The Sales Director role is considered to be the lifeblood of many companies because of the strategic and operational role they play in the success of the business.
Recruiting for the role can be a painstaking experience, especially when there are so many good candidates out there.
How can you attract the right one for your business?
How can you differentiate the great from the average, so you stand a better chance of choosing the right person?
The quality of your questions will make the biggest difference in this challenging process.
Below I’ve listed 171 interview questions that will help you sort the wheat from the chaff if you’re interviewing a Sales Director.
And if you’re a Sales Manager or a Sales Leader applying for a Sales Director role, please take notice of these so you can prepare effectively for your upcoming interview. Sales Director Skills are different than that of a sales manager. There are some similarities and some big differences.
Industry And Market Interview Questions
These are questions based around how well the Director of Sales understands the marketplace and how they will create a strategy and a plan to dominate it.
Help me understand your approach to our particular vertical markets and examples of net new name business won.
How will you address your relative lack of experience in the xxx industry?
Could you describe your achievements to date in the xxx industry?
How would those achievements assist you in performing well for our company?
Tell me about your viewpoint on how buyers in this industry have changed over the last 5-10 years
What do these changes mean to your role as (Director of Sales)?
What future changes do you see in this industry that will affect the way you develop your team?
How would you best protect our margins at key customers in an increasingly competitive environment?
Explain your understanding of the market as you see it at the moment and the direction it may take in the future
How do you stay updated with the latest trends in this industry?
What tools do you use to track these trends and changes?
What tools do you use to predict changes in the industry?
Explain your sales plan to penetrate other local, regional, and foreign markets?
What market trends do you think are the most critical?
What do you think you can do to stimulate a significant change in the sales industry?
What do you know about data analysis?
What are some of the data analysis tools you have used in the past?
What kind of motivational processes do you use to engage a sales team?
Other than your team earning money and hitting sales targets, how do you judge success in your team?
Talk me through how you would develop a poor-performing member of your team
How would you deal with a sales team that has lost its passion and motivation, even though they have great potential? What sales team motivation ideasdo you have?
Apart from sending your people on Sales Courses, how else do you develop your Sales Managers and Salespeople?
Describe how you would deal with conflict between your team members
How many team members did you lead at your previous company?
How many team members do you think you can manage at a time?
Will you be able to handle a large team?
As a leader, what can you do to add to the quality of the work your team produces?
Do you have any kind of experience in recruiting new people?
How do you go about building a team for Sales Operations?
What kind of a team is needed for Sales Operations?
Why do you wish to work in a leadership capacity?
What qualities do you think you have that make you a good leader?
How would you effectively deal with a disagreement between your team member and a client?
How would you assess which tasks to assign to each of your sales team members?
What is your prior experience in encountering challenging clients? How would you go about dealing with them?
How can you help our company prosper?
What, as a leader, would you do to ensure that your sales team meets its goal in a given time?
How would you train a new salesperson on your team? Will you be arranging any selling skills training courses for your team members?
In your opinion, what kind of training is essential and relevant for a salesperson to have?
Do you think you can fire someone if the situation demands it?
What has been your experience with laying off people?
How would you respond to a competitor that has been attempting to take some portion of our market share?
What will you do to make sure that your team members understand your vision as a sales director for the company?
What steps will you take to ensure that your company does not lose its clients via effective key account management processes?
In your previous job, did you set sales goals for your team members?
What strategies did you use to set those goals?
How will you ensure a competitive yet healthy environment for your sales team members?
How are you with setting goals for your sales team members? Do you set goals that are achievable and desirable?
Will you be able to build a sales strategy for our company?
Will you be able to come up with a sales process for our company?
What is your vision for our structure of Sales Operation? How do you think it should evolve with the growth of the company?
What will be your most immediate plan of action once you take up this position in our company?
Suppose the company is on the verge of losing one of its biggest deals. What strategies will you undertake to make sure that it does not lose it?
What hindrances do you think mismanagement can pose to your sales team members?
