Questions to Ask a Sales Manager in an Interview
Questions to ask a sales manager in an interview, written for a candidate deciding what to ask the sales hiring manager, the person who would be their boss. They start with quota attainment and how the comp plan really pays, move through territory, deal support and the way the manager coaches, and end with the team you'd be joining. One group is for people interviewing for the sales manager job itself. A catering sales manager interview at a hotel or venue, where the product is a room, a menu and a date, has its own questions on booking goals, minimums, tastings and the kitchen.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The numbers
What's the quota for this role, and how many people on the team hit it last year?
Why ask it
No other figure tells you as much, because it tests the quota, the product and the manager at once. If almost nobody reached the target, something is wrong with the number, the pricing or the way the team is run, and an evasive answer here should cool your interest on its own.
How is the comp plan structured, and what did someone in the middle of the team actually earn last year?
Why ask it
Base, variable, accelerators and caps produce wildly different real earnings from the same headline figure. Ask about the middle of the team and not the top earner, who is the story every candidate gets told.
Is quota ramped for new hires, and over how many months?
Why ask it
Ramp is what protects you while you learn the product and build pipeline. Set the answer beside the sales cycle: if deals take six months to close and full quota starts in month three, you are behind on arithmetic before you've made a call.
Where does pipeline come from: inbound, an SDR, or do I build it myself?
Why ask it
Whether leads arrive or must be created is the difference between two entirely different jobs. Ask what share of last quarter's closed deals began with the rep's own outreach, since a role described as inbound-supported can turn out to be full-time prospecting.
What's the average deal size and how long is the sales cycle?
Why ask it
Divide the quota by the deal size and you have the number of deals you need in a year. The cycle length then tells you how many must be open at once, and whether a new hire can close any of them before the ramp runs out.
Is there a draw or a guarantee while I ramp, and does it have to be paid back?
Why ask it
A recoverable draw is an advance against commission you haven't earned yet, while a non-recoverable one works more like extra salary for a few months. Find out which it is and what happens to any balance if you leave, because that depends on the employer and on local law.
Who sets the quota each year, and how much did it rise last time?
Why ask it
A number handed down from a company target and split evenly ignores what each patch can bear. If last year's rise outran the growth in leads or headcount, expect the same treatment after your first good year.
What's the team's win rate once an opportunity is qualified?
Why ask it
Win rate is the missing piece of the quota arithmetic. Put it beside deal size and cycle length and you can work out how much pipeline you'd need open at any moment. Check whether the figure covers the whole team or is flattered by one rep with a long-held book.
When is commission paid: on signature, on invoice, or once the customer has paid?
Why ask it
Payment on cash collected ties your pay to how fast a customer's finance department moves, which can be months after you did the work. Under that kind of plan, check who chases the late invoices, because it often ends up being the rep.
Is commission capped, and can it be taken back if a customer cancels?
Why ask it
A cap tells you what the company thinks a great year should cost it, and it removes the reason to keep closing once you reach it. Clawback terms differ a lot from one employer to the next, so ask for the window in months and read the plan document itself before you sign.
How many times has the comp plan changed since you took over the team?
Why ask it
A plan that is rewritten every year, or partway through one, turns this year's headline earnings into a guess. Ask what prompted the last change and who came out worse. Nobody says a rep earned too much, but you can usually hear it.
Apart from quota, which numbers do you check every week?
Why ask it
Whatever gets named is what you'll be asked about in a slow month: dials, meetings booked, new opportunities, coverage against target. Follow up with what happens to a rep who is over quota but under on activity, since that shows which of the two the manager believes in.
In catering sales, is my goal counted when an event is booked or when it takes place, and how much is already on the books for this year?
Why ask it
Events are often sold many months ahead, so under a goal counted on the day of the event your first year is largely what your predecessor booked. Get the figure for business already contracted against the goal, and check whether a cancellation or a smaller final guest count comes off your number.
Territory and deals
How is territory or account coverage decided, and how often does it change?
Why ask it
Reassignment is how a good year gets taken away. Find out when the last redraw was and whether anyone lost accounts they had spent months building.
Which accounts or patch would I pick up, and what's already open in it?
Why ask it
An inherited pipeline can be a head start or a pile of stalled deals with someone else's promises attached. Ask which of the open deals the manager would bet on, and whether commission on them is yours in full or split with whoever started them.
