Some general interview tips..

There are some very trite themes which are invariably a part of almost any interview and yet at times I feel many of us seem to be caught off guard while confronting them. I mean it is always better to give a thought to this kind of stuff before facing any interview. And I am sure that would give you an upper edge.

Here I have tried to give a collective idea about some general questions which one may face while appearing for an interview. Though a coarse idea to ponder upon is given below, it may vary from person to person.

Describe the various activities that become a part of your typical day. Describe your weekends also:

Idea here is to see that whether your life is balanced or not…..

During any of the week days would include various activities related to the work. These activities are routine yet they are interesting in terms of value addition they are bringing in. To be more precise, these activities basically involve tracking the news of relevant industries so as to keep my self abreast to the industrial trends. And it may seem monotonous to an outsider but the insights provided through it are really inimitable.

Core Activities:
• Tracking the news through all possible sources
• Identifying the significant developments
• Capturing relevant data
• Converting the data in to more precise and use full form "Information" in the form of report or Monthly News digest.

Support Activities:
• Maintaining the appropriate communication (via intranet as well as through personal meetings) with the team members i.e. Consultant-for proper guidance and approval, Associates-for exchanging the ideas, Marketing team-for keeping an eye on the pulse of market so as to be in position to create a solution to suit customer’s requirement.
• Quality Check- This generally involves procedural check of any content developed in thorough manner to assure the predefined level of quality for the entire product range.
After hectic week days, week ends are used in a perfect way to restore the high energy level so as to keep up through out the following week. It is ensured that due care is given to maintain proper balance between work and social life. Or in other words I would like to say the week ends are utilized to rejuvenate my self.

Describe your participation level in co-curricular activities during study:

The active participation in these kind of activities ensures an over all growth in persona which is very essential for a sales person. So that is the theme to work upon here.

During graduation as well as post graduation I have always been an active member of organizing committee of event. Be it the annual event at campus of LDCE, Ahmedabad or be it the yearly management meet held at Icfai, Hyderabad I always ensured my participation right from the managing the whole event.

These participations have helped me learning many things like managing resources i.e. people, money etc in a way to get the best out of it. The way to create brand of the event as well as get the exposure for the institute it self through organizing this kind of national level events were few important lessons learnt through this exercise.
Skills:
• To use properly guided communication as an aid to enhance your efforts.
• Maintaining the people networks.
• Contingency planning.

The difference between winning and losing in any activity:

+ive attitude testing…..

If I can learn something useful from any of the activity I am involved with, it would justify my participation into that particular thing. So I see things in the positive light, i.e. from learning point of view, rather than judging it by the end results i.e. the winning or loosing. At many occasions I felt this. One example is, I was preparing for GRE after my graduations with serious intentions of pursuing MS at USA. After getting good score in GRE I couldn’t go ahead with it due to some personal reasons but today I feel good about it as this preparation has helped me in improving upon so many facets like communication in both written as well as verbal. So I think I have earned through this deal and that is what matters the most.

How would you earn the respect of your colleagues?

Are u a team player….

Respect comes from within. My demeanor, which includes thoughtfulness, helping nature and the team spirit, has always earned me a good friends every where I go.

If your colleague hints at you saying, "A little bit of power can sure go to the heads of some people", how would you respond?

Good PR skills are under check….

Honestly this had never happened to me till date. But situation like that would make me think that some problem is boiling somewhere which includes my concern. So I would opt for candid discussion with the concerned person over a dinner where the atmosphere would be more relaxed. According to me many of the problems could be solved easily if proper environment could be given for them to come out freely. I would see to it that the very idea goes off the head of the concerned employee.

Justify your self as a good Sales person with a relevant example.

I am at the beginning of my career but still I feel strongly that I am a good sales person as I do possess some basic sales skills like empathetic listening, persistence etc. Apart from this, at times I will go out of my way in order to make things work.

