Insurance Sales Top Interview Questions

Background, Strengths, and Experience

When preparing for an interview in sales, especially in the insurance industry, you should be ready to discuss your work history and experience. If you’ve faced challenges, such as being fired from a previous job, be honest about it. Explain the situation briefly and focus on how you’ve learned from the experience, improved, and grown as an employee.

You’ll likely be asked to discuss:

  • How you met quotas and achieved sales goals in the past.
  • Your approach to organizing, planning, and prioritizing work.
  • Your long-term career aspirations in sales, such as how long you envision staying in the role.

Additionally, expect questions that gauge your fit for a sales environment and how you handle the pressures and rewards of a sales career. Be prepared to discuss your salary expectations and justify them by citing past contributions to company profits.

Industry Knowledge

Your knowledge of the insurance industry is key to your success as a salesperson, so interviewers may ask questions about industry trends and drivers. For instance, they could ask: What market drivers will influence the insurance industry in the next 18 months?

It’s also important to demonstrate your knowledge of the company you’re interviewing with. Expect questions like:

  • What do you think a typical day looks like for an insurance salesperson here?
  • Why do you want to work for our company?

You may even be asked to provide constructive criticism about the company, so it’s important to frame your feedback carefully and focus on areas where you can contribute positively.

Communication and Interpersonal Skills

Since communication skills are essential in sales, the interviewer will likely probe into your ability to engage clients and handle tough situations. You might be asked how you differentiate between speaking and listening skills, how you handle rejection, and how you build lasting client relationships.

Be prepared to provide a real-life example of how you managed a difficult client situation. You might also be asked how you approach cold calling and selling insurance.

Lastly, many interviewers will test your skills on the spot by asking you to sell them something in 60 seconds or less. This is a common exercise in sales interviews, and it’s designed to assess how well you can think on your feet and apply persuasive communication techniques.

By anticipating these topics and preparing specific examples, you’ll position yourself as a capable, well-rounded candidate.

Does your resume do its job?

Your résumé should be a compelling story about you—not just a list of generic phrases and buzzwords that don’t reflect your individuality. To make your résumé stand out and truly represent you, follow these tips:

1. Tell Your Story Using “I”

Don’t shy away from using “I” in your résumé. You are the subject, so be clear about your contributions and the impact you made. For example:

  • Before: “Results-oriented Marketing professional looking for a new challenge.”
  • After: “I’m a healthcare marketer passionate about driving sales through creative marketing strategies. At XYZ, I grew sales from $2M to $20M in four years.”

This instantly personalizes your résumé, giving the hiring manager a sense of your personality and the tangible value you bring.

2. Replace Generic Phrases with Specific Achievements

Avoid using language that could apply to anyone, like “results-oriented” or “detail-focused.” Instead, highlight what you accomplished:

  • Before: “Responsible for leading marketing initiatives.”
  • After: “I launched an integrated marketing campaign that increased customer engagement by 35% in six months.”

This shift shows the outcomes of your efforts, making your achievements clear and quantifiable.

3. Use Conversational, Human Language

Many résumés fall into the trap of sounding too robotic with overly formal business language. Avoid this by writing in a natural tone. Here’s how you can reframe common résumé language:

  • Before: “Tasked with managing digital campaigns.”
  • After: “I managed digital campaigns, using analytics to refine our approach, which led to a 20% increase in lead generation.”

This not only conveys your responsibilities but also your strategic thinking and the impact you made.

4. Focus on What You Left in Your Wake

Instead of listing duties, talk about the lasting effects of your work. What did you achieve, and how did you change the role or company for the better?

  • Example: “I implemented a new CRM system that streamlined the sales process, reducing lead response time by 50%.”

5. Show Your Passion and Motivation

Let your enthusiasm and passion come through. Mention what you love about your work, and it will resonate with hiring managers looking for candidates who care about what they do.

  • Example: “I’m passionate about using data-driven marketing to solve complex challenges and love seeing how the right strategies can transform a business.”

Conclusion

Your résumé should reflect you, not a template. Use first-person language, talk about your specific contributions, and let your passion shine through. While not every hiring manager may appreciate this approach, the right one will—and that’s the one who deserves to have you on their team!

I want to land a real job in sales. Where should I start?

If you’re interested in a sales career but prefer to avoid direct sales, start by focusing on industries you’re already knowledgeable about. For example:
  • Financial Products: If you understand banking or investments, applying for entry-level sales roles at banks can help you get started. You’ll likely sell products like credit cards, loans, or savings accounts, gaining experience in a structured environment.
  • Automotive: If you’re passionate about cars, car dealerships are a great place to start. Selling vehicles, even at an entry level, can offer commissions and teach you valuable sales techniques.
  • Jewelry: If you’re familiar with gemstones or precious metals, working at a jewelry store could be a good fit. Sales roles in this field allow you to sell products you’re passionate about, while earning commissions.

