Hey friends
I have a job interview within sales. I dont have the real sales experience and I really need the job DESPERATELY.
Can anyone give me some advice on what to highlight when going for this kind of job interview where sales experience is needed, what can one highlight in order to cover up the lack of experience???
try to highlight the following skills in whatever setting, career, volunteer work, social/cultural/sports groups.
Self-Management Skills
Personal goal setting
Time and stress management
New opportunity prospecting - identification, qualification, pursuit etc
Managing client meetings
presentation skills
First off, don't get hung up on your own lack of experience in a sales job. You do have experience in sales although you may not realize it. Virtually everything you do in life involves sales. In your interview, you are selling something. You are selling you.
Before the interview, think back in your life and try to recognize all the different contexts where you did sell something. If you had an interview for college, you sold yourself. If you ever asked someone for a date, you sold yourself. If you ever tried to bargain on price for something (a car, a nicknack, anything) you were engaged in selling. If the issue of lack of on-the-job sales experience does come up, don't drop your eyes and look uncomfortable. Look the interviewer right in the eyes and let him or her know that you know all of life is selling and that you have successfully done so in lots of different contexts.
Also, you need to understand and let the interviewer understand that being a salesman and being a sales clerk are two different things. A sales clerk takes your money after you have already decided to buy something. Those are cashier's at the supermarket. A salesman is someone who convinces you that you need to buy the thing he is selling. You have not even begun to sell something until the person you are trying to sell says "NO." Then, a salesman finds out WHY the person said no. These are called "objections." A salesman finds out the objections and one by one takes them away. A "NO" is actually a positive response. Every "NO" gets you one step closer to a "YES." As long as a person you are trying to sell keeps talking to you, you are doing great.
EXAMPLE:
You're trying to sell a car to someone. You go for the close and ask him if he's ready to drive it home. He says NO. A clerk says, "OK. Bye." A salesman asks why. The guys says he doesn't like red. You ask his favorite color. He says blue. You tell him you've got a blue car and ask if he's ready to drive it home. He says NO. You ask why. He says he doesn't like cloth interior. You say I've got leather and ask if he's ready to drive it home. He says NO. You ask why. He says it costs too much. You ask him how much he's willing to pay. He gives you a number. Now you're getting very close to a YES. You ask, "if I could get my manager to approve that sales price would you drive it home today." If he says YES, you know that price is his final objection. If you overcome it, then you've got a sale. If he says NO, then price is NOT his final objection. You've got to again ask why to try to find out what his real objection is. Repeat the process. As long as he keeps talking and answers a WHY question, he is a hot prospect. Poor salesmen stop too early in the process and never get to the yes. Good salemen just keep pushing ahead.
If your interviewer asks you how many NOs until you stop trying to sell someone something, the right answer is that you never stop trying to sell someone who is saying NO unless he stops answering your WHY questions. As long as he is objecting and telling you why, you've got a chance to sell him.
LESSON 2 is later.
Mv were u a used car salesman in a previous life?
he might be a car salesman in this life..
I have learned that we are ALL car salesmen sharing a brief moment or two as we wander through the same dealership of life.
Ok, besides actually selling, there are few things that gives the prospective manager what your plan is. One of the most of important phrase for sales managers is setting targets and acheiving/exceeding those targets.
One of the best books I read in my life, "Think & Grow Rich" (Napolean Hill) talks about having quantitative targets, spread over a defined time period. For example suppose a book salesman who makes $10/book wants to buy a car next year (target cost $5,000, target date in 12 mths). It takes 5 demos to make a sale, each demo is 30 mnts. Now all you have to do calculate the numbers and come up with how many hours a day that dude needs to work to have the desired amount at the desired date. Not to make this an algebra class, but here it goes:
5000/10 = 500 books total
500/12 = 41.67 books per month
41.67 x 5 = 208.35 demos per month
208.35 x .5 = 104.175 hours of work / mth
104.175 / 22 = 4.74 hours per work day (22 days / mth)
Now just to have a cushion work an extra hour or so, and you're all set.
One word, Quantify.
Miss Choudary
How did the interview go.
This is like reading a book and finding out the last chapter is missing.
This is terrible.
No reply from Miss Choudary.
She must have taken our interview advise and gotten the job. She's probably traveling down the lonely highways of some drought ridden area selling rain makers to old farmers.