In this article
Before you start
This page is one answer in the sales interview questions learning path, and it needs no sales experience.
Why interviewers ask this
A candidate who answers with a list of tactics shows the interviewer nothing about how they think, because any list of tactics can be memorized. Candidates report this prompt in interviews for sales roles, and related questions are covered in the lists for sales representative, account executive and sales manager jobs. The prompt is deliberately vague. It tests whether you ask before you answer, whether you can break a big goal into measurable parts, and whether you can choose one action and say how you would know it worked.
A weak answer says "I would make more calls and offer discounts." A strong answer asks what is sold and to whom, names where in the sales process revenue is being lost, and proposes one action with a measure. A Staff-level answer also says what could go wrong with that action and what it would do next.
Increasing sales from first principles
- Revenue lever
- A revenue lever is a factor that multiplies with the others to make revenue, such as the number of leads, the share that buy, the size of each deal and how often a customer buys again, so that moving any one lever moves the total.
- Market penetration
- Market penetration is a growth strategy that sells more of the existing products to the existing market, by winning new customers, keeping current customers or acquiring competitors, rather than launching a new product or entering a new market.
In plain words
Think of a shop. The till total is revenue. It rises if more people walk in, if more of them buy, if each buys a bigger basket, or if they come back. Those are four levers. The analogy breaks in one place. In a real shop the levers affect each other: a discount that fills the shop may also attract people who never return.
In one precise sentence, increasing sales means raising revenue by moving one or more revenue levers, chosen by where there is most room and least risk.
The Ansoff matrix is a strategic planning tool that helps managers choose growth strategies; Wikipedia's summary of the matrix describes it that way. Igor Ansoff published it in a 1957 Harvard Business Review paper called "Strategies for Diversification". Its existing-product, existing-market quadrant is market penetration. An answer about an existing product and existing customers is a sensible default when the interviewer gives you no other facts.
Step-by-step description
- Ask about the business and the goal.
- Break revenue into levers and find the one with room.
- Pick one action and size it before promising.
- Name a metric, a review date and a risk.
- The answer starts with questions about the business before any tactic.
- Revenue splits into leads, conversion, deal size and purchases per customer.
Step 1: Ask about the business before you answer
The answer starts with questions about the business before any tactic. Ask what the company sells, who buys it, how long a sale takes, what the target is, over what period, and what changed recently, such as a new competitor, a price change or a lost account. Ask whether the goal is revenue, profit or number of customers, because those goals pull in different directions.
Input: a vague prompt. Output: a stated baseline and goal. Interviewers cannot always answer every question. When they do not, say your assumption aloud, for example "I will assume an existing product sold to existing customers", and carry on. That assumption also places you on the market penetration route above. You now have a baseline to take apart in Step 2.
Step 2: Split revenue into levers and find the one with room
Revenue splits into leads, conversion, deal size and purchases per customer. A lead is a person or company that might buy. Multiply the four and you get revenue, so you can see which part is weak. In recurring-revenue business-to-business sales, keeping and expanding existing accounts are levers too, and churn lowers the repeat-purchase lever.
Take illustrative inputs: 1,000 leads a month, a 5% conversion rate, a deal size of 2,000 currency units and 1.5 purchases per customer. Revenue is 1,000 × 0.05 × 2,000 × 1.5 = 150,000 currency units.1 A 10% relative lift in any one lever lifts revenue to 165,000, a gain of 15,000, whichever lever moves.1 Two 5% lifts compound to 10.25%, or 165,375.1
So the arithmetic cannot choose the lever. Room, cost and risk choose it. Ask which lever is furthest below what you would expect, and which one the team can move fastest. A lever already near its ceiling has less room, so a stronger answer moves to the next one. Input: the baseline. Output: one lever, and a reason.
Step 3: Pick one action and size it before you promise it
Choose one action for the chosen lever and estimate its effect. Each lever has its own kind of action. In this page's own reasoning, promotion feeds leads, follow-up speed and qualification feed conversion, bundles and upsells feed deal size, and quality and service feed repeat purchases. Pricing touches several levers at once.
Price deserves a warning. A price cut lowers revenue before it raises anything. A 10% discount needs an 11.11% rise in conversion to keep revenue level.1 A 20% discount needs a 25% rise in conversion.1 With the illustrative inputs above, a 10% cut leaves revenue at 135,000 unless the conversion rate climbs from 5% to 5.5556%.1 That is a revenue-only test. Margin falls faster than price, so with an illustrative 40% gross margin a 10% discount needs a 33.33% rise in units sold (for example, through conversion) to keep gross profit level.1
Text description of the diagram
- A 10% discount needs an 11.11% rise in conversion to keep revenue level.
- A 20% discount needs a 25% rise in conversion.
