I'm Louise Fletcher. As President of 
And it wasn't even written about interviews. Jill Konrath writes a blog on selling to big companies.
Today's advice jumped off the page because it's perfect for anyone preparing for interviews. She talks about the mistakes many sales people make when asked the open-ended question: "Tell me more." According to Jill, most launch into a description of their process or their proprietary approach - exactly the wrong answer to give a busy, stressed executive looking for solutions to his problems. Her advice is to deal directly with the executive's problems by:
1) Expanding on how tough it is for companies to achieve their objectives using outdated systems or processes. Talk about all difficulties that arise, the bottlenecks and the workarounds, the frustrations. Mention the ramifications on other areas in their business.
2) Sharing a story about a particular customer you recently worked with, how they were doing things when you initially started working together, the problems they faced and the impact of these problems on their business. Then briefly summarize the outcomes.
3) Then you wrap it up by asking a question that engages your prospect in discussing the issue in greater depth.
She then outlines how she would answer the "tell me more" question:
The biggest challenges facing sellers today is cracking into corporate accounts. Decision makers never answer their phone. They roll all calls to voicemail and they never call anyone back. Most all direct mail goes into the trash and emails from strangers are considered spam. You may have the greatest product or service in the world, but if your people can't get their foot in the door, it's all academic. Most sellers I work with are extremely discouraged. They've tried everything they know, but it's not working. I help them figure out what it takes to succeed in this crazy business environment. How big of an issue is this for your company?"
Can you see how this would work for an interview? Don't you dread the "So tell me about yourself" question? How about: "So, why should I hire you?" Honestly, in my experience most interviewers don't even really know what they want to hear when they ask this question -- but we do. They want to hear an answer that tells them their problems are over. Using Jill's formula, you can give it to them.
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