Got a call from someone on their talent team. Pretty casual. She mostly wanted to know if I understood what the role was, and whether my past experience lined up. We talked through the industries I’d worked with, my sales targets, average deal sizes, that sort of thing. Also asked about notice period and salary expectations — standard stuff This was a video call with the actual person I'd be reporting to. 45 minutes. Here’s what they really wanted to know:
Can I manage large clients without handholding?
Do I know how to grow accounts, not just maintain them?
What kind of accounts have I handled before — sectors, size, revenue impact?
How do I handle difficult clients or churn risk?
I gave a couple of solid stories — one about upselling a stagnant account by finding a backdoor opportunity with their India office, and one about saving a deal that went sideways when a client got a new VP. They sent over a mini case: "Here’s a client profile. How would you grow this account over 6 months?"
I broke it down into:
Account mapping: Who’s the real buyer? Who’s the influencer?
Value expansion: What additional products could actually solve their problems?
Risks and retention: What could go wrong and how to prevent churn? This was less about skills and more about “Are you someone we trust in front of a $1M client?”
They wanted to hear how I handle stress, ambiguity, big targets, and internal politics. It felt more conversational — like a peer-to-peer check, not a test.
I told a story about managing a high-value account during a product outage, keeping the client calm, and pushing internally to fix things faster. That seemed to land well.After that, they called two references. Then HR called to discuss the offer.