• General Hiring Guidelines
• Interview process and questions
• Step 2: Email #1
• Step 4: 1st Meeting
• Interview questions
• Guidance Notes
• Step 5: Email #2
• Step 6: Meeting #2
• Interview questions
• Role play
• 30-60-90 Day Plan
• Q&A
• References
• Other interview questions

General Hiring Guidelines

When we are looking to hire senior sales resources, there are generally five things we want to see.

Interview process and questions

1. Screen CVs (Recruiter)
2. Send Email #1 (Hiring Company)
3. Complete tests: a) psychometric and b) cognitive (Candidate)
4. Conduct meeting #1 to a) interview them and b) sell the role. If passed, go to next step.
5. Send Email #2 (Hiring Company)
6. Conduct meeting #2

Step 2: Email #1

Hi [NAME,

Thanks for your interest. In terms of next steps, I would be grateful if you can complete a psychometric and cognitive test by using this link. The psychometric test takes about 4-5 minutes (untimed) to complete. Once you finish this, you'll receive the link to the cognitive test which takes 12 minutes (timed, 50 multiple choice questions) to complete. Many thanks in advance.

Regards,

Step 4: 1st Meeting

Interview questions

1. Who were your last five/four bosses, and how will they each rate your performance on 1-10 scale when we talk to them?
2. What you are really good at professionally?
3. What are you not good at or not interested in doing professionally?
4. Who were your last five/four bosses, and how will they each rate your performance on 1-10 scale when we talk to them?

Guidance Notes

1. What are your career goals?
• Hear about candidate’s goals and passions
• Give the candidate the first word; otherwise, they repeat what you said
• Ideally, they will share goals that match the role’s needs. If they lack goals OR repeat back what is on your website, screen them out
• Talented people know what they want to do and are not afraid to tell you about it
• Candidate should also speak with passion and energy on topics that align with the role
2. What you are really good at professionally?
• You won’t have trouble eliciting strengths
• Ask them for 8-12 strengths. Ask them for examples that will put the strengths into context.
• You are looking for strengths that match the role at hand
3. What are you not good at or not interested in doing professionally?
• If you are not satisfied with the answer, ask them for their “weaknesses”
• If they are bull-shitting, say “that sounds like a strength to me”. Repeat the above question again!
• If you still find yourself struggling, we recommend that you put the fear of the reference check into the person. You say, “If you advance to the next step in our process, we will ask for your help in setting up some references with bosses, peers, and subordinates. Okay?” The candidate will say, “Okay.” Then you say, “So I’m curious. What do you think they will say are some things you are not good at, or not interested in?” Now you’ll get an honest and full answer. The thought that you will be talking to references and verifying the candidate’s answers compels the candidate to be much more truthful and complete than usual. You will be amazed how much of a truth serum this technique can be at this stage of the screening interview.
• You need to identify at least 5-8 weaknesses
4. Who were your last five/four bosses, and how will they each rate your performance on 1-10 scale when we talk to them?
• Ask candidates to list each boss (write their name down) and their rating
• What makes you think your boss would give you a 7?
• You are looking for lots of 8s, 9s and 10s
• 7s are neutrals
• 6s and below are bad
• If you hear too many 6s, screen them out.

Step 5: Email #2

Hi [Candidate],

Thanks for the call last [Wednesday]. We would be keen to progress the discussions with you. Three next steps:

1. Could you do the following dates/times for this call? From experience, this generally takes c. 2 hours. This will be a video call. If this meeting goes well, one of us will make time to meet you in person for an informal conversation and make sure we answer your questions.
• [DATE] / [TIME]
• [DATE] / [TIME]
2. Could we please ask you to fill the attached sales achievements template (file > download) and send to us at least a day in advance of our meeting? More details are on the first sheet.
3. For our meeting, could you please prepare a 30-60-90 plan that is no longer than 10 slides? See proposed agenda below.

Proposed agenda:

1. Deep-dive into your 2-3 most recent roles (c. 45 minutes). Part of this deep-dive will require you to "role-play" and pitch your most recent role's solution to us as the buyers.
2. Given what you know about our products and the target customers, how would you sell our solution? (15 minutes)
3. 30-60-90 day plan (c. 45 minutes)
4. Q&A (30 minutes)

In relation to the 30-60-90 day plan, we would like you to prepare and pitch a presentation on the day. Some guidelines for your preparation:

• Be as specific as possible on what you will do in each stage and what success looks like.
• While the role is focused on both hunting and cross-selling into existing customers, we’d like to see more detail on how you would find new customers.
• We would also like one slide on your mid-term goals beyond the 90 day plan

We appreciate that you have limited information on the business based on publicly available information and what we’ve shared. Please make any reasonable assumptions where you don’t have the relevant information. We also recognise that there will be some overlap between the 30-60-90 plan and your response to agenda item #2 above.

