Are you ready to hire the first VP or Director of sales for your company?
But feeling unsure because it’s your first time? Don’t worry! There is a first time for everything. Also selecting the best candidate isn’t as difficult as it may seem.
When you are sitting down for the sales job interview, remember that the VP of sales is someone who is responsible for constructing a victorious and skillful sales team. So you must be in search of those who can handle tasks like professionals and take things to their stride.
The worst thing about hiring the wrong person as Director or Vice President is that it could waste a lot of money and lead to major project failures. This challenge can be simplified if you know the sort of questions to ask at a job interview.
This post will definitely help you in that way. It will give you an idea on what you should ask the person sitting on your opposite side. Details related to this have also been stated for your understanding.
Here’s hoping you will feel greatly helped during the end of the article.
Director or VP of Sales Interview Questions:
The following mentioned are few sales interview tips and director of sales interview questions to ask during an interview.
1. Questions related to the sales team:
This is where you will question your candidate on “how he will build the sales team?” The plan and methods used by your candidate will establish a team that is certainly the most important section that needs to be explored by the interviewer.
Trying to develop a proper sales team can take up a lot of time and effort. This is why you should ensure they know all the methods and techniques required to build a team that is dexterous and well coached.
You can ask the candidate interview sales questions like about their previous experiences regarding sales teams and how they have handled issues. You should get to know their methodology and techniques used and their priorities.
It is also important to ask their compensation plan and the coaching philosophy they would apply once they get the job. Try to see whether the candidate is a risk taker. Ensure that they have taken a few risks in the past. Their experience will speak volumes.
2. Establishing strategy:
It is also important to know the strategies your candidates have planned. The best will always try to compete in the market and boost revenue per lead.For instance, an excellent VP of sales would enlist a proper and well organized sales process that would help the team stay consistent throughout.
Here are some of the questions for an interview you must remember to ask. “Tell us some of the steps you would incorporate to make the sales team powerful and dexterous” or “Give us an idea about the experience you have had while innovating sale processes”.
3. Performance of the employees and handling metrics:
The sales VP you are about to select should be wistful and keen enough to deal with problems related to sales. This means they should know how to handle the performance of their employees and take care of sale metrics.
Some of the sales coordinator interview questions you could ask in this section include “What would you do if your team performs poorly?” or “What kind of sales tools have you used in the past? What technique works best for you and which one doesn’t at all? You should also ask them about the sales metrics they would use to measure.
4. Working with the other departments:
In order to watch the organization climb the stairs of success, it is very important to check the alignment between sales department, account management, marketing and customer success. Your Vice President of sales should have an idea on how to deal with all the other leaders of the department.
A few sales job interview questions you should definitely ask include “How do you think sales and marketing and the other fields of the company can work together?” or “Discuss in brief when you were involved with a proper sales execution that belongs to a campaign of marketing.
What was your involvement like? Did you come across any obstacles like? Did you meet any challenges? How did you try to overcome these problems?”
5. What does your candidate know?
Try to see what your candidate knows. This would be a great opportunity for you to learn about his experiences. He/she should also know what your organization really needs now. They must know what the sales team really needs right now.
Ask him about the hopes and expectations he has from them and the places where improvement needs to be made. No matter what, do not have any negative thoughts against the person. After all you are looking for someone who accepts his flaws and mistakes and is still responsible for what he does.
You could ask him/her questions like “What do you believe our sales team lacks? Are there ways in which we can handle the problems? Can we improve and enhance ourselves in certain places?”
Follow this up with his opinion on the sort of improvements that can be made and the amount of time it would take.
6. Planning:
This is where you must find out what the prospective VP believes in doing in order to bring a change. This is probably the most important question of all since it is the duty of the VP to bring necessary changes and improve the whole system altogether.
Ask the candidate about his style of management and what he would do once he holds office. Once he/she gives you the answer, try to compare it to his track record as it has been displayed in his resume. A very talented individual will have all of this mentioned in his work history.
7. Lifecycle of the customer:
People who have been successful in the world of sales know it isn’t just one thing that is important. It is about sustaining the relationship so that the customer always remains a faithful client. The vice president of sales must realize the lifecycle of the customer.
When one has good experience in the department of sales, customers are tempted to brand advocates. In this section, you should ask the candidate something like
“What according to you is the way in which the organization can establish a brighter future for itself?” or “How can you improve yourself?”
8. Is Cold calling deaf?
During this question, there might be a few interviews who would get defensive. They might think this question has been asked on purpose to trick them. The answer to this question is obviously a no.
When nothing works in your favor, the only thing that can be done is picking up the phone. This is the only thing that can be done in order to keep things in control. But what is most important is how they cold call, what message do they have to offer and the frequency used.
Always remember that cold calling is customer centric and driven by values. Only that can lead to success.
9. Why is it that you don’t want to make some money as an individual contributor?
The right answer to this question comes to the number of commission checks does the candidate is desirous of. Managers of sales will always keep some portion of the compensation whether it comes in the form of a bonus or commission based on the performance of the team.
The best of the best managers of sales will have the opportunity to make a lot more money as in this situation by driving sales higher and work towards the improvement of the team’s performance. The VP of sales will still need the money but they are aware of the fact that the upside is much higher with the help of a proper plan.
Conclusion:
These questions to ask in a job interview certainly are not some kind of magic. Not one of them needs to be answered with a whole lot of thinking. In fact, in some places they are a bit obvious.
In cases where you are expecting the person to give you an idea on how the company can improve in the future, do give the person a minute to think things over. They could be nervous or could take a little more time to let the question sink into their minds. Nonetheless, they should not take up too much time. If they do, you know exactly what to do. You should also remember to make the candidate feel relaxed. Some of them could be hyperventilated in nature.
And if you make the mistake of being negative towards them with a certain gesture, it would give them a wrong signal and slow down their ability to answer properly, Try to create a peaceful environment so that the interview goes smoothly. Plus the interview questions for VP of sales enlisted above should make your work easy. On that note, good luck!
