What are the fundamental metrics for any SaaS business? By asking this question, you’re evaluating whether they are creative enough to find uses for your product. But the gems are usually the ones that answer with something simple and impactful like, “Let me show you why…”. Also, try not to ask questions with obvious answers or answers you could find by looking through the company's website. All rights reserved | Powered by, A “Work That Matters From Anywhere” Culture Offers a Human-centered Approach to Work/Life Integration, How a Healthy Culture Prepared Us For The Coronavirus. Describe the rep who was the most difficult to manage in your career so far? Last week I posted some thoughts about what a new sales leader should focus on in their first 90 days.Since then a couple of people reached out and asked me to share my favorite interview questions for a sales leadership candidate. 10. what are the obstacles that you face that may prevent you from realizing these goals? Interview Questions for a Vice President of Sales Executives. Tell me about the history/growth of the company. interview questions to ask senior-level executives what are your top 3 short-term goals for the company? Hiring the right VP of Sales is one of the most important decisions for a founder or a CEO to make. Describe in detail what a typical day is like for a sales leader? The more you learn about a prospect, the more consultative you can be to help them with their goals. Here they are, organized by category. To be considered for exceptional leadership opportunities with our clients, please take the first step by joining the Y Scouts Leadership Community. I always ask these questions but based on the conversation I ask others that come to mind as well. What happened? What is a sales playbook in your own definition? In this scenario, you will be giving the candidate a hypothetical business situation where he or she will have the opportunity to display their thoughts and ideas. Probe to understand their role in building and managing, as they are two different things. Do you have any questions to ask us? And guess what, … Review them to help frame your responses based on your own qualifications, skills, product knowledge, achievements, and sales experiences. Ace your sales interview with these helpful strategies for responding to interview questions, along with examples of common sales interview questions and sample answers. 12 Interview Questions to Ask Every Sales Candidate. What is it like for your reps to interact with you? Salespeople experience an overwhelming amount of rejection in their day-to-day work. When you hire the right VP of Sales, you see your revenues expand in an accelerated, more predictable and scalable fashion. What is the one thing you would change about the company if you could today? What you’re really looking for is that they’ve done their research on you, and they’ve envisioned how they would make the … How do you manage conflict between peers? It stands to reason that you need to have a game plan for your interview to prevent this. The below is a summary of the interview questions, but I really encourage you to hop over to the actual spreadsheet where I include notes about what to look for in candidate responses. For example: Objective: To understand what it would involve for me to work my way up to her position in 10 years. How do you coach/manage reps who are underperforming? You discover that her/his emails are littered with typos, bad grammar, and incoherent sentence structure. Get the week’s SaaS best practices every Sunday morning. Whar sales metrics do you look at daily? Building radically efficient sales teams that win. Let’s say you come in to manage a team and determine that one of the first things you need to improve is forecast accuracy. � And yes, I really do ask every single one of these questions! We find that our best hires have thoroughly researched us, determined the general and specific impact(s) they could have on the organization, and expressed this to us confidently in their first interview. What was the outcome? This is a must if they’re joining my company as an executive. If you want to join their ranks and improve your approach to sales opportunity planning, start with asking yourself these 12 critical questions: Does your team pursue your most important sales opportunities with high intensity and rigor? Describe your general approach to setting quotas. Let’s say you have a sales rep who is always a top performer consistently every quarter. Having been on both ends of the situation in my career, I can definitely relate to this scenario. Can you please tell me in your own words what we do? We decided to ask our Leadership Community what their favorite question to ask a potential new hire looking for a VP of Sales role, and why? The fact is, from CMOs, down to VPs, senior directors, and directors, marketers often have far better intentions than execution. If you expect the sales team to faithfully follow their leader, the VP has to be able to rally the troops. Of course, there are more things you can ask a sales VP or director candidate, but this list covers a lot of bases and you will learn so much about their style and philosophy if you run someone through all of these questions. This VP of Sales should be the person you ultimately trust more than anyone in the entire company because s/he is your revenue generator. Sell me my product. One answer a sales VP said he liked when a candidate said, “My mortgage motivates me.” Saying you are goal-oriented, money-motivated, self-managed, self-determined, and passionate about sales are all good answers. Why or why not. Great sales people get creative and see multiple uses for your product depending on the customer. Home » Blog » High Growth » 10 VP of Sales Interview Questions. 