How much weight should past quota attainment carry?

Some, as context. Attainment depends on territory, product, how quotas were set and timing, and it is hard to verify. Ask what drove the result, and let the role-plays and deal walkthroughs carry the rating.

Should account executive interviews include a mock presentation?

Yes, if the job involves presenting. Send the buyer profile and a product overview a couple of days ahead, keep it to ten minutes, and rate it against the anchors rather than on polish. Every candidate gets the same brief.

Should we ask for a 30-60-90 day plan?

A short plan can show how a candidate thinks about ramping up, but it often rewards slide polish over judgment. If you ask for one, cap it at a page and discuss it rather than grading the document.

How do we interview an account executive moving from a different industry?

Focus on the transferable competencies: discovery, managing a buying group, negotiating and forecasting. Use your own product and buyer for the role-plays, and expect the candidate to learn the domain during onboarding.

Free interview kit

Account Executive interview kit: questions and rubric

For hiring teams interviewing a mid-level account executive who runs business-to-business deals from first meeting to signed contract. It covers a short screen, five competencies with behavioral questions, role-plays and work samples, anchored ratings, the questions never to ask, and a rule for deciding.

5 competencies · 10 questions · anchored 1-to-5 scale · Updated 10 October 2026 · Written by the Itya team

Share this kitLinkedIn X WhatsApp Email

How to use this kit

Agree the competencies with the hiring manager before the job is posted.
Give each interviewer one or two competencies, so nothing is asked twice.
Ask every candidate the same core questions; follow up freely.
Rate each competency against the anchors straight after the interview, alone.
Debrief on quotes, not adjectives, then decide with the rule at the end.

First-round screen

Fifteen to twenty minutes, by phone, video or a disclosed AI screen. The aim is to confirm the basics before the panel spends its time.

What draws you to this role, and to selling this product to this kind of buyer?
Tell me about the deals you close today: typical size, cycle length, who you sell to, and how much of your pipeline you source yourself.
How have you performed against quota over the last two years, and what explains your best and worst periods?
The job description sets out the location, travel and start date. Do those work for you, what is your notice period, and what on-target earnings range are you expecting?

Competency 1

Discovery and qualification

Deals are won or lost in discovery. Account executives who find the real problem, the buying group and the urgency forecast accurately and waste less time.

Role-play: run the first fifteen minutes of a discovery call. I am a department head at a target customer. (The interviewer works from a brief with a real problem hidden behind a surface request.)
Follow up with
- What do you know now that you did not know at the start?
- Is this a qualified opportunity? Why?
- What would you need to learn on the next call?
Strong answer
Asks open questions, uncovers the underlying problem and what it costs, learns who else is involved and the timeline, and summarizes back before proposing a next step.
Weak answer
Pitches within the first few minutes, runs through a checklist of closed questions, misses the hidden problem, or leaves without a next step.
Tell me about a deal you disqualified or walked away from. How did you decide?
Follow up with
- What did walking away cost you?
- How did you tell the buyer?
Strong answer
Names specific signals (no budget owner, no urgency, poor fit), raised them with the buyer directly, and moved the time to better deals.
Weak answer
Has never disqualified a deal, or kept every deal in the forecast until it died.

Rating	What it looks like
5 · Strong	Uncovers the underlying problem and its cost, maps the buying group and timeline, summarizes back accurately, and disqualifies early when the signals say so.
3 · Mixed	Uncovers the surface problem and the main contact's view, but misses the wider buying group or the cost of doing nothing.
1 · Weak	Pitches before understanding the problem. Cannot say who decides, why now, or what the problem costs the buyer.

Competency 2

Deal strategy and stakeholder management

Business purchases involve several people with different concerns. An account executive must understand and win the group, not just the champion.

Walk me through a complex deal you won. Who was involved on the buyer's side, and how did you win each of them over?
Follow up with
- Who was your champion, and how did you test them?
- Who was against it, and what did you do?
- What almost killed the deal?
Strong answer
Maps the roles (economic buyer, champion, technical evaluator, procurement), describes deliberate actions for each, and explains a risk they spotted early and handled.
Weak answer
Talked to one contact only, cannot say who signed, or credits the win entirely to the product.
What would you do if your champion left the customer's company two weeks before signature?
Follow up with
- What do you do in the first 48 hours?
- What do you tell your manager?
Strong answer
Contacts the other stakeholders quickly, re-establishes the business case with the economic buyer, finds a new champion, and updates the forecast honestly.
Weak answer
Waits for a replacement to appear, keeps the forecast unchanged, or abandons the deal.

Rating	What it looks like
5 · Strong	Maps the buying group early, plans actions for each person, tests the champion, and spots and handles risks before they stall the deal.
3 · Mixed	Engages several stakeholders on larger deals, but reacts to risks rather than planning for them.
1 · Weak	Single-threaded deals. Cannot describe who decides or how the buyer's organization reaches a decision.

Competency 3

Objection handling and negotiation

Price, competitors and risk come up in every deal. Strong account executives handle them without giving away value.

Role-play: I am the buyer. I say, 'Your competitor is 30% cheaper. Match it and we sign today.' Respond.
Follow up with
- What would you need to know before offering anything?
- What could you trade instead of price?
Strong answer
Explores what the buyer is actually comparing, restates value in terms of the buyer's own priorities, trades any concession for something (term, timing, scope, a reference), and knows their walk-away point.
Weak answer
Discounts immediately, attacks the competitor, or refuses rigidly without exploring the objection.
Tell me about a negotiation that went badly. What would you do differently?
Follow up with
- Where did you give away too much, or too little?
- What did your manager say?
Strong answer
Describes the specific moment it turned, what they conceded and why, and a concrete change in how they now prepare or negotiate.
Weak answer
Blames procurement or the buyer, or cannot identify anything they would change.

