What to Listen for on a Sales Interview Phone Screen
A sales phone screen should take 7–15 minutes and do two things: make a human connection and test whether the candidate can quickly build rapport with a stranger. Listen less to what they say and more to how they say it — do they ask questions, match your energy, show research, and probe for problems they could solve?
By Chris Perry, OMG Certified Partner · Updated
Originally published in The Sales Recruit on July 17, 2025.
Hey everyone, welcome back the Sales Recruit— Let’s jump into it.
Sales Hiring Links of the Week:
- Driving Sales Improvement and Revenue With Data - The smart folks over the Objective Management Group are running a free web training on July 30th about how to use data to drive measurable improvements in your sales org.
- 5 Smart Ways AI Can Streamline Recruitment - Quick, thoughtful list that doesn’t include, “Go buy this specific tool.”
This Week’s Task: Run an effective and efficient phone screen
In my experience, most people run phone screens that are much longer than necessary. Given today’s hiring market, where teams are getting inundated with resumes, running 30-minute phone calls with every promising candidate feels overwhelming and could easily become a full-time job for one or more members of the hiring team.
The initial phone screen should really accomplish just two things:
- Make a human connection with the candidate and stoke their interest in the company.
- Assess whether the candidate can quickly build an engaging relationship with a stranger.
Where I find many go wrong is in wasting time reviewing a candidate’s entire work history with them, asking fluff questions about dream roles, and going into greater detail than is necessary on administrative things like benefits and compensation ranges. These topics matter, but only after we’re confident the candidate has a real chance of success. Since most candidates don’t, we shouldn’t spend 30-45 minutes on these conversations with everyone.
What does an ideal phone screen look like? Most should last 7-15 minutes maximum. Further, I would argue that the candidate’s answers to our questions on this call matter less than how they deliver them. I’m less concerned about whether they have exactly five years of industry experience or exceeded quota by 11% versus 14% last quarter. Especially, because I should have already pre-screened for those things when reviewing their resume before scheduling the call. What matters most to me at this stage is: “Can this person quickly build trust and rapport with someone they’ve never spoken to?”
Here’s what I’m listening for:
- Are they proactively trying to build a relationship with me?
- Do they ask questions?
- Can they adapt their style to match mine in energy, tonality, and pacing?
- How do they sound? If they cold-called me, would I want to continue the conversation?
- Are they asking smart questions about the business and trying to uncover problems they can solve?
- Have they done any research on me or the company?
If the answer to most of those questions are “No,” I am not going advance them to longer interviews with the rest of the hiring team.
Remember: Sales candidates are likely doing their best selling when selling themselves to prospective employers. If they can’t sell themselves effectively, how well will they sell your products or services?
So here are some short and sweet questions I like to ask to test the waters:
My Go-To Phone Screen Questions
After building basic rapport and setting call expectations (topic of a future newsletter), here are the phone screen questions I like to ask:
- ☑️ Based on what you know about the company and role, what experience and results make you uniquely qualified for this position? Be specific.
- ☑️ What background do you have with our industry?
- ☑️ What unique perspective can you bring?
- ☑️ What do you think you’d need to learn or improve to be successful in this role?
- ☑️ (For quota-carrying roles:) This role requires consistently hitting quota and closing new business. What in your background demonstrates you can do that?
You’ll notice this isn’t very many questions. Again, the sales interview phone screen should be a short call to gauge how someone sounds and carries themselves when connecting with a stranger. There’s one more thing I do at the end to really test their mettle, but I’ll save that for a future newsletter.
If you’re getting stuck in long phone screens, don’t hesitate to reach out—I’m happy to share more suggestions.
Good hunting!
Chris
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