How are inbound leads shared out across the team?
Why ask it
The usual methods are round robin, by territory, by seniority, or to whoever is closing best this month. Under the last two a new hire starts on leftovers, so find out how long that lasts and what moves you up the order.
Who is the typical buyer, and how many people have to agree before a deal signs?
Why ask it
Selling to one owner who can say yes on the call is a different craft from walking a proposal past finance, IT and procurement. Compare the answer with the deals you've closed before, and say honestly where you'd be learning.
Is there a set sales process here, or does each rep run deals their own way?
Why ask it
Defined stages let a team say why a deal is stuck, and make the forecast mean the same thing from one rep to the next. If the answer is the name of a methodology, ask how it shows up in a deal review. A framework that lives only in the onboarding slides changes nothing about the week.
Which competitor do you lose to most, and why?
Why ask it
Listen for the reason more than the name. Losing on price means discount fights, losing on a missing feature means selling around a gap, and losing to a brand the buyer already trusts means long cycles. 'We rarely lose' is a pitch, and worth a polite second ask.
Why do customers pick you, and why do the ones who leave go?
Why ask it
The reason customers buy is the pitch you'd be giving on day one, so it should come quickly and sound like something a customer would say. The reason they leave matters as much to a rep: referrals dry up, renewals turn into rescue work, and where there is a clawback a cancellation can cost you commission.
Where does the product fall short, and how do reps handle that with customers?
Why ask it
Most products have a gap that reps learn to sell around. Hearing it named plainly, along with what is being done about it, means you won't be discovering it in front of a customer.
When a deal needs an exception on price or terms, who approves it and how fast?
Why ask it
Slow approvals push deals out of the quarter they should have closed in, and the rep carries the miss. If the path can't be described in a sentence or two, assume it runs through several inboxes, and ask how much discount a rep can give without asking anyone.
Who helps on a live deal: a sales engineer, legal, someone senior for the big meeting?
Why ask it
Count the people you could call on, then ask how many reps share each of them. One sales engineer split across the whole floor will be booked well ahead, which in practice means you run your own demos.
Once a deal closes, do I keep the account or hand it on?
Why ask it
Keeping accounts means renewals and expansion may count toward your number, and also that support problems land in your inbox. Handing them on keeps you hunting. Find out which of the two the quota was built around.
For a catering sales job, which events would I be selling: weddings, corporate meetings, social parties, or all of them?
Why ask it
Each market books on its own clock. A couple may take months and decide with their hearts, while a corporate planner wants a proposal by Friday and compares three venues on price. Find out which one fills most of the calendar here, because that is the selling you'd do most days.
Where is the line between catering sales and group sales, and who gets the space when both want the same date?
Why ask it
In a hotel, a group that brings guest rooms often outranks a local event with none. The detail to pin down is how far ahead function space is released for catering to sell, since a short window leaves you the dates nobody else wanted.
What are the food and beverage minimums and room rental by season and day of the week, and how far can I move them myself?
Why ask it
Minimums are the price list a catering seller really works from, and a Saturday in June is a different product from a Tuesday in January. How much room you have before a director has to sign off decides whether you can close during a site visit or have to call the client back.
Which months and days of the week sit empty at the venue, and what is the plan for filling them?
Why ask it
Every venue has soft periods, and they are where a goal is hardest to make. A real plan sounds like off-peak pricing, a weekday meeting package or a push on one particular market. If the plan turns out to be the new hire, you have learned what the job is.
How do site visits and tastings work here, and whose budget do they come out of?
Why ask it
A tour or a tasting is often the moment a client makes up their mind, so the mechanics matter: whether tastings come before or after a signed contract, how many the kitchen will do in a month, and who walks the client round when you are off that day.
After an event contract is signed, who writes the banquet event order and looks after the client up to the day?
Why ask it
Some properties have the seller carry every event to the last plate, and others pass it to an event or catering services manager once the deposit is in. The first means fewer hours for new business and a closer bond with the client. A useful follow-up is how many events one seller is detailing at once in the busiest month.
How they manage
How would the reps on your team describe the way you manage?
Why ask it
Asking for the team's view makes a stock answer about leadership harder to give. Write down the words the manager uses, then compare them with what a current rep tells you if you get to speak to one.
What does coaching look like with you: deal reviews, listening to calls, joining customer meetings?
