Q. What is your best strength at the job?
A. I am skilled in filling up the targets using the employees and been performing the job in the same post for about past nine years. Thereby, I think, my skill in the profession is my best strength.
Q. What do you like the best about being a sales manager?
A. I like to attain the sales target with my team. As a sales manager I develop different strategies while my other team members implement them. When the target is filled up, I celebrate the occasion with the team and I think this is the best about being a sales manager.
Q. Do you prefer working alone or in a team?
A. Well, working alone as a manager is not possible at all. I need a team to work with. As a manager, I have to develop ideas and implementation strategies to reach the goals and it is nearly impossible for me alone to all the things. So, I prefer a team to work with.
Q. What personality traits should a Sales Manager possess?
A. The sales manager should be confident and certainly generous. Strong will and determination to reach the sales target is another quality for the manager. Since the manager needs to work in a team, s/ he should also be a team player and take care of the other mates as the leader for the team.
Q. What is the difference between ‘managing’ and ‘leading’ & which one is more important?
A. The difference between a manager and leader is huge, I think. A leader only leads the team on the shown paths and often takes decision on some issues for reaching on the goal. But a manager needs to manage everything. He (the manager) sets the rules for reaching the goals, determines the potential problems and also provides solutions to avoid them and takes care of the other issues. In a word, all the managers are leaders but all the leaders are not the managers. I think a both qualities are equally important to become a leader or to a manager.
Q. How do you manage solving conflicts within your sales team?
A. Conflicts arise often when working in a team and mostly it happens for communication gap. As a manager, I try to remove the communication gaps between or among the team members and create a situation for open discussion where all the team members participate and share their inner feelings over any specific issue. Then, as the manager, I solve the problem by myself or ask for probable solutions to the other members.
Q. What were you main duties in the previous job?
A. I used to perform several important responsibilities in my previous job and they include – managing all the team members, advising them on reaching the daily, weekly and monthly sales target, resolution the disputes among the team members, preparing sales strategy for specific regions, informing the higher authority about the sales conditions and progress reports, holding weekly meetings with the team members and many other relevant tasks.
Q. What do you like the best about being a sales manager?
A. When the sales targets are done and the higher authority adores the sales manager and his team, I feel proud being as the team member and the sales manager. Besides, when I have to take responsibility for missing the targets and be accountable to the authority over the issue, I also enjoy that moments.
Q. How do you arrange your daily work?
A. I have a daily routine for office and I follow that strictly. All my activities are noted on a sheet and I have made that by myself based on my job requirements. Most of the tasks are broken into pieces and I perform them one after another which make all the tasks complete. The tasks begin with the discussion with the team members and advising them over the sales distribution for the day and ends with the closing of the sales accounts.
Q. How did you handle employee / personal / job problems?
A. Often I had to face some unwanted situations like employee or personal problems and in such cases I used to use my intellect and ready wits and came to a potential solution which was beneficial to all. Sometimes I take a deep breath, listen to music and take some time to rethink the whole issue. I believe that every problem has a solution and we need to think rationally until we find the best possible solution to a problem. I usually do not let my personal problem distract me from my professional duties. If I am to solve a problem of an employee, I listen intensely and consider myself in the same situation. Thus I often solve problems that are proven to be very efficient.
Q. Should reps get warm leads or build their own pipelines?
A. The representatives should get a warm lead instead of building their own pipelines for several reasons. When the leader will behave cordially with them, the reps will be inspired to have some better performance for the company. But if they build some personal relations or build their own pipelines, that would appear detrimental for the company. So, I think the first one should be prioritize more than the latter one.
Q. Should sales reps be paid commission?
A. Yes, I think they should get some commissions on their sales and it will work as a motivation to them.
Q. What’s the ideal relationship between sales & marketing, and how do you operationalize that?
A. Sales and marketing is related closely with each other. Without marketing of the product, sale is impossible. Before having sale, the products should be marketed in the right manner so that the customers or clients get attracted to the product. Marketing helps to promote the product and hence the sales increase. Sale is the outcome of marketing and in both states customer feedback is received which could be used to improve the marketing strategy. Firstly, I try to market the products in the beginning so that they are introduced to the consumers, and then set the selling strategies.
