Interview Script·45 min·11 questions
Discovering why engaged sales prospects disappear after receiving detailed proposals
You're seeing a pattern that doesn't make sense: sales directors who were actively engaged through multiple calls suddenly go silent after you send the proposal they requested. They seemed genuinely interested, asked thoughtful questions, and even mentioned specific implementation timelines, but now they won't return calls or give you straight answers about what changed.
Why standard questions fail here
Direct questions about why they didn't move forward typically get diplomatic non-answers about budget or timing that don't match their earlier enthusiasm. This script works backward from the specific moment they received your proposal, reconstructing their actual decision-making process and the real concerns that emerged when they saw everything laid out in black and white.
Sample Questions
Grounded in The Mom Test and Jobs-to-be-Done.
Mom Test principle: Ask about specific past context rather than opinions. Sets up the struggling moment that initiated contact.
Use the JTBD struggling moment technique - probe for the trigger event that made them seek a solution.
- What specific incident or situation made you think you needed outside help?
- How long had this been a problem before you decided to act?
- Generic answers like 'we needed better sales' - push for the specific moment or incident
JTBD: Understand the job they hired the proposal to do - what success criteria they had in mind.
Listen for both functional and emotional jobs - what would success look like and how would it make them feel.
- If the proposal had been perfect, what would have happened next in your organization?
- Who else would have been excited about this working?
- Vague answers like 'good value' - probe for specific success metrics and emotional outcomes
Mom Test: Ask about past behavior in similar situations to understand their actual decision patterns, not stated preferences.
Use comparative analysis technique - contrast successful vs unsuccessful vendor experiences to identify critical success factors.
- What was different about how that vendor approached you?
- What did they understand about your situation that others missed?
- Hypothetical responses about what they 'usually' do - anchor in one specific successful purchase
Ethnographic interviewing: Capture the moment-by-moment experience to understand emotional journey and cognitive processing.
Use the 'movie technique' - ask them to narrate like describing a movie scene, including thoughts and feelings.
- What was your first reaction in that moment?
- What did you do immediately after reading it?
- Who was the first person you talked to about it?
- Jumping to conclusions or summary judgments - slow them down to get the chronological experience
Mom Test: Focus on actual behavior - what conversations really happened, not what they think in retrospect.
Use the 'fly on the wall' technique - ask them to recreate actual dialogue and reactions from specific meetings.
- What exactly did our product say when you showed them?
- What concerns came up that surprised you?
- Who was most skeptical and why?
- Generic team responses - probe for specific people, specific reactions, actual words used
Critical Incident Technique: Identify the specific moment and context when the decision crystallized.
Probe for environmental context, emotional state, and trigger event using the 'freeze frame' method - what exactly was happening in that decisive moment.
- What were you feeling in that moment?
- Was there a specific thing that tipped the scales?
- How did you know it was time to stop pursuing this?
- Rationalized explanations - look for the raw, unfiltered moment before they constructed a polite reason
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