1. Tell me have you ever turned a potential customer away? Why?
There are several reasons why an excellent sales rep might walk away from a sale. They include (but aren't limited to) ethical and legal conflicts, when a prospect demands more than the company can reasonably deliver, when a sale would be unprofitable due to the time, resources, or energy necessary, and when the deal is one-sided to the detriment of the company.
2. Do you know what is involved in typical data analysis?
Typical data analysis involves the collection and organization of data. Then, finding correlations between that analyzed data and the rest of the company's and industry's data. It also entails the ability to spot problems and initiate preventative measures or problem solve creatively.
3. Can you tell me a bit more about yourself?
This job interview question demonstrates your ability to communicate and balance appropriate personal and professional information. Start with an interesting personal tidbit and then talk about why you are pursuing a sales career in general and at this particular company.
4. Explain me what kind of data analysis software experience do you possess?
I have advanced data analysis software experience. A few examples include creating PivotTables in Excel, producing databases from scratch in Access, and developing data mining algorithms in ELKI. Also in my previous role, I was tasked with upgrading the database to meet the demands of the market and the company to ensure it ran smoothly.
5. Please explain how do you approach short vs. long sales cycles?
The strategies needed to make sales and keep customer happy vary based on the length of the sales cycle. Candidates should express a nuanced approach that illustrates a well-researched system for engaging customers in the buyer's journey and closing the sale within an appropriate period of time, and at maximum benefit for the company.
6. Tell me why do you wish to leave your present job?
No matter what you say, do not mention negative things about your employer, neither should you mention anything about more money being the reason. The reason is simple; if you are leaving a company because of money to come to theirs, you will definitely leave them to move on to another if it promises a better paycheck. Your best bet is to ay it on responsibility and challenge and how your previous position want challenging you enough. Indicate that you yearn for more responsibility and how what you have to offer outweighs the responsibility and challenge posed by your former position.
7. Tell me what role do content and social media play in your sales process?
Electronic and mobile commerce are expanding rapidly.
A salesperson who shies away from either is losing before they begin. A good salesperson will be able to illustrate a sales process that includes online and offline tactics for creating and growing customer relationships, educating the prospect, and closing the sale.
At the same time, they should express knowledge of and respect for any of your company's policies regarding social media and content use.
8. Can you explain me how do you generate, develop, and close sales opportunities?
Core sales skills remain the same regardless of industry or company. This job interview question seeks to uncover the maturity and suitability of your sales process. With this in mind, talk very specifically about how you execute your sales role from start to finish. Address planning, preparation, targeting, engaging, discovering needs, providing solutions, resolving objections, and gaining agreement. Lay out how you tackle each of these tasks step by step.
9. Explain me how do you respond to working under pressure?
The essence of this question is to test your composure, ability to solve problems and staying true to the task, even in unfavorable conditions. Give an example of a time where you were faced with a challenge and what you did to remedy the situation. In the process, highlight how you were calm and in control till everything was okay.
10. Can you tell me what do you consider your most significant sales achievement to date?
Here's your opportunity to make a big impression. Take it.
People remember richly detailed stories of success. When fleshing out your crowning achievement, talk about the time, the specific situation or problem, the people involved, the steps you took to achieve the end result, and what happened afterwards. Everyone loves a good sales story, so the more you can amp up the drama, the better.
11. Explain me what sort of salary are you looking for?
Note that whenever you are going for an interview, this question may be asked. Before going, try to find out what the average salary for someone holding that position in that industry is paid. This would help prepare you for what is in front of you.
Do not forget that this is only an interview and you haven't been offered the job, so do not go on negotiating. Just state something within the range you have researched and move on. Whatever you do, do not sell yourself short.
12. Tell me do you know what is UML modeling?
UML is Unified Modeling Language. UML is the standard that the industry uses for visualizing, documenting and constructing various components of a system. It is a modeling standard used primarily for software development, but can also be used for other conceptual models such as describing job roles, business processes and organizational functions. For Business Analysts UML is being able to represent requirements with use cases, class diagram and state diagrams. For Business Analysts, the important part of understanding UML is in understanding the diagram tools and when and how to use them best.
Discuss your method of assigning responsibility to the best candidates. How you communicate with employees to make them understand what is expected of them and how you make sure that the employees have the resources needed to carry out specific tasks. You should also chip in your follow-up procedures.
