From the course: Interview Tips for Sales Professionals

How to approach this question for Sales Development Representatives

From the course: Interview Tips for Sales Professionals

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How to approach this question for Sales Development Representatives

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- As an SDR, you're likely going to run into a promising, but maybe just a little bit difficult, prospect from time to time. Your interviewers are going to want to know how you keep these prospects moving through the sales pipeline without losing your cool or the deal. Now, certainly there are people who will ultimately be terrible clients so you don't want to give the impression that you don't know when to walk away. But, this question is asking you to share how you kept a high potential prospect moving forward, even if they were showing early signs of being a pain. Your best way to answer this question is to share a few details on how you assess what you're up against, right up front, so you can deploy the right strategy and keep them moving forward and happy. You could also outline how you let prospects do most of the talking at first as you listen for cues on what you're dealing with. And then, depending on what you hear, you construct your game plan. So say your prospect is super afraid of change yet you believe your solution would really help her solve her problems. In this instance, you could tell the interviewer how you gently educate that prospect rather than push for the hard close. Or maybe you realize you're working with a really big ego. In this instance, you could outline how you are typically complimentary and help them feel like they're the expert so they feel valued and in control. In short, when you're asked how you keep a challenging prospect happy, make sure you showcase both your process and a couple of examples of the types of difficult people you have successfully brought on board.

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