Dear SaaStr: How Can I Crush a VP of Sales Interview?
To nail a VP Sales interview, you need to demonstrate that you’re not just a smooth talker with a great LinkedIn profile—you need to show you’re the real deal.
Here’s how to crush it:
- Actually Know the Product Before the Interview. Too many VPs of Sales and CROs show up to interviews knowing almost nothing about the product. Put in the time — to show you will put in the time. Spend 30 minutes watching explainer videos, a webinar, reading the website, etc. Come with questions about top accounts and use cases.
- Know Your Metrics Cold: Be ready to explain the metrics from your previous roles in detail. If you claim you grew sales by 400%, but the company’s ARR only increased by 80%, that’s a red flag. Be precise and transparent about your contributions and how they tie to the company’s success. If your metrics don’t make sense, you’ll lose credibility fast.
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Recruiting is Key: The #1 job of a VP Sales is recruiting. Be prepared to talk about the team you’ve built—who you hired, why you hired them, and how they performed. Bonus points if you can name a few top reps who would follow you to this new role. If you don’t have a track record of recruiting great talent, you’re not ready for this job.
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Understand Current & Cutting Edge Sales Tools: At this stage, you need to be hands-on with sales stack and efficiency. Be ready to discuss the tools you’ve used—Gong, Claude, Clay, HubSpot, Salesforce, etc.—and how you’ve leveraged them to optimize lead routing, scoring, and sales processes. If you don’t understand the tech stack, it’s a major red flag.
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Show Tactical Expertise: A great VP Sales knows how to compete, segment customers, and craft killer pitch scripts. Be ready to share specific examples of how you’ve developed and executed sales strategies that drove revenue growth. Highlight your ability to coordinate with marketing, handle FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt), and maximize revenue per lead.
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Be a Leader, Not Just a Manager: Talk about how you’ve helped your team close deals, spotted issues before they blew up, and made strategic changes to improve performance. If you’ve never made tough calls—like letting underperformers go or promoting top talent—you’re not showing the leadership needed for this role.
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Bring Energy and Vision: Show that you’re not just here to manage a team—you’re here to scale the business. Talk about how you’ve taken small teams and turned them into revenue machines. Highlight your ability to create a repeatable, scalable sales process and how you’ll do it for this company.
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Prepare for Tough Questions like: “What deal sizes have you sold to, and how does that align with our ACV?”
- “How big a team do you think we need right now, and why?”
- “Tell me about a deal you lost to a competitor and what you learned from it.”
- These questions will test your ability to think critically and align your experience with the company’s needs. Be ready to answer them with clarity and confidence .
- Be Honest About Your Fit: If you’ve only worked at startups that never scaled or only at massive enterprises, be prepared to address how you’ll adapt to this company’s stage. If you can’t show that you’ve succeeded in a similar environment, it’s going to be tough to convince to the hiring team that you’re the right person to scale their sales org .
Finally, remember: the best VP Sales candidates don’t just talk about what they’ve done—they show how they’ll apply their experience to the company’s specific challenges. Tailor your answers to their stage, ACV, and growth goals, and you’ll stand out.
And again, please please do 30-60 minutes of solid, real research before even a very first screening meeting.
You’ll rocket ahead of so many folks interviewing just by doing that.
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