14. Tell us what do you know about GAP Analysis and what is its importance?
GAP analysis is the process of comparing the current state and the proposed state of any business and its functionalities. It comes under the Enterprise Analysis which is a knowledge area of a business Analyst. It helps in determining what steps need to be taken to meet the proposed state requirements for the business. In simple language it can be defined as a gap between 2 questions – ‘Where we are?' and ‘Where we want to be?'
This analysis can be conducted for:
☛ • How the Current business process activities and steps are vs how will be the future business process activities and steps.
☛ • How the data that a system provides to an interface is now vs how the data needs to be provided in the future
☛ • How well a business meets certain goals and metrics now versus the targeted goals and metrics in the future.
15. Tell us an overview of your career to date?
A career retrospective highlights your ability to communicate in addition to bearing testament to the logic and rationale of your career choices. Start with your first professional job (note: not your very first job ever) and talk briefly about what you learned from each successive role. Don't forget to touch on what attracted you to each new opportunity, culminating in the one you are currently interviewing for. Frame each job change in terms of striving for something greater, not in terms of running away from a crummy manager or company.
16. Tell us what are your weaknesses as Sales Analyst?
Turn this question into a strength question in disguise. For instance, say something like “I do not like not being challenged at work” or you could mention a weakness that has nothing to do with the job and that you can overcome with training. This way, you end up turning this potentially tricky question into a positive.
Sometimes, you may be asked about certain challenges you faced in your previous position. If you are asked this question, lean towards the problem that happened early in your carrier and that you were able to solve. Do not try to blame others, just identify the problem and the role you played in solving it.
17. Tell us what questions do you have for me as Sales Analyst?
About 3 in 4 candidates respond with a ‘No' and this is a very poor response.
This question is the perfect opportunity you need to show that you are different from every other candidate. Have a couple of questions prepared. It shows you are motivated and you have some knowledge about the company you are applying to
Tips to answer this question:
☛ • Your approach to this question should be mostly on what you can do for them
☛ • Ask about something you discovered while doing your research about the company
☛ • Always have a question – don't ever say ‘No, I think that all for now'
☛ • Do not make your questions about yourself
☛ • Don't ask about time offs and benefits at this point
☛ • Don't ask questions that have ready answers you could have found on your own
☛ • Do not ask how soon you can start applying for other positions within the company.
Your answers should focus on how well you can review relevant facts, consider various options and select the most appropriate option. Discuss how you factor in variables such as constraints and resources.
19. Tell us what tools, you think are more helpful?
The degree and frequency to which a management performs the analysis of a company decides the success or failure in a business. Using business analysis tools can help greatly in increasing productivity and efficiency of work which will lead to business success. Some of the tools which are popular and usually used by Business analyst are:
☛ • ERP system – This system gathers information from accounting system, inventory records, sales performance and other key elements of your business. Having this information at your fingertips completes the prime step in performing regular business analysis to see if your company is operating efficiently. It also helps in identifying potential problems which can be worked on.
☛ • Microsoft Word – Microsoft word is another important tool which almost every business analyst uses. MS word is very handy in preparing requirements specification documents in absence of Requirement Management Tools. Templates can be created for the documentation of software requirements. Through MS word you can even set preferred fonts, apply your company's theme, embed external objects such as a Visio diagrams or Excel worksheets, etc.
☛ • Microsoft Excel – Excel is one of the most powerful tools when you require any kind of Data analysis on the job. With MS Excel you can create pivot tables, examine trends in the data, sort and filter data, create charts or graphs, etc. It provides many built-in mathematical and financial functions that can help in analysis.
☛ • Balsamiq – It is a very useful tool through which you can create wireframes quickly in brainstorming sessions. It is also useful for getting immediate feedback from stakeholders. Business analysts and designers use this category of tools for creating mockups which can be converted into actual designs after signing off.
☛ • Rational Requisite Pro – It is one of the most important Requirements Management tools. Working on a large project in a business analyst team will require a concrete tool for managing your requirements. It provides the functionality of Word processing along with the capability to sort and query data using a dynamic database. Tracing requirements along with their changes and prioritize them for implementation becomes easy with this tool.
