Startup Pricing Is Hard

Think you’re the only startup with pricing growing pains? Fear not, my friend.

Packaging and pricing at a startup is messy.

Here are 6 true stories of pricing mixups, muddles, and missteps.

I lived to tell the tales. And you will too.

6 Hilarious But True Stories About Startup Pricing

1. New Features For All.

We rolled out a new feature that was only for clients on our highest pricing tier. **BUT** we didn’t have tech built to lock the feature down. So the next feature we rolled out was pricing tier feature enforcement. 😂

Silver lining – we had a few clients like the new feature so much, they upgraded to keep it.

2. Zero Discounts.

We noticed a customer was getting quite a bit of functionality for a rather small price. After checking the contract, we understood why. There was a zero missing on the final price tag. 🤦‍♀️

Our process for making contracts was that a sales rep would copy a beautified Google Doc, adjust the pricing and package details, and send to the customer as a PDF.

I can’t imagine how a mistake could have happened! 🤔

NOTE: This is a totally legit, very common way to do contracts early on. It rarely makes sense to have a fancy automated contracting tool when you’re getting started or the sales team is <10 people.

3. Sky’s the Limit.

Our pricing plans had usage limits…but no way to limit usage within the app.

Customers would go over their limit and we’d find out because they’d tell us or we’d manually check their account. Then we’d have a conversation and draw up paperwork for an upgrade that could be as small as a $10/mo.

Only much (much much) later did we add warning limits, minimum bundle amounts, and an in-app upgrade feature so customers could buy more on the fly.

4. Well, This Is Awkward.

We found out a customer was over their usage limits…because it crashed our app. ‘Nuff said.

5. Never Ever Do One-Off Pricing.

We had a well-known, enterprise customer who wanted special pricing. Now, everyone knows that one-off, ad-hoc pricing is a huge no-no. Terrible idea, say the startup and pricing gurus. And yet, when the check is big enough…

Every month, we’d request a data pull from the engineering team, put it into a spreadsheet, do lots of math, make it beautiful, and send it to the customer.

BOOM. Technology at work 😉

NOTE: While one-off, manually-executed pricing is hilarious/terrible, it can be a legitimate way to test a new pricing model and make money while doing so. Just make sure it’s a test and not the new standard.

6. Thanks for the Pricing Help!

We had recently updated our pricing packages. A customer was increasing their usage and wanted to upgrade to the next package. Going through the upgrade process, the customer pointed out that it was cheaper to stay on their current package with add-ons than upgrade to the next tier.

Oops! Glad we had a customer who was good at math to point out that our new packages didn’t make sense. 🙃

Happily Ever After

These stories have a happy ending. The startups involved were not laid low by pricing snafus. They have all gone on to tremendous success.

Was it because of their perfect pricing strategy?

Ummmm. No comment. 😂

Was it because they moved fast, cared about their customers, solved a huge problem, and learned from their mistakes?

Most definitely.

Are you going through contract or packaging growing pains? Any hilarious pricing stories to share?

Today, I’m sharing another simple yet game changing concept from the brilliant Francis Cordón.  

It can (and should!) be used at any company stage. Your sales team will love it. Your customers will love it. It becomes a key metric for the customer success department. And you’ll know exactly where and when you’re delivering value to your customer.

Behold…the Customer Win Slide!

What is a Customer Win Slide?

• A simple one slide summary of a quantifiable “win” that a customer experienced while using your product or working with your company.
• A member of the customer success team helps uncover the win and documents it.
• It’s stored in an easily shareable format (ahem, like a slide deck) so it can be referenced and used across the company for sales, marketing, product insights, and more.

What are the components of a Customer Win Slide?

1. Company name

• Uh, pretty self explanatory here.

