How To Crush a Sales Job Interview (In 4 Steps)

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I've interviewed over 500 sales reps in my career...

Most reps have no idea how to sell themselves in a job interview.

They drone on for 5 hours when you ask them to walk you through their resume, then give nothing but fluff when they're asked to explain how they run a discovery call.

If you can't sell yourself... how can you expect a company to let you sell for them?

So today, I'm sharing how the top 1% reps ace each part of the sales interview:

1. The Prep
2. The Background Questions
3. The Sales Questions
4. The Rep's Questions

Let’s get after it.

1: The Prep: Win the Interview Before It Starts

Just like on a sales call -- you can set yourself apart from all the average reps by showing you went above and beyond on the interview preparation.

Here are 4 ways to create a halo effect around yourself before the interview starts:

1. Research your interviewer: This sounds obvious, but I literally interviewed a candidate the other day and he asked me "have you ever sold to HR?" which made it extremely obvious he didn't even look at my LinkedIn. Figure out their role in the organization, how long they've been there, and what they've done in the past.
2. Get insider info from recruiters and reps: You need to know two things: what the interview is about and what that person cares about. Ask your recruiter and reach out to a few reps on the team to let them know you're interviewing, and see if they'll give you 5 minutes to help you prep so you can knock the socks of the interviewer.
3. Send a pre-meeting agenda. This is what lets you win the interview before it starts. Send a basic agenda email to the interviewer that includes a greeting, 1-2 tidbits of how you've prepared for the meeting, and if there's anything else you prepare to nail the conversation.
4. Show Your Prep via The 60 Second Rule: Don't waste the first 60 seconds of the interview asking where they're calling in from or talking about the weather! In the first 60 seconds, point out something you've learned in your prep (ie: congrats on the promotion to Sr. Manager <or> I talked to Dane on your team and he said you helped him negotiate his biggest deal ever last week).

When you share these things early in the process, the entire demeanor of the interview changes because you set the tone that you're not going through the motions like every other mediocre candidate out there.

2: The Background Questions: Focus on the high points, transitions, then shut up!!!

Once the interview starts, you're typically asked background questions before the team gets into sales-oriented questions.

The single most common complaint I hear from interviewers is that reps ramble on for 10 minutes when asked to walk through their resume.

My rule of thumb is to focus on one high point per role and each key transition when walking through your resume and get through the whole thing under 90 seconds (time it!).

For example, I talk about my Carta experience like this:

High Point (#1 AE): I became the #1 AE at Carta -- and while I was good at a lot of things, it was because I had the ability to generate more pipeline than anyone else.

Transition: New VP of Sales joined and said "ok bud, what's your secret?" Next thing I knew, he put me in charge of the whole SDR organization.

High Point (Head of SDR): And over the next year we doubled the team size but tripled pipeline generation and revamped our whole outreach strategy.

Transition: And that's when I made Director to run all of SMB sales too.

Focusing on high points and transitions allows you to stitch your accolades into a story without droning on for 17 years.

From there, here are 3 other common background questions you'll get:

1. Why are you leaving your company? Never bash your current job. Explain your current situation, what's gone well, but then be honest around how you're looking to grow and what that means for the next opportunity you're seeking out.
2. Why do you want to work here? Use the answer above to explain why this company aligns with your goals. Get tactical. What about their product got you excited? Their stage? Their company? Their sales team?
3. How have you performed relative to quota? If your attainment looks good, easy. If your attainment's bad because no one's hitting quota, lean on your stack rank (ie: you're #2 out of 8). But if you're not doing well, lean on what you are doing well (ie: #1 in pipe gen) and what you're working on every day to get to the top.

A note on the ethics: Don't lie on the last one. A smart employer will backchannel you and instantly rescind the offer when they find out. You're better off owning the fact that you're looking in the mirror and coming up with a rock solid plan to turn it around.

3: The Sales Questions: Break everything into 3 steps and give them the "perfect bite"

From here, you'll start to get sales questions like:

1. How do you run a discovery call?
2. How do you deal with a CFO asking for a 50% discount?
3. How do you multithread / get access to power?
4. How do you uncover the decision making process?
5. How do you make sure your deals close on time?

I find that most reps give me verbal diarrhea when explaining their sales process and truly have no clue why they are doing what they are doing.

In coaching sales teams and creating content for 30MPC, the #1 most important skill for me to master was breaking things down in a way that's easy for people to understand.

Instead of walking each question, here's how I answer any sales interview question:

1. Pause and Think: Before thrusting yourself into verbal diarrhea, pause and think. I've let silence in my interviews sit for a solid 5-10 seconds at times -- this shows that you're comfortable letting the silence sit to give a thoughtful answer and shows tremendous professional restraint.
2. Tell 'Em What You're Gonna Tell Em: I'll usually say "I'm gonna break my answer into the major parts of a discovery call, then you can tell me where to dive in." This allows you to give a shorter answer, while acknowledging that you're holding some of the details back instead of rambling them at your interviewer for 10 minutes.
3. Break Your Answer Into Threes (CRITICAL): Everything in sales can be broken into three steps. For instance, I always break my discovery calls down into an agenda, discovery questions, and next steps, which helps the interviewer (or reader) understand my process in chronological order.
4. Give (Tactical) Examples For Each: Summarize each step and give a tactical example with brief talk tracks, steps, or frameworks as needed. When walking through my minimum viable discovery framework, I explain that I use PPO to set an agenda, drop into situation/problem/impact discovery framework (and give an example from Pave), then explain the 5 Minute Drill that I use to wrap up the call.

2 minutes is the "perfect bite" answer. Give yourself enough time to highlight each step and give a tactical example while leaving some meat on the bone for follow-up questions.

Pro Tip: I "job interview" people the same way I "30MPC interview" people. Listen to the Hall of Fame 30MPC guests and how they answer our questions -- that's your goal.

4: The Rep's Questions: Don't ask the same questions as everyone else... and close them!

Toward the end of the interview, it's your turn to ask questions.

Instead of asking BS questions like "tell me about the company culture," here are 3 types of questions I like to ask.

1. POV Questions. Put yourself in the shoes of the seller and think about the challenges you might experience. One candidate at Pave asked me: “Since HR typically isn’t tied to topline revenue, I’d imagine it’s challenging to find buyers that have secured budget for your solution. How do you work through that?” --> this showed me they were really thinking about what it's like to sell Pave.
2. Professional Development Questions. These allow you to understand how the team can help you hit your personal goals while foreshadowing your career goals and where you want to be involved as a teammate. For example, you might ask "one of the reasons I was excited to work for you is that I know you sold 7-figure deals at Oracle. What do you find it takes to make the leap from MM to ENT?"
3. Closing Questions. Many sales interviewers will expect you to "close" your ?interview. So when you're wrapping up, you can simply ask: “I really appreciate the time today, Nick. Before we jump, I have to ask -- there any open concerns you have about me as a candidate so I can address them openly?”

PS: This is not the time to ask about quota attainment, accelerators, or free snacks. Ask that stuff towards the end of the process once you’ve gotten the offer.

And lastly, always send a thank you email within 30 minutes of the interview. Managers submit feedback quickly to keep things moving and you want them to see it before it's too late. (Bonus Points: Include where you thought you could've done better)

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That's a wrap folks!

If you liked this, we had a 10/10 podcast on how to nail a sales job interview with Adam Ochart, a top 1% sales leader at Gong and multiple time 30MPC guest.

Let me know if you want more career-oriented stuff like this and we'll keep it coming!

It'd warm Nick's heart if you'd subscribe to the email version of our newsletter to get sales advice hand-delivered to your inbox every week.

Cheers folks.

-AF