Relationship Manager Interview Questions & Answers


Relationship Managers build strong relationships with customers and business clients. They seek out new business opportunities, advise clients on product/service solutions that meet their needs and resolve any issues or complaints.

Whether you're a job seeker preparing to be interviewed for the role of Relationship Manager or an employer preparing to interview candidates for Relationship Manager position, these Relationship Manager interview questions will help you prepare yourself for the job interview session.

Relationship Manager Interview Questions

Below are a list of some skill-based Relationship Manager interview questions.

  1. As a relationship manager, you'll likely have to handle a few upset customers. How do you manage unhappy clients?
  2. Describe your rapport-building strategy for a new client.
  3. How would you respond to a client who wants lower prices or they'll leave your company?
  4. Which metrics do you think are most important for relationship managers to track?
  5. Do you prefer to interact with your clients over the phone or through email? Why?
  6. How might you give unwelcome news to a long-standing client?
  7. What would you do if a customer made an unreasonable request?
  8. Imagine a customer asked you a question you don't know the answer to. How would you respond?
  9. How often do you check in with your customers?
  10. Do you think it's necessary for relationship managers to have sales experience?
  11. What do you think an ideal day for a relationship manager looks like?
  12. If you've had to say no to a customer request in the past, how did you do so and preserve the relationship?
  13. You learn that a new member of the sales team over-promised on what the company can deliver to a new customer. How do you handle the situation?
  14. How do you seek out and contact new clients?
  15. How do you handle an angry client threatening to terminate their account?
  16. At what point do you stop pursuing an unresponsive lead?
  17. What CRM software programs are you familiar with?
  18. What is the key to building strong client relationships?
  19. Are you familiar with Salesforce.com?
  20. What type of reports do you create to keep track of your work? How often do you report to your manager?
  21. What are the most effective engagement techniques you’ve used to manage client relationships?
  22. This role requires contacting multiple clients on a daily basis. How do you prioritize which clients to contact?
  23. What steps do you take to convert a non-responsive customer? When do you stop trying to convert the customer?
  24. What are the key things you want to highlight when preparing presentations for clients or managers?
  25. Describe a time when you had to deal with a difficult client. How did you manage to keep the client happy?
  26. Have you ever made a decision that cost you a client? What happened and what did you learn from that experience?
  27. What do you value more: high work quality or meeting tight deadlines? Why?
  28. How do you prefer to contact clients, through email or phone? Why?
  29. Describe your most challenging sales project so far. What were the problems you faced and how did you overcome them?
  30. You are a committee member, and you disagree with a point or decision. How do you respond?
  31. If someone asked you for assistance with a matter that is outside the parameters of your job description, what would you do?
  32. If you had a problem with a team member's lack of contribution to a project, what would you do?
  33. There's a deadline to be met. The team members have an excellent grasp of their positions, but one member is absent from work, and no one can do her job well. What would you do?
  34. "Yes" is the word clients, customers and guests like to hear. However, if you had to say "no," how would you do it?
  35. A customer's purchase is not what was promised. Do you explain to the customer why that happened?Tell me about a time when you went out of your way to give great service to a customer.
  36. Tell me about a time when you asked for feedback on your customer service skills from your manager or co-worker and then used that response to improve your work.
  37. Describe a time when you had to deal with a difficult guest- or client-relations problem. What was the outcome? What did you learn?
  38. Tell me about a time when you knew that your customer might not get what he or she needed on time. How did you handle this?
  39. Tell me about a time when you had to say "no" to a customer because his or her request was against company policy.
  40. Tell me about a time when you had trouble working with a difficult or demanding customer. How did you handle this?
  41. Tell me about a situation in which you "lost it" or did not do your best with a customer. What did you do about this?
  42. Describe a time when you exceeded a customer's expectations.
  43. Describe a time when you lost a customer. What would you do differently?
  44. Share an example of a time when you developed rapport with a customer. What strategies did you use? How did you transfer the use of those strategies to other customers?
  45. The project is brought to a lull (or worse, a halt) due to a co-worker's lack of productivity. What are your next steps?
  46. You're in a group where individual performance is highly rewarded and regarded. One teammate is not as productive as the rest. You could help him and reduce your own productivity or not help, and the team suffers. How do you handle this?
  47. Tell me about a time when a team project failed.
  48. Tell me about a time when you needed to work as part of a team to satisfy a client or resolve an issue.
  49. Tell me about a time you worked on a cross-functional team. Were there different challenges compared to a departmental-task team?
  50. When groups work together, conflict often erupts. Tell me about a time that conflict occurred in one of your workgroups and what you did about it.

Relationship Manager Interview Questions and Answers

Every interview is different and the questions may vary. However, there are lots of general questions that get asked at every interview.

Below are some common questions you'd expect during Relationship Manager interviews. Click on each question to see how to answer them.

  1. Why Do You Want To Leave Your Current Job?
  2. What is Your Greatest Strength?
  3. Tell Me About Yourself
  4. Why Do You Want This Job?
  5. Are You a Leader or a Follower?
  6. What Is Your Greatest Accomplishment?
  7. What is Your Salary Expectation?
  8. Do You Have Any Questions for Us?
  9. Why Should We Hire You?
  10. What is Your Greatest Weakness?