The Top Three Reasons Sellers Fail Interviews
I’ve interviewed 100+ final round applicants for sales roles at Google over the last few years. Today we’re discussing the top three reason I reject more junior sales candidates. And before you delete this email thinking you’re too senior for this to be relevant, this might help you in your next interview or, if you're doing the interviewing, it might help you hire the highest quality candidates. Let’s dive in.
Why else should you care about this topic? The way you should show up in customer or internal company stakeholder meetings isn't too dissimilar than the way you want to show up in an interview. I'll talk about the senior sales interview in a future newsletter.
The top three themes missing in candidates I reject are:
1) Structured answers
Is the candidate’s thought process easy to follow? Have expectations about what’s about to be discussed been set? Taking a pause to jot down the agenda points for the question’s response goes a long way.
Candidates should use the SBI framework for behavioral questions: What was the Situation and why was it challenging? What Behavior did the candidate take? What was the quantifiable Impact?
Candidates should use the CAFS framework for hypothetical questions: Proven ability to gather Context while also knowing when to make educated Assumptions, build a Framework outlining action to be taken, and a walk through the Solution.
2) Data-backed results
Real candidate closing statements to a behavioral interview question this past year were “And as a result, the customer relationship really improved” and “I don't have results yet, but we're heading in the right direction.” They showed they didn’t have enough examples where they actually drove tangible results. Or worse, the candidate displayed they didn't think that quantifying customer/stakeholder impact was worth highlighting in a sales interview.
3) Brevity
This is tied to structure but deserves its own bullet. If a candidate can't succinctly explain the impact of their work or the way they would handle a hypothetical situation, why should an interviewer feel as if they’d act differently in front of a senior client stakeholder?
The vast majority of sales interview questions fall into two categories: behavioral and hypothetical. Know the SBI & CAFS frameworks well to effectively sell yourself in the next interview.