353 vice president sales interview questions. Learn about interview questions and interview process for 1,220 companies. How do you leverage it? See if they can explain what will happen, but more importantly, how it will happen. If they can’t describe how they’ve built a team, chances are they probably can’t build out their process. It happens at every sales job interview. Hiring a sales leader is a big deal no matter what stage your company is. What is the one thing you would change about the company if you could today? Monthly? [Ed Note: If you’re looking for questions to ask in one on ones with an individual contributor, these 1 on 1 Meeting Questions Great Managers ask Their Teams can help.] What will you tolerate from that type of sales rep, and what won’t you tolerate? I made an interview question bank, with notes about what kinds of responses to look for. However, the obvious time to ask open-ended questions is in the qualifying stage with a prospect. I will ask all of these questions over a series of interviews, and I’ve been known to ask some of them repeatedly until I get a sufficiently detailed response. What are your communication skills like? How did you stand out and get management to see … Largest team/smallest team built or managed? What questions do you have for me about [the company] and/or the sales organization? How did you handle it? So, here goes. And remember, the most important thing is what they ask you, not what you ask them. So, go grab the spreadsheet of 50 sales VP or Director interview questions and find yourself a great sales leader! To give you a head start, I have included some of my favorite starter questions for a VP of Sales interview. If not, would the Sale VP have authority to change … Throughout the interview, the VP candidate should look for these three qualities: Performance Conditions: Does the current environment allow the Sales VP to be as effective as possible? Is there anything unique about selling SaaS that is different from other sales environments? You should also ask them about the sales metrics they would use to measure. All […], […] 50 SaaS Sales VP Interview Questions I Always Ask […], Your email address will not be published. What do you consider? Last week I posted some thoughts about what a new sales leader should focus on in their first 90 days. Ask him or her something along these lines: “Describe a time you were part of a successful sales execution of a marketing campaign. As a leadership search firm, Y Scouts often interviews people for VP of Sales roles. What do you focus on, what do you accomplish? Never ask Salary, perks, leave, place of posting, etc. Some of the sales coordinator interview questions you could ask in this section include “What would you do if your team performs poorly?” or “What kind of sales tools have you used in the past? Sales Directors are process-driven, metrics-driven, organized, and relentless. We’ve come up with a list of the most important questions to ask Sales VP candidates in your interviews. This part of the sales job interview isn’t just a formality, and it’s certainly not a chance for you to just coast. When you requested the time with the executive what was your objective? regarded questions. You are asking a great question. Why or why not. You'll gain clarity as time goes on whether your … As a salesperson, it’s important to ask about the history and future growth of a company. Leave your questions in the comments below. I made an interview question bank, with notes about what kinds of responses to look for. 4. Stay in the know by receiving our Sunday email digest of the week’s SaaS best practices content. Hands off or hands on? Contact us if you are looking to find an exceptional leader. In your view, what is the difference between leading, managing, coaching and mentoring? 1. The first person you have to hire before anyone is the VP of Sales - even before you hire anyone in your technical staff, even the VP Engineering/CTO. Maybe you knew there were all sorts of good questions you could ask them … but you ended up blurting out the first one into your head. It’s worth the time to get it right. Of course, soft skills are notoriously difficult to screen for…and they’re also central to the act of selling. Gregory Lewis. Describe your general approach for managing your A+ players. What is your typical team and individual meeting cadence? Why to ask it: Why wait until your year-end review to find out if your boss thinks you achieved your goals - ask before it's too late! The questions portion of … Probe for their level of familiarity and proficiency in the tech stack. Are you formal or informal? What VP of Sales interview questions do we ask, and what do other entrepreneurs ask their candidates? In addition, review a list of questions to ask your interviewer. Here’s the summary. In your opinion should sales or customer success own expansion? Strengths? He or she knows you won't always know your destination, where you want to end up, but you definitely need to know your direction. Most people who are trying to impress you will be more than happy to give you a syllabus of their credentials as to why. They know more than anyone else that their success in this role depends on a viable business plan and lockstep teamwork. Do you use one? Evaluate how they operate. This question quickly separates individuals who are committed and passionate to our vision from those who are simply looking for a job. What will my revenues look like 120 days after I hire you? How do you approach territory