Telephonic Interview Questions and Tips

Telephone interviews are becoming increasingly common – often used to decide who gets a face to face interview, so if you are not good at this stage, there probably won’t be another for you. In particular, telephone skills are extremely important in most sales jobs and especially in car sales, so the employer is likely to place even more importance on a successful telephone interview for jobs of that nature.
Companies use telephone Interview questions for screening new trainee sales candidates and the script is as follows :

Hi xxxx and thanks for agreeing to take the telephone interview. We explained that the session would be recorded, are you still ok with that? We also explained that if you pass this initial selection process, your cv and this recording will be passed to prospective employers for assessment. Are you still OK with that too?

Right then, tell me please….
Why do you want to sell cars in particular
Tell me about your self and your family
Where do you plan to be in 5 years and what will you be doing
Why should a dealer group choose you”
Below are some other typical telephone interview questions, think about your answer if you were asked – knowledge is power and pauses on the telephone are much more apparent than in face to face discussions so time taken to think now will pay huge dividends on the day. Where time permits, we add one of the following to our standard 4 questions above;

What do you think it takes to be successful in the motor industry?
What duties do you think this job entails?
What challenges do you think you will face in this job?
Why are you seeking a new job?
What are your weaknesses and how do you overcome them?
Tell me about yourself, family
Tell me what qualities you have to work in a team?
What motivates you?
How do you handle stress?
What do you do in your spare time.hobbies etc?
Tell me about a time you have been under pressure and how you dealt with the situation?
Are you competitive? Is that good or bad?
How do you define success ?