Starting in a field you’re knowledgeable about helps build confidence, and the experience you gain will be invaluable when pursuing higher-commission jobs. Alongside your sales experience, learning to utilize tools like social media marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and online research will help further your career and increase your marketability in higher-level roles.

For assistance in finding sales jobs, consider reaching out to CareerPaths NW, which specializes in placing candidates in sales roles. You can email them your résumé or give them a call for more personalized help.

Help your career during this quarantine

Brush up on your soft skills

Emotional intelligence is rooted in them, business leaders swear by them, and they remain in high demand. I’m speaking of soft skills, those frequently misunderstood and undervalued skills that power career success. Earlier this year, LinkedIn released its annual Global Talent Trends 2019 report, which explores the four big trends fueling the future of the workplace. Topping the list? Soft skills.

This finding underscores a fundamental truth: At its core, business is about relationships. No matter your job function or title, to succeed, you must interact with other people. And those who find a way to combine their hard skills with soft skills create environments that empower and ignite their teams, delight their customers, and fuel sustainable growth.

Master time-management

Your ability to prioritize and focus your attention on tackling work projects is crucial. How and with whom you spend your time, and your productivity while doing so, demonstrate your focus and commitment to what—and who—matters most. When you master time-management, you’ll learn to say no, do, decide, delegate or delete tasks, batch routine tasks, eliminate distractions, embrace mono-tasking, get to know—and work—your own rhythms, and build in breaks to recharge.

Get creative

Creativity is the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly disparate things, and to generate innovative solutions. When you’re creative, you’re able to turn new and imaginative ideas into reality. Business leaders agree that to cultivate your creativity, you should ask big questions, pay attention, be open-minded, set aside time to let your mind wander, and not be afraid to take risks.

Pointers to improve your resume in Bellevue

It’s deceptively easy to make mistakes on your resume and exceptionally difficult to repair the damage once an employer gets it. So prevention is critical, whether you’re writing your first resume or revising it for a mid-career job search. Check out this resume guide to the most common pitfalls and how you can avoid them.

1. Typos and Grammatical Errors

Your resume needs to be grammatically perfect. If it isn’t, employers will read between the lines and draw not-so-flattering conclusions about you, like: “This person can’t write,” or “This person obviously doesn’t care.”

2. Lack of Specifics

Employers need to understand what you’ve done and accomplished. For example:

A. Worked with employees in a restaurant setting.
B. Recruited, hired, trained and supervised more than 20 employees in a restaurant with $2 million in annual sales.

Both of these phrases could describe the same person, but the details and specifics in example B will more likely grab an employer’s attention.

3. Attempting One Size Fits All

Whenever you try to develop a one-size-fits-all resume to send to all employers, you almost always end up with something employers will toss in the recycle bin. Employers want you to write a resume specifically for them. They expect you to clearly show how and why you fit the position in a specific organization.

4. Highlighting Duties Instead of Accomplishments

It’s easy to slip into a mode where you simply start listing job duties on your resume. For example:

  • Attended group meetings and recorded minutes.
  • Worked with children in a day-care setting.
  • Updated departmental files.

Employers, however, don’t care so much about what you’ve done as what you’ve accomplished in your various activities. They’re looking for statements more like these:

  • Used laptop computer to record weekly meeting minutes and compiled them in a Microsoft Word-based file for future organizational reference.
  • Developed three daily activities for preschool-age children and prepared them for a 10-minute holiday program performance.
  • Reorganized 10 years worth of unwieldy files, making them easily accessible to department members.

5. Going on Too Long or Cutting Things Too Short

Despite what you may read or hear, there are no real rules governing resume length. Why? Because human beings, who have different preferences and expectations where resumes are concerned, will be reading it.

That doesn’t mean you should start sending out five-page resumes, of course. Generally speaking, you usually need to limit yourself to a maximum of two pages. But don’t feel you have to use two pages if one will do. Conversely, don’t cut the meat out of your resume simply to make it conform to an arbitrary one-page standard.

6. A Bad Objective

Employers do read your resume objective, but too often they plow through vague pufferies like, “Seeking a challenging position that offers professional growth.” Give employers something specific and, more importantly, something that focuses on their needs as well as your own. Example: “A challenging entry-level marketing position that allows me to contribute my skills and experience in fund-raising for nonprofits.”

7. No Action Verbs

Avoid using phrases like “responsible for.” Instead, use action verbs: “Resolved user questions as part of an IT help desk serving 4,000 students and staff.”

8. Leaving Off Important Information

You may be tempted, for example, to eliminate mention of the jobs you’ve taken to earn extra money for school. Typically, however, the soft skills you’ve gained from these experiences (e.g., work ethic, time management) are more important to employers than you might think.

