Effective Work Samples and Role Plays for Strategic Account Executive Interviews

Strategic Account Executives serve as the cornerstone of enterprise sales organizations, responsible for managing and growing relationships with high-value clients that often represent millions in annual revenue. The stakes for hiring the right person for this role couldn't be higher – a successful Strategic Account Executive can dramatically accelerate company growth, while a poor hire can damage valuable client relationships and result in significant revenue loss.

Traditional interview methods often fail to reveal a candidate's true capabilities in the complex world of enterprise sales. Resumes and standard interview questions may highlight past achievements, but they rarely demonstrate how a candidate will perform in your specific sales environment with your unique product and customer base.

Work samples and role plays provide a window into how candidates actually approach the critical aspects of the Strategic Account Executive role: how they uncover client needs, develop account strategies, communicate with executives, and navigate complex sales cycles. These exercises reveal skills that are difficult to assess through conversation alone – strategic thinking, business acumen, communication style, and adaptability under pressure.

By implementing the following work samples and role plays in your interview process, you'll gain deeper insights into each candidate's capabilities and fit for your organization. These exercises simulate real-world scenarios that Strategic Account Executives face daily, allowing you to observe candidates' approaches to challenges they'll encounter in the role.

When designed and executed properly, these exercises not only help you identify the strongest candidates but also give candidates a realistic preview of the role, ensuring mutual fit and setting the stage for success.

Activity #1: Strategic Account Planning Exercise

This exercise evaluates the candidate's ability to analyze a complex enterprise account, identify growth opportunities, and develop a strategic plan to expand the relationship. Strategic account planning is a fundamental skill for any Strategic Account Executive, requiring business acumen, strategic thinking, and the ability to align your solution with client business objectives.

Directions for the Company:

• Prepare a mock account profile for a fictional Fortune 500 company that includes: company background, organizational structure, current product usage (if they're an existing customer), business challenges, and industry trends.
• Include a revenue history if they're an existing customer, or potential deal size if they're a prospect.
• Provide information about key stakeholders within the account (roles, priorities, potential champions/blockers).
• Allow candidates 24-48 hours to review the materials and prepare their account plan before the interview.
• During the interview, give candidates 20 minutes to present their plan, followed by 10 minutes of questions.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the account information provided and develop a 12-month strategic account plan.
• Your plan should include: account analysis (SWOT), identified growth opportunities, key stakeholders to engage, potential obstacles, and a quarter-by-quarter action plan.
• Prepare a 20-minute presentation outlining your strategic approach to growing this account.
• Be prepared to discuss your rationale and answer questions about your strategy.
• Focus on demonstrating how you would align your company's solutions with the client's business objectives to drive value.

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the presentation, provide specific feedback on one aspect the candidate did particularly well (e.g., "Your stakeholder mapping showed excellent understanding of enterprise decision-making dynamics").
• Offer one area for improvement (e.g., "I'd like to see more specific metrics for measuring success").
• Ask the candidate to revise their approach to the area needing improvement and explain how they would implement this feedback.

Activity #2: Executive Discovery Role Play

This role play assesses the candidate's ability to conduct an effective discovery conversation with a C-level executive, uncovering business challenges and positioning your solution as a strategic investment rather than just another vendor relationship.

Directions for the Company:

• Designate an interviewer to play the role of a C-level executive (CIO, CFO, or other relevant position) at a target account.
• Create a brief for the executive role that includes their priorities, challenges, and potential objections.
• Provide the candidate with basic information about the company and executive 24 hours in advance, but not the specific challenges or objections.
• The role play should last 20-25 minutes, focusing on the discovery portion of a first executive meeting.
• Record the session if possible (with candidate permission) for evaluation.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Prepare for an initial discovery meeting with the executive based on the information provided.
• Your goal is to build rapport, uncover business challenges and priorities, and position your company's solution as relevant to their strategic initiatives.
• Focus on asking insightful questions rather than pitching features.
• Be prepared to navigate the conversation if the executive is brief in their responses or raises objections.
• End the conversation with clear next steps that would advance the sales process.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide feedback on the candidate's questioning technique, highlighting one strength (e.g., "Your questions about their five-year growth strategy effectively uncovered their expansion plans").
• Offer one area for improvement (e.g., "You could have dug deeper when they mentioned challenges with their current solution").
• Give the candidate 5 minutes to formulate and demonstrate 2-3 follow-up questions they would ask based on this feedback.

Activity #3: Multi-Stakeholder Alignment Exercise

This exercise evaluates the candidate's ability to navigate complex stakeholder environments and align diverse interests around a solution – a critical skill for Strategic Account Executives who must build consensus among multiple decision-makers with different priorities.