Rating	What it looks like
5 · Strong	Explores each objection before answering, ties value to the buyer's priorities, trades every concession for something, and prepares a walk-away point in advance.
3 · Mixed	Handles common objections and holds price reasonably, but trades concessions without getting anything back.
1 · Weak	Concedes price at the first push, or argues with the buyer. Has no clear walk-away point.

Competency 4

Pipeline management and forecasting

The business plans on the forecast. Account executives who keep an honest pipeline and build their own make the number predictable.

Walk me through your current pipeline, or the one from your last role: how much, at which stages, and how you decide what to commit.
Follow up with
- How much of it did you source yourself?
- How accurate was your forecast last quarter, and why?
Strong answer
Knows their numbers, uses stage definitions based on what the buyer has done, explains how they separate commit from best case, and owns their misses.
Weak answer
Vague on numbers, stages based on feelings ('they loved the demo'), or an optimistic forecast with the misses blamed on slipped deals.
What would you do if, halfway through the quarter, you could see you would land at 60% of quota?
Follow up with
- What would you tell your manager, and when?
- What would you not do?
Strong answer
Tells the manager early with an honest view, focuses on the deals most likely to close, builds next quarter's pipeline in parallel, and avoids desperate discounting.
Weak answer
Hides it until the last week, or discounts across every deal to pull them forward.

Rating	What it looks like
5 · Strong	Runs a pipeline with buyer-based stage definitions, forecasts accurately, sources a meaningful share themselves, and raises shortfalls early.
3 · Mixed	Knows their numbers and forecasts reasonably, but stage definitions are loose and they rely on others to source most deals.
1 · Weak	Does not know their pipeline numbers. Forecasts on hope and explains misses with outside factors.

Competency 5

Presenting value

Buyers remember how their problem was described, not the feature list. Account executives must present and write so the buyer can make the case internally. Rate clarity for the buyers in the territory, never accent.

Work sample: give a ten-minute presentation of our product to the buyer profile we sent you two days ago.
Follow up with
- What did you leave out, and why?
- How would you change it for a finance buyer?
Strong answer
Opens with the buyer's problem, shows only the capabilities that matter to it, ties them to outcomes, invites questions, and keeps to time.
Weak answer
Tours every feature from the top of the menu, barely mentions the buyer, runs over time, and invites no questions.
Work sample: write the follow-up email you would send after the discovery call we role-played.
Follow up with
- What is the one thing you want the reader to do?
Strong answer
Summarizes the buyer's problem in the buyer's own words, confirms next steps with dates and owners, and is short enough to forward internally.
Weak answer
A generic thank-you with a brochure attached, no agreed next step, or a summary that misstates what the buyer said.

Rating	What it looks like
5 · Strong	Presents only what matters to the buyer's problem, is easy to follow, keeps to time, and writes follow-ups the buyer can forward as-is. Accent plays no part in the rating.
3 · Mixed	Presents clearly and mostly to the buyer's problem, but includes features that do not matter to this buyer, and follow-ups lack firm next steps.
1 · Weak	Presents features, not the buyer's problem. Follow-ups are generic or inaccurate.

Never ask

Don't ask a candidate's age, or their graduation year to work it out. Why: age says nothing about sales ability, and age-based decisions are unlawful in many places.
Don't ask about marital status, children, pregnancy or how a parent would handle travel. Why: none of it is job-related. Describe the travel and ask every candidate whether they can do it.
Don't ask about religion, caste, community or the origin of a surname, directly or by proxy ('What does your father do?'). Why: in India these questions signal caste and religion, which have no bearing on the job.
Don't ask 'Where are you from originally?' or 'What is your native place?'. Why: it invites judgments about region and community. If the territory needs a language, test the candidate in that language.
Don't ask about health conditions or disabilities. Why: the only relevant question is whether the candidate can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation.
Don't ask for past base and commission history where the law restricts pay-history questions, as many US states and cities do. Why: it carries past pay gaps into the new offer. Ask for the expected on-target earnings range instead.
Don't ask for a current or former employer's customer lists, pricing or pipeline data. Why: it asks the candidate to breach confidentiality and exposes your company to risk. Ask how they work, not for their employer's secrets.

Making the decision

The must-haves are discovery and qualification, deal strategy, and pipeline management and forecasting. Any 1 on a must-have is a no, and so is any competency rated 1 by two interviewers. A hire needs an average of 3.5 or higher. Treat claimed quota attainment as context to probe, not as a score. The hiring manager decides after the debrief and records the role-play evidence behind each rating.

Questions people ask

How much weight should past quota attainment carry?: Some, as context. Attainment depends on territory, product, how quotas were set and timing, and it is hard to verify. Ask what drove the result, and let the role-plays and deal walkthroughs carry the rating.
Should account executive interviews include a mock presentation?: Yes, if the job involves presenting. Send the buyer profile and a product overview a couple of days ahead, keep it to ten minutes, and rate it against the anchors rather than on polish. Every candidate gets the same brief.
Should we ask for a 30-60-90 day plan?: A short plan can show how a candidate thinks about ramping up, but it often rewards slide polish over judgment. If you ask for one, cap it at a page and discuss it rather than grading the document.
How do we interview an account executive moving from a different industry?: Focus on the transferable competencies: discovery, managing a buying group, negotiating and forecasting. Use your own product and buyer for the role-plays, and expect the candidate to learn the domain during onboarding.

A kit is step one.

Itya holds every interviewer to the same rubric, records the interview, and drafts the scorecard with the quotes behind each rating. The AI drafts; your team decides. Free plan, unlimited teammates.

Run this kit in Itya All interview kits