Adam Wainwright

Here are some helpful things I recommend doing in preparation for an interview - I'll add some correspoding resources as well. 1. 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, Crunchbase, RepVue, Glassdoor, Company website (a must) 2. Outline who in the business you might tag team to learn about aspects of your GTM responsibilities "i.e - In my first 60 days i'll do some lunch and learns with [Sam Customer Success] to better understand our pre to post sales transition process so I am enableed to hel pthe customer feel comfortable with our post-sales processes." 2. Review the job description and requirements: Do this for your job AND do this for cross-functional jobs that you'll likely interface with. Pull out 1 -2 items of interest and share that you've researched job reqs of folks that you will likely engage with, this will give the hiring manager confidence that you're resourceful and are capable of understanding how you fit into the larger org. 3. Know your numbers and history: Many sales interviews will include historical or behavioral questions, which ask you to describe specific situations and how you handled them. Demonstrate your skills and abilities in areas such as problem-solving, time management, and customer service by having some anecdotes loaded up and ready to go - the more life you bring your resume easier it is for the interviewer to visualize you being a part of the business. 5. Seek feedback from peers or mentors: The single best way to prep for an interview is to ask others for feedback - They may be able to provide valuable insights and tips for improvement as well as give you more and more confidence as you work through how you plan on responding to different questions that could arise - practice is everything Always be honest, authentic, and prepared to demonstrate how your skills and experience make you a strong fit for the position.

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 will give the hiring manager ammo to make a strong case to open up head count. This is actually how I got my job wat Clari so many years ago. First some background: I knew I wanted to work for Clari and about 6ish y/ago because I was a manager who felt the pain that Clari was solving for in a super compelling way. So, I applied through a hiring manager by connecting with him on LI and sharing my epxerience to date and shared how inspired I was by Clari's mission and GTM thesis. He gave me a shot and even helped me get to Andy Byrne, the CEO. At the time Clari was roughly 70-80 EE's. I did my research but I really only came into the first interview armed with the ambition to work there. I didn't yet posses mature enough an understanding of how I was going to make an impact. When I got to Andy Byrne, the CEO of Clari AND final decision maker, he asked my to share my sales process, my philosophy for being successful and driving large deals to close. At, the time, I didn't have a good answer. --- I was told 'no thank you' So, I made it my mission over the next year to do everything I needed to do in order to win over the final decision maker, the CEO Andy Byrne. Here's what I did. First, I new I needed to crush my quota and 'know' my numbers - I got maniacle about understanding my conversion rates, my territories, how I helped my team hit their numbers, how I hired, and what I looked for in candidates. I got to club, again, I got some awards and recognition. I did everything I could to not only perform, but be able to articulate why I performed well. Second, I developed a philosophy (I called it the Sales Uniform, a collection of best practices, and tactics that helped me win and helped me train my team) - This gave me massive confidence for my next interview with Clari (would be about 1 1/2 years later). Then, I reapplied for Clari and when I go to Andy Byrne as the final interview in a round of 4, he asked me "Adam, what are the three things you consider to be important for driving success in your career as a seller?" ... This time, I had an asnwer!! I said "Andy, I think there are a ton of things that have benefited me over the duration of my career, but If I had to distill it to three things I would share that they are the 3 things I make a part of my ethos for my reps: 1. Be incredibly resourceful - never wait for guidance, go out and figure out what you need to do to win. what ever it takes - this requires ambition an, curiosity and creativity, but it ultimately is up to you (me) to go ask the questions, get the answers, and drive sucsess. 2. Practice 'Executive Pressence' - Being mindful about how you present yourself takes time and commitment - practice this by working with those you respect and command a strong sense of executive pressence. And yes, you can ask your lcurrent leaders for guidance on this - they often will appreciate your genuine interest if you ask how you can improve this and if they could share their thoughts. 3. Having incredible curiosity - Sales ppl must be curious - it is without a doubt one of the foundational principals of being successful - but the caveat here is not only being curious (about business, about success, about process) but also poses the tenacity to apply learnings that your curiosity produces. Needless to say - I won over Andy and was offered a closing role with Clari! 

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 customers, deal wit hdifferent procurement teams, understand materila value versus marketing jargon - If I see less than 2 years, I often wonder what I am missing and how the candidate got through screening - BUT, depending on the role or the person - tenure may not be a good judge of ability With a developed personal sales philosophy - a younger seller without a ton of tenure will be in a far better position to help me visualize how they fit into my org. 

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: 1. The general value of the offering 2. The general customer profile 3. How to manage a deal cycle If it's clear that the candidate has done some homework - it will shine through, and resourcefulness is a key defining attribute I interview for. So when getting ready for an interview - figure out what you are converscent in (if you know the company or the product, write out what you know) BUT then isolate the things that you DON'T know and be clear and transparent that THESE things are the things that you don't have explicit knowledge in. Then be prepared to share how you generally plan to fill gaps ... Be confident in what you DO and DON'T know !

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. 1. Focused 2. Educational 3. Inpsired 4. Interesting 5. 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: 1. Tenacious 2. Curious 3. Executive presence 4. Creative in their thinking/problem solving/story telling 5. Positive, Excited

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 coach for this person. 

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 helpful - but it doesn't need to be a strictly written out plan yet. If we are deep in rounds and the position is hotly contested - this is when you would want to do some real homework on how you plan to navigate your 30-60-90 - Figure out the names of your cross-funtional partners - go into Linkedin and shoulder tap some other reps and ask them about your interviewers - the best thing you can do is surprise me with something that is happening to me or has happened to me recently from one of my colleagues. At the end of the day, on those first calls - having a command of time management, curiousity, presence, are far more important that having a dedicated plan ... 

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 the bigger picture - this is the ultimate skill you're practicing for in an 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. 

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 that deal... and then being big enough to lean in and say, it was my fault. I should have put a plan together to get unstuck or get multi-threaded from the get go... etc. These are the reps that I know will work super freakin hard and I'll see marked improvement from over time. These are the kinds of reps who become future leaders. On the otherhand, if I hear "yeah, they went with the competition because we didn't support feature x" I am likely going to be less interested with this candidate because they likely lack the sense of ownership that I require from my top performers.