2. Short description that summarizes the company without using their name

• e.g. “$18B Public Market Cap Saas Data Platform” or “$400m Women’s Luxury Fashion Retailer”
• Explain it in a way that resonates with your ideal customer or addresses frequently asked questions like, “Do you have any international customers?” or “Do you have other small businesses like us?”
• Someone can easily delete company name to share this slide anonymously while preserving the company context

3. Picture of the win

• Ideally a screenshot from within your product that shows the win data!
• Less ideal but workable is data from within the customer’s organization - hiring info, revenue report, other key info related to your company’s impact
• A picture is worth a thousand words - MUST HAVE VISUAL EVIDENCE!

4. Summary - with numbers - of the win

• “Page load time decreased by 50% after identifying 3rd party tags”
• “Revenue per order increased by 15% within 30 days of implementing SolutionABC”
• Another option is to highlight one of the main value drivers of your product (see “Real World Examples” below)

What makes a great Customer Win Slide?

1. It aligns or directly ties in with your users’ North Star metric.

• If it doesn’t, why not?
• Does the customer success team need to uplevel their conversations?
• Does the product need more reporting for ROI and North Star metrics?

2. A customer can share the win with their boss’s boss.

• Sometimes a customer will share a win with you. You’ll document it into a win slide. This is a big win for them:
• Look at what I did that our vendor thought was worth sharing.
• Here’s a simple, visually appealing summary of my impact (...that our awesome vendor put together for me).
• Other times, you’ll find the win on behalf of your customer and share it with them! When you summarize it to them, make it an easily forwardable communication (email, slide, landing page) so they can share it with their boss, their boss’s boss, and beyond.

Why are Customer Win Slides so amazing?

• The database of wins continually grows.
• Scalable format and process.
• Small (only one slide) but mighty!
• Sales can easily use in pitch decks or send to customers as a reference. No need to ask, “Do you have an example of a customer who…?”, which is time consuming for all.
• A meaningful, trackable data point for customer success (# of new Customer Win slides per quarter) beyond renewal dollars or usage metrics.
• Can execute with a team of 1 or 100.
• Improves customer understanding of your value.
• Makes users look like heroes internally and externally.
• It’s more than a customer review. It’s evidence that your solution WORKS.
  

Real World Examples

Rigor is the OG of Customer Win Slides. Here are two examples.

Laudable does a super cool video-first, digital option with micro-testimonials on a landing page.

Build Your Own

Work on your first Customer Win today! Here’s a Customer Win Slide Template to get you started.

Want more customer success genius from Francis Cordón? Find his customer success overview podcast here and detail on his North Star metric concept here.

Do you do Customer Win Slides? What other strategies have you used to identify and share the success of your customers?

The Art of No

The O’Daily has been dropping a lot of k-NO-wledge lately: how to decide if something is a yes or no and how to actually say no.

We saved the best for last. The pin-no-cle. Grand fi-no-le. A culmi-no-tion. (Ok, I’m done.)

Today we talk about how to say no to your boss…or anyone else who materially impacts your livelihood and well-being and you don’t want to piss off!  

Your boss mentions a project, asks you to own something, sends over an event for you to attend. Everyone’s familiar with this scenario.

The reality is sometimes a direct “no” isn’t a good option. Here’s what I like to do instead.

3 Steps To Say No When It Matters Most

1. Ask about priorities.

Put this request in the context of the other work you’re doing help the company. Explain what you’re currently working on and ask how the new item compares to those items.

Ways To Say It:

Here are the top 3 items I’m working on right now.

List items + relevant dates. Explain why.

Where does <thing you just mentioned> land related to those?

You may find that your boss is brainstorming, thinking about something 6 months from now, or realizes this project is not important compared to other things you’re working on.

Or they may say that it’s the #1 priority. That’s cool. Proceed to Step 2…

2. Clarify timing and scope.

A “time sensitive” request could mean minutes or weeks. A “report” could be a Google Doc or might be a polished slide deck with hours of research. Make sure you understand what your boss is thinking regarding the amount of work and when.

Ways To Say It:

How quickly do we need this?

Does next week work or do you need it sooner?

Will it include XYZ, only ABC, or something else?

