Provincial Sales Head Interview Preparation Guide

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We ask this question for a few reasons--to see how the candidate engages, quickly thinks on his or her feet and fits into our overall company culture based on the answer. Even if the joke doesn't make any sense, it's about the presentation and ability to adapt to a curve ball that we're looking for. A silly question, such as asking candidates what fruit or vegetable they would be and why or what kind of animal they would be and why can help us find superior candidates that best fit our culture.

In the context of today's world, interviewers will ask entry-level bankers why they don't want to be medics or engineers," "People will say things like, 'I want the intellectual challenge,' and then you'll point out that you can get intellectual challenge from other industries too. It's about getting to the bottom of their motivation.

This question is really about your self-esteem, confidence and career aspirations. The answer must be 'yes', followed by a brief explanation as to what it is about your career so far that's made you happy. If you have hit a career plateau, or you feel you are moving too slowly, then you must qualify your answer.

This is another question which will typically be asked in interviews for junior jobs in banking - especially at MBA entry-level.

The correct answer here is to emphasize that your interest is in financing and balance sheets, not in operational strategy. "If you're interested in operational strategy, go to McKinsey. If you're interested in financing, go to Goldman,".

Be cautious with this answer. Do not be too specific as you may draw attention to weaknesses that will leave you open to further problems. One approach is to choose a characteristic of your present company, such as its size or slow decision-making processes etc. Give your answer with the air of someone who takes problems and frustrations in your stride as part of the job.

Select an achievement that is work-related and fairly recent. Identify the skills you used in the achievement and quantify the benefit it had to the company. For example, 'my greatest achievement has been to design and implement a new sales ledger system, bringing it in ahead of time and improving our debtors' position significantly, saving the company £50,000 a month in interest'.

State how you are looking for a new challenge, more responsibility, experience and a change of environment. Do not be negative in your reasons for leaving. It is rarely appropriate to cite salary as your primary motivator.

Do not say you have none - this will lead to further problems. You have two options - use a professed weakness such as a lack of experience (not ability) on your part in an area that is not vital for the job. The second option is to describe a personal or professional weakness that could also be considered to be a strength and the steps you have taken to combat it. An example would be: "I know my team think I'm too demanding at times - I tend to drive them pretty hard but I'm getting much better at using the carrot and not the stick".

Marketing is changing constantly at a rapid pace -- so anyone in a marketing role needs to know how to stay on top of and adapt to these changes. Do they know where to look for industry news? Are they familiar with and subscribed to top marketing blogs? What do they do when they see a change has taken place, like when Google updates their algorithm?

This is a straightforward question. All you have to do is make sure that your 'likes' correspond to the skills required for the job on offer. Be enthusiastic; describe your job as interesting and diverse but do not overdo it - after all, you are looking to leave.

The reasons we ask this question are twofold. First, it gives us the insight into the candidate's ability to fit into our already defined sales culture, one that is also quite quirky. Second, candidates' answers show us if they have the ability and bravado to express an opinion on the spot, a skill which is essential to the 'insight selling' process. Not only does this help us eliminate candidates who can't think on their feet, we sometimes get some cool ideas about how to change the office!

We ask this question before we bring any candidate into the office for an in-person interview. It's a simple question, but it never fails to indicate whether or not someone is worth meeting in person. One of our core values is company culture and people and this question is the simplest way to tell whether or not the person is the right fit for our company.

Before giving you an answer, the best candidates will come back and ask you about the blog's metrics, how many leads and customers it generates, what the goals are for it, how much you're investing in it, and so on. This is also a great way to test whether they actually prepared for the interview by reading your blog.

As you answer questions about your accomplishments with other companies, be specific. Simply stating, "I ran several online marketing campaigns" does not adequately show what you can do for the company. Better answers should resemble, "I started a social media campaign that utilized targeted advertising systems to market the company's services to youth in North America." You will also need to elaborate. Use numbers that support the campaign, such as "Within three financial quarters, sales increased by 427% and brand recognition vastly improved by 10% within the target demographic."

This is a question for senior M&A bankers and is intended to test their truthfulness and willingness to learn from mistakes. Correct answer is something along the lines of: "'I'd been calling a client for 18 months and he told me there were no deals he wanted to do - but six months later he did a deal through a competitor. It taught me the value of staying in touch with the client even when he says there's nothing going on."

You want to hire someone who's both qualified and has the desire to do the work. Otherwise, why would they work for you instead of the company next door?

Part of their answer will lie in their body language and enthusiasm. The other part will lie in how concrete their answer is. Get at the details by asking a follow-up question, like: "Let's say you're at home, kicking around, and doing something related to marketing. What is it that you're doing?" Perhaps they're reading their five favorite marketing sites, or analyzing traffic patterns of websites for fun, or writing in their personal blog, or optimizing their LinkedIn profile. Whatever it is, you want to be sure they're deeply passionate about the subject matter you'd hire them for.

