Interviews can be stressful, but the more you practice commonly asked questions in advance the more likely you will perform strongly in the moment. After working with thousands of software sales candidates and hiring managers over the years, we’ve put together a list of the 60 most commonly asked questions.

1. Tell me about yourself.

2. Why are you looking?

3. Why us/this niche?

4. What do you know about us and why are you interested in working here?

5. Explain our product to me in layman’s terms.

6. Why do you like sales?

7. What sales methodology do you follow? Which have you received formal training in?

8. Why technology or software sales?

9. Walk me through your career decisions / last few employers.

10. What was your favorite role/employer?

11. What kind of a salesperson are you? Relationship, Networker, Aggressive, Grinder, Disciplined, Challenger, etc.?

12. What makes you better (or stand out) from your peers?

13. What would your peers or support personnel say about you?

14. Walk me through how you prepare for a first meeting with a new customer.

15. What would your customers say about you?

16. How do you build rapport with customers?

17. What are some of the most common discovery questions you employ with customers?

18. How does your current product add value for your customers?

19. What is your philosophy on forecasting?

20. What are some of your areas of strength?

21. What are some of your areas for improvement?

22. Would former managers call you a better Account Manager or Hunter? If both, how so?

23. How do you feel about cold calling?

24. What percentage of deals were net new vs. install in your most recent fiscal years?

25. Walk me through your the metrics for your recent years of attainment: quota, revenue closed, number of deals, size of deals, team stack rankings.

26. How do you penetrate accounts and get to key people?

27. What sales tools do you use regularly? Rate your competency from 1-10.

28. What is your favorite part of a sale cycle?

29. Walk me through a deal you won and a deal you lost. Be prepared to provide details.

30. For the deal you lost, what did you learn? What did the customer say was the reason you lost?

31. What is your favorite deal you’ve ever won and why?

32. Have you ever walked away from a deal? How did you know it was the right decision?

33. What is your proudest sales accomplishment?

34. What is your greatest disappointment in sales?

35. Why you? (This is your "elevator pitch".)

36. Why are you looking to make a move?

37. What are you targeting for compensation?

38. What is your favorite part of the sales process?

39. What is your sales or leadership super power?

40. How do you keep up-to-date in your territory?

41. How do you like to work cross-functionally within your company?

42. What was the last book you read?

43. What resources, books, podcasts, blogs, media do you read to keep up-to-date in the tech industry?

44. Are you happy with the way you have managed your career to date?

45. What other companies are you speaking with and why?

46. What are you good at professionally?

47. What are you not good at or not interested in doing professionally?

48. What is the most difficult piece of feedback that you have gotten from a manager? How did you deal with it?

49. How do you like to work with your sales engineer and sales development representative?

50. How do you deal with customer objections? Give me an example.

51. Who were your last 5 bosses and how would they each rate your performance on a 1-10 scale when we talk to them?

52. For your last several roles, what accomplishments are you most proud of?

53. For your last several roles, what were your low points?

54. What was it like working for your last several bosses?

55. Describe your ideal sales manager.

56. Where do you see yourself professionally in 5 years?

57. If you were offered this job, what would you do in the first quarter?

58. How do you organize your day?

59. How would you sell me this pen?

60. What questions do you have for me?