Top 30 Interview Questions to Ask Candidates for an Inside Sales? Customer Service Position

The face-to-face interview is a meeting where you ask short-listed candidates questions about previous employment history, career commitment, sales abilities, goals, education, prior accomplishments, etc. How well you conduct the interview and the types of questions you ask will shape the quality of information you elicit from the candidate and how suitable he or she is for the position.

To add interest and spice to the interview process, CPSA’s Sales Resource Centre has listed 30 questions you can ask candidates. These questions have been broken down into the following categories:

General Interview Questions

• Why are you applying to work with our company?
• How would you describe your personality?
• Are you happiest working alone or in a team? Why?
• Please describe your last (or present) supervisor’s management style? What do you like/dislike about it?
• Give me an example of a time when you felt you were able to motivate your co-workers or subordinates.
• Tell me about your previous experiences working as part of a group or team. Who was involved? What role did you play? What were the results? How did you feel about the experience?

Customer Service
If you want to determine if the candidate has a service orientation and can place the interests of others before themselves, ask:

• What is your definition of a customer professional?
• How you go about finding common ground with customers?
• How do you handle an irate customer on the telephone?
• How do you show a customer that he/she is important
• Tell me about a time when you had to cope with strict deadlines or time demands. Can give me an example?
• What do you like most about servicing your customers? Why? Can you give me an example?
• What do you like least about servicing your customers? Why? Can you give me an example?
• Tell me about your best long-term account? How did you get it and what have you done to retain it?
• What has been you worst experience with a customer and how did you handle it?
• Can you describe to me a time when you have performed above and beyond the call of duty to meet the needs of a customer or client?
• Tell me about a situation where you had to resolve a problem even though it was not your responsibility?
• Tell me about a time when you had to call a customer about an overdue account. What strategies do you find to be effective in encouraging customers to pay promptly?
• In your last position, how often did you survey customers or conduct account reviews?

Inside Sales
If you want to determine if the candidate has the necessary skills to succeed in telephone selling, ask:

• What is it you like and dislike about telephone selling?
• How do you handle rejection?
• Do you believe that telesales people need to be motivated frequently? How often should they be motivated?
• Do you generate you own leads? How would you go about identifying customers in a new market?
• Tell me how you qualify a prospect on the telephone?
• When you telephone a prospect, what strategies do you use to get past the secretary or gatekeeper?
• What are the five most common objections you hear from prospective/existing customers on the telephone? How do you handle them?
• How do you handle the concern “I want to think about it.”
• How do you ask for an order or close a sale on the telephone?
• What strategies do you employ to turn marginal account into a regular buyer?
• What policies, procedures or rules do you find most difficult to follow? Why? Have you ever broken or bent the rules? What was the outcome?

Please note: It is NOT recommended that you ask candidates all of the above questions. Pick only those questions that are important to you and whether the question will help you identify performance and success criteria identified in the job profile.

© Sales Resource Centre, Canadian Professional Sales Association, 2001.