How to Screen Sales Representatives: 9 Questions and What to Listen For Screening Interview Template

What were you selling, to whom, and at what price point? Give me your numbers for your last full quarter or year, in units or dollars, against whatever target you were given.

What this assesses: Transaction size and buyer decide fit faster than industry does. Strong answers name the product, the buyer (a homeowner, an office manager, a small business owner, someone walking onto the floor), a price band, and a number against a target, including the period they missed. Weak answers give a percentage with no denominator, or say they consistently exceeded expectations. A rep closing 15 home services contracts a month at $400 and a rep closing four $60k deals a quarter are not interchangeable, and the one who is wrong for your motion works that out around week six and leaves.

How many calls, doors, or conversations did you have on a typical day, and how many of those became a sale? Then walk me through your last full working day hour by hour.

What this assesses: This is the question that separates reps who are still producing in month three. Strong answers give hard numbers that reconcile: 80 dials, 12 conversations, three appointments set, one close per two appointments. They know what time they started and when they stopped. Weak answers offer a philosophy about quality over quantity, or a number that does not survive arithmetic, like 200 dials and 40 real conversations inside an eight-hour day. Asking for the last working day rather than a typical one is deliberate. Typical days get remembered generously.

In your last sales role, how long did it take you to hit quota for the first time, and what did your first 90 days look like? How long were you in that seat overall?

What this assesses: Ramp history is the closest thing to a turnover forecast a screen can give you. Strong answers name a month, something like 70 percent in month three and full quota in month five, describe what the ramp actually involved, and give honest tenure without being pushed. Weak answers skip the timeline, or show a run of five-to-nine-month stints where the reason is always the employer. Two short stints can be bad luck. Four is a pattern, and it will repeat in your seat.

Tell me about your worst stretch in sales. How long did it last, what were you doing differently by the end of it, and what kept you showing up?

What this assesses: Every rep has a slump, so the answer is really about what they changed. Strong answers name a length (three weeks, one bad quarter), describe a specific adjustment such as rewriting the opener, moving calls to early mornings, or working back through last year's closed-lost list, and give a reason for staying that is more concrete than being competitive. Weak answers claim to have never had a slump, which means either they have not sold long enough to have one or they are managing the interview. Resilience language with no behavior change behind it is the answer to worry about.

What objection do you hear most, and what do you actually say when you hear it? Give me your words, not a summary of your approach.

What this assesses: Asking for the words is the whole point. A rep who has made thousands of calls has a line ready and produces it instantly: what they say to 'just send me some information,' 'we already have someone,' or 'your price is too high.' Strong answers give a real sentence, often two versions depending on where in the call the objection lands. Weak answers describe a technique, acknowledge then reframe, without ever producing the sentence. In writing this question also filters the applicants who have never worked a phone at all, because they answer with theory when there is nothing to recall.

What share of your sales came from leads the company handed you versus prospects you found yourself? If you had to fill your own calendar next month with no marketing support, what would you do in week one?

What this assesses: Lead environment is the most common reason a proven rep fails at a new employer. Someone who closed well on inbound demo requests or walk-in floor traffic may never have built a list. Strong answers give a split, name where the self-generated business came from (referrals from closed customers, reactivating past clients, canvassing a territory, working a niche list), and lay out a concrete week-one plan. Weak answers claim to be a hunter while every story in the screen starts with a lead that arrived on its own. Match the answer to your reality: if the seat has no SDR, no marketing spend, and no floor traffic, a 90 percent inbound rep is a bad bet at any attainment number.

How did your manager know what you did last week? What did you log, where did it go, and how often did you update it?

What this assesses: CRM discipline reads as a nice-to-have until you are coaching a dozen reps and cannot tell which ones are quietly drowning. Strong answers name the system (Salesforce, HubSpot, a dialer, even a paper route sheet) and describe a real habit: logging after each call, a Friday pipeline review, notes a manager could act on. Weak answers say they logged everything and then cannot say when. A rep who batches a week of activity into Friday afternoon is guessing, and every forecast built on that entry is guessing too.

How was your pay structured, base versus commission, and what did you actually earn last year? What structure are you looking for now?

What this assesses: Ask for actual earnings, not on-target earnings, and hold out for a real number. Strong answers give the split, a $40k base plus commission or straight commission, state what they took home, and say what the next role needs to pay for it to work. Weak answers give OTE only, which is a plan rather than a paycheck. This question kills more mismatches than any other on the list: a rep coming off a $70k base into a fully commissioned seat runs out of savings before ramp ends, no matter how much they want the job the day they apply. If your structure is commission-heavy, say so inside the question and let people opt out here rather than in month two.

Our reps work evening and Saturday shifts, drive their own vehicle across a multi-county territory, and hold a current state license. Which of those, if any, is a problem for you, and what is your license and driving record status today?

What this assesses: The unglamorous question that saves the most calendar time. Sales seats quietly require evening and weekend availability, personal vehicle use, a clean driving record, overnight travel, or a state license for insurance and real estate sales, and any one of them can end a hire in week three. Strong answers address every item directly and volunteer the status: license type and expiration, commute length, earliest start date. Weak answers hedge on one item and go silent on the rest, which is usually the item that matters. Swap your real requirements into the question before sending it. The point is to lose the wrong applicants here, at zero cost, instead of after onboarding has started.