CSM/AM interviewing practices
Contributor 
Hi all -
Looking for advice on interviewing practices to troubleshoot drop-off in performance I'm seeing from candidates between hiring manager conversations and a QBR role-play.
As part of our interview process, candidates go through a Recruiter Screen (30 mins), hiring manager call (1hr), and a role play QBR (1hr) usually preceded by a 30 min "discovery call".
During the hiring manager call, I spend at least 35 minutes on situational / philosophical questions to get to the core of whether the candidate has solid decision-making logic and understands the core purpose of customer success. Can they explain the how and why behind the outcomes on their resume vs. using buzzwords like "trusted advisor"?
What I'm finding is that candidates will do well on this portion, but when the QBR role play comes around, they fail to engage the "executive audience", lack structure and objectives to their presentation, and give me little confidence that they have the experience or attributes to perform the job well.
We don't have fully built out playbooks nor the capacity to do a ton of enablement, so the expectation is that candidates can drive their accounts forward (worth noting that candidates have ~5 years of experience).
Any suggestions on how to validate the person's experience earlier on in the process? What are some techniques that are difficult to game or overly prep?
P.S. worth noting that the team is called "Account Management" but really is tasked with Customer Success. This is clarified in the job description and throughout the recruitment process so candidates are clear about expectations.
Thanks all!
Lindsey
Looking for advice on interviewing practices to troubleshoot drop-off in performance I'm seeing from candidates between hiring manager conversations and a QBR role-play.
As part of our interview process, candidates go through a Recruiter Screen (30 mins), hiring manager call (1hr), and a role play QBR (1hr) usually preceded by a 30 min "discovery call".
During the hiring manager call, I spend at least 35 minutes on situational / philosophical questions to get to the core of whether the candidate has solid decision-making logic and understands the core purpose of customer success. Can they explain the how and why behind the outcomes on their resume vs. using buzzwords like "trusted advisor"?
What I'm finding is that candidates will do well on this portion, but when the QBR role play comes around, they fail to engage the "executive audience", lack structure and objectives to their presentation, and give me little confidence that they have the experience or attributes to perform the job well.
We don't have fully built out playbooks nor the capacity to do a ton of enablement, so the expectation is that candidates can drive their accounts forward (worth noting that candidates have ~5 years of experience).
Any suggestions on how to validate the person's experience earlier on in the process? What are some techniques that are difficult to game or overly prep?
P.S. worth noting that the team is called "Account Management" but really is tasked with Customer Success. This is clarified in the job description and throughout the recruitment process so candidates are clear about expectations.
Thanks all!
Lindsey