02 Jan Interview Tips for a Sales Company

Our Expert Recruitment Consultants have put together their hottest tips, so you can boss your next job interview.

Think an interview is easy enough to pass? Think again. From the moment you rock up, until well after you have left, the impression you create could never be more important.

1 – Preparation is key!

You can never do too much research before an interview, the only limit is the amount of time that you are prepared to spend. Most importantly, you should know the job description well, and how you fit into it. It’s useless turning up if you don’t know what the job entails.

Next, research the company. You should know when they started, where they were based, what they initially did as a company at start-up because remember, companies expand and adapt.

That business award they won? Research that. If you’re a Sales guy, that major client they partnered up with a couple of years ago? Research that. If you’re in Marketing, check out their target audience, what sub-sector of society buys this product, how do they approach it? Ask them! Find out as much as you can.

Candidates have missed out on jobs simply because when they were asked whether they had any questions, they just said no. Take an interest in this company, you could spend a few years of your life working there. So get some questions prepared, 5 or so, because they’ll probably answer some before you ask.

Find out about them because while they’re checking that you’re right for them, you need to check that they’re right for you.

2 – The morning after the night before

Please, DO NOT have a heavy night the day before an interview. Ensure your outfit is ironed and clean, fresh for the morning. Gents, you should ALWAYS wear a suit and tie unless you’ve been told otherwise. Ladies, you should also be as smartly dressed as you can be, again unless you have other instructions.

Map out your journey to the interview and get a nice early night. It seems obvious; however, you may not be the only candidate going for this position so do everything you can to stand out for all the right reasons.

3 – Behaviour

Did you know that many Employers will approach the receptionist, or indeed anyone you have had an interaction with to discuss your general behaviour and attitude ahead of your interview?  Be kind and courteous to everyone you come across and don’t forget to turn your phone off or at the very least put it on silent!

If you have time to pull out your phone because you’re waiting, then instead have a look around the company, look at any products that they have on display, look at how they present themselves to their customers and clients.

During the interview

What you always want the interviewer to feel is that you are confident in your ability to do the job, just remember there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. No manager wants to feel that someone new is going to come in and tell them how to run their business.

That said, you want to be able to bring your experience and knowledge to the table and having new ideas is a real positive. Try to get this balance, being engaging, making sure that you listen to learn, not just to respond, eye contact etc. There was a study done that suggested that the ideal gap between someone finishing talking and someone responding, is 2 seconds in order to show maximum sincerity. We’re not suggesting that you count to 2 each time you want to respond, but the point is to listen carefully to what they are saying, then take a short time to formulate your response, rather than jumping straight in.

4 – Strengths vs Weaknesses

The old cliche – tell us about your weaknesses. Do not go with the stereotypical ‘I’m a perfectionist’ or ‘I push myself too hard’. When it comes to difficult questions, or talking about weak points in your ability, never lie or exaggerate, as it only gets found out in the end. Instead, address the issue and then suggest how you are going to improve or get around this.

For example: “I find that my note-taking can let me down and that I rely too much on memory. This works for me in the short term, but I find that if I come back to something after a short holiday, or further down the line then I can’t remember. For this reason, I am making a conscious effort to take down as many notes as possible to make me more productive and make sure that nothing gets forgotten.”

This way, you have turned a weakness into a positive.

5 – What questions should you ask?

Don’t sit and spout all of your research out like a bad history teacher recounting facts. Ask them a question – “****** must be one of your biggest clients, how did you go about getting them on board?”. You have shown that you’ve done your research, and asked a question, well done, you just got a thumbs up.

Prepare 5 or so questions that you can ask them. These questions should vary depending on the role and be relevant. For example, if you were applying for a role within the sales team: “Tell me about your individual and group incentives?”, “How much growth are you expecting to achieve in the next year?” or “Do you have any major drives coming up for clients.” Take a notepad, write the questions down beforehand and make notes about their answers.

A fantastic way of showing you are serious about longer-term goals would be to ask the interviewer what their personal highlight of being with the company is or what they anticipate your biggest challenge to be in the first 6 months.

Most importantly, behave in the interview as you would in the role if you like to use a bit of humour on a sales call to make people feel comfortable, let it out! The interviewer is looking for who you are, don’t put a face on just for the interview, and if they don’t think you’d be the right fit, they may be right. You probably don’t want to be working in a company that asks you to behave differently to fit company policy, it needs to be the right fit for you too!

Good luck!

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