9. Visually Too Busy

If your resume is wall-to-wall text featuring five different fonts, it will most likely give the employer a headache. So show your resume to several other people before sending it out. Do they find it visually attractive? If what you have is hard on the eyes, revise.

10. Incorrect Contact Information

I once worked with a student whose resume seemed incredibly strong, but he wasn’t getting any bites from employers. So one day, I jokingly asked him if the phone number he’d listed on his resume was correct. It wasn’t. Once he changed it, he started getting the calls he’d been expecting. Moral of the story: Double-check even the most minute, taken-for-granted details — sooner rather than later.

 

Wrong Answers to “Why Do You Want This Job?”

When answering the common interview question, “Why do you want to work here?”, it’s crucial to avoid the following pitfalls:

1. Flippant or Meaningless Answers

Responses like, “Because I really need the money” or vague statements such as, “This seems like a great place to work,” don’t reflect professionalism or enthusiasm. Instead, focus on how the role aligns with your skills and career goals. A better answer could be, “I’m excited about this role because it allows me to leverage my experience in [specific skill or area] while contributing to [something specific the company does].” This demonstrates a thoughtful connection between your strengths and the company’s needs.

2. Generic Answers

Giving the same canned response for every job won’t make you stand out. A more effective approach is to personalize your answer by researching the company beforehand. Show that you’ve taken the time to understand the company’s values, mission, and what makes it unique. For example, you could say, “I admire how [Company Name] is leading innovation in [specific field], and I’m excited about the opportunity to contribute to a forward-thinking team.”

3. Overly Long Responses

Long-winded answers can detract from your key points. Stick to one or two compelling reasons why you’re excited about the job and how you can bring value. Keep your answer concise—around 1-2 minutes is typically ideal—and focus on what you can offer the company.

Key takeaway: Preparation and sincerity are key. Craft your answer in a way that showcases your interest in both the position and the company while being mindful of keeping it clear and concise.

Job Interview Do’s and Don’ts for Lynnwood Careers

Job Interview Do’s:

Preparing for a job interview is essential to making a good impression. Employ these handy job interview techniques to win over your interviewer:

  • Plan to arrive on time or a few minutes early. Late arrival for a job interview is never excusable.
  • Greet the interviewer by their first name.
  • Wait until you are offered a chair before sitting. Sit upright and always look alert and interested. Be a good listener as well as a good talker. Smile!
  • Maintain eye contact.
  • Follow the interviewer’s leads but try to get them to describe the position and duties early in the interview so you can relate your background and skills to the position.
  • Make sure you convey your good points factually and sincerely. Keep in mind that you alone can sell yourself to an interviewer. Make them realize why they need you in their organization.
  • Always conduct yourself as if you are determined to get the job. Never close the door on an opportunity. It is better to be free to choose from a number of jobs rather than only one.

Job Interview Don’ts:

  • Answer questions with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Share things about yourself relating to the position.
  • Lie. Always answer questions truthfully, frankly and as concisely as possible.
  • Ever make derogatory remarks about your present or former employers, colleagues or companies.
  • ‘Over-answer’ questions. The interviewer may steer the conversation into politics or economics. It is best to answer the questions honestly, saying no more than is necessary.
  • Let your discouragement show. If you get the impression the interview is not going well and you have already been rejected, don’t show discouragement or alarm. Occasionally an interviewer who is genuinely interested in you may seem to discourage you in order to test your reaction.
  • Ask about salary, bonuses or holidays at the first interview – unless you are positive the employer is interested in hiring you and raises the issue first. However, know your market value and be prepared to specify your required salary or range.

Starting a New Job? 9 Ways Entry-Level Employees Can Make the Most of Their First Week

9 Tips for Your First Week on the Job


The academic year is almost over, and that means hundreds of thousands of high school and college students are saying goodbye to their school books and getting ready to enter the workforce. If you’re among this group of new professionals, you’ll want to make a good impression and an even better start.

Here are our top tips for making the most of the first week in your new job.

Prepare properly.

Whether you suffer from first-week jitters or not, being prepared will undoubtedly make things easier. Select your outfits for the entire week so you’re not rummaging through your closet at the last minute. Make sure you have reliable transport to and from work—and know where you’re going! If you’re bringing your own device, check that it’s ready for the IT department to add to the network and set up your email.

Dress appropriately.

You probably gained an impression of the dress code during the interview process, but if you didn’t, try to find out what’s expected. You can simply contact the hiring manager and ask, but if you’re not comfortable doing this, err on the side of convention. Avoid shorts, mini-skirts, crop tops, and flip-flops, and opt instead for business casual.

Get to work early, and don’t be the first to leave.

As Hannah Morgan points out in her U.S. News Money article “5 Things to Do When Starting a New Job,” everyone will be observing you. Get to work before most of your co-workers, and at the end of the day, ask your supervisor if he or she has anything else for you before you head home.

