tonysoprano

Sr. AE

question for sales managers on interviewing

i've been an AE for a min now and am in the job hunt so i've been interviewing again for the first time in 2 or so years

most companies have a final-ish stage of a mock sales conversation whether it's a discovery or whatever else. some companies have you sell something random, which i usually just have be my current product i'm selling

some, though, have you mock sell the product that you are applying to sell. something they do every day, and you are evaluated on doing it for the first time

am i the only one that thinks this is not as productive as another topic, or at least having an interviewee sell the product they're familiar with?

my question for managers that have this as part of their interview process - what is the point of having a candidate sell your product to you?

ty bye

🐱 Off-Topic

👥 Hiring

🗣 Interviewing

13 comments

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

The point is those people are indecisive and I don't want to work for indecisive folks.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Or they are checking a box and this is the latest "technique" they're told to use in the process.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Not working for them either 😆

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

It's good to have standards.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

You're not alone, and this has come up several times recently. There are some good conversations around this if you want to check them out.

nomdeguerre

Executive

Account executive

I agree with you. You’re not really in a position to sell their product. They should have you base it on your current product. However, they can ask you questions about why you think you would be able to sell their product.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

where are the managers at?? i would love some answers here. i have my thoughts but i havnt been in the hiring position

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

I think there are 2 reasons:

1) see how you are in a high-pressure situation when asked questions you might not know the answer to.

2) To learn if you actually did your homework/care about this opportunity, examples (do you know the name of the products, benefits, customer story) Which everyone interview candidate can find on the company website

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

I think the point is not about how good you can sell their product (they will never expect you to know about their product 100%) but how you handle some common situations / objections, communicate etc.

ChumpChange

Politicker

Channel Manager

Hiring manager chiming in. The point of the exercise is just to gauge the sales skills you demonstrate when we see you pitch. How do you open a meeting, how did you structure your agenda, what are your value props, what questions do you ask to certain audiences, how do you handle rebuttals/challenges/tangent questions, how do you present pricing and ultimately... how do you close deals. These are what my peers and I look for in those exercises because this part of the interview weeds out those individuals who cleared the initial interview stages and now they can't talk a big game anymore. You talked a big game.. now it's time to put it on display.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

It's to see how you navigate through uncharted waters. It's not to see how well you know their product. It's just to see if you can cope up with uncomfortable spots.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

I'm not a fan of being on either end of this.

BourbonKing

Valued Contributor

VP of Sales

Full disclosure: I interview candidates all the time and do use this approach.

I suspect that hiring managers who use this approach aren't looking for a perfect sales pitch. They are testing you to demonstrate your sales process...do you start by asking solid discovery questions to uncover need or just start feature dumping. They probably also want to gauge your level of courage and energy...are you eager to give it a shot and jump into a role-play, or are you scared or flustered.

Whether you think you nailed it or bombed it, always ask for feedback. Admit it was probably rough. Ask what you could have done better. What did they like? Show them that you're coachable.

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