Get prepared for your interview with the Interview Question of the Week
A job interview is your biggest chance to stand out from the competition. When you are looking for a job, being prepared for an interview is key. Before going on any interview, you should know a little bit about the company and practice your answers for some of the most frequently asked questions.
Many people think that they can just play it by ear at the interview, but when the pool of available candidates is large, the person who demonstrates that they are professional and prepared is typically the one who stands out the most. In order to help you out, each week we break down an interview question, find out where the possible traps are and come up with the best answer.
Here is the Interview Question of the Week:
Question:
Sell me this pencil (or stapler, desk etc)
Why it's a trap:
Especially when you are interviewing for a sales job, some interviewers want to see a demonstration of your skills. The worst thing you can do here is not be prepared.
The best answer:
When an interviewer asks you to demonstrate your sales technique, the best thing to do is to break down the sales process for them.
Take your sales process and break it down using the object. For example:
“In order to sell this pencil, I need to get familiar with it and find out all of it's features. Next, if I plan to sell it to you, I first need to find out how you would use something as exciting as this pencil.”
Ask them some questions to determine their needs and them pitch the pencil. You should continue the sales attempt until they agree to buy it or have said no twice. If the interviewer seems resistant to the sale, overcome their objections once and if they still say no, let it go and give them your contact information for the next time they are looking for office supplies.
The goal is to show how the sales process works for you, to demonstrate that you can overcome objections and that you know when to back off and not be too pushy. The main thing, just like in any sales situation, is to follow the interviewer's (or customer's) lead and find out what their needs and wants are, then pitch the product as a solution to the needs.
What do you think about this question? Have you ever been asked this during an interview? Let me know in the comments.
This is our last Interview Question of the Week. I hope you enjoyed the series.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for SalesHeadsBlog, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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