Question: Have you ever been in a position where you felt you could clinch a sale if you oversold the product just a little bit more? What happened and what did you do?

Alternative Question Phrasing:

Follow-up questions:

How did you feel at that time?

Question Details:

Question Type:

Knowledge/Skill Based

Knowledge:

Sales and Marketing

Skills:

Basic – Monitoring (Making observations of self and environment),Social – Social Perceptiveness

Abilities:

Cognitive – Category Flexibility (Mental Flexibility),Cognitive – Deductive Reasoning

Other Factors:

Big 5 – Conscientiousness (Work Ethic),Direct Job Experience,Personality-Job Fit,Personality-Organization Fit,Self-Awareness

Work Context (Person-Job/Team/Org Fit):

Interpersonal Relationships – Deal With External Customers

Work Style (Person-Job Fit):

Analytical Thinking,Integrity/Honesty/Ethics

Question Frequency

Question Difficulty

What to look for in an answer:

The candidate’s analytical thinking skills.
The candidate’s selling skills.

Red Flags to Watch For:

The candidate’s poor analytical thinking skills.
The candidate’s poor selling skills.

Sample Answer:

I have never been been into overselling. I believe that great sales people do not overpromise. Overselling can lead to annoyance on the part of the customer and eventually to deal fall through.

Question Source: Unknown