You missed your target for two quarters in a row. How do you diagnose the problem and recover?

What the interviewer wants to hear

• Take ownership without excuses
• Use funnel data to find where it breaks
• Separate pipeline volume, conversion, deal size and cycle issues
• Build a specific recovery plan with weekly goals
• Involve manager and peers, ask for coaching

Model answer

I would own it openly with my manager and then use data to find the real cause. I would go through my funnel stage by stage. If I did not create enough qualified pipeline, the fix is more and better-targeted prospecting. If pipeline was fine but conversion from proposal to win dropped, I would review lost deals, call some lost buyers, and check pricing, competitors and my discovery quality. If deals were slipping, I would check whether I was reaching economic buyers early enough. Then I would write a simple recovery plan with weekly targets for meetings and pipeline, and specific skill improvements. I would ask my manager for call coaching and learn from top performers. Finally I would review progress weekly so problems are caught early, not at quarter end.

More hard Business Development Manager questions

• A buyer you really want to win asks for a 30 percent discount at the last minute. Walk me through how you handle it.
• Describe how you would manage an enterprise deal with eight stakeholders, including one who is against your solution.
• A prospect will sign today only if you promise a feature your product team says is not on the roadmap. What do you do?
• Leadership gives you budget to grow revenue next year. How would you decide between hiring more outbound reps, investing in partnerships, or entering a new segment?
• You are asked to select and launch a distributor in a new country. How would you approach it?
• Your biggest partner announces a product that competes with part of yours. How do you handle the relationship?
• Your team's win rate has fallen from 28% to 18% over a year. How would you find the cause and fix it?
• Leadership wants to sell into healthcare, an industry where you have no customers. How would you test it before committing?
• Your manager pushes you to tell a prospect a key integration is "ready" when it is only planned. How do you handle it?