20. Tell me what do you see as the key skills of a business analyst?
There are several skills required to be a successful Business Analyst. They are not just linited to your work. These skills even include your personal qualities and approach towards your clients. Some of the key skills expected from any Business Analyst are:
☛ • Customer Service skills
☛ • Strategic thinking approach
☛ • Good communication skills
☛ • Collaborating with other employees and colleagues
☛ • Analytical skills
☛ • Leadership skills
☛ • Customer oriented
☛ • Ability to drive and adapt to the changes.
21. Can you tell us what do you know about our company?
This demonstrates your level of preparation and level of interest. Start by reading the organization's website and the Wikipedia entry if applicable, then search the company name on Google to read what others are saying about them. Concisely summarize what you learned about the organization's solutions, who they serve, who they compete with, and what industry analysts, employees, and other interested parties say about them. Finally, repeat these steps with the company's top three competitors.
22. Can you tell me what is your long-term career goal?
A good sales representative will be able to voice more than quarterly or yearly sales goals – they'll have a plan and the passion and drive to accomplish it.
They'll also be interested in opportunities for advancement and have a solid understanding of your company's structure, and a clear path they hope to follow in order to grow in-house, unless you are looking for a seasonal hire. If that's the case, make sure that both you and the applicant are aware that the position is temporary.
23. Explain me what is PEST analysis and what is its importance?
PEST basically stands for Political, Economic, Social and Technological. PEST analysis is used to assess the above four external factors in relation to your business situation. It is beneficial for your business as them help in understanding how these 4 factors will affect your business in the long term.
24. Please explain what is the importance of a flow chart?
A flow chart is a tool that provides a graphical representation of a process. This chart will make a system easy to understand for everyone that is involved with the project that is underway. If you have a massive and complex project with many entities, data, data sources, data destinations and processes involved, a data flow chart is one of the most effective ways of making sense of all that data. The flowchart mostly concerns itself with the flow of data through the system. It is popularly used in Structured Systems Analysis and Design.
25. Common Sales Analyst Interview Questions:
☛ Define application usability.
☛ What is Pareto Analysis?
☛ What steps are necessary to turn an idea into a product?
☛ What does BPMN stand for? What is BPMN Gateway?
☛ Explain CAP Analysis.
☛ What does INVEST stand for and what does it do?
☛ What is meant by an alternate flow in a use case?
☛ Tell me what you know about scope creep.
☛ Describe the difference between a business requirement document (BRD) and functional requirement document (FRD).
☛ Explain the difference between an analysis model and a design model.
26. Basic Sales Analyst Interview Questions:
☛ What analysis and modeling techniques and methodologies have you found to be the most effective, and why?
☛ What are some of the most important points a business analyst must take care of when preparing a business plan?
☛ What diagrams and/or other materials do you use to capture and describe customer needs and convey technical information?
☛ How many business case engagements have you worked on? What was your involvement?
☛ Tell me about a time when you created long-range plans at a previous employer.
☛ How do you determine which Business Intelligence (BI) tools to use? Which have you worked with?
☛ If two companies are merging, explain what tasks you would implement to make the merge successful, and how you would implement those tasks.
☛
☛ Explain the steps you must take to create use cases when working with specific document requirements.
☛ Tell me about a time when you've had to work with difficult stakeholders, and how you handled it.
☛ Describe three of the different types of diagrams that business analysts most often use.
☛ Define and describe the difference between basic flow, exception flow, and alternate flow in use cases.
☛ Tell me about how you usually approach a project.
☛ How have you handled stakeholders who were difficult?
☛ Can you define the diagrams that business analysts use?
☛ Why do you think flowcharts are important?
☛ Where do you see the role of a business analyst fitting into an organization?
☛ What is your requirement elicitation strategy?
Salespeople need to be able to deal with failure by critically analyzing failed attempts and learning from them. Knowing how you handle failure is as important as understanding how you succeed, and in fact, the two are interdependent. Be honest here, and clearly spell out one of your failures. Start with the goal you were pursuing, and then elaborate on why it was important to you, what did you do to achieve it, why you failed, who was involved, what you learned, and what you would have done differently. Far from damaging your reputation, the hiring manager will appreciate your candor.
