Hello fellow sellers! Have you ever been searching for a job but don't know how an interview will progress? We as Sales KNOW how to sell a product but HOW do wel sell ourselves? It comes down to think about ourselves as the product/company and how we sell ourselves in terms of value.
Throughout my career I have used a personalised Framework that helped me to drive conversations, direction and purpose when in comes to searching and interviewing for a new role. It helped me to get passed 99% of recruiters and get to the hiring manager.
Especially when talking with early stage companies that do not have lot of available content online it will help you to navigate your conversations.
The Framework is highly personalised so I'm sharing mine. Basically its about what do you want? Start asking yourself a set of questions and you will end up with your own framework.
Use these points to talk with the recruiter and other interviewers. With this framework you will stay close to yourself and will be able to qualify quickly in and out.
- What are my core values? (Trust/Transparency/Honesty/Equality/Innovation etc.) for a comprehensive list of values see: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9t2xqlpu4io9emu/Core%20value%20list-pink.pdf?dl=0
- What type of company do I want to work for? (ISP/SaaS/Advisory Etc.) for this group of people its most likely SaaS
- Who are my ideal buying centre? (e.g. IT/Sales/Marketing/Business)
- MUST: Always aim for a software solution that solves a problem that is part of the customers primary process. E.g. Selling a marketing solution to a manufacturer is most likely not hitting their core process of manufacturing a product. BUT Selling a marketing Solution to a retailer makes sense as they invest heavily in there. Determine at this topic what your potential prospects would be or what your territory looks like. This sets you up for success on the product market fit side.
- What GEO or Companies and/or industries you want to sell into? MM, ENT, EAST, West,
- At what stage should the company be? A-G or Post IPO/acq. The earlier the stage the more opportunities but the more risks as a lot has to be done. This will provide you with talking points around why you want to join a certain company. Use sites like Crunchbase to determine where they are and why you want to work at these type of companies
- Think about filling a growth role of a replacement role. Growth signals expansion, replacement might be rep not hitting quota or promotion.
- What % of reps made quota last year and what ball point figure are they on now (YTD).
- Do you want to hunt or Farm? At what %?
- What is the prospecting vs selling ratio? And how does lead inflow work? Do we have BDR's.
- Talk everyone through your career within 10 mins. Highlight in every role how and why you got into that role and what your key learning, performance and highlight within that role were. Start from the beginning and work towards today.
- Once you end up on today you look forward to what you are looking for leveraging the above data and points you have thought of.
- Ask the person what they are looking for and what the salary bandwidth is.
- Decide if YOU see mutual grounds to move the conversation forward and reconfirm this.
*Note
The later you get into your career the clearer this gets. The earlier you are in your career the more fluid these are and obviously when you specifically want to join a company adjust these to the company in mind.
You build the story around you. This has two sides, one you will get what you're looking for but can get qualified out without knowing. I prefer to stay close to myself as this will result in a better fit, job etc.
Be sure to flip the conversation towards your peer by asking them open ended questions like:
- What does your ideal candidate look like.
- Where do you see yourself and/or company in X years.
- Can you tell me about your career and why you chose to join this company
- Imagine you would be in my shoes [Fresh from high school/2nd year BDR/3 years MM etc.] would you take on this role and why?
Mine come down to the following:
- My values are Trust, Transparency, Openness and Equality. I've read the values of Company X and I can relate most to Value Y because [Elaborate]
- I have worked in tech for more than a decade and preferably work with US SaaS companies because they grow fast and often look for expansion in Europe. I see a lot of value I can add there
- My ideal buying center is the business side. I've sold predominantly SaaS solutions to CRO's and their teams, Head of operations and their Construction Teams and Service teams
- Since we're talking about company X, I understand that you solve problem Y. How does that relate to the primary process of the customer?
- I prefer working with Nordics and/or Benelux customer industries like Construction, Automotive and retail. I have an existing network I can bring and bring a lot of experience working with them. I've helped company X to grow X% is X years
- Ideally I'd like to work with Series D+ funded companies. Typically they seek expansion into Europe. ---> Is this the case with you, company X.
- What is the role you're hiring for? Growth or replacement. Can you elaborate?
- What % of reps made quota last year and what ball point figure are they on now (YTD).
- I prefer a hunting role but would not mind to manage existing up to 20% of my time.
- How is the ratio between BDR and sales and what % of leads are generated by the BDR? How much of my time should be aligned to (cold) Prospecting vs Selling
- Started my career at Company Y, joined because I always wanted to be in Tech. Been there for six years. Always hit quota with lowest 103% and highest 148%. Greatest learning was patience. Why? Working with Public Sector is time consuming and means you need to plan well ahead. Moved onto the next role because I wanted to broaden my knowledge of IT so I joined company Z. At Company Z I've learnt to work with CIO's and their teams and understand the dynamics on how they run their business. Been there for two years, year one 97% with ramp quota and year 2 with 134% hitting Diamond Club etc. etc. etc.
- Looking forward I'm look to join a company that is comparable to my values and kind of is in the stage that I'm ideally looking for.
- I've been open and transparent in what Im looking for, last but not least: What I'm curious about is the bandwidth of the role.
- Given your background I do see a lot of similarities, and I'm highly interested to move the conversation forward. What do you think?
Use it as a framework to streamline your thoughts and lead the conversation. It's not a silver bullet!
Have you got any other great ideas question or anything to add feel free to comment.
Kind regards,
Stalled Deal.
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