Q. Did you set up sale targets for your staff?
A. Yes, I sat up sales target for each of my staffs who were related to sales activities. Sales target, in my opinion, is better for having a better output from sales team.
Q. What are some of the typical key tasks of a sales Manager?
A. Some of the typical tasks for a sales manager are gathering information about the similar other products in the market and their sales strategies, setting up counter selling strategies to boost the sales, regularly meet with the distributors and get informed with their feedback of the products the manager is selling, often have to visit the market to be informed about the latest sales conditions and how other competitors are working etc.
Q. Do you arrange any training programs for your staff development?
A. Yes, I arrange training programs for my staffs’ development and usually I held the program periodically. In the training session, I try to make them aware of all the updated issues of the products they are dealing with.
Q. What selling techniques will you suggest?
A. There are several selling techniques and I suggest following both the indirect and direct selling techniques to reach the goals. I also inspire my team members to practice up-selling wherever possible.
Q. How many first sales appointments a week are considered as a successful week?
A. I think if around 30 sales appointments are done in a week, the week might be considered as a successful week.
Q. Describe a typical sales process (or sales cycle) for big ticket items and for smaller ones.
A. The most common sales process for both the larger and smaller items is the direct sales method. In this case, the salesmen meet directly with the consumers and persuade them to get the product or service. This is one of the most effective sales process so far I have used.
For big ticket items I recommend establishing customer relationship first while for smaller one being able to illustrate the advantages of a product over competitors is a far better technique.
Q. What are your selling techniques, how do you present/launch a new product? What presentation skills are require?
A. I try to make the presentation in a different manner. Firstly I discuss about the consumers and what they need to do any specific task. Before presenting the product or service, I try to depict the troubles that the consumers are having with their current services. For this I need to do a lot of ground works and master the entire thing. After that stage, I describe how my product or service is designed to make the use comfortable. The entire task requires very good presentation skills and often the presentations are done before a large group of audience and sometimes I have to answer queries from the consumers or audience. Finally, when I conclude the presentation, I leave it to the judgment of the audiences and most of the time they are convinced with my presentation and agree to use the product or the service.
Q. What are your goals in term of professional development and advancement?
A. I want to see myself on the top of any company where I will deal the sales manager, get reports from them and invent newer strategies to expand the products in the market by competing with the other products. Experience is the key to success here and that needs hard efforts. So, I am working hard so that it could bring benefits for my company and uphold my career.
Q. How did you develop your best-selling techniques?
A. When I got involved with the profession, I experienced massive rejections all including the potential clients while my office was pressuring me to fill up the targets. After a couple of years, I found that I could persuade other people to agree with my opinion and selling increased. I used to speak directly with clients and did not inform them about my products rather tried to be one of their friends, literally. By this way I developed my best-selling techniques.
Q. Describe some success stories and some difficulties you have had. How did you handle the difficulties?
A. In the first year of my job, I was assigned to sell around 25 shaving kits for my company and it was difficult for me to reach my target. Each of the months I failed to sell 25 shaving kits. Then I started reading books on marketing and selling techniques. Some of the methods proved failure while some other worked well. The sale started to increase and at the end of month I found that I have crossed 30 which was a great success for me. But not only the books helped me to handle all the failures rather I applied my own intelligence and wits to overcome the hurdles.
I have been awarded employee of the month more than 8-9 times. I motivate employees and my team mates and they usually like me. This is in my opinion a great success for me.
Q. What have you found to be the most important skills in negotiating and succeeding in sales?
A. Listening to others and paying attention on their needs is the most important skills, I believe, to negotiate with others and come up with a success. Most of the times people want to express them but there is no one to pay heed on their arguments, and hence appears the disagreement which causes damage to the sales.
Q. How do you handle rejections?
A. Well, I do not insist the consumers or clients to get the specific things. Most of the times they reject me and in that case, I try to point out about the troubles they are having in absence of the service or product. I also reveal the benefits of having the service or product and then let them to think for moments. When they reject me severely, I ask them to think over the issue and try meeting them on the next day. I become successful on the next day whereas they rejected me on the first day.