Once you know the extent of the new priority, it’s time for Step 3…

3. Align on tradeoffs.

Get super clear on what will not get done and get agreement from your boss on that plan. Including recommendations on how to rearrange can be helpful and show leadership.

Know your audience though. Some bosses do better with open ended questions and directly crafting the solution.

Ways To Say It:

I’ll push Project A to next week so we can tackle Project B this week - does that work?

Do you have thoughts on how to decrease Project C to keep it on time with the new items? One idea is XYZ.

How should we reprioritize things?

What should we cut? I’d recommend A or B. What do you think?

Your boss has helped you shape the new plan. No one ever had to no. You simply reprioritized, adjusted scope, and changed timelines. Woohoo!

But what if…

If you consistently get wishy-washy answers like

• “Get it all done.”
• “Everything is a priority.”
• “You figure it out.”

Guess what? Your boss needs to work on their ability to say no! (Or not be a workaholic jerk.) They are not clear on priorities or unable to say no. The lack of focus is overflowing to you.

Is this an issue across the organization or unique to your boss? A one-time exception or ongoing problem? Analyze the situation to see if it’s something you can change, live with, or need to move on from.

BONUS: 2 More Ways To Use This Prioritization Technique

1. With Customers

Two common customer scenarios where you can discuss priorities instead of saying no:

• Product roadmap discussions
• Project management planning or timelines

Customers often have great ideas that you hadn’t considered. It’s also enlightening when talking about tradeoffs to find out what they don’t care about.

2. For Your Own Clarity

I’ve used this framework when I’ve bitten off too much and need an outside perspective to help me reign things in.

Can you look at this list of projects and share thoughts, based on what you see in the business, on what I can drop or move to next quarter?

Rigor CEO Craig Hyde could sort out in 10 minutes what I’d been agonizing over for a week.

It Works!

Most startup CEOs and leaders are creative and ambitious, which leads to lots of ideas, projects, or improvements.

When you dig in with an organized, collaborative approach, it’s quick and painless to discern what matters. No “no” required!

I’ve used this technique successfully hundreds of times with leaders and CEOs and have encouraged my teams to use it with me.

How have you said no to a boss before? What has worked or not worked? Share your learnings!

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The Hardest Part of No

Saying no is an incredibly important life and business skill. Once you decide whether or not to say no, the real test happens.

Can you follow through and communicate the no?!?

How do you say no without hurting someone’s feelings or burning a bridge??

Many a “no” has turned into a “yes” because someone would rather suffer through a pointless meeting than suffer through saying “no” to that meeting. The real cost is not a boring meeting but the time lost on your most important goals. Don’t let this be you!

Having the right tools is key. Specific phrases and strategies make it easier to consistently say no when you want to.

Here are 7 real life ways to say no from folks who know (and “no”). Copy, test, tweak, customize, and practice!

7 Polite Ways To Say No

1. Adam Grant shares real phrases and strategies he uses to say no.

Adam Grant is one of my favorite thinkers and a truly generous human. Lots of great nuggets.

2. Offer an alternative.

A positive way to say no is to suggest an option that’s easier for you or more scalable.

Examples:

• Phone call instead of in-person meeting
• Invite them to an event you are attending
• Ask them to do work on their end -- a forwardable intro, a one page overview, reading related articles. Your part is activated (and easier!) once their work is done. You'll learn who is serious and deserving of your time based on their follow through.
• Find a one-to-many solution. Instead of a 1:1 conversation, can it be a webinar, a group event, or open office hours?

(Adam Grant touches on this too!)

3. Two great examples of “no” in the 7 Emails You Need To Know How To Write.

A classic article from Teju Ravilochan. (I’ve also used the “friendly nudge” suggestion and it works brilliantly.)

Be funny:

Dear Mr. Adams, Thanks for your letter inviting me to join the committee of the Arts and Sciences for Eisenhower.

I must decline, for secret reasons.

Sincerely, E.B. White.

