Written by Sean McPheat | 
Looking for telesales interview questions to prepare for your upcoming interviews?
This guide will serve as a shortcut for you whether you are recruiting and need telesales interview questions to ask candidates, or if you are a candidate wanting to improve your sales career and want to prepare for potential telesales interview questions.
Moreover, it will contain some answers as well. Not word for word answers but they will give you some guidance so you can answer them in your own style.
We’ve created previous guides just like these for other roles. Our Sales Director Interview Questions and Sales Manager Interview Questions are very popular guides for interviewers and candidates a like.
One other thing that may help you is our ISM certified Telesales Training programme which may bolster and look good on your CV.
With that out of the way, let’s get to the telesales interview questions and answers.
Contents
Some job interview questions are relevant for any position, including telesales positions. Here are some general questions you might ask at the beginning of the interview to break the ice and get to know each candidate a bit better:
1. Can you tell me a bit about yourself?
2. How did you learn about this position?
3. What made you want to apply for this position?
4. What is your biggest strength?
5. What is your biggest weakness?
6. Can you tell me about your previous job and why you left?
7. What are your salary requirements?
8. What are you looking for in a new position?
9. What is your most outstanding professional achievement?
10. What is your preferred work environment?
11. What are your long-term career goals?
12. Do you have any questions for me?
13. Can you tell me about your sales experience?
14. Have you ever worked in telesales before?
15. What do you like the most about sales?
16. What do you dislike the most about sales?
17. Can you tell me about your go-to sales strategy?
18. What makes you qualified for this position?
19. What’s the best sale you’ve ever made and why?
20. What do you do when a sale gets declined?
21. How do you establish long-term relationships with your clients?
22. Can you tell me about a time when you made a mistake during a sale? How did you overcome it?
23. How would your previous co-workers describe your sales strategy?
24. What kinds of telesales do you have experience with? B2B? B2C?
25. How do you manage and meet your sales quotas?
26. Have you ever not met a sales quota? If so, what happened?
In addition to getting to know each candidate and learning about their experience, you also need to find out what they know about your company and the sales world. The following questions can help you figure this out:
27. What can you tell me about our company?
28. What can you tell me about our products or services?
29. What do you know about our target customers?
30. Do you know what kinds of sales we make here?
31. This job requires you to work independently often. Is it easy for you to self-motivate and work on your own?
32. This job requires you to work as part of a team. Is it easy for you to collaborate with other salespeople and sales managers?
33. This is a high-pressure work environment. How well do you respond to pressure?
34. This is a competitive work environment? Do you feel you perform better or worse when competing with other salespeople?
35. How do you stay informed about the latest updates in the sales sector?
36. How do you think the most effective sales strategies have changed in the last X years?
37. What do you think is the biggest issue holding back salespeople in our field?
38. Which sales techniques are the most effective?
39. Which sales trends/techniques are the least effective?
40. Why do you want to work in the telesales field?
41. What is the difference between telesales and telemarketing?
42. What is your greatest strength as a telesales professional?
43. What is a telesales professional’s most critical skill?
44. What do you like the most about telesales?
45. What do you like the least about telesales?
46. How will you improve our telesales strategy?
47. What factors contribute to a successful telesales call?
48. What is the biggest obstacle telesales representatives must overcome?
49. How do you Overcome Sales Objections over the phone?
50. How easy is it for you to stick to a telesales script?
51. Do you know the difference between B2B and B2C sales?
52. Have you ever made cold calls before?
53. What do you know about the UK’s telesales and telemarketing laws?
54. What best practices ensure compliance with UK telesales laws?
55. Which regulatory bodies set rules and guidelines for telesales professionals?
56. Have you ever witnessed a colleague do something illegal or unethical while on a call?
57. How would you respond if you witnessed illegal or unethical activity?
Situation-based questions give you valuable insight into how a candidate will handle issues that often come up in telesales. You can run a sales role play and here are also some of the best questions to ask during the interview:
58. Pick any item in this room. How would you sell it to me over the phone?
59. Imagine a scenario where you have to put a client on hold, but they’re resistant. How do you handle this situation?
60. Telesales can get monotonous. How will you deal with the repetitive nature of the job and avoid letting it affect your work?
