CSM Recruiting - Presentation Round

Andy Sackley

Hi everyone - looking for insight or examples!

Given how important it is for CSMs to be able to communicate & educate customers, as part of our interview process we ask candidates to present to a small panel. In the past we've allowed them to present on any topic, as long as they teach us something!

As we grow, we're looking to bring this back to more of a business focus and I'm updating our presentation prompt and instructions. I'm hoping others in the community may be able to share their presentation prompts or outline the topics they use.

Thanks in advance!

Brian Hartley

Hey Andy - I spent some time with Emmanuel Malanda and learned from him how Calypso Tech approaches this round.  I tagged him on this thread!

cc @Emmanuel Malanda

Emmanuel Malanda

Thank you @Brian Hartley.
@Andy Sackley - we did introduce the panel presentation as well. the idea around why we did was similar to what you explain on your post. I have create a 3 page document that talks about a fictitious customer and provides in it information that one would need to have to have a meaningful meeting (internal or external). In addition, we provide the candidates with a deck that contains common slides we use, roadmaps, etc.
the candidate has a choice (yes we give them the choice) between doing a business review type meeting and in that case the panel will grill him/her as customers sometimes do or they can chose an internal review meeting to discuss the customer problem , what we plan to do etc.
Once a candidate goes to the panel round, they have 1 week to prepare the presentation and they have to tell us in advance what sort of meeting it will be.
On the day of the presentation the candidate will do their presentation for the first half, we will interact and ask questions as we go and to finish the presentation, there is a section reserved for "on the spot " type questions (the questions are more scenario based) and they must tell us how they would manage the situation.

we can discuss on a call if you would like, do let me know

regards
Emmanuel
 

Kevin Mitchell Leonor

Highly recommend modeling your prompts to be based on knowledge gaps your team currently has. This will help you identify individuals that will round out your CS team creating an info-share highway.

Andy Sackley

Thanks Brian, Emmanuel & Kevin - I went with a focussed set of 'Business Review Slides' based on a fictitious customer with plenty of details that they can use to show value / areas for improvement and even expansion opportunity as part of the presentation back to us. 

We had the first candidate go through this yesterday and it went very well.
Appreciate your feedback too.

Andy