Sales Interview Questions

by Karen Bostic
(Mooresville, NC)

How would a sales person adapt from selling 11 million dollars worth of sales to 100 million dollars worth of sales. What would they do different?

What a great question! There are a couple of things that should be factored into your response, based on your knowledge of what products/services are being sold at each of these levels. Here are my thoughts for talking points:

1. Products and services that are generating $100 million in sales are likely to be big ticket, and perhaps multi-year contracts. Chances are the sales cycle for these products or services is going to be longer. Managing a longer sales cycle efficiently will be critical to making the sale.



2. There's a good chance that the decision maker in the sales process is different in these two ranges. Selling to the C-level, which is much more likely with higher ticket items, is going to be far more consultative, more relationship driven than selling lower priced products. The ability to sell at the C-level will be an important success factor.



3. If an RFP is involved in the selling process, especially on bigger deals, you've already lost if you're just responding to the RFP vs. if you've been instrumental in influencing the creation of the RFP. In a consultative sales process, you'll need to be in touch with not only the C-level, but their teams as well.



4. At the $100 million level, there's a good chance that in addition to landing new accounts, a good account manager will be expanding the relationship with existing clients. Adding onto existing contracts with new services and/or leveraging relationships established in one area of a business into another area can help shorten the sales cycle and help you hit higher sales goals.



5. Qualifying prospects is important in any sales effort, but when higher dollars are involved, identifying the real decision makers in an organization can be harder, yet more critical to success in the sales process. Understanding who the decision maker is, and who the influencers are, will give you a roadmap on where relationships need to be nurtured.

The real driver here is a consultative sales mentality vs. a transactional sales approach. Doing bigger deals typically requires a consultative style, along with consistent and diligent follow up throughout the sales process.

Hope this helps!