HubSpot Sales Management Training Certification Exam Answers

Fill in the blank: While buyer personas help you understand who your customer is, Jobs to Be Done helps you understand your customer’s _____.

• motivations
• role
• job description
• point of view

Which of the following is a benefit of using Jobs to Be Done?

• It helps you identify the products you’re indirectly competing with.
• It helps you identify strategic alliances with products in other industries.
• It helps you understand why your customers buy from you.
• All of the above.

Which of the following is the BEST way to uncover the job that people hire your product to do? 

• By interviewing individual customers.
• By sending out a survey to some of your customers.
• By researching similar products online.
• By bringing your marketing and sales teams together to brainstorm possible jobs.

Which of the following is an example of a formal job story? 

• It was my anniversary, and I wanted to go someplace nice, so I made reservations at a local bed and breakfast. They offered a packaged deal with a local theater and a restaurant, and it was a good price, so I bought it.
• As a founder, when my company has grown beyond my ability to control it, I want to learn the strategies and design the playbooks that will help me guide the growth of my company, so that I can double the size of my company in the next three to five years.
• I wanted to understand my customers’ job to be done, so I interviewed several of them, mapped out the timeline of everything that led them to buy my product, and looked for patterns.
• I have a long, boring drive to work, and I need something to help me stay engaged and prevent me from getting hungry before 10:00.

 

Which of the following is a problem with thinking of your business as a funnel? 

• Movement through a funnel immediately stops when things stop flowing into the top of the funnel.
• The shape of a funnel doesn’t match the actual shape of a conversion chart.
• There are many different kinds of funnels, each with its own shape.
• When you pour liquid into a funnel, some of the liquid will stick to the sides of the funnel instead of coming out the bottom.

In a flywheel business, which of the following is the most important source of new prospects? 

• Marketing
• Sales
• Advertisements
• Word-of-mouth

 

Why is it common for companies to think of themselves in terms of a funnel? 

• Because flywheels were only recently invented, but funnels have been around for much longer.
• Because funnels are powered by gravity, just as businesses are anchored by revenue.
• Because companies that don’t use the inbound methodology are inherently funnel-shaped.
• Because many business charts show conversion rates, and those charts are often shaped like a funnel.

 

What are the stages of the buyer’s journey? 

• Identify, connect, explore, advise
• Awareness, consideration, decision
• Enable, align, transform
• Attract, engage, delight

 

When in the buyer’s journey should you try to connect with a buyer? 

• During the decision stage, when they are deciding on a specific product or service
• Before they even begin their buyer’s journey so that you can lead them through it
• Before the decision stage, when they are still defining their path forward
• After the buyer’s journey is over and they have decided to buy from you

 

True or false? Having reliable sales data is required to create an effective coaching program. 

• True
• False

 

What are the steps of the GROW coaching technique? 

• Goal, Reality, Options, Way forward
• Growth, Resilience, Optimism, Wealth
• Gradual improvement, Realistic goals, Ongoing support, Willing compliance
• Grade, Redirect, Optimize, Watch

 

During the Goal step of GROW coaching, what is your role as coach? 

• Set a goal for your salesperson to achieve.
• Ensure the salesperson’s personal goals are aligned with team goals.
• Ask the salesperson what goal they would like to set.
• Work with the salesperson to set a goal for your coaching sessions.

 

During the Reality step of GROW coaching, what is your role as coach? 

• Help the salesperson judge how realistic the goal is.
• Explain to the salesperson the reality of what they need to achieve.
• Help the salesperson create a realistic plan for achieving the goal.
• Help the salesperson evaluate the reality of where they are right now.

 

During the Way Forward step of GROW coaching, what is your role as coach? 

• Help the rep decide how they will achieve their goal and how you can support them.
• Determine for the rep the best way for them to achieve the goal.
• Explain to the rep what they’ll need to do after accomplishing the goal.
• Ask the rep how you can improve your coaching efforts in the future.

 

True or false? When you coach a salesperson, you should spend more time listening than talking. 

• True
• False

 

Which of the following is a benefit of GROW coaching? 

• It places the responsibility for improvement on the person being coached.
• It can be implemented without any direct involvement from sales management.
• It gives the management team more control over individual salespeople.
• It simplifies the way salespeople report their progress.

 

How can a film review be used as part of a coaching strategy? 

• As your team comes together to discuss their favorite movies and other topics not related to work, they will build trust with one another and be more open to coaching.
• As you review recordings of how individual salespeople spend their working hours, you’ll be able to give them specific recommendations on how they can improve.
• As your team reviews a specific call or meeting one of your salespeople ran, other team members can give advice on how that salesperson can improve in the future.
• As your salespeople meet with their leads, they can click the filmstrip icon inside HubSpot CRM to indicate the meetings they need help with. Their manager can see a list of these meetings and coach the salesperson through each one.

 

How can pipeline meetings be a coaching opportunity? 