Directions for the Company:

• Create profiles for 4-5 stakeholders from different departments (IT, Finance, Operations, etc.) at a target account, each with different priorities, concerns, and levels of influence.
• Provide information about a complex solution that impacts multiple departments.
• Give candidates the stakeholder profiles and solution information 24 hours before the interview.
• During the interview, have different interviewers role-play as 2-3 of these stakeholders in separate 10-minute conversations.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the stakeholder profiles and solution information provided.
• Prepare an approach for engaging with each stakeholder, considering their unique priorities and concerns.
• During the exercise, you'll have brief conversations with several stakeholders to understand their perspectives and begin building consensus.
• After the stakeholder conversations, prepare a 10-minute debrief explaining how you would align these diverse interests to advance the deal.
• Include your assessment of each stakeholder's position, potential roadblocks, and your strategy for building consensus.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide feedback on the candidate's stakeholder management approach, highlighting one strength (e.g., "You effectively addressed the CFO's ROI concerns with relevant metrics").
• Offer one area for improvement (e.g., "You could better leverage the IT Director's support to influence other stakeholders").
• Ask the candidate to revise their consensus-building strategy based on this feedback and explain their adjusted approach.

Activity #4: Expansion Strategy and Value Proposition Role Play

This role play assesses the candidate's ability to identify expansion opportunities within existing accounts and articulate compelling value propositions tailored to specific business needs – essential skills for growing account revenue beyond initial implementations.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a scenario of an existing customer who has successfully implemented your solution in one department or use case.
• Provide details about the current implementation, including successes, challenges, and usage metrics.
• Include information about other departments or business units that could benefit from your solution.
• Designate an interviewer to play the role of a satisfied but busy customer contact who needs to be convinced of the value of expansion.
• The role play should last 20 minutes, focusing on the candidate's approach to expanding the relationship.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the information about the current customer implementation and potential expansion opportunities.
• Prepare a strategy for approaching the customer about expanding the relationship to other departments or use cases.
• During the role play, demonstrate how you would:
• Reference the success of the current implementation
• Articulate the value proposition for expansion to new areas
• Address potential concerns about disruption, resources, or budget
• Propose a concrete next step to advance the expansion discussion
• Focus on business outcomes rather than product features.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide feedback on the candidate's expansion approach, highlighting one strength (e.g., "Your use of current implementation metrics effectively demonstrated proven value").
• Offer one area for improvement (e.g., "Your value proposition could be more specifically tailored to the new department's unique challenges").
• Ask the candidate to revise their value proposition based on this feedback and deliver a more targeted 2-minute pitch for the expansion opportunity.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should we allocate for these exercises in our interview process?

Each exercise requires approximately 30-45 minutes, including time for the activity, feedback, and candidate response to feedback. We recommend selecting 1-2 exercises most relevant to your specific needs rather than attempting all four in a single interview process. The Strategic Account Planning Exercise works well as a take-home assignment followed by an in-person presentation.

Should we provide candidates with information about our actual products for these exercises?

You can use simplified versions of your actual products or create fictional products with similar value propositions. The focus should be on the candidate's sales approach rather than their ability to quickly learn your specific product details. Provide enough information for them to articulate value propositions without overwhelming them with technical specifications.

How should we evaluate candidates across different exercises?

Create a scorecard with specific criteria for each exercise, aligned with the key competencies for your Strategic Account Executive role. Have multiple interviewers evaluate the same exercises using consistent criteria, and compare candidates against these standards rather than directly against each other. Look for patterns across exercises – strengths or development areas that appear consistently.

What if a candidate has limited experience with our specific industry?

These exercises are designed to evaluate sales skills that transfer across industries. While industry knowledge is valuable, focus primarily on the candidate's approach to understanding business challenges, building relationships, and articulating value. A strong candidate with the right skills can quickly acquire industry knowledge, but the fundamental sales capabilities are harder to develop.

How can we make these exercises fair for candidates from different backgrounds?

Ensure all candidates receive the same preparation materials, time to prepare, and evaluation criteria. Be conscious of potential bias in how you evaluate responses – focus on the effectiveness of their approach rather than whether it matches your company's current style. Consider having diverse interviewers participate in the evaluation to bring different perspectives.

Should we compensate candidates for the time spent on take-home exercises?

For extensive take-home assignments like the Strategic Account Planning Exercise, consider offering compensation, especially for senior candidates who may be balancing multiple interview processes. This demonstrates respect for their time and expertise while potentially increasing the quality of their work and engagement with your process.

The Strategic Account Executive role is pivotal to your organization's growth and client relationships. By incorporating these work samples and role plays into your interview process, you'll gain deeper insights into candidates' capabilities and make more informed hiring decisions. These exercises not only help you identify the strongest candidates but also give candidates a realistic preview of the role, ensuring mutual fit and setting the stage for success.

For more resources to enhance your hiring process, check out Yardstick's AI Job Description Generator, AI Interview Question Generator, and AI Interview Guide Generator. You can also review the complete Strategic Account Executive job description that informed these exercises.

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