Q. Describe sales-teamwork; how did you handle your team challenges?
A. Sales-teamwork is a kind of challenging task to handle. The team members are assigned with specific targets and they also get rewards if they can fill up the targets in due time. So, always there are some sorts of competitions among the team members and everyone wants to surpass the others. Thereby, the task to handle is a kind of challenge. I set a generic target and if someone could reach there, I would appreciate the work with some small rewards and that helped to handle the challenge to some extent.
Q. If I were to interview the people who have reported to you in the past, how would they describe your management style?
A. Well, everyone who worked with me still adores me for my management styles. They would say about my effective and instant decision making quality, resolving conflicts among the employees, setting up effective and newer strategies to launch and promote a product etc. I hope none of them would make any detrimental comments that may hamper my career as I was honest with all of them.
Q. If I were to interview your reporting staff members, how would they describe your strengths and weaknesses as a manager and supervisor?
A. I cared for each of the staffs I worked with and they would have said about my benevolent nature and benefits they received from me time to time. They also would have mentioned that I never get angry with anyone and know how to get the works done smoothly without applying any force. They would mention my skill, talent and persuasion ability as my greatest strengths while they might mention my detailed oriented supervision as a weakness, though I would say this is actually my strength, not weakness!
Q. Give me an example from your past work experiences, about a time when you had an under-performing employee reporting to you. How did you address the situation? Did the employee’s performance improve? If not, what did you do next?
A. Yes, I had an experience to get an under-performing employee. He was unable to reach the daily sales target. So, I discussed with him in private and offered some tips learnt from my own experience. When he applied the tips, the situation improved. But if I did the opposite thing like arranging a public discussion session with the other employees or with the higher authority over the issue, the situation may get worsened.
Q. Rate your management skills on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 representing excellent management skills. Provide three examples from your past work experiences that demonstrate your selected number is accurate.
A. I can rate myself 10 in 10. There was a disorder among the sales team members regarding the salary increment and many of them left the job. I discussed the issue with the higher authority and suggested a plan. I individually met with the members who left the job and restored them on their former position and the salary was increased to a notable ration. Secondly, the products I was dealing with had some bad performance on the market. Thereby, I observed the strategies of the other companies dealing with the same product and found that some of products were faulty which cast a negative impact on the consumers. Accordingly I informed the authority to manufacture the product perfectly and had applied some simple marketing strategies. The plan worked very well and the sales improved from the same month. Finally, I had to solve some personal disputes among the sales team members. One of them got involved into a mental clash with another over reaching the monthly goal. Both of the performed well and now I had to declare one winner of the month. To be strategic and avoid any further troubles, I broke a common rule. I declared both of them as the winner for that month. As a result, both the team members were happy.
Q. Describe the work environment or culture and its management style in which you have experienced the most success.
A. The work environment should be liberal. Most of the cases I succeeded because I was allowed to express myself. When I am unable to express myself and work after the directive from the higher authority, it becomes impossible for me to work with. Primarily I try to provide some real life solutions of the emerged problems and when the authority agrees, it becomes easier for me to overcome. But when they try to impose their own decision on me, the results become negative as the decisions are not practically thought. When I am allowed to share my own views and it the management finds any inconsistency with the view, I acknowledge my fault and work after their orders. But most of the cases, the management is unable to find any fault with my thoughts.
Q. Tell me about a time when you had a reporting employee who performed very well. The employee exceeded goals and sought more responsibility. Describe how you handled this situation day-to-day and over time.
A. I also found such an employee who exceeded the goals and when he sought for more responsibilities, I tried to make a balance. There was another employee who was unable to reach the targets and I asked that employee, who surpassed the targets, to assist the weaker one. The result of the decision was simply splendid.
Q. Describe three components of your philosophy of sales management that demonstrate what you value and add, as an individual, to an organization’s culture and work environment.
A. I have some specific set of rules or philosophies to follow in my work environment. Firstly, I love to work in a team with full responsibilities imposed on me as the team in charge. Secondly, I never compromise with insincerity and stricter in such cases. I also try to represent my organization everywhere I go and never tolerate any detrimental attempts planned to defame my organization. Always I try to do thing in different ways so that the task is cited as an example and similarly I take care that my organization is also highlighted with me.
