25 Business Developer Interview Questions
Assess prospecting, outbound discipline, discovery, negotiation and the ability to open new accounts and markets, for business developer candidates who must create revenue from a blank page.
Business Developer Interview Questions
25 total- 1
Why business development rather than account management, and what attracts you to opening doors that nobody has opened yet?
- 2
Describe the market or customer segment you were responsible for. How did you decide who to approach first?
- 3
Walk me through how you build a target account list from scratch and how you keep it up to date.
- 4
What does a typical week look like for you, and how do you split your time between prospecting, meetings and follow-up?
- 5
How do you get past a gatekeeper or an assistant to reach the decision maker?
- 6
Tell me about the last cold email or call that worked. What did you change to make it work?
- 7
How do you research a company before the first contact, and what do you look for?
- 8
Describe a discovery meeting you are proud of. Which questions revealed the real need?
- 9
How do you know a lead is worth pursuing and when do you decide to drop it?
- 10
Tell me about a deal you opened yourself and closed or handed to a colleague. What was your role at each stage?
- 11
How do you handle a month where nobody answers you and your pipeline looks thin?
- 12
Tell me about a time you built a relationship with several people in the same company, not only your first contact.
- 13
A prospect says they are happy with their current supplier. What do you say next?
- 14
How do you work with marketing to generate leads, and what do you do when the leads you receive are poor?
- 15
Describe a negotiation where the prospect pushed hard on price or terms. What did you concede and what did you protect?
- 16
How do you structure a proposal for a customer with a long, multi-person decision process?
- 17
Tell me about a deal that was lost to a competitor. What did you learn from it?
- 18
How do you use a CRM and sales tools in your daily routine, and what do you refuse to leave undocumented?
- 19
How would you open a new market or country where the company has no customers yet?
- 20
Tell me about a time you worked with a partner, a distributor or a reseller to reach customers you could not reach directly.
- 21
How do you hand a new customer over to the account manager or customer success team so that nothing gets lost?
- 22
What targets did you have for meetings, qualified opportunities and revenue, and how did you perform against each?
- 23
Tell me about a time you had to adapt your pitch because it did not fit a sector or a culture.
- 24
How do you stay motivated and disciplined when you work mostly on your own, with long cycles before results?
- 25
You have two hours and three possible actions: follow up a warm lead, prepare a big proposal or prospect new accounts. How do you choose?
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