What Questions Should You Ask a Technical Sales Candidate?

In technical sales recruitment, it’s essential to find candidates who master both technical details and sales skills. During the interview, it’s advisable to ask about the candidate’s experience in selling technical solutions, ability to explain complex technical matters simply, problem-solving abilities in customer situations, and readiness to learn new things. It’s also important to determine how the candidate builds trust with customers and how they balance technical expertise with sales orientation.

Why Does Technical Sales Recruitment Require a Special Approach?

Technical sales recruitment differs significantly from traditional sales recruitment because it requires the seamless integration of two different skill sets – technical understanding and sales skills. A technical salesperson serves as a bridge between engineers and customers, translating complex technical features into understandable benefits for the customer.

This dual role makes recruitment challenging. The recruiter needs to assess the candidate’s ability to understand technical details thoroughly enough, but also their skill in communicating them clearly and convincingly to customers. A person who is too technical may get lost in details without being able to simplify the message, while a candidate who is too sales-oriented may remain superficial in their technical understanding.

Technical sales is a strategically critical role as it directly affects the company’s ability to differentiate from competitors and justify the value of its products. Successful technical sales recruitment therefore requires careful and comprehensive evaluation that considers the candidate’s technical background, sales experience, and ability to operate at the interface between these worlds.

How to Evaluate a Candidate’s Technical and Commercial Skills?

For a balanced assessment of technical and commercial skills, it’s beneficial to create a two-phase question structure that first tests technical understanding and then the ability to translate it into commercial advantage. Ask the candidate to explain a technical solution or product first from a technical perspective, and then immediately after, how they would present the same topic to a potential customer.

Good questions for assessing technical expertise include:

• “Tell me about the latest technical feature you learned for your job.”
• “How do you stay up-to-date with technical developments in your field?”
• “How do you respond to situations where a customer asks something you cannot technically answer?”

To measure commercial skills, you can ask:

• “How do you convert a technical advantage into a concrete benefit for the customer?”
• “Give me an example of a situation where your technical understanding closed the deal.”
• “How do you proceed when you notice that your solution doesn’t fully meet the customer’s needs?”

The ideal technical salesperson can smoothly switch perspectives from technical to commercial and adapt to the knowledge level and needs of their conversation partner. The ability to listen to the customer and apply technical expertise to solve their specific problems indicates a strong technical sales professional.

What Are the Most Important Interview Questions for a Technical Sales Candidate?

In interviewing a technical sales candidate, questions that reveal the ability to combine technical expertise with understanding the customer’s business are key. The most essential questions clarify how the candidate actually functions in sales situations.

Regarding previous experience and skills:

• “Describe a complex technical solution you sold, and how you adapted your message according to the customer’s level of understanding.”
• “How do you maintain and develop your technical expertise alongside your sales work?”

To determine problem-solving ability:

• “Tell me about a situation where a customer questioned your product’s technical performance. How did you handle it?”
• “When have you had to admit that your solution isn’t the best option for a customer? What did you do?”

Regarding building customer relationships:

• “How do you build trust with a technically knowledgeable customer?”
• “Describe your process when getting to know a new customer’s business and technical needs.”

The goal of these questions is to determine whether the candidate can act credibly with both technical experts and decision-makers, and if they know how to adapt their communication to different audiences.

How to Identify a Top Technical Sales Professional in an Interview?

A top technical sales professional can be recognized primarily by their impressive communication skills, which manifest in many ways during an interview. An excellent candidate can immediately switch their speaking style and depth level depending on who they’re talking to and what the goal of the conversation is.

Pay particular attention to these signs:

• Ability to explain complex matters simply without compromising content
• Skill in presenting concrete, measurable benefits instead of technical features
• The way the candidate asks clarifying questions to better understand your needs
• Examples of situations where the candidate has acted as an “interpreter” between the technical team and the customer

A top performer can also describe when they’ve had to admit their lack of knowledge and how they resolved the situation. Successful technical salespeople are honest about the limits of their expertise while simultaneously demonstrating strong problem-solving abilities and persistence in finding answers.

Also pay attention to how the candidate talks about their customers. A top performer shows genuine interest in the customer’s business challenges and sees themselves more as a provider of solutions rather than a seller of products.

What Is Often Forgotten to Ask in Technical Sales Recruitment?

In technical sales recruitment, the candidate’s ability to handle failures and learn from them is often left unexplored. This is critical, however, as technical sales regularly encounters situations where technical challenges or misunderstandings can lead to setbacks.

Important but easily forgotten question areas include:

• “When have you misjudged the suitability of a technical solution for a customer, and how did you handle the situation?”
• “How do you react when a customer points out gaps in your technical knowledge?”
• “How often do you consult technical experts before and after customer meetings?”

It’s also important to explore the candidate’s teamwork skills, especially collaboration with product development and technical support. Questions like “How do you utilize the technical team’s expertise in the sales process?” and “How do you communicate customer feedback to product development?” reveal whether the candidate understands their role as a bridge-builder.

Learning strategies and the ability to quickly absorb new technical information are also often overlooked. By asking “How do you prepare for selling a completely new product or technology?” you gain valuable insight into the candidate’s learning ability and attitude.

How to Build an Effective Recruitment Process for Technical Sales Roles?

An effective technical sales recruitment process is built on a multi-stage assessment that considers both technical and sales capabilities. The process should include, beyond the traditional interview, practical situations that simulate real sales scenarios.

A functional process might progress as follows:

1. Initial interview to map technical background and sales experience
2. Technical test or discussion with a product specialist
3. Sales simulation where the candidate presents a technical product or solution
4. In-depth interview covering previous successes and challenges
5. Verification of references regarding both technical expertise and sales results

In the recruitment process, it’s important to involve representatives from both sales and technical departments to ensure comprehensive evaluation. The most common mistakes are overemphasizing either technical expertise or sales results, when a successful technical salesperson needs both.

A good technical sales recruitment process also measures the candidate’s ability to learn new things, as technologies and markets are constantly changing. The process should identify those candidates who are genuinely interested in both technology and developing customers’ businesses – this combination is at the core of a technical salesperson’s success.