Why ask it
You want an activity and a frequency, such as two recorded calls reviewed a week or one joint meeting a month. Coaching that amounts to going through the dashboard together will tell you that you are behind, and not how to win the deal in front of you.
How often do we meet one to one, and what happens in those meetings?
Why ask it
The content matters more than the frequency. If the whole half hour is spent walking your pipeline line by line, that is inspection, so ask when skills and career get talked about instead.
If a deal of mine stalls late, do you coach me through it or step in yourself?
Why ask it
Some managers prepare you before the meeting and stay quiet in it, and others take the meeting over. The second kind can save a quarter and still leave the customer treating you as the junior in the room. A recent example will show you which you'd be getting.
Which kind of rep does well working for you, and which kind doesn't?
Why ask it
This is the ideal-candidate question with a second half, and the second half is the useful one. If the reps who struggle are the ones who question the process or want time to think, and that sounds like you, better to know it now.
What do you need from me each week for the forecast?
Why ask it
It can be one number in the CRM by Friday or a set of slides for a two-hour call, and that time comes out of selling. Follow with what happens when a deal you committed to slips a month, which is where you find out whether forecasting here is planning or a weekly trial.
Which CRM and sales tools does the team use, and how much of the week goes into keeping them updated?
Why ask it
Call recording that logs itself and a sequencing tool give hours back, and a CRM with dozens of required fields takes them away. Get the figure in hours a week, then find out who reads what you enter. Fields nobody looks at are reporting for its own sake.
What happens if I miss quota for a quarter, and for two in a row?
Why ask it
You are asking for the timeline: when a conversation becomes a written plan, how long the plan runs, and whether ramp months count against you. A clear answer is a good sign even when it is strict. How performance plans and dismissal work also depends on local employment law, so ask how it is done there.
How long have you managed this team, and what did you change when you arrived?
Why ask it
Less than a year in the seat means the team you'd join is still in motion, and whatever was changed first is the real priority. A long tenure invites the opposite follow-up: what is still on the list that hasn't been fixed.
What number are you carrying yourself, and how is the team tracking against it?
Why ask it
Pressure travels downhill. Being well behind the team target usually means extra forecast calls and closer inspection for everyone, the new hire included. It is a fair thing to ask, and openness about their own number bodes well for honesty about yours.
What did you sell before you managed, and do you still carry accounts of your own?
Why ask it
Someone who came up through this team knows the customers and can help on a hard deal. If they still sell, they may also be competing with their own reps for the best leads, so check how those are kept apart.
When a rep disagrees with you about a deal or a forecast, what happens?
Why ask it
Ask for the last time it happened and who turned out to be right. A story told against themselves is a good sign. Not being able to recall a single challenge suggests the reps have stopped offering them.
The team
How big is the team, and how many of those seats are new this year?
Why ask it
A team that is doubling means leads, territory and the manager's attention are all about to be divided again. A team that is only backfilling raises a different question, which is why people keep leaving.
Who was in this role before, and why is it open?
Why ask it
A promotion, a resignation and a dismissal each say something different about the seat, and so does a new headcount with no history at all. If it has turned over twice in a year, the explanation is unlikely to be the two people who sat in it.
How many reps have left in the last year, and where did they go?
Why ask it
Where each person landed is the detail to wait for: a bigger job elsewhere, a competitor, or out of sales altogether. Knowing it means the manager kept paying attention after the resignation. Hearing that every departure 'wasn't a fit' is a pattern in itself.
What would a good first ninety days look like, and what did your last strong hire do in theirs?
Why ask it
The first half gets you the plan and the second half tests it against a real person. You are hoping for dates and numbers: accounts handed over by week two, a first deal by a named month. Adjectives about hunger and grit mean nobody has written the plan down.
Who has struggled on this team, and what went wrong?
Why ask it
Most teams have someone who did not work out, and the framing is what matters: bad fit, no support, unclear expectations, or entirely the rep's fault. It previews how you would be treated in a bad month.
What does your best rep do that the others don't?
Why ask it
Listen for whether it's something you could copy, like preparation or follow-up discipline, or something you couldn't, like accounts they were handed years ago. Then ask whether those habits are taught to new hires or left for them to work out.
What's the hardest part of this job right now for the reps already doing it?