Can you tell us about your decision-making process?
How capable are you of making decisions that might be the most beneficial for the company and its success?
How capable are you of leading more than one team?
Personal Qualities Interview Questions
These sales director interview questions are all around them as a person. Their motivations, how organised they are, their goals and ambitions and what makes them as a person.
What long-term goals and aims do you have for your sales career in the short and medium term?
Of course, how the sales director has performed in the past and how they will manage and lead sales performance in the future is critical. Therefore, asking interview questions around this topic is very important.
Give me an example of what steps have you taken in the past to demonstrate attention to value and a focus on ROI?
Can you give me examples of new business you have won, and what your specific role in winning it was?
What do you expect your overall earnings to be and why?
If we chose you, talk me through 30-60-90 day plan on how you would add value to our company?
What will you do in the first month in this job?
Give me examples of how you have leveraged your previous role to achieve better results
How would you describe the best sales account you have been involved with, and what was your contribution to its success?
Tell me about one of your biggest failures in a sales environment and what you learned from it
What is the best thing you have achieved in your career so far?
Do you have any new and unique ideas that would help you to develop and implement a definitive sales strategy and account management strategy for our company?
How well do you work under pressure?
How do you deal with tight schedules and deadlines?
Have you been consistent in meeting your sales goals?
Do you have a strategy for closing sales deals?
How well do you think you are prepared for this job based on your previous experiences?
What is sales forecasting, and what methods have you used in doing so?
How would you explain to someone new what our company does?
How good are your analytical skills? Have you ever had to use them in the past to solve a problem?
In your capacity as a Director of Sales, how do you think you can affect change and implement it across the company?
How well can you multitask? Do you think you can manage more than one project at a time?
Are there any deals that you have lost to your competitors? If so, then tell us more about it?
If we hire you right now, what do you think our sales revenue will look like after 120 days?
What are some of the strategies that you would be using in bringing more business to our company?
Specific Job-Role Interview Questions
These sales interview questions are based around what the sales director has achieved in their previous role and how well they are matched for this role in terms of knowledge, skills, and behaviours.
Why us? (Finding out more about their motivation for change)
What are the biggest sales deals you have managed?
Tell me your best success story
Give me an example of one of the most challenging experiences you have encountered as a sales manager/sales director
What made it so challenging for you?
What would you have changed if you had to handle it again?
You must demonstrate great leadership in this role. Describe leaders you admire and why.
What was your overall sales quota and how did you generate leads via business development in your last company?
What will the sales director/director of sales of the future look like?
What would you consider the most important skill you need as a sales director?
What do you see as the specific skills needed to be a success in this role?
And what is the one skill you see as the most important for this role?
Why do you want to take up a position as Director of Sales?
Where do you think our company is headed in the future?
What difference can you make: a) in your department and b) for the company?
How far can you go in meeting our expectations?
How well can you execute company policies and ensure compliance?
Do you hold any sales qualifications at all?
Why did you choose to come into sales?
What do you think a Director of Sales position will offer you that you might not get with any other positions?
And do you think you possess this skill?
How well-versed do you think you are in this skill?
Do you think it is important to know about your client before taking them on board?
What do you look out for in a client before doing business with them that you think would be in the best interest of the company?
Do you think you should stop pursuing a client at any time? If so, then when is the right time?
How good are you at dealing with clients with diverse backgrounds?
Do you believe in cultivating long-lasting relationships with clients or constantly hunting for new ones?
And what do you think is the best option between these two in the long run?
Are you comfortable in turning away clients that you might think are not the right fit for the company? Have you ever had to do it previously?
I hope those were useful interview questions for you sales managers and sales leaders out there? Don’t forget me when you get your new sales director role! What a sales manager does is different to what a sales director does. It’s a different level of thinking.
You might also have a sales role play interview as part of the selection process so it’s important that you’re prepared. If you’re currently a sales leader want to add a formal sales accreditation to your CV then take a look at our Sales Management Training.
