“Explain to me, in as much detail as possible, everything you’ve done to prepare for our conversation today.”
If the response to this question is weak, then I suggest you save everyone time and cut the interview short.
When it comes to assessing a candidate that’s just starting their career, you don’t have much of a professional track record to go off of. The above question will help you gauge a few important things.
A bad answer usually sounds like the following:
“Well, I looked at your website...and…[sound of mouse clicking]...checked out the CrunchBase profile, and looked at your LinkedIn profile.”
A great answer to the question came from one of our most recent sales development hires:
“I started off by researching you and your background, so that I could find a way to build rapport at the beginning of our call. I figured that was a key skill that a Sales Development Rep needs, so why not show it off? Then, I dug into your customers page. I’m wondering, is there a particular vertical that you’ve been targeting over the past year? I see that you’ve got [customer x] and [customer y], and those seem like great fits…”
In just 20 seconds he showcased his understanding of one of the job’s requirements, proved he’d done more than just cursory research, and asked a question that led us off on a discussion of how he’d approach different prospective customers for our business based on their vertical. Not bad for a 22-year-old kid with no “real world” experience. Unsurprisingly, he got the job.
What are your best qualifying questions? Share with me in the comments.