The Sales Recruiters Dallas Guide to how to prepare for, succeed in, and follow up a world class job interview.
The Job Interview is one of the most integral parts of the employment search journey, and with our 8 point Interview Preparation Planner you’ll be given the tools to walk into any interview and excel.
At this stage of the candidate journey, you’re shortlisted against a handful of equally qualified, and equally as passionate professionals: this is your opportunity to convince your interview of not only your competitive credentials, but of your cultural and personal character fit for their company.
This is not the time to compromise on practice and preparation. You want to make sure every I is dotted and T's crossed: interviews are all about detail, and specificity. You cannot afford to be general with responses or lose on detail, but equally you cannot be late, dress inappropriately or have an embarrassing Zoom background!
We’ve put together an in depth, but easy to follow 8 point interview plan for our Sales job seekers in Dallas: this plan gives you the tools of the trade, and a few interview hacks, to guarantee you’ll walk away from every interview knowing you’ve done your best to impress your potential sales employer.
NOTES:
Look out for the Interview Hack! points of discussion in each article.
They highlight some of the unique interview skills and hacks we’ve leared here at Sales Recruiters Dallas that make all the difference during the interview process.
You cannot prepare enough for an interview, and although they are not the be all and end all of an application process, an interview is still one of the most effective ways of showing an employer you embody their culture and their future.
The way you communicate that in your interview, therefore, is essential, and like any skill it can be practiced, and it can be honed.
Your attire goes a long way to establishing how you communicate your self to your interviewer - you have every right to use your interview attire to creatively represent you as a person but never forget this cannot be at the loss of your professional demeanor or formality.
Phone interviews, especially for Sales professionals, are absolutely vital in judging your suitability for moving your further down the recruitment channel, and to make a value judgement on suitability for a role.
The vast majority of the time, phone interviews are held prior to any remote or in person interview, such as for HR departments or recruiters to “pre-screen” you ahead of an interview, or, if there are genuinely hundreds of candidates, to make a quick-fire assessment of your suitability for further assessment.
The golden rule of interviewing is the way you answer questions says as much about you as the answers you give - the delivery of your answers, your timbre, your style, inflection, enthusiasm and tone are the emotional value judgements your interviewer will take away from your interview.
Interviews are, by nature, full of little inflections and suggestions that can muddy the clarity of your answers, so consider your answers less of “this is the only time I can tell this person these facts!” and more of an exercise in quality assurance.
A root and stem analysis of your interviewer’s company is impossible in one interview, but it is essential you get as much information out of your interviewer for you to make a genuinely authentic and realistic judgement on the suitability of this role for you.
In essence, an interview is designed for you to make a value judgement on this company being able to support your life, not just your career.
"It's sort of a trick question. Because when you say to a salesman, 'Sell me this pen,' you might find some will say to you, 'This is a great pen, this pen writes upside down. It defies gravity, this pen is the cheapest pen on earth, this pen will never run out.'...But that's not what the real answer is...the first idea is that when you say 'Sell me this pen,' I want to hear [the salesman] ask me a question. 'So tell me, how long have you been in the market for a pen?' I want them to turn it around on me and start asking me questions to identify my needs, what I'm looking for. And if you do that, people don't know what to do. Next thing... I'm controlling the conversation, finding out exactly what he needs.”
Phone interviews, especially for Sales professionals, are absolutely vital in judging your suitability for moving your further down the recruitment channel, and to make a value judgement on suitability for a role.
The vast majority of the time, phone interviews are held prior to any remote or in person interview, such as for HR departments or recruiters to “pre-screen” you ahead of an interview, or, if there are genuinely hundreds of candidates, to make a quick-fire assessment of your suitability for further assessment.
What's the lasting impression you want to leave with your interviewer?
Many would say it’s your final handshake and thank you, as you step out of the interview room - you may break the formality and discuss the rest of your day, or you may wrap up with a formal handshake. Either way, you leave from a position of strength. Job done.
Here are some extra reading materials suggestions that will do an amazing job of preparing you about the world of sales, what good sales means, and how great sales talent manifest and succeeds: