Part 1 Recap
If you haven’t yet read Part 1 of “How to Get a Sales Job at a FinTech SMB Lender”, then start HERE.
If you are here because of Part 1, then welcome back, anon.
To recap, we covered:
Why get a sales job at an SMB lender?
Why listen to me?
What is an SMB Lender?
What types of sales positions are there?
What is the expected compensation?
You should have a firm understanding of what an SMB lender does, the various sales roles within an SMB lender, and why this path is worthy of your time.
Now, I am going to teach you HOW to land the job.
What are we going to cover in Part 2?
Understanding the Company
Product(s) and Value Prop
Company Mission
Company Values
The Resume
Keywords
Cover Letters
The Interview
STAR Method
Why sales?
Especially important if you don’t have a lot of sales experience
Why this company?
Research your interviewers
Follow up emails
Understanding the Company
RESEARCH YOUR TARGET COMPANY.
This should be obvious for anybody who has applied for and landed any job. Surely you can’t all be anti-social, perpetually self-employed, anonymous cartoons.
But, let’s walk through the specifics for the FinTech SMB lending space.
Product(s) and Value Proposition
First, you need to understand the product (i.e. the type of loans being provided) and the value proposition.
The type of products being offered is relatively simple. Read through the company’s website and identify the offered loan options. If you don’t have a basic understanding of the different lending options available to SMBs, then read our Substack post “Best Small Business Loan Options”.
The value proposition may be a little more difficult. This is ultimately what makes the product unique in a crowded SMB lending marketplace.
Here’s how I would approach an example with Bluevine.
Source: https://www.bluevine.com/business-line-of-credit
Bluevine provides a bank-like revolving line of credit but with the simplicity and speed small businesses have come to expect in the modern age of online banking/lending. Additionally, through Bluevine’s industry-leading technology, they can service many businesses that would not have access to similar products through a traditional bank.
Demonstrate you understand the basics of the product, the problem it solves, and how it’s unique compared to the alternatives.
Company Mission
For most FinTech SMB lenders the mission often revolves around filling the gaps of the traditional banking industry (zeroes). Providing access to small businesses:
That wouldn’t be eligible with a bank
Faster than the banks
With less documentation than the banks
This is a broad generalization but with a little research you’ll realize it largely encompasses many of the players in the space.
Not only do you need to understand the company’s mission but you should be able to relate to it. This shouldn’t be difficult for most of the cartoons in the jungle as the end goal for many is wifi $ (starting a business).
Anecdotes can be especially powerful.
Have you started a business in the past? Maybe you flipped textbooks in college. Even if it was just a “side hustle” you should be able to relate it back to the mission - You had tons of opportunities to buy more textbooks but didn’t have the capital!
Does anyone in your family own/operate a small business? Maybe your uncle runs a chain of massage parlors down in South Florida frequented by a certain NFL team owner. Relate it back to the company mission - You noticed how difficult it was for your uncle to get the capital to open his second location.
Find something, anything.
Company Values
Basically every company has values. Especially the ones that tout themselves as a something-Tech company. While these may often feel like corporate propaganda, there has been a decided shift towards incorporating values into all facets of corporate culture and operations, including interviewing.
Enter values-based interviewing.
Values-based interviews help employers identify how and why a candidate will behave in certain situations, in relation to the values of the organization (Source). Ultimately, they want to make sure you’re a good cultural fit.
These questions are typically structured as the standard situational or behavioral type interview questions. Think, “Tell me about a time you…”, but the answer they’re looking for aligns with the company’s values. Incorporating your target company’s values into your answers using the STAR framework (more on that later) isn’t that difficult, you just have to be intentional.
Let’s keep using Bluevine as an example. Here’s one of their values.
A question they might ask is, “Tell me about a time you were working on a project that didn’t go as planned”. Ideally, you’d give an answer where you held yourself accountable for imperfect execution, not blaming others, and took ownership of the end result seeing it through to completion.
There’s a ton of overlap in most company’s values. Just do your research ahead of time and incorporate them into your prepared interview questions. Keep it simple.
The Resume
In my experience there are two strategies for getting your resume out to prospective employers:
Shotgun approach
Sniper approach
With the shotgun approach, you indiscriminately blast your resume out to as many job postings as possible with little to no editing. Tons of applications, low conversion rate.
With the sniper approach you tailor your resume to the job and the company. It might take a little more work up front but you will have higher conversion to an initial interview.
I prefer the sniper approach. It’s what I used for my last job and it worked. The following section will be based on the sniper approach.
Keywords
First, you need to understand what an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is. Simply, an ATS is a keywords tool used by recruiters to automate and speed up resume review. What, you actually thought Sharon in Talent Acquisition was reading all 500 responses to your entry level accounting position? (LOL).
Now you’re probably like, “What keywords am I supposed to use? Why do they gotta make this shit so complicated?” It’s actually pretty simple.
As BowTiedResumes says, you need to use two major types of keywords:
Company name and the exact position title
Education, certifications, technical skills and licenses listed in the job description
Read the full thread here:
Let’s use yet another example from Bluevine. I wonder if y'all think I work there 😅
Partner Account Executive (US Remote)
https://boards.greenhouse.io/bluevineusremote/jobs/5477391003
Let’s assume you’ve been selling CRM solutions to accountants prior to applying for this position. How might you structure your resume?
Sold $5M worth of CRM solutions to accountants and accounting firms, worked cross functionally to ensure successful onboarding of new clients
Suggested automation solutions to improve our sales process reducing time spent manually entering data by 30%
Utilized Salesforce to accurately forecast quarterly revenue within +/- 10% of actuals
Obviously this is a made up example but hopefully this demonstrates how you can easily take keywords from the job description and work them into your resume.
As always, make sure you have real accomplishments to back up your resume and always QUANTIFY.
Cover Letters
There is a lot of contradictory information out there on cover letters. As with many things in life, it ultimately depends on your unique situation.
I suggest following BowTied Head Hunter’s advice on the matter:
If you’re moving from sales, or similar role, to another sales role then it’s probably not necessary. If you do end up writing a cover letter, I’d highly recommend BowTiedResume’s info on Twitter:
I won’t try to offer much more here as this isn’t my expertise. I’ve interviewed plenty of people and landed a couple jobs but these guys are the real experts.
The Interview
Now the important part, the interview. Here’s where you really get to sell yourself (it is a sales role you’re applying for after all).
STAR Method
The STAR method is the go-to strategy for answering behavioral interview questions (remember the section on values-based interviewing). It’s what they taught us in business school over a decade ago and it’s still relevant today.
STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Take all the key accomplishments from your resume, and a few more to be safe, and break them down using this methodology.
Read BowTied Head Hunter’s Substack post “How to Crush an Interview and Land That Job” for a more in depth understanding of the STAR method. He focuses on IT professionals but this applies to any role. Example below:
Framing your accomplishments using the STAR method ensure clear and concise answers. Again, make sure to QUANTIFY accomplishments/results whenever possible.
Why Sales?
If you’ve been in sales for a while and you’re applying for another sales role, then this question might not come up. But, if you’re making a career transition then you better be prepared to answer this question. There’s not necessarily a correct answer to this question but here are some things to keep in mind.
Tailor your answer to the company and the role. If you’re doing sales at an SMB lender, you’re likely talking to lots of business owners every day. You better enjoy meeting new people, talking to them, and learning about their businesses and unique problems.
Solving problems and helping people is another common answer. It’s totally fine to use this answer just be sure you can tie it back to the company’s product and mission. At an SMB lender you’re helping businesses with a myriad of different problems but it ultimately all comes down to not having enough capital.
It’s ok to talk about money in an interview for a sales role. Any hiring manager understands variable compensation is a big factor for many sales people. Just don’t come off as a money grubber. It’s better to frame it as you enjoy having direct control over your results and corresponding compensation. You thrive in that type of environment.
Again, there are lots of different ways to answer this question. Don’t wing it though. Come prepared with a clear and succinct answer. Sales people can tell when you’re bullshitting them.
Why this Company?
If you’ve done your research like the first section of this post suggests then you already have this question answered.
Relate it back to the company’s mission.
Bluevine example, again…
If this is Bluevine’s mission, then come prepared with a story about a business owner you know who struggled with accessing capital when starting their business. You want to change that!
Just don’t lie. Seriously. We can smell a bullshitter.
Research Your Interviewers
This is important for two reasons:
You put a face to the name, which can help with pre-interview jitters
You need to tailor your answers based on the person interviewing you
For number two, BowTied Head Hunter’s Substack post “How to Crush an Interview and Land That Job” goes into more detail but I will try to summarize.
For non-technical interviewers, like the initial HR screen, you do not need to go into detail on how you implemented a Challenger Sale methodology at your previous company. Their eyes will roll back into their head and that may be the end of the interview process. The initial HR screen is typically there to ensure you aren’t a complete moron and a decent cultural fit for your organization.
Once you’re speaking to a more technical person, hiring manager or another sales rep, should you go into more detail on the technical details of past projects.
When writing out your STAR answers it can be helpful to have two versions, one for the non-technical and one for the technical interviewer.
Follow Up Messages
You’ve made it to the end! You used the sniper approach to secure the initial interview. You then used the STAR method to nail the values-based interview questions. Now what?
You’re a Chad salesperson so obviously you’re going to follow up. But how to get their contact info?
When you finish your interview simply ask if you can have their email for a follow up email. If you forget then it’s not that difficult to obtain their company email address. If you can’t figure that out then go to LinkedIn. I mean seriously, anon. You’re applying for a SALES JOB. This shit is Sales101. Worse case scenario, reach out to the HR or Talent Acquisition rep you’ve been working with and ask if they can pass along a message.
If you need examples of how to write a follow up message, I once again refer you to BowTiedResume’s Twitter:
In a competitive hiring market the follow up email/message can be a differentiator that makes you stand out. It’s so simple yet so many don’t do it. But you’re built differently. You’re GMI.
Conclusion
That’s it folks. By now you should understand:
Part 1:
Why get a sales job at an SMB lender?
Why listen to me?
What is an SMB Lender?
What types of sales positions are there?
What is the expected compensation?
Part 2:
Understanding the Company
Product(s) and Value Prop
Company Mission
Company Values
The Resume
Keywords
Cover Letters
The Interview
STAR Method
Why sales?
Why this company?
Research your interviewers
Follow up email/message
If you aren’t convinced at this point, then I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe you’re not cut out for sales.
If this does sound like a path for you, then SMASH that subscribe and share button.
As always, this is not financial advice. For educational and entertainment purposes only.
-BTO