Be kind and honest:

Thanks so much for reaching out, [name]. I appreciate what you’re trying to do. One of our core values is militant transparency, so I’ll be fully honest. At the moment, I want to whole heartedly give myself to our core priorities, involving getting our new Institutes up and running, growing our team, and raising capital. That means I’m choosing to decline a lot of conversations I’d otherwise like to have; so I won’t be able to prioritize hopping on the phone with you.

If there’s something quick I can help you with or if you have a specific question, do send me an email about it and I’ll be happy to get back to you!

My best, Teju

4. How to say no to customers?

Check out the training deck with slides on common situations in the Customer Success Starter Pack.

5. A fantastic video on how to say no nicely from Mo Bunnell.

Mo is a business development genius. I’m going to try his “quantify it” strategy starting today! He has lots of great content on productivity and goal setting too.

6. From my personal no-tes.

When someone sends me a great “no” email, I jot it down for R&D (ripoff & duplicate) purposes.

A few favorites:

• “Sadly, I won’t be able to make it Thursday. I hope to go to one of these soon.”
• “Good to hear from you. I'm booked then but I'd like to introduce you to <someone else>, included here, who would enjoy connecting with you.”
• “I'll have to pass on this Wednesday, but I'd love to do <this event> another day.”

7. Warren Buffett recommends you say no to almost everything.

Here’s how he practices what he preaches:  

Thanks for the invitation, but I’ll have to decline [your request for an interview]. I’ve talked about Ben [Graham] on a number of occasions, so my appraisal of him is already out there for people to see. In addition, every interview I grant results in about 20 more requests. That’s a geometric progression that I have no inclination to foster.

BOOM. A great one to end one. It’s clear, charming, and saved Buffett hours of time now and in the future. Mastering “no” is a powerful way to stay focused and achieve your biggest goals.  

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Know How To No

Saying no is one of the most important skills of successful founders and leaders. It helps you focus, gives you time to execute, and preserves your energy and mental health.

Simple, right?

If only it was!

It’s hard to say no because:

1. You want to help.
2. You find many things interesting.
3. You don’t want to disappoint people.
4. You see the potential benefit.
5. You feel productive when you’re busy.

Most people (including me) are continually honing their “saying no” skills.

The first part of saying no is to decide if you should say no. Duh.

But this can be agonizing, time consuming, and stressful if you’re not clear and prepared.

Here are 10 simple frameworks and prompts to help you quickly arrive at a yes or no.

10 Simple Ways To Decide Yes Or No

1. Hell Yeah or No.

A classic from Derek Sivers.

2. If this event/activity/project in 6 months was tomorrow, would I say yes?

A great question from Mo Bunnell. It’s easy to say yes when things are far away. Force yourself to consider it’s true importance rather than mentally defer the decision.

3. Warren Buffett: Say No To Almost Everything

He’s a pretty smart dude. 😉

4. Default to “no.”

Most of us want to say yes by default. Flip the script. The “yes” has to be carefully considered and truly earned.

5. Does it feel like a “should” or a “want to”?

Avoid the “shoulds” whenever you can! It’s true for networking and beyond.

6. Schedule important non-meeting items.

Book time for priorities like reading, thinking, or long term projects. Put them on your calendar and make them non-negotiable. You’ll quickly see what you actually have time for.

7. Do I understand the true cost of this yes?

A.T. Gimbel reminds us to think about the tradeoffs. Make it concrete by identifying the time you’ll spend, the dollars you won’t earn, or the other goals you’ll be letting go of by saying yes to the wrong thing.

8. “Saying no frees you up to say yes when it matters most.” - Adam Grant

Just because you have the time doesn’t mean you should. Don’t miss out something great that comes up because you’re too busy with “eh” commitments.

9. Reframe it.

What you’re really doing is saying “yes” to something else that’s more important. Spell it out if you need to: “I’m not saying no to my friend. I’m saying yes to my family.”  

10. Audit your time.

Does your calendar match your stated priorities? You’ll likely spot items that should be dropped or delegated. Constant vigilance is required to avoid “yes” creep!

Ready…Set…No!

Once you have clarity on yes or no, it’s time to put it into action.

