Hey everyone,
A while back I did an interview assignment for an AE role and never got any feedback on it from the hiring manager or anyone else at the company :(
I'm interested in any constructive feedback, and also very interested in how others would answer the questions, since these are pretty relevant to all AE roles.
Would love some interesting discussion on this––but at least any feedback would be nice :D
TASK 1
You are in the later stages of an agreement with an enterprise client that came referred from a partner. RFI has been completed and original commercial proposal submitted. During your last call with procurement, they assured you that if you were to reduce your price 10%, XXXXX will be the chosen vendor. You have approval and submit the revised proposal. However, the procurement person calls you again the following day saying that an additional discount would be needed.
How would you proceed?
My initial response would be to ask them what has changed since they assured us XXXXX would be the chosen vendor if we reduced the price by 10%. This is procurement’s job––to get the price as low as possible––and you cannot simply keep discounting the price further and further.
In this situation, I would not want to agree to lowering the price again and get procurement accustomed to being able to decide whatever price they want, and I would tell them that a further discount is more than we can do.
I would see if there’s anything else that’s easy to throw into to the deal that makes procurement feel they have “won” something (e.g., if applicable, add in extra user licenses or some other potentially paid feature that doesn’t add any real overhead for XXXXX)
Depending on the size of the deal and length of the contract they’re agreeing to, it still makes sense to consider what’s possible to offer in terms of a discount if they refuse. If I would offer a further discount, I’d try to lock them in for a longer period and consider giving the further discount if they’d agree to signing for several years upfront.
TASK 2
You have been working with a partner in a project in Singapore that they and the Partner Account Manager introduced you to a couple of months ago. You went through some commercials with the partner and the client, and despite the repeated promises from the partner for a next meeting, this hasn’t happened yet
Describe what your playbook would be to find momentum in this situation.
First off, I would talk to the Partner Account Manager to see if there’s any info I’m missing as to what’s holding things up for the partner.
I’d then want to call the partner and get an understanding from them on what’s preventing them from getting another meeting scheduled.
I’d then react based on their feedback and, assuming there is still a need, try to dig on a pain point they had expressed for the project. I’d also ask them what risks they face for sticking to their status quo (how much money they are losing, etc.).
Also, very much dependent on the situation and if I’m not receiving feedback from them, I would politely suggest that it seems they are not that interested, timing is off, or they’ve deferred the project. That way they will either say so––which means I can prioritize other deals––or they’ll defend themselves by saying they are still interested, and we can define the next steps to make it happen.
If possible, I’d also consider offering a time sensitive discount if it will make things easier to get the meeting scheduled if they act quickly.
If timings no good, I’d try keep them updated on new features etc. and continue following up with them so we stay first in their mind and then I can jump when an opportunity arises to meet with them again.
TASK 3
The Partnerships Development Representative introduced you to a potential new reseller partner based in Kenya. The conversation is going well as you walked them through our licencing and pricing. However, they refuse to commit any high volumes on the first year. Their preferred strategy would be: “let’s start small and see how it goes.”
How would you proceed in this scenario?
I would again ask them why they don’t want to commit any high volumes for the first year to really understand where they are coming from.
I would then dive deeper into their pain points and current processes and try to give them as many details on ROI as possible and show how the more they commit, the more they will save/make in the end.
I’d also ask them again about what the risks are of starting small––money they’re losing out on, time they are wasting––and try to diffuse whatever reservations they have.
Depending on their procurement process I’d also suggest how much they’ll love XXXXX and that they might need more out of our service than they expect, and it might be a hassle on their end if they don’t lock in their current price or go through the process to purchase more.
In the end, starting small is better than nothing, but obviously not ideal and, depending on what they really can and can’t commit to, I’d accept that and see if I can get them to commit to higher volumes the next year based on what they accomplish this year.
TASK 4
We all know that admin is usually the least fun part of any sales job 😊. However, admin takes a specially important part within your role in this team – to ensure you can keep track and visibility of all the leads and accounts you will be working with.
Please describe, with examples, how is your organizational and admin discipline in your day by day, even outside of work.
I always start my workday by reviewing my schedule and the tasks I’ve set for myself in our CRM for the day. I typically complete them in the order I’ve set for them unless something somehow changes in terms of priority.
I have meetings with clients every day (e.g., discovery calls, demos, POC sync up calls, commercial talks, closing/payment talks, customer success calls, calls with the accounts I manage), and I prepare for each of them beforehand and then follow up on each of them afterward.
The rest of my day includes replying to emails I’ve received and following up on specific tasks related to current and prospective clients (by the time zone the customer is in) and reaching out to new inbound leads.
Throughout the day I also keep a close watch on our dashboards and see who’s actively using our tool and where their usage level is to know if I need to reach out for any reason. I also reach out to my any new inbound leads assigned to me after they’ve registered.
The rest of my day I am going through our CRM, keeping it updated, looking for hidden gems/opportunities there, and prospecting typically via LinkedIn.
I also like to stay updated on what’s happening in our industry from relevant news sites and LinkedIn.
I’m always aware of my emails and what’s on my calendar, outside of work as well, and I have a strict bedtime, because good sleep is incredibly important to me, and I always start my day with coffee and a smoothie I make for myself :)
TASK 5
During a negotiation with a potential new reseller partner in Colombia, they insist that they need a full blown PoC requiring involvement from our technical team and internal resources, while mentioning they are willing to commit to their most conservative volume for one year, which translates into an ARR in the lows 50k USD.
What do you think would be the best course of action?
In this case the size of the deal is on the lower end, so I would first ask them why they think they need a full blown PoC and see if something could be done instead if anything (free trial, etc.).
If they really require a full-blown PoC, I would very thoroughly go over what their success criteria are and try to minimize the amount of time needed and resources from our technical team in order to complete it.
In parallel, I would do what I can to ensure that the procurement process is already going to make sure that things are setup for them to continue with us upon successful completion of the PoC and not lose time.
I would also determine from them what budget is available, if any, for a PoC because paying something creates some pressure for them to put effort into completing it.
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