Interview questions about the future should be brought back to accomplishments of the past. In other words, when asked about how you would deal with possible future scenarios, refer to your past accomplishments. Your answers should focus on successful campaigns with statement such as, "While I was with company XYZ, I initiated both low cost lead generation strategies and several viral marketing campaigns, using an almost inexistent budget to boost profits by 200%."

This is a question that we ask certain candidates in the interview process because their answer provides us a solid understanding of how they troubleshoot and problem solve, especially for our technical job applicants. We are looking for candidates that think of how they can use existing, pre-packaged technologies and skills to solve problems, instead of starting from scratch every time, a skill that is practiced on the job every day. We're more interested in hearing about their thought process than the viability of their answer.

The purpose of this question is to find out what your definition of difficult is and whether you can show a logical approach to problem solving. In order to show yourself in a positive light, select a difficult work situation which was not caused by you and which can be quickly explained in a few sentences. Explain how you defined the problem, what the options were, why you selected the one you did and what the outcome was. Always end on a positive note.

Fast, snappy questions help determine a candidate's knowledge and opinion on certain topics, and also gauge their ability to handle the stress of a fast pace. By asking rapid-fire questions, ZeroTurnaround gains a better idea of whether the interviewer is telling the truth (and what they genuinely believe) or instead telling them what they want to hear (stock answers).

☛ Tell me about the teams you've managed and how you built them.
☛ What are some ways you would make our sales team more efficient?
☛ How have you used metrics to develop, manage, and grow your sales team?
☛ What do you think are the top 5 sales metrics for Sales VPs to measure?
☛ What sales tools have you used? What works for you and what doesn't?
☛ What would you do if a sales rep underperformed?
☛ Tell me about any experience you have creating sales processes.
☛ What is your sales hiring methodology? How do you mitigate risk?
☛ What is your sales onboarding methodology?
☛ What is your sales coaching philosophy?
☛ Given what you know about our company, how big of a sales team do you think we need?
☛ What do you think are the best traits for sales reps? Sales managers?
☛ How do you plan to build a compensation plan?

☛ How does your job fit in to your department and company?
☛ What do you enjoy about this industry?
☛ Give an example of when you have worked under pressure.
☛ What kinds of people do you like working with?
☛ Give me an example of when your work was criticised.
☛ Give me an example of when you have felt anger at work. How did you cope and did you still perform a good job?
☛ What kind of people do you find it difficult to work with?
☛ Give me an example of when you have had to face a conflict of interest at work.
☛ Tell me about the last time you disagreed with your boss.
☛ Give me an example of when you haven't got on with others.
☛ Do you prefer to work alone or in a group? Why?
☛ This organisation is very different to your current employer - how do you think you are going to fit in?
☛ What are you looking for in a company?
☛ How do you measure your own performance?
☛ What kind of pressures have you encountered at work?
☛ Are you a self-starter? Give me examples to demonstrate this?
☛ What changes in the workplace have caused you difficulty and why?
☛ How do you feel about working long hours and/or weekends?
☛ Give me an example of when you have been out of your depth.
☛ What have you failed to achieve to date?
☛ What can you bring to this organisation?

☛ Describe a recent situation where you negotiated terms with a tough customer?
☛ Tell me how you developed your largest account!
☛ What previous experience do you have in Market Research?
☛ What previous experience do you have in cold calling?
☛ Why would you be the right person for cold calling? (Give pro's & Con's for your answer).
☛ What different approach would you take in making a Sale?
☛ What do you think are the key skills in closing?
☛ Tell me how you developed your largest account!
☛ Describe a recent situation where you negotiated terms with a tough customer?
☛ Tell me about an important negotiation that failed, what went wrong and why?
☛ Tell me about a successful formal presentation you have done recently?
☛ Give an example of when you had to make a presentation to an unresponsive audience, how did you handle it?
☛ Tell me about a successful formal presentation you have done recently?
☛ Give an example of when you had to make a presentation to an unresponsive audience, how did you handle it?
☛ How would you/did you adjust your presentations for each audience?
☛ How well have you worked together with sales execs/Sales reps?

☛ What percentage of your targets did you achieve?
☛ What are some of the challenges you see that are facing this industry?
☛ What do you see as the key issues in negotiating?
☛ What sales skills do you think are most important to having success in sales? What are top 3 skills for Sales in your opinion?
☛ What are some examples of your sales experience?
☛ Sell me this pen!
☛ How often did you achieve your sales objectives?
☛ Describe a time that you had to change your sales approach.
☛ Tell me about a time that you worked hard for a sale but didn't get it in the end, how did you handle the situation?
☛ Why do you think you would be good in Sales?
☛ How would you know you were successful on a sale?

The emphasis on ethics is manifesting itself in interview questions relating to values. "We use scenarios to ascertain how people will react in particular situations and to see how they fit with our culture and values," says the head of recruitment at one American bank in London, who declined to speak on the record. "We're very collaborative and we want to see that people's values match our own."