Write down your colleagues’ names and functions.

You’ll probably be meeting a lot of new people—and if you manage to remember everyone’s name and job function, you’ll definitely score points. When you have a quiet moment, make a note of the people you’ve met and what they do. Then refer to that list as needed.

Ask for a list of your responsibilities.

Though the job listing probably mentioned the most important of your duties, it’s a good idea to ask your supervisor to give you a detailed list of what you’re expected to do and when. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification or assistance if something’s entirely new to you.

Ask for a tour of the premises.

You need to know the layout of your workplace, so if your supervisor doesn’t volunteer a tour, ask for one. Make sure you know where the most important departments are, including HR and IT.

Be social.

Even if you have responsibilities at home, it’s wise to think ahead and keep your early evenings and Friday night free. Your co-workers may want to socialize with you, so take every opportunity you get to establish rapport. Join others for lunch, a quick post-work coffee, or “TGIF” drinks.

Avoid gossip.

Being social doesn’t mean you have to engage in gossip. In fact, you should avoid it as much as possible – and stick to that practice throughout your career.

Take time for yourself.

You’ll have a lot to digest in your first week, so make sure to reserve some “you time,” whether that’s a long walk with your dog, yoga or simply reading a book.

Keep these tips in mind, and you’ll greatly enhance your chances of rocking your first week in your new job! Soon you’ll see—each of your successes holds the door open for the next.

Thinking of a career change in Seattle?

Many times career change happens to us. Our industry starts to fade, our employer goes bankrupt, or we personally are downsized, fired, laid off, demoted or otherwise find ourselves at a crossroads.

But occasionally we choose to change careers of our own free will. It’s exciting, a little scary, and getting more common. If you can, take the opportunity to think it through.

First, know why you want to change careers. If it’s because you simply hate your current job, make a list of those things you don’t like so you don’t inadvertently land on a career that’s too similar. (It happens.) If money is the reason, figure out how much more money you’re looking for. You should also list what you liked about your old job, so you can try to replicate those good things in your new one.

Identify the areas of overlap between your old and new careers. If nothing else, important job skills such as organization, thoroughness and communication are easily transferable. Leverage everything that be leveraged.

Recognize that it may take time. You probably won’t end your old career on a Friday and start the new one on the following Monday. Chances are you’ll need to acquire new skills or certifications, build up your savings and/or reduce your debt and create a new network. You may even need to work at an interim job while easing into — or working up to — the job you really want.

Get clear on what you want to keep and what you’re willing to give up. It can help tremendously to make a list of what you must have (a flexible schedule, a certain salary, etc.) and what you’re willing to compromise on (Are you willing to relocate? Would you be happy with a lesser level of power and authority?).

Finally, you need to believe in the possibility of change. After we’ve done the same kind of work for a few years, we start to think of ourselves in a certain way — as a tech worker, say, or a teacher or an attorney. It becomes part of who we are. Changing careers means changing identities, and that can be a challenge, even threatening. So be prepared for setbacks and always keep working toward your goal.

 

Educational Requirements for Jobs

Why Do You Need to Know About Educational Requirements?

Before you decide to pursue a particular career, you must make sure you are willing to fulfill the educational requirements that will allow you to get an entry-level job. If career advancement is important to you, you will also want to discover what you will need to do to move up in that field. If you are unwilling to meet the educational requirements, or if you must start working immediately and don’t have time to get the appropriate training, you will have to think about other options. On a similar note, you may not want a job that doesn’t require a certain amount of education, for example, a college degree.

How To Find the Training You Need

When the required education for an occupation is very precise, for instance, if you must get a particular certificate or a degree from an accredited program, you will have to decide what institution to attend. There are several ways to go about finding out where to get the training you need.

  • Professional Associations: Use any search engine to find the professional association for an occupation. Then go to the organization’s website and look for a section about education or careers. If you must get your training or degree from an accredited program, it will probably say so here. There will likely be a list of programs, as well, or links to resources you can use to locate that information.
  • Local Training: Search for training by location. Programs include colleges, trades schools, unemployment retraining and short-term programs.
  • Your Network: If you have contacts in your prospective career field, find out where they received their training. You may also uncover this information through informational interviews with people who work in the occupation you are researching.

What You Need to Know About Additional Qualifications

In addition to educational requirements, the state or municipality in which you want to work may require you to have a license or certificate. You may need a certain amount of experience and have to pass written and practical examinations to get licensed or certified.

You should be aware of the difference between mandatory certification, as discussed above, and voluntary certification. Some professional associations grant credentials to individuals who demonstrate competence in an occupation or industry. This is what is meant by voluntary certification. The state or municipality will not require you to get it but it could make you a more desirable job candidate. Some employers, however, may require it.