Spotting the "Feature Pitcher": Massive Red Flags in Senior AE Interviews

Introduction: The Most Costly Hire You Can Make

Enterprise sales hiring doesn't just cost a lot of money. It costs compound interest.

A bad hire can have ripple effects throughout the sales funnel, impacting deal velocity, pipeline health, and overall revenue potential.

One of the most frequent and costly hires is an AE that pitches solutions before learning about pain points. While they may be strong communicators and able to articulate product value, there's a key issue hiding beneath their polished exterior:

They pitch solutions without problem identification. This hallmark trait has earned them the dubious title of a "feature pitcher."

And when it comes to interviewing for a sales role, spotting red flags for a feature pitcher is crucial to building your dream sales team.

Because while it's hard to pinpoint the right mentality, it's much easier to identify the wrong one.

What Is a Feature Pitcher

Feature pitchers are sellers who depend more on their product knowledge and presentation prowess to make sales. This type of seller's focus is always on the solution as opposed to the problem.

Feature pitchers believe that the creation of value comes from the presentation of features, capability, and the product in question.

There are several red flags that are associated with this type of selling personality.

First, feature pitchers are product-centric. All of their discussion centers on what the product does and not necessarily the needs of the prospect. They focus on the functionalities and specification details of the product without having an appreciation of the business context.

Secondly, they are demo-centric. The seller depends more on product demonstrations to engage with prospects. This is as opposed to making discovery-based discussions to gain insights.

Lastly, they are reactive sales personalities. Their responses are guided by how the buyer responds without taking a proactive initiative to get to the root cause of the issue.

Though effective in transactional sales situations, this type of selling is counterproductive when selling in enterprise organizations.

That explains the reason for knowing the feature pitcher red flags during sales interviews.

Signs That Candidates Are Feature Pitchers During Interviews

Feature pitchers often give themselves away through their behavior when being interviewed.

This can easily be overlooked, if attention is paid to only what a person talks about and not to their thought process.

The first telltale sign that a person is a feature pitcher is their tendency to jump to conclusions. In any situation, feature pitchers will start telling how they would solve it, without spending time figuring out the problem first.

The next telltale sign is talking more than listening. Instead of finding the answers to their own questions to better understand the situation, feature pitchers prefer explaining something they think they know all about.

Another sign is talking about features of the product more than about problems related to the deal. While interviewing feature pitchers, one can see that they are more interested in what products they sold and what features they had, instead of talking about why they needed the client.

Also, one should pay attention to the following aspects of behavior:

·         Focusing on demos delivered instead of issues solved

·         Asking generic discovery questions

·         Being unable to articulate business impact discovery

All these signs indicate feature pitcher candidates.

Why Feature Pitches Are Ineffective in Enterprise Sales

Enterprise sales is quite different from regular transactions. It involves overcoming complexities, aligning various people, and making a solid business case. Feature pitches are not effective in this area for several reasons.

First of all, these people do not know how to handle complexity. Since they do not engage in deep discovery, they do not have the complete picture of the situation. Hence, they are unable to get the alignment or consider other priorities.

Second, their skills in conducting discoveries are poor. They ask shallow questions and fail to identify the causes of the problems. Their solutions end up being off-target.

Third, they cannot deal with the challenge of stakeholder alignment. An enterprise sale involves numerous people, and each one has their priorities. Without this awareness, it is impossible to create consensus.

Some common outcomes include:

·         Deals getting stuck at advanced stages.

·         Unpredictable opposition from some stakeholders.

·         Poorly structured or non-existent business cases.

Clearly, the recognition of red flags when interviewing is necessary because...

Once hired, it is hard to change such habits.

How to Spot Them Early On

To prevent yourself from hiring feature pitchers, it is essential to design an interview process that will expose candidates' ways of thinking, rather than just their communication skills.

One of the most efficient methods for this purpose is using discovery questions.

Rather than concentrating on results, inquire about the process by which these results were achieved.

For instance, "How did you figure out what was the core issue for your customer?" and "What sort of questions did you ask to establish its business implications?"

Such questions will require candidates to show their discovery methodology.

Lastly, assessing questioning depth is also a highly valuable technique.

The best salespeople are those who ask multiple layers of questions. In other words, their questioning starts from surface level and moves towards deeper implications for the company.

Feature pitchers, on the other hand, typically stick with surface level questions.

Pay attention to whether the candidate talks about asking "why" questions when dealing with problems and connecting the questions to results.

In terms of differentiators, depth of questioning plays a major role here.

One last tip for assessing potential enterprise sellers, test their patience.

Try putting them in an environment where there is limited information, and watch their reactions. Do they ask more questions first, or immediately start pitching solutions?

This technique helps detect red flags among feature pitchers in a sales interview.

The Price Tag on Misaligned Mindset

It's not just about individual productivity when hiring a feature pitcher.

It's about the whole sales team. Deals become harder to manage. Discoveries become shallower. Alignment becomes weaker. Forecasts become inaccurate.

In the long run, the negative effects compound each other. The price isn't just lost revenue but lost time and opportunities.

That's why mindset trumps skills.

Skills can be learned from training and experience. However, mindset determines the use of those skills. A mindset focused on features is hard to shift. It involves overcoming tendencies that have been ingrained over years of practice.

Conclusion: Hires Based on the Wrong Mindset Are More Difficult to Train Than to Hire the Right Skills

When it comes to sales for an enterprise sale, it does not depend on how well one can sell something.

It depends on whether or not one can figure out the actual problem.

The fact that feature pitchers will be great communicators in sales interviews does not mean much.

These guys are able to communicate effectively, pitch well, and have the product knowledge.

However, all these advantages are not going to help in any way.

Thus, spotting red flags in sales interviews is very important.

Because hiring people with the wrong mindset is much harder to correct than teaching the right skills.

Companies who really know what they are doing and understand the value of sales do not hire effective communicators only.

They hire people with minds and with the ability to solve problems.