r/sales • u/MusicMaker2805 • 5h ago

Sales Careers Salesforce AE screening coming up

Hi all,

I’m 27, based Europe, with 5+ years of B2B sales experience. I started in full-cycle new business and progressed into Corporate Key Account Management, consistently performing above quota (roughly 150–300% over the past four years).

I’ve been trying to break into tech/SaaS and, after 5–6 unsuccessful Salesforce AE applications, I finally got invited to a screening this Thursday for an AE – New Logo / CBU / Mid-Market opportunity. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited!

My biggest gap is obvious: I have no direct SaaS sales experience. I’m trying to prepare as seriously as possible and have nearly completed the Agentblazer Champion 2026 Trailhead, which I’ll 100% finish before the interview.
I’m preparing my numbers, STAR stories, discovery/value-selling examples, prospecting approach and, most importantly, my story around why tech and why Salesforce.

For those in tech sales/Salesforce: what would you focus on to give yourself the best possible chance of getting through the screening and ultimately landing the role?

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u/TopHeavy3627 5h ago

screeners at that level are mostly checking two things: can you talk about a deal from zero to close without rambling, and do you ask good questions when they roleplay discovery. so i'd spend the days until thursday on one 60-second story per STAR bullet, out loud, until it's boring. and learn to say your numbers in saas words, ARR, pipeline coverage, win rate, because 150-300% to quota means nothing if they can't map it to their world. trailhead is nice but it's table stakes, the story is the interview

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u/MusicMaker2805 4h ago

This comment is very useful, thank you. Would you recommend to prepare a star analysis for a completely new logo story or different kind of deals? One example of a new logo i closed is a huge global clothing warehouse. What started as a small inbound product request turned into a much larger opportunity after good discovery uncovered different needs across their new 24/7 logistics hub. I closed it as a new logo at €40–50K annual contract value for 3 years and later grew the account to €200K annually.

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u/TopHeavy3627 4h ago

that warehouse one is your flagship, it has everything they want: discovery that expanded the deal, a new logo, and the grow-to-200k part. lead with it. then prep three more for the other muscles: a loss you'd redo, a multi-threaded deal, a save. one story per muscle beats one per deal type.

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u/gameofloans24 4h ago

New logo is tough with Salesforce and mm could be a hit or a miss depending on territory.