Interview Questions Toolkit
Hiring the wrong person costs time, money, and momentum.
This toolkit helps you run smarter interviews for Sales and Marketing roles in scaling companies.
We focus on three critical areas:
Skills Fit (can they actually do the work?)
Culture Fit (will they thrive in your environment?)
Motivation Fit (are they joining for the right reasons?)
Sales Interview Questions:
Skills Fit
1. Walk me through your sales process at your last company.
Good signs: Structured steps, strategic approach.
Red flags: Vague overview, reactive style.
2. How did you typically build your pipeline? What percentage was outbound vs. inbound?
Good signs: Owns pipeline generation, clear metrics.
Red flags: Blames marketing, only worked inbound.
3. What was your quota? How consistently did you hit it?
Good signs: Open about targets and results.
Red flags: Evasive or blames circumstances.
4. How do you prioritize your daily and weekly tasks to hit targets?
Good signs: Focused on high-value activities.
Red flags: No clear system, reacts to noise.
Culture Fit
5. Describe the environment where you do your best work.
Good signs: Thrives with autonomy and fast pace.
Red flags: Needs micromanagement or heavy structure.
6. Tell me about a major rejection or failure. How did you handle it?
Good signs: Ownership, learning mindset.
Red flags: Blames others, no real lessons.
Motivation Fit
7. Why do you want to work in a startup or scale-up environment?
Good signs: Embraces speed, flexibility, impact.
Red flags: Seeks only prestige or safety.
8. Where do you see your career in the next 2–3 years?
Good signs: Clear goals tied to skill development.
Red flags: Only title-driven or unrealistic ambitions.
Marketing Interview Questions
Skills Fit
1. What marketing channels have you owned end-to-end?
Good signs: Full responsibility, real results.
Red flags: Only “supported” campaigns.
2. Walk me through a campaign you launched. What worked and what didn’t?
Good signs: Critical thinking, honest evaluation.
Red flags: Externalizes blame, no clear lessons.
3. How do you balance short-term performance with long-term brand building?
Good signs: Understands strategic balance.
Red flags: Obsessed only with vanity metrics.
4. How do you measure success in your marketing efforts?
Good signs: Focus on KPIs tied to business growth.
Red flags: Focuses only on likes and impressions.
Culture Fit
5. Tell me about a time you had very limited resources. How did you still drive results?
Good signs: Scrappy and creative mindset.
Red flags: Paralyzed without big budgets.
6. How do you prefer to collaborate with sales, product, and other teams?
Good signs: Proactive communicator, builds feedback loops.
Red flags: Works in silos or blames other departments.
Motivation Fit
7. What excites you about joining a company at our growth stage?
Good signs: Excited by building, fast-moving environments.
Red flags: Only chasing brand names or titles.
8. What marketing skills are you personally trying to master next?
Good signs: Focused skill development goals.
Red flags: Vague or non-committal.
Final Advice
Score candidates based on evidence, not personality.
Good hires show patterns of ownership, learning, and adaptability.
Great hires align both skill and ambition with your actual company journey.
Struggling to find the right candidates?
At Orion Hiring, we help scaling companies hire sales and marketing talent with real cultural and skills alignment. Not just keyword matches.