Yes is easy. Everyone loves to hear yes.

But how can you say no in a kind or motivating way that doesn’t burn bridges?

For more k-no-wledge, check out specific phrases to use when saying “no” and a 3 step process to say no to your boss!

What other frameworks or prompts have you found to be helpful when deciding yes or no??

Dreaming Big

Entrepreneurs have big visions and big ambitions. It’s what makes them great. It’s how they build transformational businesses, overcome hardships, and create the future.

When you have a huge vision, it can be hard to start small. You are bold and ready to take over the world! Yet when you drill down into the most successful companies, many had modest, manual beginnings.

Here are 5 fantastic resources to inspire you to start small.

By harnessing your vision into bite-sized first steps, you’ll be able to go faster and grow bigger in the long run.

5 Resources To Start Small On Big Ideas

1. Do Things That Don’t Scale by Paul Graham

• A startup classic from the founder of YCombinator. Mandatory reading!
• Get customers or test a product in a small, manual way to start.
• Read about the crazy stuff huge companies did early on.

2. Minimum Viable Testing Process via First Round Review

• Resist the “if you build it, they will come” mindset! Even an MVP is too much.
• Focus your energy toward testing one key hypothesis of the business.
• Read about how Gagan Biyani used this to build Maven, Udemy, and Sprig.

3. The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick

• Our most recommended book at Atlanta Ventures!
• Don’t pitch your idea. Ask questions to uncover big problems.
• Let customer feedback help you find authentic demand.

4. How To Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace via Lenny’s Newsletter

• Real stories about how 17 of the biggest marketplaces got started
• It’s messy, it’s manual, it has ideas that translate to other businesses!

5. How To Start Without Spending Money via The Rebel School

• Ideas and stories on how to test a business idea without a loan, VC raise, or large savings account
• One of my favorite business-building resources -- their courses are always free! 

What other resources have you used to start small but achieve big goals? Any success stories to share?

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A True Story

At Pardot, we had an amazing implementation team. We offered a complimentary 90 day onboarding and implementation process with a dedicated resource. The team was super responsive, knowledgable, and positive — everything you want to get your customers off to a great start.

A year or two in, the workload started to accumulate. An implementation team member would have 15-20 active implementations and 10-15 more clients who were “on pause”, “not ready to start,” “one or two more open items,” or “hesitant to transition out of onboarding.”

As a new B2B Saas technology, these were high-touch, fairly technical implementations. It was stressful to a high performing team who wanted to move customers to action and value. It also started to create an internal bottleneck — the team needed to close the loop on older accounts to take on new customers.

🪄 ✨Then, something happened that changed everything. 🪄 ✨

We charged for implementations!

It wasn’t exorbitant – $2500 with a monthly software subscription of $1000 – a one-time charge of 2.5x a customer’s monthly cost. (Lots of fancy math on the O’Daily.)

It was enough that customers understood the value of the implementation. It created a sense of urgency and importance around those first 90 days. Customers wanted to get their money’s worth!

A priced implementation also provided a discounting vehicle for sales that didn’t impact recurring revenue. A sales rep could discount the implementation up to 50% without approval and up to 100% to get a deal over the finish line. Customers felt good about getting a high value item at a lower price. Pardot maintained the integrity of the monthly subscription fee – the most important long term revenue source.

Even when an implementation cost less because of a discount, the customer valued it more because of the price tag.

The Lesson

Put a price on the time and value delivered during implementation! Even if every implementation is complimentary or heavily discounted, include a dollar amount.

New customers will understand the value of what you’re offering and be highly motivated to make the most of their onboarding experience.

Build an Implementation One Pager to Share With Customers:

• How your customer’s North Star metric will improve and other high-value outcomes to expect (e.g. send an email in <5 min)
• What’s included with implementation (training hours, weekly calls, setting up integrations, creating materials, adding users, importing data)
• Time estimates and dollar values for each of those line items

Note: Beware of customers asking for a la carte options to save money — it’s rarely in their (or your) best interest long term. Better to discount the full package than cut out important items.

