This post was created in collaboration between Lead Edge Capital and True, a data-driven recruiting firm with offices across the U.S. and in Europe.
ROLE: Head of Sales
Sample Interview Questions
- Assess how competitive, hungry, courageous they are. Were they competitive athletes? Have they won President’s club awards or exceed quotas regularly? Have they done something exceptional that required dedication/hard work/relentless determination.
- How do they hire, mentor, retain/reward and fire their team. Have them provide specific examples of how they have hired, how they have coached their team and how they have fired under-performers. Also ask who has followed them in prior/current jobs (who would be the first 3 people he/she would hire). What is their hiring methodology? How do they build & drive culture?
- What are examples of successful Go-To-Market strategies that they have built? Also test for bets that weren’t right and test for course-correction (they don’t always have to be right, but they should quickly spot the winning story, discuss with the Exec team and allocate resources appropriately).
- What systems have they built / optimized? Do they have a repeatable process? Do they collaborate with Marketing, Lead Gen and Product? Do they present to the Board & CEO?
- Do they personally sell deals themselves or have they moved into a pure management role? Are they hunters or farmers?
- Are they selling to similar customers? Selling similar velocity? Similar deal sizes/structure?
- How big a team do they think they need immediately?
- Who were/are their mentors?
