Hi beautiful people - I always love the advice/feedback/guidance I get here, thank you so much. I am leading the charge to find an Enterprise AE; I have never interviewed to hire before so this is a new world. I am curious of a few things and if I am being too "harsh"... If someone joins the Zoom 8 mins late, because they had "Zoom" issues (the person had an IT background too lol) this is an immediate DQ, right? If someone's voice is really unpleasant, and you need them to present (discovery, sales demos / closing etc.!) is it wrong to DQ them?! Ugh I feel guilty even asking I am open to any other must dos/don'ts for interviewing candidates - what may be a subtle red flag? And on the flip side, is there something someone may say/do that you're like, "ok you're in!!?"

ruca1213

Regional Sales Director

First time hiring - interview acumen

Hi beautiful people - I always love the advice/feedback/guidance I get here, thank you so much.

I am leading the charge to find an Enterprise AE; I have never interviewed to hire before so this is a new world. I am curious of a few things and if I am being too "harsh"...

If someone joins the Zoom 8 mins late, because they had "Zoom" issues (the person had an IT background too lol) this is an immediate DQ, right?
If someone's voice is really unpleasant, and you need them to present (discovery, sales demos / closing etc.!) is it wrong to DQ them?! Ugh I feel guilty even asking

I am open to any other must dos/don'ts for interviewing candidates - what may be a subtle red flag?

And on the flip side, is there something someone may say/do that you're like, "ok you're in!!?"

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Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

The 2 reasons you stated are super important. 1st one tells so much about the most basics expected for any job role : discipline and seriousness.

I believe this is your hypothesis: If they’re not able to make it for a zoom call / didn’t care enough to stop a short note beforehand, they’d repeat this with customers as well. Very fair to think.

However if it’s your first interaction with them, and considering everything else you’re looking for fits the bill, maybe you can have another discussion to confirm your hypothesis around seriousness and/or discipline.

Usually, the signs are quite clear. Example: they join next zoom before time, but don’t care enough to switch video on.

The 2nd one (voice one) is tricky. No one knows a product more than the ones who designed the product (product development team). Yet we have Presales and AEs taking product demos. There’s a reason. So ball is totally in your court for this one.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

This is spot on. Gasty, are you my twin? aka

HeavenstoBetsy

Opinionated

BDR

It just really depends. 1. Even with an IT background, there can be some small network issues that can happen. What kind of "issues" did they mention?
2. I have turned down a candidate for less, but I really just focus on their character. You never really know.

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

1. DQing someone just for this may be too harsh without even knowing the skills/qualifications of the person
2. Hard to judge what makes an unpleasant voice so no constructive feedback here

For me, the instant redflag is on the motivation why someone has been working for previous experiences and if there is the repetitive "it was paying well", "for the quick buck" type of answers rather than genuine interest for the tech/industry/team/growth etc. I completely get it, it's not a charity, everyone needs the dollar motivation in what they do and afterall it's a sales job to begin with. But pure dollar motivation signals that this person is gonna hop on the next wagon
Is there also a personal interest on learning new sales skills? What are the tools and techniques they are at least trying to learn/aware of without being tasked/told to learn?

ruca1213

Contributor

Regional Sales Director

I like this a lot thank you so so much!

and I def agree I wouldn’t dq without knowing their skills/quals they were on the fence anyway:)

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

cheers 🥂

DevSomeBiz

Valued Contributor

Senior B2B Sales Guy.

1. There better be an email or text at one minute late. Timestamps matter.

2. You are hiring the voice of your company - it may sound awful, but there's a reason why many successful salespeople are also attractive, or at least aren't notably unattractive.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Definitely big red flags, but not necessarily an instant DQ.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Did they let you know they were having zoom issues only after getting it to work or did they let you know as they were trying to work it out? Text/call you to let you know?

Really depends on how unpleasant. I work with a bunch of people from India who are hard to understand and they do most of my demos.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

What was unpleasant with the person's voice? I dont see that as a reason to DQ them unless is more presentation skills.

LordOfWar

Tycoon

Blow it up

If the zoom issues are not your fault (wrong link, like I've received before) then for sure DQ.

Voice is a huge part of sales, so I would also DQ. Saying this even though I HATE my own voice.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

Um.

1. In my perspective- Yes, a red flag. However - I believe it's not how someone fucks up, but how they handle that fuck up that matters. It does not matter whether or not they have IT background. We all are quite aware by now that Zoom can be unpredictable sometimes. So it shows :

a). Do they foresee shortcomings, or are they laid back? : Clearly, in this case, they didn't foresee this shortcoming.

b). Do they let you know 2 minutes in to the call that they are facing issues and are taking time to fix? : If yes, so maybe they genuinely have an issue. But they are also accountable people. They are taking accountability and letting you know. So I'd suggest you can also take this into consideration.

c). Are they apologetic when they finally show up? Or are they laid back again, like it didn't matter that much to them?: You'll also know

Now. On

2. I also tend to believe, someone's voice or appearance or even the way the face moves when they speak could all be a matter of preference. You might find the voice annoying because of what happened initially (coming late to zoom), a bias might have been created. Or just a thing of preference. You can take someone's opinion on their voice too. If it's unbearable, you can take a call then. If not, I'd say this can be let go off.

ruca1213

Contributor

Regional Sales Director

Thank you very helpful!

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

As someone who has been in tech for longer than I'm going to say, and just had an issue with a critical prospect where my laptop Teams crashed, went to my phone and it decided it was time to tell me that my access to my corporate account, including Teams, needed updating right that second and took an additional 5 minutes...it happens to the best of us. I'd say not the best look, but I'd give that second chance and see if it's consistent or a horrifying set of circumstances.

(and I got the deal, but GOOD LORD what a terrifying morning that was).

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ruca1213

First time hiring - interview acumen

14 comments

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