The very first thing I would do is clearly define the problem or objective so I have a solid direction. Second, I would explore the data and become more familiar with it. This is extremely critical especially if I am working with a new set of data. Next, I would prepare the data for modeling. This entails data validation, detecting outliers, treating missing values, etc. With those steps completed, I would begin modeling the data until I discover the most significant or valuable results. Lastly, I would implement the model and track my results. As I'm sure you are aware, this process could vary slightly based upon the type of problem and the data and tools available.
29. Explain me why do you want to work for us as sales analyst position?
Here, they just want to know how motivated you are about the position or if you are just there for the pay. They want to ascertain that you would form an important part of the company. You have to show them that you are willing to be part of the company and would do all you can to ensure you and the company grows together.
You can also try to show them the alignment between their needs and yours.
DO:
☛ • Talk about the things you like about the firm. This can only be possible if you have done your homework before the interview.
☛ • Be complimentary; people enjoy compliments but just don't overdo it
☛ • Emphasize your strengths and how they align with the position and company culture.
DON'T:
☛ • Don't give the impression that you are there because you need money
☛ • Don't give the impression that you may be gone in a couple of months.
30. Explain me why should we hire you as sales analyst position?
This is a very common question that is asked in almost every interview. I love this question because it gives you the opportunity to sell yourself. Discuss what makes you standout from the crowd and show them how you can help advance their company. Remember to be specific. This is where all the company research you have done comes into play. You should have an idea as to why the company is hiring or looking to hire someone for that position. What problem do they have that they are looking for people to help them solve? And once you can establish this, you are to show them how you can solve this problem for them.
DO:
☛ • Highlight the qualities that make you the most qualified for the position – present yourself as the candidate that solves their problem
☛ • Let them know that you already know certain things about the company and their general practice because you have researched the firm and are prepared.
☛ • Tell a success story that emphasizes your qualities and how they helped solve a problem similar to theirs.
DON'T:
☛ • When you here things like “we already have lots of qualified candidates” do not get discouraged. If they already have the right person for the job, they wouldn't bother looking for someone to hire
☛ • This is your chance to shine, do not ruin it by being too modest, but do not be arrogant
☛ • Don't generalize things, it doesn't help
☛ • Your response should be geared towards why you are the perfect fit for the job and not why you want the job.
31. Do you know what is an activity diagram and why is it significant?
An activity diagram is a simple and intuitive type of a flow chart which enables analysts to present a robust and easy visual of the workflow of a business use case. The objective of activity diagram is to show various activities taking place in an organization in different departments. Different departments in any organization like HR, Accounts, Sales, etc. have access to the screens that relate to their fields but activity diagrams highlight the differences in the departments which help the developers when they code and design. The important elements in Activity diagram are initial nodes, control flows, activities, decisions, guard conditions, a fork and join and end nodes.
32. Explain me why do you like the idea of working in sales?
A major red flag on this job interview question is a candidate who is only in it for the money. Don't be surprised to hear "for the commissions" or "because the money is good."
These might be honest answers, but they also show a potential problem. The candidate only cares about the cash. You want a sales rep who is motivated by the process of selling and interested in filling a need for the customer, not just in making bank.
33. Tell us what are your short- to mid-term career goals?
Job candidates who set goals are perceived to be clear thinkers and motivated workers. Before your interview, talk to a few people who are where you would like to be and ask if your stated goals strike a healthy balance between realistic and achievable. Then, when you talk to the hiring manager, briefly describe your goals and hone in on why you want to achieve them -- your driving motivations and where you think achieving these goals could take you in the next few years.
34. Tell us what has been your most difficult analysis to date?
My biggest challenge was making prediction sales during the recession period and estimating financial losses for the upcoming quarter. Interpreting the information was a seamless process. However, it was slightly difficult to forecast future trends when the market fluctuates frequently. Usually I analyze and report on data that has already occurred. In this case, I had to research how receding economic conditions impacted varying income groups and then make an inference on the purchasing capacity of each group.
35. Tell me would you describe a typical day in your current job as Sales Analyst?
As much as you want to sell your self in a good light, do not make the mistake of exaggerating your current position. Add some of your routine tasks to make it realistic and don't neglect tings like paperwork. Try to be in the interviewers shoes as you answer this question. A job you have been doing for years should be part of you already and as such; you must know all the tasks you undertake. Try to show them that you plan well before you begin work and after you attain your goals, you review the process to see how you could be more efficient.
