“Sell me this” and “How would you reach 50 new merchants?”

Every sales and marketing interview, and many customer service ones, contains a selling question. It comes in two forms. The role-play: a panellist hands you a SIM card, a savings account leaflet or the pen on the table and says “Sell me this.” The plan: “How would you sign up 50 new merchants in your first three months?” Candidates fail both in the same way: they start talking about the product before they know anything about the customer.

The panel is scoring whether you sell the way a good agent sells: by understanding the need first. A candidate who asks two questions before pitching already scores higher than one who lists ten features.

1. 1Ask before you pitch. Two or three questions: “How do you take payments today?” “What happens when a customer has no cash?” “How often do you send money to family?”
2. 2Match one benefit to what you heard. Not the whole brochure: the one thing that solves their problem, in their words. “So your customers leave when they have no cash; with a merchant account they pay from their phone in ten seconds.”
3. 3Handle the worry honestly. Fees, trust, network problems: state the real cost or limit, then the answer to it. Never promise what the product does not do.
4. 4Ask for a small next step. A trial, a registration today, a visit tomorrow with the form. A pitch that ends without an ask is a conversation, not a sale.

For a plan question, add numbers and a route. Who exactly: pharmacies, wholesalers and restaurants near the main market, because they take many small payments. How many: 50 in 12 weeks is four or five a week, so about 15 visits a week if one in three signs. Where you find them: a list from the market association, referrals from each new merchant, two mornings a week walking the market. How you know it is working: a weekly sheet of visits, sign-ups and first transactions, reviewed with your supervisor.