Country Sale Manager Interview Questions & Answers

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This attitude simply means the rep isn't suited for sales management. Better steer a primarily money-motivated salesperson to a new territory or another opportunity at the individual contributor level rather than promote them to management.

Commission, while perhaps part of the motivation, is not a great response to this question.

Reps generally only care about one number: their quota. Keeping on top of pipeline and win rate is also important ... as these metrics pertain to their quota. It's all quota, all the time.

But when a rep is promoted to management, they must produce forecasts and reports that analyze a variety of metrics across the entire team. While a sales manager doesn't need to be a data analysis pro, they do need to have some familiarity with and inclination for crunching numbers and spotting trends. Beware of candidates that express active revulsion for data analysis.

Money, achievement, helping customers, being
#1 -- there are a lot of potential answers to this question. What makes a good answer vs. a bad one will hinge on your company culture. For instance, if teamwork is paramount within your sales team, a candidate who is driven by internal competition might not be a great fit.

The right answer here will depend on your company's process, but in general, the more tenacious and persistent a rep is willing to be, the better. Trish Bertuzzi, founder of The Bridge Group, recommends six to eight attempts before throwing in the towel.

While this technically isn't a question, it's important to assess whether the candidate has a helpful demeanor.

Selling to everyone and anyone -- even if a salesperson knows it's not in the prospect's best interest -- is a recipe for disaster. Make sure your candidate is comfortable with turning business away if the potential customer isn't a good fit.

This is a bit of a trick question, but it's an important one. The best sales managers know that motivation is personal. While money might drive one rep to go the extra mile, another might be inspired by a development opportunity or creative contest. The candidate who can navigate the trick and get to the right answer -- in this case, "it depends on the rep" -- possesses the motivational ability to lead a sales team to success.

Sales managers also act as CRM sheriffs, ensuring all reps are using the system properly. CRM aside, sales managers are also involved in the vetting, selection, and deployment of new sales tools. While sales manager candidates don't need to be computer whizzes, some technological savvy is necessary.

Salespeople today should be asking questions more than making pitches. Open-ended questions that help a rep thoroughly understand a prospect's needs are as good as gold.

Begin the answer with "I would need to know a little more about your day to day. Would you mind if I ask you a few questions first?" And move on to questions such as "What is important to you when selecting a pen?" "What do you usually write with?", etc.
For more seasoned sales professionals, the interviewer may skip the fun and games with the pen and jump straight to asking you how you would approach selling the company's products or services. Do your pre-interview homework so that you'll be able to speak intelligently about the products/services and their benefits.

The jobs title might be "sales manager," but that doesn't mean leadership skills fall by the wayside. Sales managers need to be able to lead through example and inspire others to action. Although this question is last on the list, it's probably the most important of all.

Preparing to deal with objections instead of winging it is critical. Listen for evidence of a process.

Yes, I have always met or exceeded my sales goals over my ten-year career in the business. For example, last year I led my team to exceed our sales projections by 25% - and this was during a very difficult market when most of the other teams in our division came up short of goal.

As mentioned above, sales managers often make less money than sales reps and perform a drastically different job. Tease out the candidate's motivations behind seeking this promotion. Do they want to be a manager because they crave a larger role within the company as a whole, and a chance to influence strategic decisions? Or have they gotten bored with their jobs, and management seems like a step up? The latter motivation is a recipe for dissatisfaction and a disengaged sales manager.

Appraise the person's attitude towards rejection. Do they need time to shake off an unpleasant conversation? Or do they bounce back immediately?

I've always admired your company's reputation for customer service and I know that's a big part of why your clients buy from you. I have a lot of experience selling to your key demographic and I know how to sell the overall product experience - including the customer service component. Let me tell you about a sales campaign I came up with last year that centered on the benefits of customer service

The candidate doesn't have to give a sample agenda of what their one-on-ones would look like. However, it's important that their conception of a coaching session includes actual coaching -- not just a dry discussion of the numbers. Listen for responses that include mentions of career development, goals, skill building, and problem solving in addition to data review.

Listen for synonyms of "helpful," as a consultative approach is becoming increasingly important in modern sales.

Collaboration might be less important at some organizations than others, but candidates who aren't willing to collaborate at all won't likely make pleasant coworkers, not to mention their uncooperative attitude will block knowledge sharing.

Losing a sale, or failing at landing one, is disappointing. But if you want to succeed in this business, you can't take it personally. I work hard to learn from rejection and continuously improve my sales techniques.

Social selling is becoming more important in all industries. If the candidate has not used social channels to research prospects or look for leads in the past, make sure they have a willingness to learn.

It would be nice if a sales manager could do ride alongs and listen in on each and every call a new rep makes, but this model is impractical at scale. Make sure the candidate acknowledges the importance of a repeatable training process that doesn't center around an informal passing down of knowledge.

Everyone has bad spells, so beware of someone who claims they've never experienced a downturn. Nothing's wrong with a temporary slump as long as the candidate learned from it.

Every rep has an opinion about the sales process, and some ignore it entirely. But it's the manager's role to uphold the sales process in the name of organizational consistency and forecasting accuracy. Ensure the candidate is comfortable with taking on the role of sales process police, and ask about their strategies for making reps adhere to the regimen.