Sales Quiz: Can You Answer These 9 Questions Correctly?

Remember those pop quizzes you used to get in school? You’d show up to class, having no idea it was coming. And, well…it wasn’t a lot of fun. But at the same time, those quizzes had a clear purpose—and they were effective.

As salespeople, we’re almost never quizzed on what we actually do in our roles so we can quickly gauge how to be more effective at our jobs. That’s why I created this pop sales quiz. The question is: Can you answer these 9 questions correctly? Check it out:

1. Do you have a truly mapped-out sales process?

I really hope you answered “yes” to this, but if you didn’t, that’s okay. Having a sales process is key to success in sales. It’s no coincidence that this is the very first question in the sales quiz. It’s crucial to make a commitment to having a truly mapped-out sales process instead of just winging it, shooting from the hip, and selling based on instinct.

Just think of every other white-collar profession out there. They all have a real process or professional training that’s universal for everyone. Whether it’s for lawyers, doctors, or engineers, they all learn some version of the same process. But in sales, the vast majority of salespeople just make stuff up as they go along. As a result, they’re all over the place, and they’re not nearly as effective as they could be with a clearly mapped-out process.

2. Do you have an intentional and rehearsed response to the question, “What do you guys do?”

I included this question in the sales quiz because most salespeople have no idea how to answer this incredibly common, important question. When I work with large organizations and ask the salespeople, “What do you guys do?” I’m always amazed by how I get different answers from different salespeople. They’re all over the place—and they often tend to drone on for 3 minutes or more. But the answer to this question should be intentional, rehearsed, and concise. When someone asks you, “What do you guys do?” your response must be quick, well-practiced, and easy to understand.

3. Who talks more in the first 30 minutes of your conversations with prospects—you or them?

In the first 30 minutes of a sales conversation, the prospect should be doing a lot more talking than you. Now, it might be the case that you talk more at the very beginning of these interactions, just to get the conversation going. But over the ensuing 30 minutes, you should be asking questions and spending most of your time listening to their responses. This is the diagnosis stage of sales. I use the term disqualification to describe this phase because you should be asking the right questions to determine whether the prospect is a fit or not.

If you’re doing way more talking than the prospect in those first 30 minutes, you won’t gather enough information from them to determine fit. So, if your answer to this sales quiz question was “you,” then you need to flip your conversation approach on its head until the answer becomes “them.”

4. Do you get a lot of feedback from prospects during your presentation?

If you answered “no” to this sales quiz question, then it’s time to make some changes to ensure that your presentations are truly a two-way conversation, not a 20-minute monologue. According to the data, top-performing salespeople get a ton of feedback from prospects during their presentations. If you fail to frequently ask for feedback from prospects throughout the presentation, you’re not only going to bore them, but you’ll also lose out on a major opportunity to engage them in a real dialogue.

5. Do you push for the sale after a presentation?

I had to include this in the sales quiz because pushing for the sale after a presentation is one of the most common mistakes I see in sales. The idea that you’ve got to go hard for the close after a presentation is misguided and ineffective. In reality, your prospects don’t want any of that pressure. And it’s not going to help your cause. The data is unequivocal that a high-pressure approach to closing deals simply doesn’t work anymore. We must instead focus on engaging prospects in real dialogue that builds value throughout the conversation. That way, after the presentation, all we have to do is answer their questions and establish clear next steps.

6. Do you find yourself following up on prospects often?

If you answered “yes” to this sales quiz question, then unfortunately you’re starting from a place of weakness in sales. Instead, you want to always establish clear next steps at the end of every sales interaction. This will eliminate vague follow-ups altogether. With clear next steps in the calendar after every sales interaction, you never need to follow up or check in with prospects again.

7. Do you have enough leads to hit your sales goal?

Obviously, we all hope the answer to this sales quiz question is a responding “yes,” but do you really have enough leads right now to hit your sales goal? If the answer is “no,” then you’re in trouble. All salespeople must have a process in place to consistently generate enough leads in order to hit sales goals. It’s time to build your lead generation machine. If you don’t have that machine in place right now, make it your central focus. Lack of leads is the largest bottleneck when it comes to actually hitting sales goals.

8. Do you believe that what you sell actually brings value into the lives of your clients?

If you don’t believe that what you sell brings real value to the lives of the people you’re selling to, then you must sell something else. There are too many amazing products, services, and solutions out there for you to be wasting another minute of your life selling something that’s not actually improving people’s lives. To be clear, this doesn’t mean you have to be solving world hunger. Even if you’re selling enterprise services to enterprises, what you’re doing is helping organizations grow. You’re providing jobs. You’re doing things that serve the business world. So you don’t have to be part of the nonprofit world in order to do good, but you must still believe that what you sell is actually worthwhile—and that it helps the people you’re selling to. If it doesn’t, sell something else.

9. Are you consistently hitting your sales goals?

I left this sales quiz question for last because it’s the million-dollar question. If you’re not consistently hitting your sales goals, then something has to change. You can’t just keep doing the same things over and over again, expecting a different result. You must make the necessary changes to get on the path to consistently hitting your sales goals. That means investing time, energy, money, and resources into your sales strategy and your sales skills to get to that next level.

So there you have it. Now you’ve taken the sales quiz. How many of these 9 questions did you answer correctly? Be sure to share your pop sales quiz results below in the comment section to get involved in the conversation.