We look forward to our meeting

Regards,

Thanks for the call last [Wednesday]. We would be keen to progress the discussions with you. Three next steps:

1. Could you do the following dates/times for this call? From experience, this generally takes c. 2 hours. This will be a video call. If this meeting goes well, one of us will make time to meet you in person for an informal conversation and make sure we answer your questions.
• [DATE] / [TIME]
• [DATE] / [TIME]
2. Could we please ask you to fill the attached sales achievements template (file > download) and send to us at least a day in advance of our meeting? More details are on the first sheet.
3. For our meeting, could you please prepare a 30-60-90 plan that is no longer than 10 slides? See proposed agenda below.

Proposed agenda:

1. Deep-dive into your 2-3 most recent roles (c. 45 minutes). Part of this deep-dive will require you to "role-play" and pitch your most recent role's solution to us as the buyers.
2. Given what you know about our products and the target customers, how would you sell our solution? (15 minutes)
3. 30-60-90 day plan (c. 45 minutes)
4. Q&A (30 minutes)

In relation to the 30-60-90 day plan, we would like you to prepare and pitch a presentation on the day. Some guidelines for your preparation:

• Be as specific as possible on what you will do in each stage and what success looks like.
• While the role is focused on both hunting and cross-selling into existing customers, we’d like to see more detail on how you would find new customers.
• We would also like one slide on your mid-term goals beyond the 90 day plan

We appreciate that you have limited information on the business based on publicly available information and what we’ve shared. Please make any reasonable assumptions where you don’t have the relevant information. We also recognise that there will be some overlap between the 30-60-90 plan and your response to agenda item #2 above.

We look forward to our meeting

Regards,

Thanks for the call last [Wednesday]. We would be keen to progress the discussions with you. Three next steps:

1. Could you do the following dates/times for this call? From experience, this generally takes c. 2 hours. This will be a video call. If this meeting goes well, one of us will make time to meet you in person for an informal conversation and make sure we answer your questions.
• [DATE] / [TIME]
• [DATE] / [TIME]
2. Could we please ask you to fill the attached sales achievements template (file > download) and send to us at least a day in advance of our meeting? More details are on the first sheet.
3. For our meeting, could you please prepare a 30-60-90 plan that is no longer than 10 slides? See proposed agenda below.

Proposed agenda:

1. Deep-dive into your 2-3 most recent roles (c. 45 minutes). Part of this deep-dive will require you to "role-play" and pitch your most recent role's solution to us as the buyers.
2. Given what you know about our products and the target customers, how would you sell our solution? (15 minutes)
3. 30-60-90 day plan (c. 45 minutes)
4. Q&A (30 minutes)

In relation to the 30-60-90 day plan, we would like you to prepare and pitch a presentation on the day. Some guidelines for your preparation:

• Be as specific as possible on what you will do in each stage and what success looks like.
• While the role is focused on both hunting and cross-selling into existing customers, we’d like to see more detail on how you would find new customers.
• We would also like one slide on your mid-term goals beyond the 90 day plan

We appreciate that you have limited information on the business based on publicly available information and what we’ve shared. Please make any reasonable assumptions where you don’t have the relevant information. We also recognise that there will be some overlap between the 30-60-90 plan and your response to agenda item #2 above.

We look forward to our meeting

Regards,

Step 6: Meeting #2

Interview questions

1. For the last 2-3 roles
1. What were you hired to do?
2. What accomplishments are you most proud of?
3. What were some low points during that job?
4. Who were the people you worked with? Specifically?
5. Why did you leave that job?
2. Sales specific questions (optional depending on the level of detail we have above)
1. Give us 1-2 examples of brand new customers you’ve closed in the past three years? What has worked and what hasn’t when prospecting for new customers?
2. How do you decide a prospect isn’t the right fit?

Role play

1. Please walk us through your core product and sales process.
2. Pitch me your product or solution. To help understand how they will role-play.

30-60-90 Day Plan

1. Present a 30-60-90 day plan. Some guidelines on your plan:
1. Be as specific as possible on what you will do in each stage and what success looks like.
2. While the role is focused on both hunting and upselling into existing customers, we’d like see more detail on how you would find new customers.
3. We appreciate you have limited information on the business based on publicly available information and what we’ve shared. Please make any reasonable assumptions where you don’t have the relevant information.

Others

• Family and kids?
• Where you live?
• Salary expectation
• Notice period

Q&A

What types of people to hire (or not hire) for B2B sales?

