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How to answer the job interview question 'Sell me this pencil' - Mar 05, 2023

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How to answer the job interview question 'Sell me this pencil'

You’re sitting in a task interview equipped to answer any query the hiring manager has approximately your qualifications and why you’re a awesome fit for the job. Then he holds up his writing tool and says, “Sell me this pencil,” or, "Sell me this pen."

This request is sort of as antique as the process interview itself. It’s a easy question—normally geared closer to applicants for income positions—however it can be hard to answer. And you is probably surprised to learn what the interviewer is hoping to listen.

“Most interviewers are screening for self belief and cogency,” says Brett Cenkus, a Texas-primarily based commercial enterprise representative and lawyer who has trained sales experts. In trendy, interviewers use this query to get a sense to your income fashion and revel in, he provides.

There are a few pointers execs like Cenkus recommend you follow when crafting your response:

Ask questions—plenty and plenty of questions

The answer made well-known in the film The Wolf of Wall Street—wherein stockbroker Jordan Belfort (performed with the aid of Leonardo DiCaprio) asks a friend, "Sell me this pen." The buddy takes the pen and asks Belfort to jot down his name down on a napkin. Belfort says he can’t, he doesn’t have a pen, and the buddy says, “exactly”—is certainly no longer the pleasant technique in this actual-lifestyles scenario.

In fact, Belfort advised Piers Morgan on CNN in 2014 that the high-quality salespeople will ask questions earlier than they are attempting to promote anything.

Other specialists agree the exceptional response is one that starts offevolved with masses of questions.

“An ideal response to a query like this will be for the income rep to start asking penetrating questions on me and my enterprise that would help them become aware of whether or not or no longer I really want a pencil inside the first vicinity,” says Christopher Searles, president of New York–based Searles Media, who interviews income candidates on a weekly foundation. “Being able to successfully perceive a prospect’s needs is the single most crucial, and frequently maximum unnoticed, issue of being a very good salesclerk.”

By asking questions, you could promote the pencil no longer as a commodity, but as a solution to the client’s hassle.

You say: “I’d want to apprehend your wishes surrounding pencils. What are you currently using to put in writing with? Where do you most customarily use this writing device and what sorts of matters do you typically write? Are you happy along with your cutting-edge writing equipment? If you were to recollect every other dealer on your writing implements, what might be crucial to you?”

Understand their desires and pivot if vital

You’re promoting the pencil, and you ask the interviewer, “What are you presently the usage of to jot down with?” His reaction is, “Nothing, I by no means write.” What do you do subsequent?

“Don’t be afraid to say, ‘Oh, sounds like you’re no longer inside the market for the pencil I’m selling. Do you understand each person who's?’” Cenkus says. “Don’t waste time pitching to individuals who don’t have any use for what you’re promoting.”

Unless you’re hoping to irritate someone into shopping for your pencil, don’t keep pushing while the consumer says he doesn’t want one.

You say: Since you don't have any use for this pencil I’m selling, is there someone else on your business enterprise who would possibly need one?

Keep the communique going

Plan your communication to keep away from dead ends. One common lure: Starting your sales pitch by way of damn off all tremendous characteristics of the pencil. “The worst aspect you can do in response to this query is to start selling me first without determining if you have some thing of value to offer me,” Searles says.

Plus, once you list all the good things about the pencil, ask the interviewer if he wants to buy it, and he says no, you’ve run out of factors to mention, Cenkus says. Most applicants fizzle after this happens.

It’s OK to faux your self assurance a bit to preserve the conversation flowing. That beats sitting in silence. “The worst component an interviewee can do isn't always attempt,” Cenkus says.

Farmer is of the same opinion. “The interviewer could see that as a person who's without problems rattled and has the capability to crumble in an surprising scenario."

You say: “Well, I’m positive we are able to discover the right product to meet your desires. Would you want to check this pen? It’s sincerely an improve from the pencil.”

Sell greater of your smarts

In each interview, irrespective of whether or not you're requested, "Sell me this pencil" or no longer, you are without a doubt promoting yourself. So you need to be prepared with the best answers, fastest replies, and the great way to close the deal. Could you use a few assist getting that every one together? Join Monster without spending a dime nowadays. As a member, you may get interview insights, career advice, and useful activity search guidelines despatched immediately on your inbox. From describing your personality to talking about your finest strengths and weaknesses to explaining why you want the process, Monster's specialists will show you the way to craft solutions that make hiring managers sit up straight and take word. Consider that pencil sold.




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