AMA: Clari's Sr. Sales Director, Adam Wainwright on Sales Interviews

I'd say the one thing that winning candidates have in common is based on how easy they are to talk to. When an interview goes right its. Focused Educational Inpsired Interesting Flows well So, the best candidates tend to have enough knowledge about me or my business that they are dropping references to things that are familiar and show a genuine curiosity that helps me visualize them on a call with a prospect.  The best candidates typically have the following in common:  Tenacious Curious Execut ...Read More

I have 2 questions that I love to ask to guage self-awareness. 1. The first is simply - What is the 1 thing that you think you could really improve on or do better? 2. The second - Tell me about a time that you weren't successful and help me understand how it impacted your approach to your job. These are the kinds of questions that I like to use to determine if the candidate is focused on self-improvement or, is an excuse maker.  Why: In sales - having humility enough to qualify 'why' I lost tha ...Read More

Here are some helpful things I recommend doing in preparation for an interview - I'll add some correspoding resources as well. Research the company and its products or services: It's obvious - but it's understanding of the company you are interviewing with, however, don't try to become an expert - where you lack knowledge, double down on how you plan to learn more about the companies product and its differentiatiors in your first 30 to 90 days - do this by         1. Research on Linkedin, Crunch ...Read More

Red flags I look for are around tenur in a closing role -  The biggest thing I am trying to interview for/hire for is an understanding or even basic personal philosophy on how the candidate drices a process.  If I see short stints at sales gigs - I don't immediately DQ as this could mean culture just wasn't a fit - however, I am concerned that with short stints comes a loack of a developed process. It takes time to learn what a great process looks like at a company - you need to talk to a ton of ...Read More

The most common mistakes have to do a general lack of preparedness -  It's hard to know exactly what to prepare for when hopping on an interview - but generally speaking I know a conversation isn't going well when I hear things that demonstrate that the candidate doesn't really know about my business ... but worse, it isn't clear to me what the candidate kows versus doesn't know or even shouldn't necessarily know.  The basics, try to have a base line of the following: The general value of the of ...Read More

This comes up a lot - and I have a POV on this. This is hard to do - but I have coached colleagues over the years to do the following when they told me that they had a "top job" in mind regardless of whether the company was hiring or not.  1. Find the hiring manager you want to work for (in-network introductions will yeild the highest return) 2. develop a really strong point of view on the business and how you'll fit into it 3. develop a really strong personal philosophy that you stand by - this ...Read More

I always recommend that the candidate does the requisite prep work for the interview they are heading into - if its a first call, the prep needs to be oriented around: 1. The company and why "I" am a great candidate (sense of history and performance and curiosity in the business) 2. Showing well - but not overdoing it - Wear a nice shirt, sit up straight, engage in Q&A - Deep product knowledge is not a plus here - instead, helping me understand how you plan on navigating your first 90 is hel ...Read More

This is hard to place in a 60 minute interview, let alone the proverbial 30-min call, it thats all you get.  But a simple trick I like to use is to frame up questions that get at the bottom of following three things - 1. Is this person resourceful? 2. Does this person posses an executive presence? 3. Is this person curious about my business?  I like to ask questions that help me guage examples of above behavior - because, and I suspect this is obvious, I need these to be clear and present when m ...Read More

I love to ask questions that help me get a sense of how the rep percieves themselves -  I like to ask questions like: "Tell me about a time that you you navigated a really tough deal - what did you do to win it, how did you overcome the challenges?"  but I follow it up with "Tell me a bout a time that you failed - you lost the deal. What could have done differently?"  On the last question, If the rep ducks and doges by saying someone else was to blame - I feel like I probably wont be a good coac ...Read More

The best way to improve interviewing skills is super simple - and this is going to sound reductive -  Go ask your most respected colleagues & peers to interview you - just get creative with it.  But the take away should be  Develop a point of view on your history. what motivates you, what makes you succesful and how you plan to harness it and systematize it going forward.  The practice with trusted colleagues will arm you with newly developed point of view about yourself and how you fit inot ...Read More