The first few months are critical to long term retention and growth. If you don’t get traction early on, it’s hard to recover. Paid implementations create momentum and urgency out of the gate.

Not sure your market or users are ready?

Paid implementations don’t have to be all or nothing.

2 Ways To Get Started:

1. Include paid implementations with your next few sales proposals especially if the customer has custom or complex needs.
2. Add paid implementations into contracts and discount them fully.

Note: Be consistent with how you do this. Assume your customers are comparing quotes at the next industry happy hour. Because they are. 😉

See what the response is in the sales process. Track the customers through the onboarding process to measure the impact.

Iterate on the price, offering, and messaging as you learn what motivates and matters to your customers!

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How To Scale Customer Implementations

I’ve seen the evolution of customer implementations and onboarding at several B2B Saas companies and talked to many other Customer Success leaders in the industry.

Here are 3 common stages to understand and be prepared for.

3 Customer Onboarding Stages To Prep For

1. Implementation included with a month-to-month contract.

You’re a new kid on the scene.

Your goals:

• Get customers
• Make them wildly successful
• Learn a ton
• Build brand credibility and trust

This is the “Earn Their Business Every Month” playbook. It requires an emphasis on customer support, soliciting customer feedback, and quick product and customer experience iteration.  

It’s not going to be your long term business model but it’s a great place to start.

2. Paid implementations and annual contracts.

You have happy reference customers, some great success stories, and you’re known for your outstanding customer service. (Yay for investing in customer experience early on!)

Your industry has matured and annual contracts with paid implementations are the norm. High touch implementations delivered by your team are not cheap. You start charging. Other vendors have started this also and customers are used to the contract line item. You’re starting to get requests for custom integrations, additional training or strategy help, and other work outside of your implementation scope.

Your goals:

• Maintain an excellent customer experience
• Focus on financial predictability and stability - get cash up front, minimize cost centers
• Build a repeatable product planning and roll out process (it’s likely still messy)
• Continue to “templatize” your implementation process so it’s consistent and repeatable
• Test growth strategies like moving upmarket or into new geographies
• Turn your ad-hoc partners and consultants into an official partner program

3. Partner resellers and ecosystem.

Welcome to customer onboarding at scale! Partners handle most of the implementations and custom work. Many are also resellers. Their business is centered around providing strategy and consulting services for your industry and product. This works when demand is high, the market is big, and partners see the significant opportunity.  

Your goals:

• Equip partners to deliver excellent service through training, certifications, tools, and technical help
• Standardize partner contracts, financial incentives, and rules of engagement
• Build an internal department dedicated to partner support and development
• Consider product and technical strategy - do you enable an app ecosystem?

Salesforce is known for their partner programs. This or this could be you one day!

It’s Never One Size Fits All

Every business is different. If you serve enterprise customers, you’ll likely do annual contracts and (large!) paid implementations from Day 1. If you’re a product-led or freemium model, your goal may be to enable a fully automated onboarding.

These stages are a starting place for discussion and planning.

The goal is to deliver the best service, with a healthy business model, in the way that’s right for you and your customers!

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Here is my favorite customer success question to ask founders or leaders at a fast growing startup:

What do your users get measured on?

In other words, what is the one metric that is most important to their job success?

Examples of metrics that users care about:

• Revenue generated
• New leads
• Assets under management
• Website conversions
• Customer renewals
• Event attendees
• Customer satisfaction score
• Employee retention

Examples of typical customer success metrics:

• # of users
• # of logins
• Upgrade $
• Renewal $
• CSAT or NPS scores

Yes, those are helpful data points for the health of your business but your customers don’t care.

They care about doing their job better, hitting their metrics, and meeting their boss’s expectations.

How can you help your customer look like a rockstar?

If your team is optimizing for user activations or upgrade dollars, see if you can flip the internal conversation.