Why ask it
This is the standard question about challenges, pointed at the people who live with them. A real answer is concrete: a competitor cutting prices, a release that slipped, leads that thinned out after a price rise. If the only difficulty on offer is that the team is growing fast, try it again in different words.
What does a normal week look like for a rep here?
Why ask it
Ask about last week in particular, not an ideal one: how many calls, how many customer meetings, how many internal ones. Hold it up against how you like to work, because a day on the phone and a day built around two long meetings suit different people.
What does training look like in the first month, and who runs it?
Why ask it
A named person and a schedule mean onboarding exists. If the plan is to shadow a few calls, you'll be teaching yourself the product while the ramp clock runs, so ask what the most recent hire was actually given.
Do reps here share what's working, or does everyone guard their own patch?
Why ask it
A leaderboard and a team that helps each other can coexist, but only where the pay plan doesn't set reps against one another for the same leads. Ask for a recent case of one rep helping another close.
How much of the job is in the field, in the office, or from home?
Why ask it
Territory size decides this more than policy does: a patch three hours across means windscreen time whatever the handbook says. Check who pays for mileage and hotels, how quickly expenses come back, and which days the team is expected in together.
What does progression look like from here, and who has moved up recently?
Why ask it
Names and dates beat any statement about growth: who moved to senior rep, to larger accounts or into management, and how long each of them waited. If nobody has moved in a couple of years, the path exists on a slide and nowhere else.
How do the chef and the banquet team respond when catering sales brings them a custom request?
Why ask it
You would be promising menus and room sets that other people have to deliver. The last request the kitchen turned down, and how that was settled, says more than any description of teamwork. A sales office and a kitchen that argue through the client make every booking harder to keep.
How many evenings and weekends does a catering sales job here take, and am I expected on site for the events I sold?
Why ask it
Clients tour on Saturdays and their events mostly happen at night, so the hours rarely match the rest of the office's. Some places want the seller there to greet the client at every event and others leave that to the banquet captain. Check whether there is a weekend rota and time given back for it.
If you'd manage
How many reps would report to me, and how many are at quota today?
Why ask it
This is the team you'd be judged on from the first month. A team mostly under target is a turnaround, which is a fine job to take as long as everyone agrees that's what it is and allows the time one needs.
What happened to the last manager of this team?
Why ask it
After a promotion the reps expect more of the same, and after a removal they expect change and may be nervous about it. Check too whether a rep on the team applied for the job, because you'd want to know that before your first one to one with them.
Is anyone on the team on a performance plan, or close to one?
Why ask it
You would inherit that conversation halfway through, with someone else's notes and someone else's promises. Ask whether the decision would wait for your own read of the rep or is expected in your first month, since that shows how much of the judgement is really yours.
Would I carry a number of my own as well as the team's?
Why ask it
A player-coach role splits the week between your own deals and other people's, and the coaching is usually what gives. Ask how the two are weighted in the pay plan, since that shows which one the company expects to win.
How much of my week would go to coaching reps, and how much to forecasting and reporting upward?
Why ask it
It is easy to be hired to coach and then find the calendar belongs to the forecast. Count the standing meetings that come with the job, and ask how many days a month the last manager spent out with reps or sitting in on their calls.
How much say would I have over hiring, firing and territories?
Why ask it
Accountability for a team number without control over who is on the team or which accounts they hold is a common trap in first-line management. Ask who made the last hire and the last territory change, and where the manager stood in each decision.
How is a manager's pay built here: team attainment, overrides, something else?
Why ask it
A plan paid only on the team total rewards leaning on two strong reps. One that also counts how many reps reach target rewards developing all of them. The design tells you which behaviour the company is paying for.
Can a manager here push back on the quotas their reps are given?
Why ask it
You'd be the one explaining the number to the team at the start of the year. If quotas arrive from finance with no room for a manager's view of each patch, you carry the consequences of a decision you had no part in.
What would you want this team to look like a year after I start?
Why ask it
The answer shows whether you're being hired to grow the team, steady it or replace half of it. Whichever it is, ask what budget and headcount come with the goal, because a mandate with neither is only a wish.
To close
What made you take this job, and what has kept you in it?
Why ask it
Reasons given quickly and in detail tend to be real: the product sells, leadership listens, the plan pays. A long pause followed by the word 'opportunity' tells you something as well.
What do you wish candidates asked you that they never do?
