Account Executive Interview Questions

This sample can assist you when getting prepped for a job interview with potential employees for the post of account executive. As for the role itself, it requires different skills and qualifications depending on the company’s business line. For example, account executives may be charged with managing deals, as well as client-based relationships or even both.

Hard skills question set

Needless to explain that account executives hit the spotlight when it comes to business development. Thus, you should pay careful attention to the applicant’s professional credentials and educational background. If you hire for a senior role, ask the interviewee about their experience in sales or customer service. In case you seek an accountant executive for an entry-level role, consider their enthusiasm, curiosity, and savviness. The suggested situational and operational questions will be quite helpful:

• What are the benefits of being an account executive to your mind?
• How do you cope with rejection?
• Rate your familiarity with CRM tools.
• How to add value to a presentation or demo?
• Have you ever felt uncomfortable with a cold call? Speak about it briefly.
• Are social media useful in terms of identifying prospects?
• Describe your strategy for detecting sales opportunities.
• What are the crucial points of establishing successful business collaboration?
• Imagine a prospective customer keeps refusing to make a purchase. How would you manage to convince them?
• In case you have to handle several client-based queries, what is your way to prioritize?

Soft skills question set

These personality-based interview questions will make it possible to penetrate into the very essence of the potential employee’s skills. When asking them, keep an eye on the applicant’s attitude and reaction. This is a sure-fire way to define if they have been absolutely honest when writing out their CVs. The crucial abilities for account executives are business acumen, confidence, and exquisite communication and negotiating skills. To fish them, you can diversify an interview flow with some practical tasks, but this part is totally optional.

• Tell about a case when you have successfully solved a client’s query.
• What deal from a bunch of the ones you’ve closed do you consider the most challenging?
• Speaking about your past performance, what sales cycles were the most difficult to handle?
• Think about a time when you stumbled upon an aggressive and dissatisfied client. How did you cope with it?
• Can you name at least one occurrence when you managed to close the deal despite the unfavorable chances?
• Describe a situation when you failed in customer acquisition. How did that happen? Was it a lesson for you?