ZoomInfo Account Executive interview questions

After applying a few days later an internal recruiter reached out to me, telling me about their process. During my interview search, I've done interviews with 12+ companies at this point. This recruiter was a stand-out for all the wrong reasons. The nicest way to describe her is to imagine selling yourself to a librarian or DMV worker it was very "blah," which in SAAS typically isn't the case (you typically see people with energy, excited to talk to you, etc.) She told me I'd be a great fit for their commercial AE role which is equivalent to (SMB, but they decorate it in a way to make it seem Mid-marketish). Mind you I went into this thinking this was a Corporate or Enterprise AE position which aligns much closer to my recent background. When I tried to ask questions to get more clarity she would fumble her answer and give me what sounded like a template answer (RED FLAG). I made it clear I was not aware that this is for an SMB position. I asked if they have any roles for Mid-Market or Enterprise (which I have a proven track record of succeeding at the last 5+ years). She tries to sell me on this concept that zoominfo AE's all start off SMB and that the culture there is to promote fast. (RED FLAG #2) Anyone in SAAS knows the skillsets for SMB to mid-market and especially to Enterprise are completely different skill sets that don’t translate easily, especially not something you just pick up in 1 year. She tries selling me on the idea that in 6-month if I do well, AE’s get promoted and move up to "corporate" and then "enterprise). At this point I just want to speak with the hiring manager to get clarity because I sensed she was incentivized to low ball me. (this is 100% assumption). I asked if she thinks I’d be a good fit with my background she says she things I’d be a great fit. The next day I email her I'm still interested. She schedules me to speak with the sales leader and have a significantly better call. He does a much better job of making sense of all this for me and tells me someone with my background doesn't have to start in the commercial space and that it's his call, and he recommends me for corporate. I'm a bit more excited he said he thinks I'd be a good fit his only doubt was me getting back to the "quick" sales cycle, something I haven't done in 5 years. I explained I had done that for over 5 years that my goal there would be to prove myself and eventually work my way to become an "enterprise" that I look forward to the challenge. He's like great! I ask what the compensation looks like now that I'm technically going for a higher position. After fumbling with his words, he tells me the "talent team" will give me a call and update me. I wait 5 days for a follow-up from the talent team. I decide to reach back out - Where the original talent recruiter responds, saying can we speak today? Without me responding (I was busy) she calls me anyways. She asks if I have "demo" experience. Now, this is a typical question for a role like this but whats frustrating is I already told her and the sales manager I did so I was a bit set back by them asking me questions I've already answered. I clarified I do I’ve been doing demos for the last 5+ years. She told me the sales manager emailed her saying he wasn’t sure if I did or not - I asked about the Corporate role now that he recommended me for it. According to her, he never mentioned it. That they were only interested in me for commercial. At that point I was so frustrated with this whole process that I told them I rescind my application. That out of the 10+ interviews I’ve done the last 20 days that this has been the worst experience by far. After speaking to a few people who have worked there they told me there sales interview process is designed to move quickly as the turn around there is fairly common so they have people coming and leaving all the time. That the people there are good but a lot of the reviews you see are from new hires who are asked for good reviews and the company bets that most don’t go back to change it. They did clarify that promotions are often but they typically pay those promoted less than those hired externally. Everyone I know that worked there is no longer there. Take my experience for what it was, maybe It was a miscommunication, maybe there are silo’s between talent team and sales leadership, or maybe this was some sort of test for my patience.

The interview process was as seamless as could be. They know what they're looking for in candidates and they're great at moving swiftly with the process. Start to finish was 1.5 weeks. First interview was the phone screening, second was an interview with 2 leaders at the same time. Last one was a mock discovery call with the west coast VP of Sales and the same 2 leaders. Great part is, they understand that people aren't going to nail a presentation right out the gate. Instead they focus on seeing how you navigate a call. How do you present yourself, how confident are you with navigating a conversation with multiple personas, do you know how to qualify. Every other company I interviewed with asked me to dedicate a year of my life creating novel of a presentation about why I'm a good fit! I cannot express how incredible this interview experience was. McKenzie Griffin was my recruiter and she was the best recruiter I've ever worked with in an interview process. Very kind, great energy and highly supportive throughout the process. If something didn't make sense, she would call me right away to help make sense of it. What you see in all the other reviews about McKenzie being an angel is absolutely true. Zoominfo is just different. If you're considering applying for a position at Zoominfo, I HIGHLY recommend it. Hopefully this review the convincing you needed.