How to Research a Company Before a Sales Interview
Research is about understanding context, not collecting facts. This enables you to position your evidence better than anyone else, elevating yourself as a top candidate.
Many candidates miss this opportunity by not understanding what the company and its sales team are going through now.
💡 Step Up Sales Principle
Having the right understanding of a company is the precursor to giving strong answers to almost every question asked in an interview.
That might seem quite strong an opinion, but think of it with a simple example. The small high-growth company that has limited sales support and structure wants to see evidence you can work in that dynamic environment.
They potentially care less about the massive deal you closed through a well-established partner network (as good a piece of work that might have been).
You want the hiring team to say “this candidate gets our environment and what we are looking for”.
Become the candidate who makes interviewers think “they get us”.
So ultimately, you need to assess that environment before you interview (and/or uncover it as you interview).
How to Approach Research - Understanding the Opportunity
When I’ve interviewed in the past, I always base my research around 2 core things:
What phase is the company in?
What does the hiring manager personally want?
“Find core themes in this research you can later position your evidence against”
What Phase is the company in?
This goes beyond job description and surface-level research. They are clues. What you really want to uncover is what type of candidate would fit into this environment and why.
When I moved into my first Strategic role from Enterprise, I realised through research that whilst the company was well established, the strategic team was new.
They were effectively operating as a smaller start-up within the company. New leader, less proven go-to-market, less marketing and inside sales support. The key theme? Understanding it’s a start-up environment within a bigger company, meant I could later position my background against that.
Show you understand their environment beyond surface level.
What does the Hiring Manager personally want?
Sales leaders have their own agenda, goals and targets. Whilst they want great people in their team, hiring can be time consuming and stressful.
They aren’t looking for the most polished CV, they want candidates who give them confidence they will succeed in their environment and support solving their challenges.
Using the example above of the “start-up within an established company” theme, the sales leader (who’s the hiring manager) needs a fit for that.
In this case, that means ability to figure things out as you go in an unstructured, evolving landscape. They want some autonomy, they want a self-starting mindset. There are the things you want to align yourself with later on.
“Bonus Tip - ASK THE RECRUITER OR HIRING MANAGER”
You can combine your research with qualification too. As an example, when I got my first Strategic AE Role, I asked the hiring manager a simple question in the 30-minute introduction call that often starts an interview process.
“What are the main traits you are looking for in this role?”
That’s it…
…nothing complex but surprisingly not everyone does this. The hiring manager answered that he wants a calm and confident operator who gives clients confidence, and that it’s backed up with a proven sales methodology.
So what does that empower me to do? Talk more strongly about my approach to sales, how I operate day to day, and how I prepare to be calm and collected with prospects. Much of the evidence I then gave in my answers, tied back to those traits.
Note - If you’ve gone through a recruiter it may be they can give you this insight before any interview takes place. Use that, but still verify with the hiring manager.
How to Use the Research - Build Your Evidence
You’ve not done the research just to show you’ve made an effort. It gives you the information (context!) to position your experience in a way that shows your are exactly what they need.
This is how great candidates stand out: by mapping evidence from their career to what the hiring team actually needs in the role.
Within the Sales Interview Preparation System developed by Step Up Sales, the process of researching the company and identifying the right examples from your experience forms the foundation of interview preparation. If you've got an interview coming up, here's a shortened version you can work through today:
✅ Exercise:
Focus your research on these key areas:
Is the company growing and by how much (LinkedIn Insights is an easy source for this)
Where do they sit in the market (leader, challenger, start-up)
What are their typical clients and industries
What are the sales team dynamics (big well established team, small with all new hires, and so on)
How established is their go-to-market, i.e. do they have set processes, ways of working and support, or are you on your own
Based on this, what do you think are the main traits the hiring manager wants to see in the candidate? Then list evidence in your career where you’ve shown these traits.
Write a “Why Me Narrative” - a 20 second pitch that explains how you fit into their context for this role based on the above.
This exercise isn’t designed to be exhaustive in terms of what you could research. And my advice isn’t to spend all your prep time researching.
You should research enough to understand the context, find those key themes, and then move with confidence into how you frame your experience, evidence and answers.
Typically all good sales people come across well in interviews. Having a more nuanced understanding of the opportunity, and the ability to position your evidence better than other candidates is a way to elevate yourself as a top candidate.
📌Key Takeaways
Research isn't about knowing the company inside out. It's about understanding the context well enough to position your evidence better than other candidates.
Ask and qualify - an interview process is multiple stages. Continue to discover more information to better position yourself against.
And as a final thought when thinking about research:
Don't ask yourself, "Have I researched as much as I can about this company"
Ask yourself,
"Do I know the real context around this company and role so I can position my evidence specifically against that”
If you've got an interview coming up and would like help applying this approach to your own experience, book a free discovery call.