creation? What if it doesn’t work? What is the official performance review process like at your company? Describe how you manage an A player who is hard to work with/bad culture fit/not a team player? If someone’s going to join my organization immediately in a senior role, they have to know how to effectively communicate with myself, their colleagues, and direct reports. Describe how you determine OTE for your team, what factors do you take into consideration? What technique works best for you and which one doesn’t at all? Share; 65% of hiring managers in sales agree that a lack of soft skills among candidates limits their company’s productivity. It’s happened to sales rep and early stage founder. What do you need to know before you can design territory? What mix of base and variable. What do you do? What do you do? Working with the other departments: The right answer is it depends – on a whole lot! Because your opinion represents to your VP the compass you use to keep you and your projects/people tacking appropriately. How do you structure your pipeline review meetings? Really. I generally like to question his or her communication skills. Ask questions that require more than a simple "yes" or "no," but also take care to avoid asking questions that are too broad to answer concisely. Does your organization’s corporate responsibility strategy match the availability of your current resources?This question addresses your strategy in terms of the funding, time, people, and information necessary to make the strategy work, determining its feasibility.2. We examine a number of things throughout our evaluations, with special emphasis on Purpose, Values, Functional Expertise, Results, Personnel Development and Learning. This will surely make work much easier for you. We’re on track to miss our target this quarter, you’re the VPS and have 30 days, what are you going to do? Don’t underestimate how important this trait is to a sales VP. What OTE are you looking for? The method used by the candidate to solve a problem will help you create a final impression. The last thing they need is an overly negative leader listing all the things they’re failing at. To understand whether the job is suitable, candidates must ask the right questions. How can you influence an existing culture and shift it towards your ideal? Forecasts continue to be inaccurate after several months—the team is professional and engaged, but non-compliant with your process, they don’t update their deals, they don’t accurately follow the sales process, etc. What kind of sales leader are you? The answer isn’t super important. It helps me identify the journey and their sense of the situation from the get go. Towards the end, the interviewer will turn to you and ask if you have any questions. what is your long-term strategic vision for the company? What brought you here? Sales drive every other aspect of business, often the primary method of gaining new business when dealing in tangible goods and most services. Reducing customer churn and increasing product adoption. ” and why you should be wary of someone who has a quick response. Meeting-driven or open door? If I ran into your last manager on the street and asked them about you what would they say were your weaknesses? Download my free eBook “Top 100 Sales Leader Interview Questions.” Remember, there are no great sales leaders. Since then a couple of people reached out and asked me to share my favorite interview questions for a sales leadership candidate. Hiring a VP of Sales? Y Scouts is an executive search firm that helps nonprofits and social enterprises find exceptional leaders. Do keep in mind that the questions you ask should be in “case-style”. There are many wrong answers to this question, but never a correct one. what a new sales leader should focus on in their first 90 days. Brian Mohr, Co-Founder of Y Scouts shared insightful tips on how to minimize your hiring risk. How do you go about that? Few people can come up with just the right thing to ask at a moment’s notice. In hindsight what would you have done differently? Your first 30/60/90 days. What VP of Sales interview questions do we ask, and what do other entrepreneurs ask their candidates? Weekly? If they can’t answer, they may not be the right choice. What VP of Sales interview questions have you been asked? I love tackling the challenges faced by SaaS companies. Shaping a company culture that employees can be proud of and where they can do their best work. Are they hands off or do they roll up their sleeves and get into the tools themselves? What was the outcome? Subscribe today. I love to ask this question to find out how much they’ve thought about my business. He talks about the bottom line questions that CEO’s like to ask – “So, how much revenue can you drive for us this year? Should sales or customer success own renewals? Identifying what you wanted to achieve will help you frame the questions you should ask. How big a team do you think we need right now, given what you know? 7505 E 6th Ave., Suite 204, Scottsdale, AZ 85251480-374-7110info@yscouts.com, Copyright © 2012-2021 Y Scouts. hop over to the actual spreadsheet where I include notes about what to look for in candidate responses, the most important thing is what they ask you, SaaS Marketing Attribution: Tactics Series - SaaSX, Your SaaS Customer Success Playbook Outline, The 13 Best SaaS Metrics Articles of 2020, The All-New 2020 Big List of SaaS Stats and Benchmarks, How to Stop Solving Every Problem Yourself. You want to be able to make an impact right away and the future of the company could impact how you perform. How do you coach/manage a top performing rep who indicates they want to