PPA Sales Interview Questionnaire

Sample Report

PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL - J THOMAS

CHARACTERISTICS

Direct, logical, forceful, aggressive, can be blunt, self-conscious, sceptical, achiever, goal-orientated, mobile, active, energetic and independent.

SALES COMPATIBILITY

J Thomas has the ability to be a good sales closer. He is also ambitious by nature with a need to achieve results.

In a sales situation his potential weakness lies in his lack of people skills. There is a tendency for him to stand back from others and appear withdrawn and serious. If this is the case he may have difficulty with opening and general communication.

There are also indications which suggest that J Thomas may dominate less powerful individuals than himself. If this is the case he may upset some people by his aggressive nature. If on the other hand he has self-awareness and the ability to modify his behaviour, his need to achieve could make him a big hitter.

Although he is likely to become frustrated by routine tasks he has the ability to cope with servicing and administrative duties if a result depends upon it. Due to his forceful and assertive nature he may be difficult to manage.

INTERVIEW HINTS

Start the interview by testing J Thomas's people skills. Let him take the lead whilst you assess his ability to open and communicate generally. As the interview progresses, pressure should be placed upon J Thomas in order to ascertain whether he is self-aware and has the ability to modify his aggressive nature. It is equally important that he recognises that in order to achieve results, one sometimes has to be prepared to give way a little.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

We recommend that you follow your usual interview technique with regard to CV, education, experience, knowledge and other special needs. The following questions have been selected to assess J Thomas's potential shortfalls in relation to the selected type of role. The full battery of questions should be used.

Discussion objective "D"

• Is J Thomas able to handle objections in an acceptable fashion and without becoming aggressive?
• How do you handle objections which do not seem genuine, but are contrived in order to stop you closing.
• How do you tune into your prospects.
• How do you decide when to ask for an order.
• Would you say you are a hard closer or not.
• Explain why you say that.
• How would you know if a client was feeling overpowered by you.
• What would you do about it.

Discussion objective "i"

• Can J Thomas communicate his views and how far will he go in order to win his way?
• Can you think of an occasion when someone was opposed to your ideas.
• Tell me about it and explain what you did and said.
• If a prospect raised an objection, how would you deal with it.
• How do you assess that you have successfully overcome a person's objections.
• Are there many occasions when people show objections towards your ideas.
• On average how many times do you convert them to your way of thinking.

Discussion objective "S"

• Does J Thomas plan his time effectively?
• Would you say you are an active and busy person.
• How do you make sure that tasks assigned to you are done on time, give me some examples.
• How do you plan your time.
• Do you use a diary for details.
• Why do busy people always carry a diary.
• Can I take a glance at yours.

Discussion objective "C"

• Has J Thomas the ability to hide his frustration and tolerate people he does not really like?
• When you have to tackle a "nit picking" task how do you go about it.
• Give me some instances when you have met "nit picking" people.
• What effect did they have on you.
• How do you like dealing with such people.
• At what stage do you become frustrated.
• Tell me how you feel when someone frustrates you.