Q. What factors are crucial within an organization and must be present for you to work most effectively?
A. The communication between me and the higher authority is a crucial factor. As a manager I always need to be informed about the latest updates of the company and it is impossible for me to know unless I am informed. So, I think communication is one of the important factors here. Besides, when decisions are made over any issues, I want to ensure my participation there. So, it also should be present there.
Q. Tell me about a time when you reorganized a department or significantly changed employee work assignments. How did you approach the task? How did the affected employees respond to your actions?
A. Well, I have an experience to work with a changed employee assignments. I assigned the work gently and before assigning, I had some discussions with the employee. Gradually I approached to the key issue of the changed works or assignments so that the employee could have some mental preparations to cope with the work load. The employees did not show any negative reactions as they were approached slowly.
Q. One of the jobs of a sales manager or supervisor is to manage performance and perform periodic performance reviews. Tell me how you have managed employee performance in the past. Describe the process you have used for performance feedback.
A. I was assigned to manage performance of the employees and sometimes I also had to perform periodic review of the performance to be submitted to the higher authority. I had made a special chart for that where all the names, designations and targets were noted down, and I placed marks on the sheet for each of the employees. Besides, often I placed some short notes on the comment column of the sheet. At the end of the month or targeted period, I used to count the marks and evaluated each of the employees. They were evaluated based on their performance marks and the short notes helped me remembering about any specific events related with the employee. Regarding the periodic performance management, I used to make an average of the former performances. This was the way how I managed the performance of the employee.
Q. How did you handle employee / personal / job problems?
A. Often I had to face some unwanted situations like employee or personal problems and in such cases I used to use my intellect and ready wits and came to a potential solution which was beneficial to all. Sometimes I take a deep breath, listen to music and take some time to rethink the whole issue. I believe that every problem has a solution and we need to think rationally until we find the best possible solution to a problem. I usually do not let my personal problem distract me from my professional duties. If I am to solve a problem of an employee, I listen intensely and consider myself in the same situation. Thus I often solve problems that are proven to be very efficient.
Q. Should reps get warm leads or build their own pipelines?
A. The representatives should get a warm lead instead of building their own pipelines for several reasons. When the leader will behave cordially with them, the reps will be inspired to have some better performance for the company. But if they build some personal relations or build their own pipelines, that would appear detrimental for the company. So, I think the first one should be prioritize more than the latter one.
Q. Should sales reps be paid commission?
A. Yes, I think they should get some commissions on their sales and it will work as a motivation to them.
Q. What’s the ideal relationship between sales & marketing, and how do you operationalize that?
A. Sales and marketing is related closely with each other. Without marketing of the product, sale is impossible. Before having sale, the products should be marketed in the right manner so that the customers or clients get attracted to the product. Marketing helps to promote the product and hence the sales increase. Sale is the outcome of marketing and in both states customer feedback is received which could be used to improve the marketing strategy. Firstly, I try to market the products in the beginning so that they are introduced to the consumers, and then set the selling strategies.
Q. Did you set up sale targets for your staff?
A. Yes, I sat up sales target for each of my staffs who were related to sales activities. Sales target, in my opinion, is better for having a better output from sales team.
Q. What are some of the typical key tasks of a sales Manager?
A. Some of the typical tasks for a sales manager are gathering information about the similar other products in the market and their sales strategies, setting up counter selling strategies to boost the sales, regularly meet with the distributors and get informed with their feedback of the products the manager is selling, often have to visit the market to be informed about the latest sales conditions and how other competitors are working etc.
Q. Do you arrange any training programs for your staff development?
A. Yes, I arrange training programs for my staffs’ development and usually I held the program periodically. In the training session, I try to make them aware of all the updated issues of the products they are dealing with.
Q. What selling techniques will you suggest?
A. There are several selling techniques and I suggest following both the indirect and direct selling techniques to reach the goals. I also inspire my team members to practice up-selling wherever possible.
Q. How many first sales appointments a week are considered as a successful week?
A. I think if around 30 sales appointments are done in a week, the week might be considered as a successful week.
Q. Describe a typical sales process (or sales cycle) for big ticket items and for smaller ones.
A. The most common sales process for both the larger and smaller items is the direct sales method. In this case, the salesmen meet directly with the consumers and persuade them to get the product or service. This is one of the most effective sales process so far I have used.
For big ticket items I recommend establishing customer relationship first while for smaller one being able to illustrate the advantages of a product over competitors is a far better technique.
Q. What are your selling techniques, how do you present/launch a new product? What presentation skills are require?
A. I try to make the presentation in a different manner. Firstly I discuss about the consumers and what they need to do any specific task. Before presenting the product or service, I try to depict the troubles that the consumers are having with their current services. For this I need to do a lot of ground works and master the entire thing. After that stage, I describe how my product or service is designed to make the use comfortable. The entire task requires very good presentation skills and often the presentations are done before a large group of audience and sometimes I have to answer queries from the consumers or audience. Finally, when I conclude the presentation, I leave it to the judgment of the audiences and most of the time they are convinced with my presentation and agree to use the product or the service.
Q. What are your goals in term of professional development and advancement?
A. I want to see myself on the top of any company where I will deal the sales manager, get reports from them and invent newer strategies to expand the products in the market by competing with the other products. Experience is the key to success here and that needs hard efforts. So, I am working hard so that it could bring benefits for my company and uphold my career.
Q. How did you develop your best-selling techniques?
A. When I got involved with the profession, I experienced massive rejections all including the potential clients while my office was pressuring me to fill up the targets. After a couple of years, I found that I could persuade other people to agree with my opinion and selling increased. I used to speak directly with clients and did not inform them about my products rather tried to be one of their friends, literally. By this way I developed my best-selling techniques.
Q. Describe some success stories and some difficulties you have had. How did you handle the difficulties?
A. In the first year of my job, I was assigned to sell around 25 shaving kits for my company and it was difficult for me to reach my target. Each of the months I failed to sell 25 shaving kits. Then I started reading books on marketing and selling techniques. Some of the methods proved failure while some other worked well. The sale started to increase and at the end of month I found that I have crossed 30 which was a great success for me. But not only the books helped me to handle all the failures rather I applied my own intelligence and wits to overcome the hurdles.
I have been awarded employee of the month more than 8-9 times. I motivate employees and my team mates and they usually like me. This is in my opinion a great success for me.
Q. What have you found to be the most important skills in negotiating and succeeding in sales?
A. Listening to others and paying attention on their needs is the most important skills, I believe, to negotiate with others and come up with a success. Most of the times people want to express them but there is no one to pay heed on their arguments, and hence appears the disagreement which causes damage to the sales.
Q. How do you handle rejections?
A. Well, I do not insist the consumers or clients to get the specific things. Most of the times they reject me and in that case, I try to point out about the troubles they are having in absence of the service or product. I also reveal the benefits of having the service or product and then let them to think for moments. When they reject me severely, I ask them to think over the issue and try meeting them on the next day. I become successful on the next day whereas they rejected me on the first day.
Q. Describe sales-teamwork; how did you handle your team challenges?
A. Sales-teamwork is a kind of challenging task to handle. The team members are assigned with specific targets and they also get rewards if they can fill up the targets in due time. So, always there are some sorts of competitions among the team members and everyone wants to surpass the others. Thereby, the task to handle is a kind of challenge. I set a generic target and if someone could reach there, I would appreciate the work with some small rewards and that helped to handle the challenge to some extent.
Q. If I were to interview the people who have reported to you in the past, how would they describe your management style?
A. Well, everyone who worked with me still adores me for my management styles. They would say about my effective and instant decision making quality, resolving conflicts among the employees, setting up effective and newer strategies to launch and promote a product etc. I hope none of them would make any detrimental comments that may hamper my career as I was honest with all of them.
Q. If I were to interview your reporting staff members, how would they describe your strengths and weaknesses as a manager and supervisor?
A. I cared for each of the staffs I worked with and they would have said about my benevolent nature and benefits they received from me time to time. They also would have mentioned that I never get angry with anyone and know how to get the works done smoothly without applying any force. They would mention my skill, talent and persuasion ability as my greatest strengths while they might mention my detailed oriented supervision as a weakness, though I would say this is actually my strength, not weakness!
Q. Give me an example from your past work experiences, about a time when you had an under-performing employee reporting to you. How did you address the situation? Did the employee’s performance improve? If not, what did you do next?