go into sales management? How would you describe the ideal sales culture? What is the most important and pressing problem for this new person to tackle? How would you approach building an outbound program from the ground up? Can you tell me about a time you made a strategic or tactical mistake at work and how you handled it? What is important is that it is thoughtful. Questions to ask about the Multiplier Mindset. Metaphor again, he or she wants to know whether Europe or Africa is your current destination. What are ten things you can do with duct tape? April 28, 2019 By Anna Talerico 2 Comments. Your candidate’s plan and methodology for building a sales force is arguably the most important area to explore with them in an interview. These are the best sales questions to ask on a sales call to advance the relationship. Dailius, VP Sales & Growth at GetAccept, says he’s curious to learn how much customers are willing to pay to continue using his product/service to “determine both pricing strategy for new customers and the price:value ratio to appropriately triage accounts.” And most of all, running high-growth, capital-efficient organizations. If I asked you to create a sales report for a board meeting what would you include? How important is it? Here’s the summary. September 18, 2017. We won’t share your email address or anything else. How will my performance be measured in this role? what "must's" have to occur to reach that vision? What about in cases where there is little to go on? How do you organize your department (what does your ideal. What should customer success be responsible for if the sales team owns expansion? Being a multiplier (or in your case exponential) is a key mindset to have as a leader. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *. Such as in a startup or an environment where there are limited benchmarks? The interview is your opportunity to understand the company and boss. Tell me about the teams you’ve directly managed, and how you built them. There isn’t a right or wrong answer to this question. Now in my situation above, luckily, the rapport building was good enough and the product won them over anyway, but that won’t always work out. Would you describe your decision-making style as based more on “gut”, or on “data”? Filed Under: Sales Tagged With: Recruiting. This is one of the most important VP of Sales interview questions because you have to ensure this candidate can successfully work in tandem with other department leaders. Given your current knowledge of our team, do you think we need to expand our sales staff? How often do you conduct them? How would you describe your leadership style? […] to address some of the most common and basic executional failures. What are you most proud of professionally? Questions can be: What position did you start at when you joined the company? Have you ever had a situation where you had a conflict with a peer? Interview questions to ask about their expectations: What do you expect your new hire to achieve in the first three to six months on the job? I blog about my experiences and perspectives here at SaaSX.com. Good blog post by sales author Lee Salz on his personal experiences interviewing for a VP position and what to ask a potential VP Sales candidate…. Ideally, sales reps should ask as many open-ended sales questions as they can throughout the sales process. Building/scaling a sales team. Yes, I really ask every single one of these when I interview candidates for sales leadership. Ordinarily I write about bringing out the talent in other people, but for many years I focused on customer experience and marketing. With the hiring of inside sales reps on the rise, there has been a lot written on what to ask job candidates exploring a career in sales. In your role play, cite your top objectives your current sales people have to overcome in their pitches. What process do you follow once you have made that decision? Yes, I really ask every single one of these when I interview candidates for sales leadership. Have them go through a sales pitch with you. 5) Positive. I am an entrepreneur and advisor to high-growth startups. How do you know when you need to let a rep go? 2 Key Questions to Ask Yourself. What if what you described wasn’t effective, and you didn’t see improvement? Sales Director Interview Questions. We decided to ask our Leadership Community what their favorite question to ask a potential new hire looking for a VP of Sales role, and why? Learn more about our process here. See your revenues expand in an interview customer success own expansion understand their in. 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Hire the right VP of sales interview on, what is the performance. But for many years I focused on customer experience and marketing 2 Comments you were part of a sales. Her/His emails are littered with typos, bad grammar, and what do you coach/manage a performer! Tactical mistake at work and how you perform else that their success in this role a! Case exponential ) is a key mindset to have a sales leadership.... Do they roll up their sleeves and get into the tools themselves being a (. Success own expansion my performance be measured in this role depends on viable. And lockstep teamwork, bad grammar, and it’s certainly not a chance you. Success be responsible for if the sales job interview isn’t just a formality, and relentless, “Let show! Of responses to look for cite your top 3 short-term goals for company! You ask should be wary of someone who has a quick response how perform... A must if they’re joining my company as an executive search firm, Y Scouts approach an! 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