Here are some of the types of job interview questions you are most likely to encounter in a sales interview. Interviewers are looking for leadership, creativity, teamwork, strategic thinking, analytical abilities and a general understanding of sales concepts.

1. Tell me about yourself
This does not mean tell me everything. It means tell me in a few sentences why you’re the most suitable candidate for the job. Talk about your relevant education, experience, key results and achievements. Remember to tailor your answer to the specific job using an example or two to back up your answer. If this was your one chance in the interview to sell yourself and tell the interviewer what you can do for them, what would you say?

2. Why do you want to work for us?
Here’s where your research about the company will help you to stand out from the other candidates. Explain how you’ve always wanted the opportunity to work with a company that, for example, is a leader in innovative products. The best source for research is the company’s website. Read through their annual reports, look at their products and services and try to gain an understanding of the structure of the company (size and number of employees) and the market it’s in. Also research the company’s competitors and other organisations operating in the same field.

3. What is your greatest weakness?
You should select a weakness that you have been actively working to overcome. For example, I have had trouble in the past with time management. However, I’m now taking steps to correct this. I have been on a time management course, have been making to do lists and learned effective delegation techniques. It’s best to avoid a generic answer like “I’m a perfectionist” and chose a weakness that’s not too serious and won’t affect your performance on the job.

4. What do you see yourself doing in five years time?
Emphasise that you would like to still be with the company exceeding targets, satisfying the needs of key clients and growing the business. A good reply is orientated toward growth and achievements.

5. What are your strengths and weaknesses regarding the sales process?
If one of your strengths is developing customer relationships, describe how this has helped you in past sales jobs. You could say something like, “I developed a relationship with a supplier that became one of the top revenue generators with sales increasing 55% every year”.

6. Tell me how you developed your largest account
Describe how you determined your customer’s needs and selected the most suitable approach to demonstrate how your product or service meets those needs, deciding on the right interpersonal and communication style, how you were able to anticipate and overcome objections and gain commitment from the customer and then went on to cross and up sell.

7. Tell me about a recent situation where you negotiated a successful contract with a tough customer
Describe how you explored the needs and concerns of the customer, determined areas of agreement and disagreement, worked out alternative solutions and reached a workable agreement for both parties.

8. Tell me about a situation where you had to change your approach with a potential customer because your initial approach did not work
You want to focus on your resilience and your ability to makes changes when needed. Your answer should also demonstrate your ability to take a variety of approaches with clients. When your initial approach didn’t work, focus on what you learned and how you would use it in the future.

9. Sell me this pen
You need to be able to identify the customer’s needs and why that particular pen would be the perfect one for him. Showcase the benefits and features of the pen. Address the similarities the pen has and how they fit the needs of the interviewer. Practice this technique before the interview and impress the interviewer.

10. Have you got any questions for us?
Asking the questions below will not only make you appear more committed as a candidate but will also give you better insight into both the challenges and opportunities that may lie ahead for you.

A) What are the reasons for this vacancy?
B) What will be my responsibilities?
C) Where will I fit into the team structure?
D) What are the company’s future plans?
E) What’s the mix of new to existing business?
F) How long is the sales cycle?
G) What concerns do you have about my ability to do the job?
H) What are the next steps?

Article by Nikki Ruth, founder of cv writing and career coaching company www.mycvandme.co.uk

The romances in the workplace are very common, and stepping in this area is like walking through a minefield. But despite the risks, more than one prefers to give way to romance at work. What often begins with a peek through the halls of the office, may end in something more serious. But once you pass the initial euphoria, there is always the question: how to deal with the company, to colleagues and superiors? And it is a question with a lot of sense, and to separate the personal life career is often a challenge that requires a lot of intelligence for everyone.

Over time we all went in the workplace is likely that the blossoming romance ended. According to a survey by the American sexologist Shere Hite (author of “Sex & Business”) among 790 professionals in the U.S. and Europe, seven in ten men, and six out of ten women had some affair with a coworker. “The proximity allows people to live together within the company with its joys and disappointments, and at that time who is there is a colleague. Over time becomes natural to see with different eyes, different professionals,” says psychologist Alexandre Bez.

But when the relationship is already established it is necessary to deal with sensitive issues, for example decide whether to keep the secret romnace, or be very careful that the relationship does not interfere with their work productivity. Or, if the feeling is not reciprocal, namely addressing the coup without trauma to the self-esteem. Here, experts give tips for handling the situation quietly, without losing balance or emotional danger to the charge.

1. Before taking the first step

Before betting on a relationship and declare their attraction to a co-worker, talk to your heart if you’re feeling is really love, attraction, affection or just a product of some deficiency sensitive personal situation for which you are going through. “Try to be discreet and attentive to their reactions when near the person in question, to clarify whether their feelings are real or just is being exposed unnecessarily,” suggests psychologist Bez.