Steps to up-level customer success:

1. Identify the most important metric to your user.
2. Track that metric in your product (ideal) or gather manually (scrappy).
3. Make that your Customer Success North Star.
4. Talk about this North Start constantly within your company.
5. Create raving fans.
6. Grow an amazing business that changes the world! 🌎

HUGE SHOUT OUT to Francis Cordon, the ultimate Customer Success Sensei. He introduced me to this simple, brilliant, underutilized concept and I’ve been sharing it ever since. Thank you, Paco! 🙏🙏🙏

#always-be-testing Do you like this week’s O’Daily shortie? Or do you prefer longer form? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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5 Interview Strategies To Implement Today

1. Ask about specific examples.

Judge people on what they did, not their self-assessed strengths. Gather insights by asking about the steps they took, their thought process, how they did the work, their learnings, and how they talk about the people or customers they worked with.

✅ THIS: Tell me about the most complex project that you managed.

❌ NOT: Can you do project management? Are you detail oriented?

By asking about real past experience, you reward doers over talkers.

Example follow up questions to dig in:

• Who did you work with? Tell me about their strengths and weaknesses.
• How did you keep people on track? What strategies and tools did you use?
• What were the goals and final results of the project?
• Did you hit any stumbling blocks? How did you overcome them?
• What lessons did you learn? Have you been able to apply them to any other projects?

2. Use skills-based questions or assessments.

Everyone wants to fairly and accurately evaluate someone’s skills but unless you know how to, you default to measuring someone’s confidence about said skills.

By getting these questions right, you’ll reward folks who are highly skilled but humble or self-deprecating and filter out folks who overestimate their abilities or talk eloquently but lack execution.

✅ THIS: Create and save a draft email in this demo account.

✅ THIS: Walk me through the basic steps you’d take to send an email.

❌ NOT: Do you know how to send emails? Have you sent emails before?

Predefine your assessment criteria and then rate the candidate’s competency. And, of course, focus on a skill that’s key to the role.

Example key actions to score:

• Pull a list of contacts
• Implement email design best practices
• Test email formatting in various email clients
• Strategize on a call-to-action
• Measure results

Examples of other skill-based activities:

• Whiteboard or code exercises for developers
• Create a financial model, pivot table, or other spreadsheet
• Write an email to an upset customer
• Make website recommendations to improve SEO or sales conversions
• Design a strategic plan for a real company issue

3. Go for superlative.

Asking about the most, least, greatest, proudest, hardest will get the best from a candidate. As the interviewer, you can be assured that you’re comparing one candidate’s best to another candidate’s best.

🙂 GOOD: Tell me about a project that you worked on.

😁 BETTER: Tell me about a complex project that you worked on.

🥳 BEST: Tell me about the most complex project you worked on.

If you ask a generic question about “a project” instead of “the most important project,” you won’t know if their underwhelming answer is because of their lackluster experience or your lackluster question.

What’s a question the most meaningful question you could ask? (See what I did there? 😉)

4. Keep questions consistent.

Ask the same interview questions at the same stages across all candidates for the most fair and insightful interview process.

When I first started interviewing and hiring, I thought asking a variety of interview questions was a strength. Foolish Young Kathryn could flip through her mental interview question database and ask according to her daily whim.

Unfortunately, this was a terrible idea!!

Asking different questions, while interesting to the interviewer, means that you’re comparing different data across candidates. You could unintentionally ask one candidate easier or harder questions. Keep it apples to apples to make it fair and unbiased.

Bonus: you only have to remember a handful of questions instead of hundreds like Foolish Young Kathryn!

5. Listen.

Give lots of time for a candidate to answer. Don’t jump in with the next question. Pause an extra moment to see if they have more to share.

What people share in the quiet moments can be really important.

Another strategy is to keep track of how much each person speaks. The candidate should be speaking the most (unless you’re answering their questions).

Listen deeply to what they say, how they say it, and what isn’t said.

Great Questions Lead To Great Talent

When you ask the right questions and listen well, you will easily identify top talent and win them over. The experience feels fair, their expertise and abilities shine, and you can move forward quickly and confidently.

The right interview questions are a great start to a long relationship with your company!