Why ask it
It hands the manager the floor near the end, when the formal part is over. Whatever they raise is something they think candidates overlook, such as the travel, the product's rough edges or how long a first deal takes, so treat it as one more thing to look into before you accept.
Is there anything in my background that makes you hesitate about me for this seat?
Why ask it
Asking for the objection is what a salesperson does, and it tends to land well with someone who hires salespeople. Answer what comes back briefly and with evidence, then leave it. Arguing the point at length undoes the good the question did.
What are the next steps, and when should I expect to hear?
Why ask it
A candidate for a sales job who leaves without agreeing a next step has skipped the part of the meeting they'd be paid to do. Get a date, and ask who else you'd meet, ideally a current rep.
How to use these in a sales interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Do the arithmetic in the room
Take the quota, the average deal size and the win rate and see whether the numbers meet. If quota needs twenty closed deals a year on a ninety-day cycle with leads you generate yourself, say the calculation out loud and ask how last year's top performer managed it. It is the same sum a rep does when planning a territory, so it is a fair thing to do in front of a sales manager, and the answer tells you whether the target was modelled or invented.
Ask for numbers, accept ranges
- Attainment percentage for last year, and whether it was the same the year before.
- What the middle of the team was actually paid, not the on-target figure in the plan.
- Ramp length in months, and whether there is a draw or a guarantee during it.
- Average deal size and cycle length for this specific segment, not company-wide.
- Team size, and how many of those seats are new versus backfilled.
- If a manager will not give ranges for any of these, note it as an answer rather than pressing a fourth time.
Pick for the round you are in
- A recruiter screen or first call: the first five under The numbers, plus why the seat is open. Leave the rest for the manager.
- The interview with the manager: How they manage and The team are the groups only this person can answer, so spend the time there.
- A final round or offer stage: inherited accounts, the draw, commission timing, caps and clawback, and a request for the full plan document.
- Short on time: quota attainment, where pipeline comes from and what follows a missed quarter tell you the most about a first year.
- Choose five or six in total. Reading out a long list sounds like running a script, and a sales manager is listening for someone who can hold a conversation.
Ask each person what only they know
- Recruiter: comp band, process, timelines, who else you will meet.
- Hiring manager: quota, attainment, ramp, territory, coaching, what a bad quarter triggers.
- A rep on the team, ideally without the manager present: whether leads arrive, how much admin there is, how the last reorganisation went.
- The manager's manager: where this segment fits the strategy, and what is funded for next year.
- Anyone from marketing or sales engineering you meet: how much support a rep really gets on a live deal.
Read how they answer
Specific numbers and named examples suggest a manager who knows the team's figures without looking them up. Adjectives, a turn towards company culture, or a remark about how competitive the role is suggest the opposite. Pay particular attention to the attainment question and the missed-quota question, since those are the two most easily dodged. The way a manager handles being pressed politely in an interview is a fair preview of how they will respond when you ask for help on a stalled deal.
Before you sign
- Ask to speak to one current rep on the team, and treat a refusal as information.
- Get the full comp plan document, not a summary, and read the clawback and cap clauses.
- Ask for the ramp terms, the territory definition and the start date in writing with the offer, not only in an email thread.
- Ask what happens to commission on deals you have closed if you leave or are let go before it is paid. This varies by employer and by local law, so ask how it works there.
- Ask what changes to quota or territory are possible mid-year, and who decides them.
If the job is sales manager
The group headed If you'd manage is for candidates interviewing to run a team, usually with a director or a VP across the table. Most of the earlier questions still apply with one change: ask them about the team's numbers instead of your own. Attainment across the reps you'd inherit, how many seats are open and how much authority you'd have over hiring and territories matter more than your personal pay plan, because they decide whether the team number can be made at all. This page is written from the candidate's chair. If you are the one hiring a sales manager, you need a different list.
If it is a catering sales manager interview
Catering sales manager is usually a selling job in spite of the title: at many hotels, venues and catering companies it means the person who books weddings, meetings and parties, with no reps reporting to them. If that is the job in front of you, skip If you'd manage: the questions written for it are the ones about events, minimums, tastings and the kitchen that close The numbers, Territory and deals and The team. The arithmetic changes shape as well. In place of deal size and win rate, work from the number of sellable dates, the minimum spend on each and how many are already taken, which tells you whether the goal fits in the calendar that is left.