Your demo breaks in front of a key prospect. What do you do?
What the interviewer wants to hear
- Stay calm and acknowledge the issue
- Switch to a backup such as screenshots or a recording
- Keep the focus on their problems
- Follow up quickly with a working demo
- Prepare backups for next time
Model answer
First I stay calm and acknowledge it honestly, maybe with a light comment, because buyers judge how you handle problems. I would not spend ten minutes troubleshooting live. I always prepare a backup, such as a short recorded walkthrough or screenshots of the key workflows, so I switch to that and keep the conversation on their problems and how we solve them. I might use the extra time for deeper discovery questions. After the call I send a short apology, explain the cause if known, and offer a working demo at a time that suits them, perhaps with the technical lead joining. Then I review what failed and update my demo checklist, for example testing the environment an hour before every important call.
Can you answer it under time pressure?
Take a timed medium round and get scored on every answer.
More medium Sales Executive questions
- A prospect says 'Your price is too high.' How do you handle it?
- How do you run a strong discovery call? What are you trying to learn?
- You have 60 open opportunities. How do you decide where to spend your time each week?
- How do you work with marketing to make sure leads turn into revenue?
- How do you make a product demo effective instead of a long feature tour?
- A prospect says, "We are happy with our current provider." How do you respond?
- How do you close a deal without being pushy?
- How do you use call recordings or feedback to improve your selling?
- How do you ask customers for referrals, and how do you make referrals a regular source of pipeline?