2. How can we know if the feeling is mutual?

For the psychologist Tania Vieira, the best option to resolve a case in point is talk, never keep it for himself. “As long as people keep quiet their feelings, more create expectations, if they are not matched, the person will become very frustrated.” The specialist suggested a frank and keep quiet so that no one hopes in vain to discover if the other party shares these sentiments. The venue will depend on the responsiveness of the other, but the ideal is to avoid the subject in the office or workplace. The whole situation requires strength of character, but whatever the response is always easier to face reality. “Sometimes we do not show our feelings for fear of hearing a negative, when in fact the ‘no’ we already have, and if it comes it will be excellent,” said Vieira.

3. Dealing with the “no”

The solution we are the experts is to accept the refusal of the other and move forward. The secret is no longer powered disappointment. “Loaded with feelings of rejection, resentment or desire for revenge can become an obsession and lead to other serious diseases such as depression, all of which impair their job performance and his private life,” says psychologist Vieira.

4. What if the answer is “yes”?

When reception is good and the romance takes off, experts are unanimous: we must take the relationship public. “The first step is to talk to the supervisor and then with the companions, and avoiding gossip and rumors,” says HR consultant Carlos Pessoa, vice-president of Labour Relations and Trade Unions of the Brazilian Association of Human Resources ( ABRHl).

5. But what if the company prohibits the romances between colleagues?

In most countries of America, the prohibition of romances is a provision of the company, not the national labor legislation. Even labor rights experts say that companies have the right to demand a copy of their professional conduct while in their workplace. Some companies, however, prohibit the hiring of spouses or relatives of employees, but that policy would be legally questionable and even discriminatory. What companies can prevent inappropriate behaviors are in the workplace, both among colleagues and between intimate partners. To avoid friction, it is best that those who maintain a romance are kept separate in the work environment.

Fernanda, executive secretary of a bank, he felt firsthand the restrictions imposed on the company personnel to fall in love with a subordinate. Fernanda recalls that kept the discretion, but did not conceal their romance, and only when they went to work with their engagement ring romance became public. Given this fact, their manager called the couple to a conversation and asked one of them asked to be transferred to another area of the company, because it was consistent with the romances between staff. As Fernanda had higher office, her then-boyfriend asked for the transfer. After the couple married and divorced, clarifies Fernanda.

6. What if your loved one is your boss?

According to the specialist Carlos , when the relationship involves staff from different hierarchical levels requires caution. “There are a lot of prejudice in relation to this issue, generally co-workers and other superiors did not look kindly upon a romance between boss and subordinate, more than one believes that a relationship is concerned by the latter, which aims climb in the company through seduction, “he warns. In this case, the best option is to give a break to make sure that the romance is serious, and only then examined whether it is worth making it public.

7. When the relationship affects the professional performance

Think fast: do you ever failed to deliver a job after a fight with his colleague and partner? Do you spend much time chatting with him or her? Is it discouraged when your love miss work for a few days? If the answer was “yes” to any of the above questions, review your habits. • The romance may hinder productivity: when those involved spend much time trying to monitor what the other by sending text messages and leaving the work priorities in the background. In such cases, consulted experts say it is best to separate the pair in different areas to avoid devolution. If that does not solve the problem, it is best to get another job.

8. What if the romance ends?

Connoisseurs of corporate dynamics ensure that the couple should understand that the romance ends, but life in the office remains identical. Maintain a friendly atmosphere, even if it costs suggests the psychologist Alexandre Bez, who recalls that it is common for one of the former lovers to roll put malicious rumors against his former partner, all by resentment. “If you were bills pending bill your ex, face it and resolve their differences, because if does not put an end to the situation all that drama enrarecerá moved and the work environment, he concludes.

JobDeck. + TwitJobSearchTweetdeck TweetDeck, a Twitter client, and other social networks-most used and recognized has launched an application that facilitates the tasks of job search by filtering the offers launched in Twitter: JobDeck. The social media becoming more important every day in work and business, the social layer of the Web allows you to filter, to suggest and recommend faster and easier between nodes, ie through contacts between users.

Twitjobsearch, the job search engine via Twitter that takes just over a year of running, has partnered with TweetDeck to offer a client that allows you to keep up on your favorite social networks-Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc- and, in turn, have a column with the tweets of 25 experts in human resources as well as another dedicated to TwitJobSearch tweets. Is this enough? Probably not. However interesting may be the above, or offers to publish TwitJobSearch, network, and social media, offering practical and direct ways to find a job.

Twitter is published-presumably-nearly 400,000 jobs each month, and, frankly, TwitJobSearch appears to have no power or enough semantic intelligence to filter tweets by tweets job offers that are not. We have done some random searches and the results have been, at best, bizarre.

A search using the term “journalist” returns hundreds of tweets containing that term even without any kind of relationship with job offers. Using the filtering options in the right column can be classified into several categories, all of them totally useless with the exception of country, which, for some reason he could not quite guess, it screened, in some cases, the results properly.

TwitJobSearch search for “journalist”

As if this were a matter of language, English is monopolizing much more than half of all the tweets, we tested the equivalent search: “journalist” and even better-looking especially twitter accounts that are dedicated specifically to “sing “jobs-the result is not satisfactory. Fewer still know that there are other services that work considerably better.

When something is on everyone’s lips in this case Twitter and social media-sometimes seems to have to adapt all aspects of our lives to this new reality. JobDeck TwitJobSearch and, at least today, are more hype than helpful. They are an example of how complicated a task made easier every day tools such as LinkedIn or Jobsket.

