Questions To Ask Employers (When You’re Interviewing For A Job)

A friend of mine asked for my career advice the other day as he was preparing to interview for a job — I told him: turn the tables on your employer and ask THEM all the questions.

You may recall from A Simple 4-Step Approach on How To Sell Better (SPIN Selling), that I agree with the SPIN Selling approach in which you ask lots of questions to close a deal.

And this applies to a job interview in which you’re interviewing THEM as much as they are interviewing you.

Note: “Closing” the deal can include you closing it “out” (as in you don’t want to pursue the position)).

So, I rattled off these questions below. I suggest you immediately take control of the interview by saying something like: “Thank you for investing some time in me — would you mind if I began by asking a few questions about you and your business.

*Note: If any of these answers are available through research (e.g. on Web pages), you should research them ahead of time and skip asking them.

Questions To Ask Employers

Questions that Relate to the Person Interviewing You

• How do you get hooked up with the business?
• What are the top priorities for you right now?
• What are some key things I can take off your plate?

Big-Picture Questions To Ask Employers

• What are the top priorities for the entire business right now?
• How is the company structure organized (e.g. is it by department or by brand (with each brand having its own departments) and how does your team fit in?*
• What’s the “secret sauce” to how you make money (or create value)?
• Who are the shareholders/owners of the company? (Do any of them work at the company?)*
• Does the company have a purpose statement or mission statement?*
• Does the company have a set of company values — if yes, may I see a list of them?*

Performance, Compensation & Benefits Questions To Ask Employers

• How are priorities set? (e.g. within your group)
• How will you measure my performance?
• How does compensation work — is it just salary? Is there potential to earn bonuses or equity?
• What’s the company’s approach to work versus personal/family time ?

Questions To Ask Employers That Relate to Just You

• Who would my manager be and who do they report to?
• What is the company’s room for moving up the corporate latter?
• Are there any training opportunities I could potentially take advantage of?

I’ll add other questions to ask employers as I think of them…feel free to do the same in the comments section.

If you ask a lot of questions, and listen carefully, you’ll be in better shape to size up the job opportunity.

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A Simple 4-Step Approach on How To Sell Better (SPIN Selling)

I used to consider “Sales” a bad word; until I got good at it!

In this case if you’re not comfortable with the idea of “selling’ you can replace “Sales” with “persuading” or “problem solving” — now let’s help you sell!

Neil Rackham wrote a terrific book called SPIN Selling in 1996. What I like about it is that it provides you a framework for selling better based on the results and experience of thousands of salespeople and their supervisors.

Most important tip: The more questions you ask, the more effective you will be.

So, what is SPIN Selling?

SPIN is an acronym that stands for Situation, Problem, Implication and Need and the book recommends that you ask questions about all four of those.

Below are some SPIN Selling questions to ask (let’s pretend you are selling vacuum cleaners):

Situation Questions

• How many carpets or rugs do you have in your house?

Problem Questions

• What problems do you have with your vacuum cleaner?
• How old is it?
• How often does your vacuum cleaner’s belt break often?
• How heavy is it?
• Where do you store it?

Implication Questions

• Is your vacuum cleaner so heavy that it aches your back to lift it from the closet or even to vacuum?
• Is you vacuum so large and heavy that it’s hard to store away?

Need/Payoff Questions

• How much happier would you be if you had a new vacuum cleaner that was half the height and weight, and could easily be stored and NEVER needed a new belt again?

So, when trying to persuade or problem-solve or sell, try asking lots of questions first and focus on your buyer and what will lead to their big payoff!

SPIN Selling is a must-read for any business-person; it explains SPIN selling techniques and backs it up with detailed research. Rackham later came out with the SPIN Selling Fieldbook which is also an excellent read.

I recommend you buy SPIN Selling first and then if you have people on your team who you want to share the concept with, then buy them a copy of the slightly less expensive Fieldbook.

Do you have any thoughts on the SPIN Selling technique or the topic of sales in general — if so, please make a comment below.

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