Hiring an experienced and driven sales leader can massively boost performance and turn your sales team into a magnet for top talent. Hiring a "bad" sales leader can ruin your team's morale and destroy your customer journey. In this article, we'll delve into critical interview questions for sales leaders as you assess them for your team. We'll talk about the impact of a great sales leader, how to identify the right candidate, and how to craft effective interview questions to make sure you're selecting the best person for the job.

Before we get into the questions, let's talk about the core functions of a sales leader. A sales leader is responsible for overseeing and managing a team of sales representatives, setting goals and targets, developing strategies to achieve them, training and coaching team members, and ultimately driving revenue for the organization. This means the sales leader will impact the team, the customer, and revenue -  all vital aspects of a growing business.

As such, to hire an effective sales leader, they must be a good leader, understand the customer, the industry, the metrics, and the sales cycle, and have a track record of achieving results. This is where asking the right questions during the interview process delivers game-changing results.

So, what makes an effective interview question for sales leaders? First, they should be open-ended allowing the candidate to expand on their answers and provide more insight into their experience and knowledge. Sales manager interview questions with answers give the team the ability to compare notes on each candidate across every stage of the interview process. Second, interview questions should be behavioral-based, meaning they ask about specific situations or scenarios the candidate has encountered in their career. This will give you a better understanding of how they think, handle challenges, and make decisions. Third, sales manager interview questions should follow a semi-structured framework to allow for accurate data collection and analysis across candidates. This will give you an objective way to compare candidates and make your final decision.

If you'd like to see our library of structured interview intelligence questions, formulated to help you make the best hiring decisions, chat with our team to learn more.

General Interview Questions For Sales Leaders

Now that you know the thought process behind hiring a great sales leader, let's delve into interview questions for leadership roles on a sales team. We'll break these into key categories- beginning with general interview questions for sales leaders we'll then move on to Leadership, Sales, Product, Culture Fit, Industry, and Customer Insights so that you have a great baseline to build from in your next sales leader interview.

Best Interview Questions for Sales Leaders

Interview Questions for Leadership and Team Management

1. Can you share an experience leading a sales team during a challenging time like COVID-19? What strategies did you use, how did it impact your team, and what was the result?

• This question reveals the candidate's leadership style, resilience, and ability to motivate and manage a team under pressure.

2. How do you foster a culture of growth within your sales team? Balancing the need for continuous improvement for over-performers and those who under-perform.

• Insights into the candidate's approach to team development, training, and feedback mechanisms showcase their approach to motivation, and people, and indicate their commitment to team growth and performance enhancement.

Interview Questions that Reveal Sales Knowledge and Sales Strategy

3. Describe your most and least successful sales strategies. How did you develop them, and what results did they generate?

• This question provides a look into the candidate's strategic thinking, innovation in sales tactics, and their direct impact on achieving notable sales outcomes. It also removes the pressure to "show-boat" and forces them to take a look at how they handle failure.

4. How do you stay informed about industry trends and integrate this knowledge into day-to-day sales activities?

• The response will show the candidate's initiative in self-education, awareness of the market, and how they apply this knowledge to stay competitive.

Interview Question for Culture Fit and Leadership Style

5. Can you give an example of how you've contributed to building or enhancing your current or previous company's culture? Talk about the impact it had on your team.

• This explores the candidate's values, their understanding of company culture, and how they actively contribute to it, indicating their potential culture fit for your organization.

Interview Questions for Industry Knowledge and Market Understanding

6. What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you see in our industry today? How would you address them?

• This tests the candidate's industry knowledge, strategic thinking, and their ability to identify and leverage growth opportunities.

Interview Question on Customer Insights and Feedback

7. Describe a situation where customer feedback led you to make a significant change in your sales approach or product offering. What was the feedback, and how did you implement the change?

• This question uncovers how the candidate values customer insights, their adaptability, and how they incorporate feedback into sales strategies and product improvements.

Sales, cultural fit, and leadership interview questions for sales leaders will uncover insights into the critical thinking skills of your candidate. Do they adjust when they see the market shift? Are they a good leader and coach? Do they "practice what they preach?" These are all key factors when building a team that needs to stay agile, move fast, and be ready to capture opportunities at any moment.

If you like these questions, we have more than 1000 of them tailored to your key hires - they can be added to Pillar's interview intelligence software in just a few clicks and are automatically queued up, ready for your next interview.

H2: Situational Interview Questions For Sales Managers

Instructions: Discuss the importance of situational and behavioral questions. Provide some examples of these types of questions and explain what they can reveal about a candidate's skills and character.

Situational Interview Questions For Sales Managers

Now let's shift focus to behavioral and situational interview questions for sales managers. A behavioral interview question asks about specific examples of how a candidate has handled situations in the past, while a situational interview question presents hypothetical scenarios to gauge their problem-solving and decision-making skills. Both past and future "state" questions should be asked in interviews to help you gauge the sales leader's ability to handle real-world challenges and think on their feet.

Behavioral Interview Questions for Sales Leaders

1. Can you tell me about a time when you had to handle an underperforming employee? How did you handle the situation, and what was the outcome?

• Interview questions focused on leadership should dig into the candidate's past performance and experience - how did they handle good and bad situations that involved others?

2. Describe a time when you successfully motivated a sales team to exceed targets. What strategies did you use, what were the results, and how did you reward them?

• This showcases the candidate's leadership style, motivation techniques, and ability to drive results through team performance. It also reveals their understanding of the importance of recognition and rewards for a job well done.

3. Can you give an example of when you had to let go of a consistently underperforming team member? How did you do it?

• This question is critical in understanding the candidate's approach to difficult leadership decisions, highlighting their communication skills, empathy, and process for making tough calls for the benefit of the team's overall performance and morale. An effective response will reveal the candidate's criteria for making such a decision, how they prepare themselves and the underperforming team member for the conversation, and how they ensure the decision is executed in a way that minimizes disruption, helps the team member move on, all while maintaining team morale.

Situational Interview Questions for Sales Leaders

1. Imagine that one of your top salespeople unexpectedly hands in their resignation. How would you handle this situation and ensure minimal impact on team performance?

• This question tests the candidate's ability to handle unexpected challenges and their strategic thinking in maintaining team performance. It also reveals their approach to employee retention and succession planning, which are critical skills for an effective sales leader.

2. How would you handle a situation where your team is struggling to meet sales targets due to external factors such as economic downturn or industry changes?

• We've asked this question in different ways in previous sections, but the goal is to gauge the candidate's resilience, adaptability, and strategic thinking in the face of external challenges. A strong response would include a detailed plan for how they would assess and address the situation, as well as maintain team morale and motivation during difficult times - this is a challenging question because it infers unknowns that the candidate will be forced to navigate.

3. You have two salespeople who are constantly competing with each other and it's causing team conflict. How would you handle this conflict and promote a more collaborative working relationship?

• It's common for high-performing salespeople to develop big egos. As a sales leader, it's crucial to know how to handle conflicts and encourage collaboration within the team. This question tests the candidate's conflict resolution skills and their ability to foster a positive team dynamic.

Overall, creating a mix of situational and behavioral-based interview questions to ask candidates will help you gain deeper insights into a candidate's skills, experience, and character. Asking specific examples of past situations as well as hypothetical scenarios will give you a well-rounded understanding of how the candidate may handle challenges and make decisions as a sales leader.

In conclusion, remember that these interview questions are just examples. Always tailor your sales leader interview questions to the specific role you're hiring and company culture to get the best results. If you're struggling to find a great fit and would like to see how our interview intelligence software can revolutionize your hiring process, book your demo to chat with someone from our team today!