A. Yes, I had an experience to get an under-performing employee. He was unable to reach the daily sales target. So, I discussed with him in private and offered some tips learnt from my own experience. When he applied the tips, the situation improved. But if I did the opposite thing like arranging a public discussion session with the other employees or with the higher authority over the issue, the situation may get worsened.
Q. Rate your management skills on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 representing excellent management skills. Provide three examples from your past work experiences that demonstrate your selected number is accurate.
A. I can rate myself 10 in 10. There was a disorder among the sales team members regarding the salary increment and many of them left the job. I discussed the issue with the higher authority and suggested a plan. I individually met with the members who left the job and restored them on their former position and the salary was increased to a notable ration. Secondly, the products I was dealing with had some bad performance on the market. Thereby, I observed the strategies of the other companies dealing with the same product and found that some of products were faulty which cast a negative impact on the consumers. Accordingly I informed the authority to manufacture the product perfectly and had applied some simple marketing strategies. The plan worked very well and the sales improved from the same month. Finally, I had to solve some personal disputes among the sales team members. One of them got involved into a mental clash with another over reaching the monthly goal. Both of the performed well and now I had to declare one winner of the month. To be strategic and avoid any further troubles, I broke a common rule. I declared both of them as the winner for that month. As a result, both the team members were happy.
Q. Describe the work environment or culture and its management style in which you have experienced the most success.
A. The work environment should be liberal. Most of the cases I succeeded because I was allowed to express myself. When I am unable to express myself and work after the directive from the higher authority, it becomes impossible for me to work with. Primarily I try to provide some real life solutions of the emerged problems and when the authority agrees, it becomes easier for me to overcome. But when they try to impose their own decision on me, the results become negative as the decisions are not practically thought. When I am allowed to share my own views and it the management finds any inconsistency with the view, I acknowledge my fault and work after their orders. But most of the cases, the management is unable to find any fault with my thoughts.
Q. Tell me about a time when you had a reporting employee who performed very well. The employee exceeded goals and sought more responsibility. Describe how you handled this situation day-to-day and over time.
A. I also found such an employee who exceeded the goals and when he sought for more responsibilities, I tried to make a balance. There was another employee who was unable to reach the targets and I asked that employee, who surpassed the targets, to assist the weaker one. The result of the decision was simply splendid.
Q. Describe three components of your philosophy of sales management that demonstrate what you value and add, as an individual, to an organization’s culture and work environment.
A. I have some specific set of rules or philosophies to follow in my work environment. Firstly, I love to work in a team with full responsibilities imposed on me as the team in charge. Secondly, I never compromise with insincerity and stricter in such cases. I also try to represent my organization everywhere I go and never tolerate any detrimental attempts planned to defame my organization. Always I try to do thing in different ways so that the task is cited as an example and similarly I take care that my organization is also highlighted with me.
Q. What factors are crucial within an organization and must be present for you to work most effectively?
A. The communication between me and the higher authority is a crucial factor. As a manager I always need to be informed about the latest updates of the company and it is impossible for me to know unless I am informed. So, I think communication is one of the important factors here. Besides, when decisions are made over any issues, I want to ensure my participation there. So, it also should be present there.
Q. Tell me about a time when you reorganized a department or significantly changed employee work assignments. How did you approach the task? How did the affected employees respond to your actions?
A. Well, I have an experience to work with a changed employee assignments. I assigned the work gently and before assigning, I had some discussions with the employee. Gradually I approached to the key issue of the changed works or assignments so that the employee could have some mental preparations to cope with the work load. The employees did not show any negative reactions as they were approached slowly.
Q. One of the jobs of a sales manager or supervisor is to manage performance and perform periodic performance reviews. Tell me how you have managed employee performance in the past. Describe the process you have used for performance feedback.
A. I was assigned to manage performance of the employees and sometimes I also had to perform periodic review of the performance to be submitted to the higher authority. I had made a special chart for that where all the names, designations and targets were noted down, and I placed marks on the sheet for each of the employees. Besides, often I placed some short notes on the comment column of the sheet. At the end of the month or targeted period, I used to count the marks and evaluated each of the employees. They were evaluated based on their performance marks and the short notes helped me remembering about any specific events related with the employee. Regarding the periodic performance management, I used to make an average of the former performances. This was the way how I managed the performance of the employee.
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