
Practice these common interview questions in front of a mirror or discuss them with someone experienced. Always hear your answer from an interviewer’s perspective to find the flaws.
How to Answer:
Show Enthusiasm
It is obvious that you need to maintain a positive approach throughout the interview but when it boils down to a question where you need to describe your reasons to choose this field or position, you need to showcase extra enthusiasm.
Interviewers won’t consider a candidate who is applying for a role just for its sake. A positive response in your tone, body language, and the answer would attract their attention.
Relate with your past role
You need to mention the skills that helped you in past professionally or during any academic course and map it to the responsibilities of the target role. To make an impact, you have to mention the benefits of your experience for the specific sales position, instead of just listing down your sales and interpersonal skills. For this matter, your background research about the job must be strong as mentioned earlier.
Put a question for the interviewer
For an engaging interview, it is not necessary that you only need to answer. But you can put a question for the interviewer too after answering these types of questions. It will help you to build an extraordinary impression on the interviewers.
Sample Answers
#1
As I understand from the job description, you need an online sales strategist for your new venture under this brand name. Apart from my academic qualifications, I have experience in handling social media accounts. In my last job, I worked as a customer relations executive and I increased social media brand engagement by 35% in a year. I like to interact with people and that drives me to apply for this particular role.
Why does it work?
In this answer, you connected your experience as a relevant skill for the target role and present it as an additional perk for the responsibility. The interviewer would find your profile interesting and the conversation would continue in a positive direction.
#2
I always wanted to connect with people from different locations as there is an opportunity to work globally. It would help me to boost my sales creativity to approach people according to their needs, society, and current demographics. I understand that as a product manager, I can work passionately in this role where I can reach a larger audience according to your targets.
Why does it work?
As you mentioned about your passion and how it would help the company, it reflects your sales enthusiasm and background research about the company.
Tips to Answer ” What interests you most about this sales position?”
1. While preparing for such sales interview questions, always ask yourself if you as a person would like to buy the product or service. If the answer is positive, use the points in your answer as consultative sales skills. Otherwise, find a solution or you shouldn’t apply for something where you’re not comfortable.
2. Keep the answer brief and to the point. Talking too much for one answer would reflect that you’re not confident enough. An efficient salesperson can communicate with small yet impactful words.
3. Instead of a generic answer, pick two to three key skills that drive you to apply for a particular role. Then talk about how it can be helpful for the company as well.
Mistakes to avoid while answering this question
1. Talking about your skills and experience throughout instead of balancing it between your interest and the company’s benefits.
2. Answer as it seems that you don’t care what type of role it is and you only care about the salary. Do not walk in the interview without prior research.
3. Summarize your resume and add nothing more that would increase the interviewer’s experience for further discussion.
4. Keep it extremely short as ‘I have experience in this field and this job description is interesting.’ If you have only one relevant reason, make sure you answer properly with it.
Similar sales interview questions :
1. Why are you the best person for the job?
2. Why did you apply for this job?
3. Why are you applying for this position?
4. Why are you interested in working at this company?
5. What motivated you to apply for this position?
6. Why are you interested in this job?
8. What makes you the best candidate?
Summary
If you feel confident with your preparation, then you’re ready to apply for your dream role. However, if it is an over-confidence, recall that everyone would try to impress the interviewers with different answers. There will be high competition for a particular sales position. Again, you need to showcase how you can surpass the competition both in the interview and in the real-life sales field.