Pete Ryan is the co-founder of Gogohire, an invite-only sales talent network used by over 350 companies in San Francisco. He formerly worked with Oracle, LinkedIn, and mobile app startup company Double Dutch. Today, Pete shares some expert advice to help gear yourself up during the interview process.
Here are the highlights of my conversation with Pete:
Gogohire is a platform that connects the top 10% of tech sales talent with amazing opportunities at desirable tech companies.
What you get from Gogohire:
- They make the hiring process more efficient
- Sales candidates visit the site.
- They create a profile.
- They receive interview requests from companies where they can choose to either accept or decline.
- If they accepted the request, they get interviewed at the company.
- If they get hired, they send over $1,000 of hiring bonus.
What the company gets:
- Access to the top 10% of top sales talents who are ready to make a career change
Why sales talents need to ask questions in the interview process:
It’s really not about you, but the hiring manager. You are the product or solution to the hiring manager’s pain point. You need to ask the right questions for the following reasons:
- To show that you’ve done your homework.
- To show that this is how you’re going to help the hiring manager with their success and add value to the sales organization.
7 great questions to ask the hiring manager during the interview process:
- Aside from hitting my quota, what else do you expect of me?
Aside from implying that you’re going to hit the quota, it shows that you want to add more value to the organization and to the hiring manager than just adding revenue.
- What makes a good sales rep here successful versus a not so good sales rep?
This question implies that you care about being the best sales rep in the team, you’re self-aware, and it shows that you want to learn.
- XYZ are your competitors. How do you guys really compare and how is your sales team selling against those guys?
Don’t just show up and throw up. Do your research about the company beforehand.
Resources to learn about the company:
- Company website
- LinkedIn company page
- Go to CrunchBase to find out how much funding they have.
- Go to TechCrunch to read the latest news about the company and get a view of the technology industry.
- What type of mentorship or training do you or the sales organization provide?
This is a good question to ask for entry-level sales folks especially if you’ve just graduated from college because you have to make sure you get the right training. Other questions are:
- How do you take care of your salespeople?
- How do you coach them?
- I noticed you worked at xyz company and then you left that company to join this company, why did you do that?
This is a question to ask if you want to get an idea of their culture.
- I noticed that you have 20 salespeople on your team, what percentage of them are hitting quota?
The answer to this could send you some red flags about the company. If they, for example, say only 3 out of 20 are hitting quota. Not a good sign!
- What’s your sales workflow or the sales tools that you’re using across the team?
This will give you an insight into their approach with sales as to what platforms they focus on when selling and you’d be able to assess how that fits to your comfort level.
Knowing the salary
Don’t mention salary upfront or that could send a message that you’re just there for the money. If you can’t find the information, hold off. Get the job first then find out what the salary is.
Asking the sales leader to meet with their top sales rep
This allows you to ask the sales rep questions like the time it takes to move up to the next level, etc.
Connect with Pete and call him at 415-412-8253.
Pete’s Major Takeaway:
The interview process is not just all about you. It’s about the hiring manager. Ask those questions and do that discovery upfront. Look at the hiring manager as the customer. Treat the interview process as if you’re the solution to the customer’s problems.
Episode Resources:
Interested in hiring great salespeople? Or are you looking for your next sales job? Check them out at Gogohire.com.
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