How to build a winning sales strategy for your panel interview
No MBA required
When interviewing for a technical sales role, there’s one step that stumps more candidates than any other: the panel interview.
This is where companies test your business acumen by asking you to build and execute a sales strategy for the product and territory you’re applying for.
If you’re coming into sales straight from a technical background, this sounds terrifying.
Some folks even wonder: should I get an MBA first to learn this stuff?
No.
You already know how to research. You can plan an experiment with your eyes closed.
You just need to see the world from your customer’s eyes.
I’ll show you how below, as someone who now sits on the other side of that panel.
Why most scientists struggle (and what to do about it)
From the moment they enter college, scientists are taught to ask: “how does it work?”
So when they interview for a sales role at a top technical company, their comfort zone is in the details.
When the panel interview starts, they obsess over the technology.
“I’d focus on Feature X because it’s the most advanced solution available”
“The technology speaks for itself, I’d start by targeting labs that need high-end equipment”
If you’re on a Teams call, this is the part where the senior sales leader rolls their eyes. The hiring manager who invited you is visibly sweating, getting DMs from their boss: “why did you even invite this guy. he belongs in R&D, not sales”
The good news: you already have the strategic machinery in your head.
You just need to switch your perspective to apply it.
The 3 building blocks of every sales strategy
Business 101
In industry, folks often talk about “business acumen” as some mystical creature you need an MBA to acquire.
With my 6+ years in technical sales and 3+ in sales leadership, let me tell you what a business actually is:
Someone has a problem. You have a solution. They give you money for it.
If the money you collect is more than it costs you to deliver the solution, congratulations:
You have a business.
Everything else is just figuring out the details: the acumen you’re collecting.
Let’s keep going.
Creating your unique value proposition
Customers won’t pay money for just any solution. They’ll only purchase the one they actually value.
Value is something customers FEEL. Then justify with logic.
Value is also personal for each customer. It comes from their perspective, based on a blend of factors:
How big does the problem appear?
How bad will it be if things don’t change today?
What good outcomes will happen if it’s resolved?
How likely is this solution to actually work?
How much work and effort will it require?
What’s the cost of buying vs the cost of not changing?
By the way, the “bad” of not solving the problem versus the “good” of fixing it are not weighted equally. We as humans value preventing losses about 2x more than we value gains. (Source: Daniel Kahneman’s Nobel-winning work)
To create value for our customers, we must make the problem feel so clear that solving it becomes inevitable. For a detailed example, check out my primer on value creation here.
When creating a sales strategy for a technical product, we’re looking to find the Unique Value Proposition (UVP): the specific way your product solves a problem for a specific customer better than any alternative.
Remember how I said value is personal? The first step to building a UVP is figuring out WHO will benefit most from this product.
Your ideal customer profile and personas
Not everyone has the problem your business solves. And of those who do, not everyone has it badly enough to pay for it.
But the group that has this problem most acutely, has the budget to solve it, and will actually buy from you? That’s your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
Let’s say you’re selling a new high-speed spinning disk confocal microscope that images 10x faster than conventional laser scanning ones.
One that can do multi-well plates in a breeze.
With speed as your advantage, you might make an educated guess that biopharma researchers who value high-throughput screening for their pre-clinical work might be well placed to be your ICP.
Now, closely related to the ICP are your actual buyer personas. In most institutions, one person rarely writes the check for a $400K+ instrument.
This is true in academia. It’s true in industry. All the folks involved in a buying decision are your buyer personas. They make up the buying committee.
When speaking to each of these stakeholders, you’ll need to create value addressed directly to them:
An academic PI wants to know how this will help them win more grants (and avoid getting scooped)
The postdoc wants to know how it will help them publish more papers, faster
The lab manager wants to know it will be reliable (and not constantly need service)
The grad student wants to know how it will stop them from staying in the lab past 10PM every day to finish drawn-out experiments
In most organizations, the decision maker still isn’t the one making the actual purchase. There’s usually a procurement department with its own interests (think vendor compliance, institutional policies).
The sales strategy your panel wants to hear about is HOW you are going to make it all work together to close real deals, and generate revenue for their business.
That’s what we’ll tackle next.
How to Build Your Strategy in 8 Steps
At its core, sales is about identifying prospects who match your ICP, engaging those with relevant problems who are ready to explore solutions, qualifying mutual fit and guiding them through their buying process. Check out my primer on sales process here if you need a refresher.
Your sales strategy describes HOW you will do all of this.
Here’s how I’d build one step-by-step:
Research the technical product you will be selling.
Find any possible brochures/specs/docs about it from the company website.
Brainstorm what problems this product can solve.
Make an exhaustive list of everything that comes to mind. Start with the technical and expand outward toward business/personal.
Find your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) by asking the following questions:
Who is the person most likely to have this problem and be able to pay for it?
What do they do? What’s their job title?
What industry do they work in?
What type of organization? Industry? Academia? Government?
How does the problem affect their work performance?
How does the problem affect their personal situation?
Where does their budget come from?
This becomes your Ideal Customer Profile
Craft your Unique Value Proposition (UVP).
You can have more than 1. Use this formula:
[Product] helps [ICP] get [outcome] without [painful problem]
Research WHERE and HOW you can find ICPs to systematically reach them.
Public lists? Grant databases?
Institutional websites?
Events they attend?
LinkedIn?
Other lead sources (Zoominfo, Apollo, etc)?
Write an example prospecting email using your UVP to guide it.
Show them exactly what you would say.
Bonus:
Map out geographically where the most likely ICP targets are in YOUR territory.
You can easily do this in Google Maps for free to knock their socks off.
Draft the full plan: HOW will you execute this strategy in your first 90 days.
Break down all your actions step-by-step. They just want to see you can think strategically AND turn the bird’s eye vision into something actionable.
This is usually asked along with a 30-60-90 day plan of how you plan to hit the ground running in the role. This deserves its own post - stay tuned!
The Takeaway
A key checkpoint on your path to your first $140k+ technical sales role is being able to present a complete sales strategy in a panel interview.
You don’t need an MBA to build one. But you do need to think like your customer.
Start with the technical solution you’ll be selling: what problems does it solve?
The formula is simple:
Product → What problems does your technical solution solve?
ICP → Who gains the most value from this solution?
UVP → What specific outcomes does your solution help them achieve, and what painful problems does it eliminate?
Sales Strategy → How can you systematically reach people who match your ICP to see if the UVP resonates and start a sales conversation?
Put on your customer vision goggles and apply those hard-earned research skills. You’ll build the perfect strategy that leaves your panel scrambling to move you to the next step.
And if you’re not at the panel interview yet: use this exact framework on yourself. YOU are the solution. A sales manager at a company you can help is your ICP. Now build your strategy - and reach out.
Have any burning questions on preparing for a sales interview? Leave a comment below.
See you next Sunday.
Alexei
P.S.
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Run into confusing sales interview questions? I’d love to hear about them.
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Love your content so much, insightful, honest and most importantly, actionable. 👏
Beautifully summarised! Don't let the scientific mindset hold you bake, make it work for you@