Interview Questions Outside Sales

Heavy emphasis on cold calling, new business development, and closing.

Top Interview question for "Outside Sales"

As our outside sales representative, how will you allocate your time between tending to existing customers and going out and finding new clients?
What's the most common reason that people who don't buy from you give as the reason for declining the sale?
Describe how you prepare for a sales call for a new client. What questions will you ask the client?
Tell me about your most difficult sales experience.
Tell me about your sales volume over the past three years. What have you done to influence it?
How do you get up-to-date information from customers and what do you do with it?
What kinds of presentations have you made to customers? How did you prepare for them? What challenges did you have?
Have you ever had to persuade a group to accept a proposal or idea? How did you go about doing it? What was the result?
What do you do in the event that the customer's initial answer to you is "no?"
How do you build a network of possible clients?

Tell me about a conflict you handled well and one you didn’t handle well.
How do you go about establishing rapport with a customer? What have you done to gain their confidence? Give an example.
Tell me a time you almost lost a customer, but you were able to turn it around.
What process do you use to calm an upset customer?
What would you do if a frustrated customer complained about a widely known problem with the company’s product?

Tell me a time when you successfully coordinated with various departments to provide exceptional customer service.
How do you disseminate information to other people? How do you decide what's important?
How do you explain complex information to a person not in your industry?