Commercial Sales interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Tell me about a customer or account where you owned a measurable commercial outcome.
3. Why chemicals + materials commercial sales - vs CPG sales, process engineering, technical service, or consulting?
4. Why this product family - commodity vs specialty vs polymers vs advanced materials?
5. Why the firm?
6. What is your read on our product portfolio and customer-segment mix?
7. How would you describe our channel mix and regulatory + contract posture?
8. Walk me through how you would build a value-in-use case for a customer who is asking for a 5% price reduction.

Technical concepts to master

• Value-in-use selling + technical service

  Value-in-use (VIU) · Next-best alternative · Value-share logic · Technical service as investment · Total cost of ownership (TCO) reframe

• Spec-in + qualification cycle

  Spec-in · Qualification cycle - lab + plant + PPAP · Decision-maker map - R&D, procurement, plant, regulatory · PPAP (Production Part Approval Process) · Dual-source vs single-source

• Contract architecture + indexation + force majeure

  Indexation - feedstock + PPI · Surcharge - energy + freight + carbon · Take-or-pay + minimum volume · Force majeure + supply allocation · Price-volume bands

• Channel + distributor management + REACH / TSCA regulatory

  Direct vs distributor economics · Distributor management - selection + co-sell + margin floor · REACH (EU regulation) · TSCA (US) + K-REACH + China REACH · SDS + GHS + customer compliance

Practical drills

• Your specialty additive sells at $5,000 / ton. Customer is a coatings formulator using 200 tons / year. The additive replaces a $3,000 / ton commodity alternative but raises customer yield from 92% to 96% on a $20 / kg finished coating. Customer procurement is asking for 10% price reduction. Walk through the VIU case + your response.
• An auto OEM is launching a new EV battery platform in 30 months. You sell a polymer that competes with the incumbent on thermal-runaway protection. The incumbent has been specced for 8 years. Walk through your spec-in strategy.
• Customer is a packaging converter buying 5,000 tons / year of polymer at $1,500 / ton on annual contract. Naphtha feedstock has moved 30% in the last year. Customer wants a 3-year contract with a 5% price reduction. Walk through your contract architecture + counter-proposal.

Smart-question anchors

• Product portfolio + commodity / specialty / advanced materials mix - where the margin sits + where growth comes from
• Customer-segment exposure - auto, electronics, packaging, construction, healthcare, energy - and segment-specific cycle
• Channel mix - direct vs distributor vs tolling vs OEM-spec - and recent channel shifts
• Contract architecture + indexation posture - spot vs multi-year %, feedstock pass-through cleanliness
• Spec-in + qualification footprint - which OEMs + processors carry firm grades on approved-vendor lists

Sourced from

ICIS + S&P Global Commodity Insights (Platts) + Argus - chemicals + materials price + index references · AIChE + SOCMA + ACS Industrial Sales practitioner references · ECHA REACH + EPA TSCA + GHS (UN) regulatory references · AIAG PPAP + IATF 16949 automotive qualification standards · McKinsey + BCG + Bain chemicals + advanced materials commercial-excellence research