61. Imagine a situation where a potential client rejects your sales pitch. How do you respond?
62. Imagine a situation in which a customer gets angry with you over the phone. How do you respond?
63. Let’s say you get critical feedback from a manager after completing a sales call. How do you respond to and apply their feedback?
64. Imagine we’re getting close to the end of the quarter, and you haven’t met your sales quota. What will you do to get caught up?
65. Sometimes, telesales reps are met with suspicion. What would you say to a potential client to put them at ease?
66. Take a look at this sales script. What would change about it?
67. Let’s say you’re on a call, and the prospect seems moderately interested. How do you close the deal?
68. Imagine you’re talking to a prospect and can tell they’re losing interest. How do you get their attention and draw them back in?
69. Can you tell me how you make up for the lack of face-to-face contact in telesales?
Before hiring a new telesales rep, you must ensure they fit in with your company culture. Be sure to include communication-related questions too to help you choose the best candidate for your team:
70. What gets you excited about coming to work each day?
71. What keeps you motivated to continue making sales calls, even on days when you receive a lot of rejection?
72. What can your sales manager do to best support you?
73. How would you describe the culture at your last job?
74. What did you like or dislike about the culture at your last job?
75. What do you know about our company culture?
76. How do you stay organised?
77. What steps do you take to ensure you meet your monthly or quarterly sales quota?
78. Would you describe yourself as an introvert or extrovert?
79. How do you think this job will challenge you?
80. What steps do you take to continue improving your telesales skills?
81. How do you identify gaps in your sales strategy?
82. How do you resolve the gaps in your sales strategy?
83. Do you work better independently or in a group?
84. How would you address a conflict with a co-worker?
85. How do you build instant rapport with others?
86. How do you persuade others to see things your way?
87. How do you handle talking about sensitive information?
88. How do you handle working with people who aren’t good communicators?
89. How would you describe your communication style?
90. How do you respond when communicating with someone who’s frustrated or angry?
Now let’s look at answering some of the most common telesales Interview questions:
1. Can you tell me about your sales experience?
Highlight your previous roles, significant sales you’ve made, and strategies you used to close deals. Discuss how these experiences have helped you grow and developed your selling skills.
2. What do you like the most/least about telesales?
Speak honestly but positively. For example, “I love the thrill of closing a deal but occasionally find the repetitiveness challenging. However, I overcome this by focusing on each call as a new opportunity.”
3. What do you know about the UK’s telesales and telemarketing laws?
Demonstrate your understanding of key laws such as the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and GDPR, ensuring you’re knowledgeable about how they apply to telesales activities.
4. This is a competitive work environment? Do you feel you perform better or worse when competing with other salespeople?
Stress your ability to thrive in competitive environments, using past experiences as examples. Frame any competition as a motivation rather than a pressure.
5. How do you manage and meet your sales quotas?
Describe your strategy for tracking your sales progress, adjusting your approach as needed, and maintaining a positive attitude. Use an example of how you’ve successfully met quotas in the past.
6. How do you stay informed about the latest updates in the sales sector?
Mention reliable sources such as industry newsletters, blogs, and podcasts. Discuss how you apply these insights in your work to stay ahead and continuously improve your sales techniques.
Deciding which telesales interview questions to ask can be tricky at first. If you use this list of interview questions and answers for inspiration, though, you’ll have a much easier time figuring out what to ask your candidates and how to choose the best person for the role.
Check out our Online Sales Training for more help and guidance or take a Sales Apprenticeship.
Or take a look at our popular portfolio of Sales Training Courses.
Our popular sales courses include:
Account Management Training
Sales Management Training
Retail Sales Training
Happy Selling!
Sean
Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training
Updated on: 11 July, 2023
Originally published: 12 December, 2022
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