In final round interviews for a few enterprise AE roles at Series A/B startups. Any tips on acing my mock demo/discovery calls with the leadership team?
Know your audience. If you are on with founders, you have to nail the mission/vision. Besides that, make sure you have your call plan in place and nail the basics.
If you're selling *their* product, they won't expect you to know it as well as they do - how could you? It's more about your approach - so plan that out in advance. There's no set right way to do it but definitely start with discovery questions, idenifying pain, finding and managing objections - and don't forget to close. Whether it's getting them to buy, or getting the next meeting on the books - not closing is surprisingly common in these types of role plays because it feels awkward. Make sure you do it. Also, if you are going to be pitching their product and you have the chance - ask a few clarifying questions in advance to make sure that you understand the solution as best as possible. You could even talk to a current AE and ask them what some key discovery questions are. In my experience though, it's better if they let you pitch something that you've sold before - that way you know the product well. In that case you should be comfortable with the pitch - and it's just a matter of demonstrating that you have good fundamentals. Good luck!
A tip I got really early in my career particularly for demo calls: Tell them what you're going to tell them, then tell them that, then tell them what you told them. Oh and make sure to ask a ton of questions (more important than what you know) and CLOSE. Good luck!
Don’t forget the basics: - introduce yourself and set an agenda for the call - ask at least two probing question for every discovery question and try to quantify pain ie get a metric (lost x amount of money doing y resulting in z problem in business) - ask about who else in the business needs to weigh into decision and who signs a contract. Suggest they attend next call. - always set up a next step on the call itself before it ends - understand urgency of problem (when do they want it solved by) and whether there’s budget allocated