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ATXBartleDoo

Account Executive

Fire Starter
Contributor

Mid-market AE round 3 interview: Sales presentation - advice?

I have a round 3 (final round) interview this Tuesday for a SaaS role (Travel and expense management) that I'm eager to win. I have already interviewed with the CEO and the VP of Sales separately, and we will be roleplaying a sales meeting so they can evaluate my sales skills and decide if I will get the job offer. I want to make sure I 100% ace this. It will be a virtual interview over ZOOM.


PITCH EXPECTATION: 30 minutes. Leverage the use case to do deeper discovery. Leverage discovery to pitch the COMPANY solution using the deck. We are not expecting you to be a product expert, but we hope you will have basic understanding of (our company) and use this chance to demonstrate your sales skills like (listening, solutioning and closing)


USE CASE: You are Pitching (our company) to ABC Corp, a 300 people company with an annual travel spend of $1 million. The people you are pitching to are Mr. (CEO) and Mr. (Travel Manager) for ABC Corp.


Some criteria I plan to follow:

  • Use a sales methodolgy (BANT, MEDDIC, or MEDDPIC)
  • 25/75 speaking VS listening ratio
  • Spend 80% of the call on discovery, identifying the pain they are experiencing as an organization
  • Get to third level pain. Find the pain, quantify the pain, find out consequence of inaction.
  • Maintain call control by always ending your speaking with an effective question so they are being guided in their response.
  • Always confirm and empathize with the pain point once I identify one.
  • Ask for the business at the end of the call and establish next steps.

Any general advice on what I might be missing or forgetting? I want to get this job.

📣 Demos
🤝 Interviewing/Offer
📳 SaaS
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17 comments

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ARRisLife
Politicker
4
Account Executive
First off - Good Luck!

Having gone through a few of these before- I'd recommend you treat this as much as a "real deal" as possible. You'll want to show how you'll treat a real scenario and stand out from the rest of the candidates.

Email them ahead of time 'in character' and set your proposed agenda, ask for feedback- and or drop any notes ahead of time- if this is a first disco call or a 'second' more qualifying call.

Remember this is a role-play- so use this to your advantage... what I mean by that is you can pretend you've already been told things or have spoken to others in the org, my go to was I had a conversation w/ Bob the XYZ manager who mentioned ABC was a challenge- I'd love to get your perspective on that.

Also- depending on time- if you haven't already, reach out and have a few conversations with reps at the org. If you know someone there even better, I've gotten a template deck before and or gotten insights into what appropriate next steps would be- maybe its a demo maybe its a deep dive conversation on a specific topic. In a real sales cycle you'd be multi-threading and using every possible source at your disposal so do that here.

Hope this helps- don't overthink it, have confidence and crush the sales call!
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
🦊
Great advice!
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
3
Sales Rep
Go on the website and find a customer story. Should give a couple examples of pains customers feel and how the product helps
ATXBartleDoo
Fire Starter
2
Account Executive
Great idea, the website has several case studies available!
Pachacuti
Politicker
2
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
I hate it when they want you to sell their product - it’s a no win situation. You can’t go too deep on the product cause they know more and you can’t go too shallow because it says you didn’t do your homework.

That said, this is a good site for some overview - https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/discovery-call-questions

I think if you try to hit that 25/75 talk/listen ratio you’ll do well. Ask open ended questions which get them talking. And ask the same questions but refer to their different personas for their answers.

Closing them is good, if that is the goal. But make sure you understand the goal
Of the (role play) meeting and what the desired outcome is.

Good luck!
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
You seem to have things well thought out. Honestly, if they want you, they're not trying to trip you up. They are looking to see if you did your homework and how you handle objections as well as your methodology. You have sound methodology, so you are in good shape.
dualaces123
Opinionated
1
Account Executive
When I was a sales manager we did something similar and one of the things I always looked for is how well the salesperson could figure out what roles we were playing. Who was the decision maker? Was there an advocate? How did the salesperson respond when the non-decision make tried to derail the conversation?

Regarding the roleplay, I think you are on the right track. I do have some advice outside of the roleplay:

This is the final interview. One thing I always looked for in sales interviews is whether the person who wanted the job could actually close me. It's all well and good to go for a close in a roleplay, but what about the interview itself.

If I told a candidate that I had a few other candidates I'd like to talk to first and I'd get back to them, how did they respond?
If I told a candidate that I would think about my decision and get back to them by X, how did they respond?
Etc.

I don't know how other hiring managers approach things, but I always believed that if someone could close me in an interview, then it was really good evidence that they'd be able to close prospects for my company.
ADK
Opinionated
1
VC Associate
Next to "pain discovery and its effects", I would try to understand what makes their offering unique to competitors and bring it to presentation in a way that "you don't know what you don't know here is also what's possible and what kind of value that brings" - but this is the part that shouldn't come across as salesy! Usually happens after you're able to build rapport and addressing their problems that's already on surface
ZVRK
Politicker
1
Enterprise Account Executive
Thank god I was never asked to role-play, I think I`d really suck at it :/ Also, pretty unrealistic for them to assume you`ll do a good job at it. In any case, I`d play the man, and not the cards. IMO, as long as you keep a good conversation going and there`s good energy throughout the discussion -you`re good.
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
1
Bravado's Resident Asshole
I had to do a role play when interviewing for my job as well. Study up, but don't overthink it. You are allowed to mess up, you don't know their product and they should give you grave on certain aspects
SoccerandSales
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
I think that your points on third level pain are right on, if you can get to questions about "what happens if you don't make a change" I think that helps to make a great case AND managers love it
ChumpChange
Politicker
1
Channel Manager
You've nailed about 95% of what I look for in final interviews. However, I will tell you that your energy and your closing style really impact the post-interview evaluations. I've had some candidates HARD close which felt abrasive. I've had others literally walk me right into the close which I always love to see because it's more of a team working together versus a salesperson giving me an ultimatum. Food for thought.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Solid advice!
ChickenDinner
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Going off a Gong data, 25/75 talk ratio is not realistic. For a disco shoot for 50/50 and for a demo shoot for 65/35

Good luck!
ThatNewAE
Big Shot
0
Account Executive - Mid enterprise
- Go to YouTube and first understand the life of the persona. If it's a Travel Manager - what does the travel manager need from any other tool, what does he look for in his day-day activities. So basically, really put yourself in his shoes first.

- Next, pick a customer testimonial. In their testimonial you will find the pain areas (common ones), pick them

- Prepare a demo / presentation / pitch revolving around this customer story + the pain points they mentioned + the persona's general concerns and create your pitch around the same.

Tip - Take it as a normal general conversation, not as an interview or not as a sales call. You'll nail it that way.
LegacySales
Politicker
0
Account Executive
There's good and bad in this:
It's bad because when I have seen hiring managers hire someone, I rarely have seen them do something more than a couple of interviews and a resume deep-dive.

It's good because they clearly are getting more people from the Org interested in hiring you.

Lastly, it's hard to really know what they are looking for. I had this happened to me and I got absolutely shredded for the most random things.

Goodluck though!
RedLightning
Politicker
0
Mid-Market AE
If they're on G2 or other review sites, go read some of the top reviews to get some end user feedback.

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