Sales Executive and Sales Representative Interview Questions and Answers (2026)

Check the list against the Telephone Preference Service and Corporate TPS before calling, and separate companies from sole traders and named individuals, because email rules differ and data protection applies to named people. Ask where the list came from, and make sure every message identifies us and has a clear opt-out.

Given a list of 500 contacts, I would first ask my manager where it came from and what permission, if any, was recorded. Then I would screen the telephone numbers against the TPS and the Corporate TPS, because I cannot make unsolicited marketing calls to registered numbers unless they have agreed. I would split the emails: generic company addresses can be emailed under the corporate subscriber rule, but sole traders and named individuals need more care, and for a named person I would need to give privacy information and respect any objection. Every email would identify us and carry an easy opt-out, and I would log opt-outs the same day. In my last role I did this on a list of 300, and removed about forty before calling. My manager said it saved us a complaint.

Do not criticise the rival or drop the price straight away. Ask what they are comparing: scope, support, term and total cost. Then show the value in their terms, such as time saved or risk reduced. Offer to compare like for like, and hold the price unless there is a real change.

A prospect said a competitor was 15 per cent cheaper. I asked, 'Can I see what the quote includes, so I can make sure we're comparing the same things?' It turned out the other quote excluded training and charged extra for support after the first month. I set out both on one page: our price included onboarding and support, theirs would be about four per cent more once those were added. I did not say anything negative about the competitor, only what was in each quote. I also asked what mattered most to them, and they said avoiding downtime during setup, so I showed our onboarding plan and a reference customer. They stayed with us at our price. If the figures had been closer, I was ready to offer a longer term for a better rate, but I did not discount just because they asked.

Find out what is really stopping the deal. Ask my champion what has changed, who else needs to agree and what happens if they do nothing. Then set a clear next step with a date. If there is no urgency or no budget, I would tell my manager and downgrade it in the forecast.

A deal had been 'about to sign' for three months. I stopped chasing and asked my contact, 'What would need to be true for this to be signed by the end of next month?' He said legal review had not started because procurement thought the budget was not yet released. I asked for an introduction to procurement, and they confirmed the budget was only approved for the next financial year. I told my manager the honest position: no signature this quarter. I changed the forecast, and agreed with the customer a plan of a short pilot now, to keep momentum, and a contract to start the new financial year. My manager preferred the accurate forecast to a hopeful one. The pilot ran in the spring and the full contract signed in April. I learned to ask early about budget timing and the approval process.

Do not give away margin on the spot. Find out what is really behind the request, trade something for any concession, such as a longer term or faster payment, and escalate honestly to my manager for anything above my authority. A deal signed today at a bad price helps nobody.

A customer said they would sign that afternoon if we took 20 per cent off, but my limit was 10. I asked what was driving the deadline and discovered their budget year ended that week. That gave me room to work. I offered 8 per cent off in exchange for a two-year term instead of one, and annual payment up front, which helped them use their budget. I said that anything beyond that needed my manager and I would ask her straight away. I rang my manager, explained the trade and the risk, and she approved a further 3 per cent as long as the term stayed at two years. I went back with 11 per cent for the two-year deal, and the customer signed that day. I recorded the reasons for the discount in the CRM so the finance team could see what we had given and what we had received.

Name the deal, say honestly what I got wrong, and what I changed. Usually it is a missed stakeholder or a weak understanding of the customer's need. Panels want to hear ownership and a specific change in how I now work, not a story about a competitor's price.

My biggest loss was a contract with a regional logistics company that I had forecast at ninety per cent. I had a good relationship with the operations manager and assumed she could sign. Two weeks before the decision I learned that the finance director had never seen our proposal and wanted a different supplier because of a contract clause I had not discussed. By then it was too late to change his mind. When I reviewed it with my manager, I saw that I had mapped only one person in the buying group. Since then, in every deal above a certain size I ask my champion, in the first meeting, who else will be involved in the decision and what each cares about, and I ask to meet them. I record all of them in the CRM. The next comparable deal, I met the finance director early, and we won it.

Tell the truth, even if it costs the sale. Say what the product does today and what it does not, say what is planned only if it is confirmed and put in writing, and offer a workaround. I would rather lose this order than lose the customer and break the rules on misleading claims.

A prospect asked if our software could integrate with their payroll system by the end of the quarter. It could not yet, and the roadmap date was uncertain. I was tempted to say 'yes, it is coming'. Instead I said, 'Today it cannot. Engineering plans to add it, but I cannot promise a date.' I offered a workaround, a weekly file export that other customers used with the same payroll provider, and put it in the proposal with the exact steps. The prospect was disappointed, then asked to speak to one of those customers. I arranged a call, and they signed with the workaround and a clause that did not rely on the integration. A year later, when the integration launched, they were one of the first to upgrade. I would say honesty cost me a week and gained me a customer who trusted me.

Decline politely, tell my manager and the compliance contact, and make sure the tender continues on its merits. Tickets offered during a live tender, with a hint, look like a bribe risk. I would follow the company's gifts and hospitality policy and keep a record.

During a tender, the buyer at a prospect mentioned that he would love to see a particular match and implied our hospitality might be noticed when scoring. I said, 'Thanks, but we can't offer anything while the tender is open. It's our policy, and I'd rather we won on the proposal.' He laughed it off. Straight afterwards I wrote down what he had said and the time, and told my manager and the compliance lead. Under the Bribery Act, we are responsible for people acting for us, and our policy says hospitality during a live tender is not allowed. The compliance lead added a note to the tender file and made sure no one else contacted him about hospitality. We submitted our bid, and the buyer scored it normally. We lost narrowly on price, but my manager said the record protected us.

I would not use a false deadline. It is a misleading claim, and it could breach consumer rules and damage trust. I would raise it with my manager privately, explain the risk and suggest honest ways to create urgency, like a genuine end date or a real supply issue.

At a team meeting, our manager suggested telling customers a discount ended that day when it actually ran to the end of the month. I spoke to him afterwards, not in front of everyone. I said I was worried, because telling customers a false deadline is a misleading claim, and under the consumer protection rules it could be treated as pressure selling. I said I wanted to hit our numbers and suggested using the real end date, with a genuine reason to decide sooner, such as limited installation slots that week, which was true. He hesitated, then checked with compliance, who agreed. We stopped using the false deadline, and used the installation slots in our messages. My results that month were as good as before, and I felt comfortable explaining every claim I made to a customer.

Put in the truth. A forecast that I know is wrong damages my manager's planning and my credibility. I would move the deal to the realistic stage and date, tell my manager why, and show what I am doing to win other deals in the quarter.

Two days before the forecast, I looked at a deal marked 'commit' and admitted to myself that the customer had gone quiet and legal had not started. I moved it to the next quarter in the CRM and wrote a note: no signed order form, contact silent for ten days, legal not engaged. I told my manager before the call, so she heard it from me. She was not pleased, because it left a gap in my number. I showed her three other deals I could accelerate and asked for her help on one. We closed one of them that quarter. The original deal signed in the following quarter. My manager told me later that she trusted my forecast more because I had changed it when the facts changed.