Step 4: Name the measure and the risk
Finish with one measure, a review date and one risk. The measure should be the lever itself: the conversion rate if you chose conversion, the number of leads if you chose leads. Name a leading signal you can read early, such as how fast leads are contacted, because revenue arrives late.
Name the risk in your own action. Promotions can pull forward demand that would have bought anyway. Pushing deal size can lower conversion. Faster follow-up can overload the team. Saying so shows judgment. Then say what you would do next if the measure did not move: go back to Step 2 and take the next lever.
If the interviewer gives a target, split it across levers. A 20% higher target needs about a 4.66% lift in each of four levers, because the four lifts multiply.1
Knowing it is half the job. Saying it is the other half.
Interview Clozo is an AI interview copilot for real interview rounds: it hears the question and puts a strong answer on your screen, and you say it in your own words. See the features or how it works.
Start Free Trial →The Staff-level answer
How would you increase sales?
Before I suggest anything I would ask what we sell, to whom, what the target is and what changed recently. Then I would split revenue into leads, conversion, deal size and repeat purchases, and look for the lever with the most room. If conversion is weak, I would fix follow-up speed and qualification before touching price, because a discount has to be repaid with more volume. I would pick one action, set a metric and a review date, and name the risk, such as pulling forward demand that would have bought anyway. If that lever turns out to be strong already, I move to the next one.
What makes it Staff-level is the order: questions, diagnosis, one chosen action, a measure and a named risk, with a plan for when the first lever is not the problem.
The rubric
| Dimension | Weak answer | Strong answer | Staff answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clarifying | Starts with tactics at once | Asks what is sold, to whom and the target | Also states assumptions aloud and checks the goal is revenue, not profit |
| Diagnosis | Gives a list of ideas | Splits revenue into levers and names the weakest | Explains why that lever has room and the others do not |
| Choice | Offers five tactics, picks none | Picks one action tied to the lever | Compares two actions on cost and risk, then picks |
| Measure | No measure | Names one metric and a time frame | Adds a leading signal and a rule for changing course |
| Risk | Discounts without cost | Notes one downside | Prices the downside and names the next lever |
Three variants of this question
How would you increase sales of a product that already sells well?
Start by asking why it sells well, because the answer tells you which lever is already strong. Then look at the other levers, for example repeat purchases or deal size, and pick the one with room. Protect what works instead of discounting it.
How would you increase sales in your territory?
Ask for the territory's customers, targets and history. Then split territory revenue into accounts, the share that buy, deal size and repeat orders, and focus on the account group with the largest gap. The sales representative question list covers more territory prompts.
How would you hit a target 20% higher than last year?
Split the target across levers instead of one heroic effort. With four levers that multiply, an illustrative 20% goal needs about a 4.66% lift in each.1 Say which levers you would move first and which of those you control.
Common mistakes
- "I would just offer discounts." (wrong) A discount lowers revenue before it raises anything. (right) "I would first look for a lever I can move without cutting price, and only discount with a volume target I can check."
- "I would make more calls." (wrong) It names an activity, not a diagnosis. (right) "I would look at where leads drop out, then change that step."
- "Here are ten ideas." (wrong) A list shows no choice. (right) "Here is the one action I would start with and why."
- "Sales will go up." (wrong) It names no measure. (right) "I would track conversion weekly and review it after a month."
Follow-up questions
What if I do not control the price?
Then price is not your lever, and that is useful to say. Move to leads, conversion or repeat purchases, and name which of those your role can influence directly.
How do you know which lever is weakest?
Compare each lever with its own history, with other teams or territories, and with what the business expects. The lever furthest below that reference has the most room. If you have no data, say which number you would ask for first.
How would you increase sales of a new product with no history?
With no baseline, say so, then start small: test the message and the buyer on a few accounts and measure conversion before scaling.
How does keeping customers fit into increasing sales?
Keeping customers is part of market penetration, and it feeds the repeat-purchase lever. The customer success manager question list covers retention prompts in depth.
How would you increase sales as a manager rather than a rep?
A manager moves levers through other people: coaching for conversion, territory design for leads, and pipeline reviews for diagnosis. The sales manager question list and the account executive question list cover the two sides of that conversation.
- Ask about the business, then split revenue into leads, conversion, deal size and repeat purchases.
- Equal relative lifts in any lever give the same revenue gain, so choose by room, cost and risk.
- A discount must be repaid by a larger rise in conversion, so price is rarely the first lever.
- Finish with one action, one measure, a review date and a named risk.
Sources
- Strategies for Diversification (Ansoff, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 35 No. 5, pp. 113-124) — Harvard Business Review (Internet Archive scan), 1 Sep 1957
- Ansoff matrix — Wikipedia (secondary summary of the Ansoff matrix), 4 Sep 2026