I would exemplify this with an incident concerning my tenure at HCL Infosystems Ltd. Here we initiated one deal at Power Grid Corp (PGC), which was going off the hook just because of little trouble from airport authority. The decision maker at PGC was bit reluctant on the issue of confronting the airport authority. As he had a notion that in any case we, as a solution provider, should deal with all these trivial matters on behalf of an esteemed client like PGC. I reported to my senior colleague but due to his busy schedule he showed no interest in this deal, which was in nascent stage according to his personal opinion. So here I was this management trainee, who was doing his summer project, and who would have avoided all this trouble. But all I thought was the professional gains from this exercise, which were far attractive to me. So picking from the hint client had given, I went ahead with the formal procedure at airport office with due permission of my senior colleague. And this extra effort had helped us to win not only deal but client’s heart too.

Why Sales/Marketing?

Every place has certain way to reach. In my long range plan (10 yrs from now) I see my self running a specific business line in the space of service sector. So to be in that apex position, it is always essential to know various aspects to govern the business successfully. Now Sales is the first step towards it, as it helps one in tapping the pulse of the market. I mean you interact with client and it will help you in knowing plenty of things which no classroom training will ever teach you. It keeps your feet on the ground, which is very crucial to pick practical hints about business. And these hints can work as a seed for your thought process which can further help you to see the things from client’s point of view. This can add new dimension to your views. According to me if one wants to climb the ladder of corporate it is always better to do it methodically rather than trying too many rungs at a time. Sales exposure develops characters of a street smart personality like flexibility, adaptability etc which are always very helpful traits for achieving success. And on top of everything it boosts your self confidence to a level which helps you going places.

How would you go about your sales process?

Sales always start with presales activities for me. These activities are like homework which always enhance your approach and by doing it the success rate would raise significantly. As I have learnt from my head at HCL Infosystems ltd, approach should be SPANCO which could be further elaborated into Suspect, Prospect, Approach, Negotiate, Close the Call and finally get the Order. I would prefer to start my process with funneling approach. Identify various Industries suitable for your kind of solutions. Narrow down your efforts to certain companies from every industry segments. Try to collect all relevant information about these companies before approaching them. It would always give you an upper age while negotiating with them. Then I would consider the price range of the solutions I am offerings as the base for identifying my probable clients. From there websites I would try to locate two things: 1) are they really into need for this kind of solutions? & 2) are they into position to afford this solution at this price?

Why you joined XYZ previously?

The proposal of joining XYZ attracted me at that time because of various reasons. I mean first of all the field which they planned to venture into allured me. Basically Finance/ Business Analysis (Value chain, Capacity Utilization, Critical success factors & Growth Drivers) were new fronts to me, which in turn could be very useful from learning point of view. Intricacies relevant to business analysis are any day attracts to the person who is planning to run a business him self in the future. It always helps one to get introduced to various vital facets of business. Second, the job profile promised was including a lot of client interaction, which according to me is very crucial if a person wants to understand the vitalities of any business. Clients are the face of market where a firm is offering its solutions. By knowing them closely one would be able to pick certain issues which are subtle and yet vital to business. Third thing is, they are a service based firm which is a segment that is growing at more pace. So if I look from career’s point of view, I always wanted to work with service sector firm so as to remain into a growing segment that is service industry.

Why shift?

As far as learning is concerned, yes there was definitely a great experience in terms of sectoral knowledge. The basics on various manufacturing segments like Automobile, Metals, Pharma, Biotech etc was provided during the training. Then we have been assigned a specific segment, in which I worked on few segments of manufacturing sector like Auto-Tyre Industry & Engineering Industry according to need of my organization. Now the points which made me think of switching is a very narrow scope of the job profile for applying my skill sets. Besides improper methodologies (Lack of proper guidance from top) applied at Cygnus is also one of the reasons. Initially the client interaction was supposed to be an integral part of the job profile which attracted me lot. But due to certain reasons, it never happened till date. And I think for me it is always good proposition to be in touch with market rather than just sitting around a computer and do only a desk job.

Apart from these there are some more arrows which could be a part of your armory, if prepared thoroughly. They are like:

Your current position in the company, current salary and expectations

Issue of relocation