Business Development Manager

Coachability is critical for sales development reps. Observe how well the candidate incorporates your feedback into their second attempt. This will indicate their level of coachability, as well as demonstrate their listening skills.

The obvious (but not necessarily bad) answer is face-to-face training and mentoring. However, a good candidate will know to include online tools, such as video sites, or free alternatives. They'll be looking for ways to train their developers even when there aren't big budgets.

The answer will vary but it should include the backlog of work, the number of defects, and some measure of developer effectiveness, such as functions created, or perhaps lines of code. The point is that the development manager is able to articulate what metrics they look for. These metrics give clues to the priorities that the development manager will have for your development team.

Sales is all about word choice and phrasing. Whether your organization uses a sales script or not, it's good to check if a candidate naturally gravitates to emotionally-charged words that will strike a chord with buyers.

After countless hours of product training, salespeople are intimately familiar with their wares. Prospects, on the other hand, have a comparatively cursory understanding of your product -- no matter how much independent research they've done. For this reason, it's important that SDRs are able to explain potentially tricky or confusing topics in clear and simple terms.

If you have an example from work experience this is ideal, however, do not be concerned if you do not. You could give an example from your private life, such as persuading a friend or family member to get involved with something they were not really interested in. Good sales skills are transferable to life.

Cost reduction is more of an operations perspective. Give the candidate the opportunity to give reasonable measures to increase profits from the sales side.

Say that you listen to their needs and then propose a solution that will meet a majority of their needs. If there are any gaps in the product offering, explain that workarounds can be developed to ensure that business runs smoothly.

Like with most jobs, the key is communication. The form that these communications come in may vary, but the development manager shouldn't know what the business wants more than the business does. Good development managers know that users know their business better and development managers can help them understand the technology so that they can together create the best solution.

A sense of curiosity is necessary in sales development. SDRs have to ask insightful questions to get to the heart of prospects' problems, and investigate their current environments. People with natural curiosity won't have a problem enthusiastically sharing something they learned with you. But if the candidate struggles to come up with an example, it might be a red flag.

This is a bit of a trick question, but it's not a silly one. The best language is the one that the team knows; at the end of the day, that's the language that will get the job done. A good development manager doesn't have room for pet languages.

Iteration and customer involvement should be near the top of the candidate's list of answers. A good candidate will be able to clearly explain what makes these aspects important as well. Agile development is important because of the psychology that it elicits from the developers working on the project.

Cite the specific tools and how you've used them. If you have used a system the company employs, mention your experience to the hiring manager. If you're not familiar with the technology the employer uses, discuss how you plan to get up to speed quickly.

To answer this you need to show a good understanding of the company and say that you are keen to be part of a dynamic team to help the company grow and develop. The aim of business development is to develop growth opportunities, so you must show a keen interest in working with their products and services.

Again, the hiring manager wants reassurance you have the skills to get the job done and know case, activity and sequence diagrams.

Say that you feel that business development is the heart of a healthy business and it is extremely rewarding to see a business grow on the back of your decisions and actions.