How does one gauge autonomy in a sales interview?

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 my reps are on calls with customers...

...So, if I get the sense that you can navigate resources (maybe having experience in tools like CSMs or LMS or anything that might be routine resource or intel gather tools) then I know I wont need to teach the basics. 

...So, if I get the sense that you are in control of the flow of the convo - a good sense of time management - an assertion of what they want to get out of the conversation ... then I know I've got someone who can command a call and will likely meet the executive pressence requirement. 

...So, of I hear questions that are super freaking relavant - this warms my heart - I know they're a great candidate if they possess a sense of "this is why my candidacy is relavant to you interviewr, right now" ... thats $$$ and usually generates interesting conversation - which makes all the difference. 

You can usually gauge autonomy in a sales interview through the questions you ask while speaking to 1) the hiring manager and 2) members of the interview team who are currently in the role you are interviewing for.

1) Questions you can ask the hiring manager to gauge autonomy:

• How would you describe your leadership philosophy and style?

• If I were to ask members of your team to describe you as a leader, what would they say?

• Can you tell me about a time you helped one of your current reps close their biggest and/or most complex deal? What role did you play?

• If I have an idea that I believe can help improve my performance (or the performance of the team), what's the best way to raise that?

2) Questions you can ask potential future peers during the interview:

• How would you describe the leadership of [hiring manager]?

• Can you tell me about how [hiring manager] typically works with you? engages in 1:1's? expectations of deal reviews?

• How does [hiring manager] typically support your biggest deals?

• Can you tell me about a time you had an idea to improve the performance of yourself (or the team) and what your experience with that was?

I believe you're referring to assessing the level of autonomy you will get in the sales role you're interviewing for. In most instances, autonomy and flexibility are given to top performers who consistently hit or exceed their numbers in Sales. It is expected for a manager to be way more prescriptive if you are underperforming. That said, here are some questions you can ask the hiring manager to assess their management style and to see how much autonomy other top performers are currently getting: 

• How does your approach to managing bottom performers differ from your approach to managing top performers, if there is a difference at all?
• What will your daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly expectations be of me aside from hitting my targets? What level of accountability is there to ensure these expectations are met?
• What does a day in the life of a top performer look like? How do they determine how to structure their day or schedule? 
• To what extent is there room for creativity to get to goal? What strategies do most people follow to hit goals? Are there examples of people who use very different strategies to get to goal, compared to most other salespeople? 

There's a few different ways to gauge a candidate's autonomy in a sales interview.

1. Behavioral Questions: Ask situational questions that require candidates to describe times where they had to work independently to achieve sales targets or overcome challenges. For example one of my go to questions is, "What's the most creative, out of the ordinary, or above and beyond thing you’ve done to win a customer?"

2. Past Experience: Review the candidate's resume and ask about specific examples where they demonstrated autonomy in previous sales roles. Inquire about their sales process, strategies they implemented independently, and decisions they made autonomously.

3. Problem-solving Scenarios: Present examples of current sales scenarios and ask how the candidate would approach them. Evaluate whether they demonstrate the ability to think critically and make decisions independently in real life situations that arise.

4. Role-play Exercises: Conduct role-playing exercises where the candidate must handle a sales scenario independently. We ask candidates to run a discovery call and give them basic information on the team. Observe how they handle the situation and objections without much assistance or input.