What is your oppinion ?

In the previous post we discussed what was Linkedin and use this social network was. To get the best performance, we explained the most important points when creating a profile on Linkedin: Data academics, professionals, keywords for which we want to be found, sites related to us, how to start networking …. In this second part we will see:

• Connections: differences with the contacts and degrees of connection.
• Groups: how to participate and create groups.
• Jobs: search and post job openings
• Questions and answers: do networking through this section.
• Applications to get the most out of our profile.

Connections
The connection unlike the contacts is that this is not possible without both parties have agreed to establish it.

It is important to go to establish and increase connections and that the more connections you have, the more people will have access to your profile. Also each time you make something in Linkedin (updated profile, join a group, recommendations ..) is shown on the home page of your first degree connections.

First-degree connections or direct connections, is that are those who agreed to be part of your network and are only to a degree so you can send mails directly by clicking on “send mail” in your personal profile. The connections of your connections are second-degree connections becoming part of your network those that reach the third grade. You can only write emails directly to the first grade, from the second you have to use tools such as InMail (only for Premium accounts) would be a proper IM Linkedin. The free option is to add this person to your network or ask your contact at the first level through which you’re logged into that profile, that you present.

Groups

A) Join a group
The groups are undoubtedly one of the best tools when making networking and with which you can expand your reach in Linkedin. The groups serve both to discuss things related to the theme of the group, share, comment, question, respond, make contact and keep updated on anything concrete.
If for example you have a blog of a specific subject, you may have people interested in that topic with which you could debate and share interests. To find such people, it is best to use the form on groups and enter the keywords that interest you and that are related to your website or blog, thus winning for visitors or readers of your blog. In addition, all updates of the group that you join your mail will reach you as often as you choose. In this way you will not miss any detail of the activity is taking place.

linkedin groups

B) Posting in groups
It’s very interesting post within the groups and people involved often comment, provide feedback and suggestions. Every time someone creates a new debate, which is displayed in the profiles of people who belong to that group as to create such a new discussion’re winning a lot of visibility.

C) Creation of groups
One of the most powerful options in Linkedin is to create a group. Being creative in a group can generate many visits to our website traffic increase substantially the same as that when someone becomes a member of a group, the first thing you read is what it is about the group, the name of the creator and the same web.

D) Add RSS to groups
All groups have a section where we can add the URL of a page with news that may be of interest to the group, but the most interesting thing is that we can add the RSS on our blog or page to that when an update posteen automatically in the group.

Online social networks have revolutionized many aspects of our life. Now, in the context of recruitment 2.0, some guidelines to get work through LinkedIn …

The proliferation of social networks made the job search a complex task. It is not enough to read the newspaper or enroll in job banks from different institutions.

Now it has become a key gain visibility on the Internet not only through human resource portals, as ZonaJobs, Bumeran or Execuzone, but also in social networks like LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter or Facebook.

Social networks have already become widely used in a space to network with professionals, former colleagues, college friends, clients, former bosses, etc. And also makes a great point of contact between those seeking and offering employment.

Currently, businesses and human resource consultants draw on these networks to find candidates for key positions. Thus, gain visibility in them is essential for employment.

Take the example of LinkedIn, the professional network par excellence, which has grown exponentially since its inception in 2003, and has more than 50 million users in over 200 countries.

LinkedIn is a showcase that allows professionals to contact each other anywhere in the world. It is possible to see the career, work, achievements and recommendations with you enter the profile of the person.

Besides being increasingly necessary to have created a profile on LinkedIn, is interesting too, when seeking a new job, studying how to maximize the tools offered by this professional network.

So how to get jobs through LinkedIn?

The wording of the profile: Whether we work in dependent or independent, the first thing is to write our professional profile clearly, detailing all the positions we have taken with their respective responsibilities.

Simultaneously, we must work on the generation of a vast network of contacts that includes leaders, collaborators, colleagues, customers, suppliers, fellow students, etc. Invite many people to our network allows us to access more people exponentially.

We must also take care of keeping our profile. Thus, our contacts will be aware of what new activity, function or responsibility we are assuming. And this will allow us to gain more visibility.

Recommendations: Another of the useful features of LinkedIn are the recommendations. A former boss, colleague, customer or supplier type on our professional performance in a particular paper provides a look of a third company profile.

And this provides useful and reliable information to the reader. Indeed, no one will play its name to recommend to another person unless it believes that worthwhile.

Communities: The communities or groups within LinkedIn is another key tool to keep abreast of market movements.

To mention only some, Job Opportunities in Argentina (OLA) and Linked.ar Jobs, brings together many human resource professionals that publish job offers.

Moving there from positions of search analysts to management positions. In addition to the notices, also proposed discussion topics and publishes articles of interest to those wishing to stay updated on the latest labor market trends.

The choice jobs: In the “jobs” in the menu you can see the LinkedIn search publishing companies.

Some companies (like Google, Avaya, and Axialent) and are using it to recruit workers. But there is still a tremendous opportunity to explore the companies and human resource consulting.