Interview Copilot guides
How do I prepare for a sales or go-to-market interview?
Go-to-market interviews, for sales, business development, customer success and marketing, ask about your numbers, your sales process and how you understand customers, and often include a mock customer call. Have your quota attainment and pipeline numbers exact, and practice conversations that start with the customer's problem.
What each role looks for
- Account executive: quota attainment, average deal size and sales cycle, how you won a big deal
- SDR or BDR: how you book first meetings from outbound, daily activity, handling rejection
- Customer success: retention and expansion revenue, a time you saved an at-risk account
- Marketing and product marketing: defining the target customer, messaging, numbers and experiments by channel
Questions that come up often
- What was your quota last year, and what percentage did you hit?
- Walk me through your hardest deal from start to finish.
- Pick a deal you lost. What would you do differently?
- How would you pitch our product to a customer who's never heard of it?
Preparing for the role-play
- Research the company's product, pricing model, main customers and competitors.
- Instead of pitching right away, prepare five questions about the customer's situation and problem.
- Practice answering objections like "it's too expensive" and "now isn't the right time".
- End by agreeing on a next step: a demo, an introduction or a date.
Practicing with SpeechShield
Add your resume and the job posting to an interview context, with the company overview and product and pricing material as reference material. Have a friend play the customer in a video role-play: it transcribes them and suggests what to say from your materials. Numbers come only from your resume and materials, so it doesn't inflate your results.
Once you're in the job, use Meeting mode for real customer calls. Add proposals and price sheets to a meeting context, and it suggests what to say from them during the call, then writes action items and a follow-up email draft afterwards.
Related questions
What if I can't share exact numbers?
Use ratios instead of amounts: attainment against quota, rank on the team, growth year over year. That beats saying you worked hard without numbers.
Can I apply without sales experience?
Any experience persuading people or managing a target in numbers counts. Talk about part-time jobs, fundraising for a club or customer service, with the results in numbers.
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It transcribes the interviewer's questions and shows talking points from your resume and the job posting. No card needed.