• Look for a specialist. Don’t hire an all around athlete. Would you want your GP operating on your heart? Talent needs to be specialised. Success comes from having the right person in the right job at the right time.
• Demonstrable sales achievements. Find people who have artifacts of the type of achievement you're looking for: quota attainment, activity metrics, etc. Ask for actual proof - e.g. activity graphs, leader boards or top sales people reports directly from their org's CRM, for example.
• Small company experience
• Look for someone who had mid-stage start-up experience. Look for orgs in your space that have hit “escape velocity,” i.e. sales staffs that are looking to jump onto their next rocket ship. They just finished selling something novel and probably have the skills to do it again. So, let's say you're a new entrant to the recruiting market like Greenhouse or Lever, you may want to pull people out of Jobvite.
• People who have worked at your target customers usually find it difficult to sell to their “own sector”
• People who have worked at large companies find it difficult to sell to smaller companies. Has this person worked long enough in small companies? If the person only stayed long in bigger companies, then they are unlikely to survive in smaller firms.
• Industry and territory experience. We need candidates who have worked in the specific industry, especially industries that require deep understanding of the sales process e.g. telco, public sector. Similar requirement for territory experience e.g. someone who has spent all their life selling to local customers in Ireland won’t work in the UK.
• Dis-loyal. Poor longevity on any job. if someone has been at a job (or multiple jobs) for less than 24 months, they probably have not sold anything or have not demonstrated sufficient sales. This is relevant for long-cycle B2B sales roles you are hiring for.
• Rolodex not relevant. Hiring sales talent for their industry is largely dead. Today, we can source would-be accounts from LinkedIn, or other sources, so there's no need to hire for a rolodex if the candidate is missing out on other traits. Existing relationships can be helpful but it is a “nice to have” lower priority requirement.
• Other notes
• For roles focused on new logo growth, you need a hunter. Note that true hunters don't like sales management roles
• Avoid channel sales people or 100% farmers.
• Candidates who argue their point of view is a good sign. You don't want someone who agrees with you on all matters.
• Don't take someone because they are desperately looking for a job
• Other “nice to haves”
• Formal sales training is good
• Ideal candidate thinks of this as their own business
• Sources
• The Anatomy of the Perfect Sales Hiring Process | First Round Review

What is the ideal age?

• 35-45 for hunters who will just go to customers and “tent up there” to get a contact. Hunting is exhausting

How do you deal with existing relationships sales staff have with customers?

• Customers generally don't care if the relationship person leaves. "I only had one case where the operator did not like my sales guy leaving because the procurement guy loved him".

Value of role-playing? (Source: Sales Assembly)

• Roleplaying should always, always be a part of your sales interviewing process. It’s a prime chance for you to see each candidate in action and learn how they perform under pressure. But here’s the secret to getting the most out of this exercise: Don’t share your roleplay identity right away — see if they ask for it first.
• Some candidates will jump into their prepared pitch, launching into an attention-grabbing fact or anecdote. Unfortunately, they’ve made the mistake of selling without knowing who they’re selling to.
• Are you an enterprise company that’s used their software before? Are you a growing startup that’s wary of adding new costs? This info will shift their playbook in a major way.
• Note: Keep in mind that this tactic works best when you’re interviewing experienced salespeople. A lesser experienced or brand new sales candidate likely won’t know the ins and outs of pitching yet.

What type of references do I need

• Given names of 5 customers that you know well and I can call based on your relationship.

References

• Direct managers
• How much of the sales was due to the candidate (vs the company's reputation, strong existing relationships/pipeline, etc.?
• Did the candidate achieve his targets?
• How well does the candidate listen?
• Will you want the candidate to sell to you?
• On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate him?
• NB. Previous employer references are okay but they always lie (previous employers are never going to say anything bad).
• Customers
• What were their pros and cons?
• I am going to hire this person and use him to sell back to you. Would you buy from him

Other interview questions

1. Customer reduces their headcount (£45K per annum saving) and reduces their fraud losses by £80K per annum by implementing the Telsis solution. Our solution costs £90K licensing and £20K professional services upfront. What is the payback period in months and what is the ROI (assuming Telsis does not charge any ongoing maintenance and support fees).
2. At Mobile World Congres, you meet the VP Partner Sales, EMEA for IBM which is a large systems integrator. You know that IBM resells third-party solutions (including security solutions) to tier 1 network operators. What do you pitch to him? And what reseller margin do you offer to IBM assuming you think IBM could be a credible partner. For your information, Telsis average order value is £150K (£120K licensing, £30K professional services).
3. You have been trying to sell to a Tier 2 network operator (ABC Telecom) in the UK for over 8 months. In early January 2016, you have confirmation from the Fraud Manager that budget has been allocated for Voice Safeguard and that they are looking to develop the business case with a view to getting it approved by mid-February. Then it will be another 4-5 weeks to get a PO. The value of the PO is approximately £150K including professional services. When do you forecast this revenue?
4. You are speaking to a customer about a potential opportunity and you don't have all the technical details. They ask for a ballpark indicative price. What do you say?