• As you review each salesperson’s pipeline, you can teach them the best approach for each sale they’re pursuing.
• As your salespeople review each other’s pipeline, they can hold one another accountable and share best practices.
• As your salespeople each review their own pipeline, they can look for places where they need coaching.
• As your executive team reviews the sales organization’s pipeline, they can identify the salespeople who are struggling and assign leaders to coach them.

 

True or false? A good sales process has enough flexibility to allow salespeople to adapt to the needs of individual prospects. 

• True
• False

 

What are exit criteria?

• The things a salesperson needs to achieve before being promoted to manager
• The actions that have to be taken before a sales can move out of a particular stage of your sales process
• The circumstances that justify removing a salesperson from the sales team, either by firing them or by moving them to another department
• The qualifications for a prospect to become a customer

 

What is the “source of truth” for every sale’s status? 

• Your pipeline meetings
• Your business intelligence dashboard
• Your CRM
• The assigned salesperson

 

Fill in the blanks: Each step of your sales process is a combination of _____ and _____. 

• A buyer action, a monetary outcome
• Internal actions, external actions
• External actions, internal documentation
• A rep-focused action, a buyer-focused outcome

 

True or false? You can forecast as accurately with an informal sales process as you can with a formal sales process. 

• True
• False

 

A colleague at another company has developed a sales process with four steps in it. They are concerned that the process is too short. What would you tell them? 

• “If the process is robust enough to support the needs of your sales team, it doesn’t matter how long or short it is.”
• “Shorter processes are easier for salespeople to remember and execute, so having such a short process is ideal.”
• “Don’t forget to include steps for places where a sale runs into trouble. Have you considered adding steps for following up, rescheduling meetings, and finding a new point of contact?”
• “Four steps might actually be too long. The ideal sales process has three steps: prospect, demo, close.”

 

Which of the following groups is the easiest to sell to? 

• Unhappy customers
• New prospects
• Past prospects
• Happy customers

 

Which of the following should be included in your sales process? 

• The actions taken by your marketing team before your salespeople get involved
• Steps to ensure closed customers received the value your team promised them
• Contingency plans for what your team should do when a prospect doesn’t progress as quickly as expected
• Word-for-word scripts for your salespeople to follow in every meeting

 

True or false? Making the steps of your sales process buyer-centric can be as simple as changing their names a little bit. 

• True
• False

 

True or false? Combining multiple methodologies causes confusion and low performance. 

• True
• False

 

What is the best way to provide content to your sales team? 

• Provide them with a framework that helps them match specific pieces of content to the specific needs of their prospects.
• Provide them with as much content as possible to ensure that they have a relevant piece of content for every conversation they might have.
• Empower them to create custom content for each prospect they work with.
• Provide them with content templates so they can easily create personalized content in the moment they need it.

 

What format should your sales playbook be in? 

• A physically printed format
• An interactive digital format
• Video
• In-person training

 

True or false? You need to continually evaluate how well your sales process is working. 

• True
• False

 

What’s the sales manager’s role in the second phase of a sales training, when the training is reinforced? 

• Ensuring the salespeople who attended the training understood what was taught
• Establishing consequences for salespeople who didn’t attend the training
• Communicating the key outcomes of the training to the executive team and other departments inside the company
• Setting team goals based on what was covered in the training

 

What’s the sales manager’s role in the third phase of a sales training, when the sales team converts knowledge into behavior? 

• Applying the training to their own role as sales manager
• Planning the next sales training session as a follow-up to what was learned
• Providing salespeople with a safe place to practice their new skills
• Increasing team members’ quotas to encourage them to apply their new skills

 

Which of the following is an example of an ineffective coaching technique that should be avoided? 

• The sales team has a film review to listen to a sales call a team member ran, and the manager assigns another team member to give critical feedback.
• During a pipeline review, the sales manager allows the salespeople to ask each other inspection questions instead of the sales manager asking the questions.
• A salesperson is struggling to write a follow-up email, so the sales manager steps in and writes it for them.
• During a one-on-one meeting, the sales manager asks the salesperson to choose what skill they want to work on.

 

True or false? During coaching sessions, the salesperson needs to identify their own path forward. 

• True
• False

 

What’s the best way to avoid making bad sales hires? 

• Limit the number of places you publish job postings.
• Focus on hiring people referred by team members.
• Hire experienced salespeople.
• Develop a robust hiring process.

 

True or false? The sales team needs to be using the same hiring process used by other departments. 

• True
• False

 

When hiring salespeople, what is the most important thing to look for? 

• Innate sales skills
• Selling experience
• Proven rapport with your target persona or industry
• The ability to execute your sales process

 

When creating interview questions for sales hires, which of the following approaches is a best practice? 

• Use the same questions for all candidates for all sales roles.
• Create a different set of questions for each sales role, but use the same questions for all candidates for a particular role.
• Create a different set of questions for each candidate, tailoring the questions to their experience and the role they’re applying for.
• It doesn’t matter what questions you ask in a given interview as long as you use the same grading rubric for each candidate.

 

Fill in the blanks: When building a recruiting strategy, building relationships with top sales talent at other companies is _____, while building relationships with high-performing business development reps at other companies is _____. 

• a short-term strategy, a long-term strategy
• a long-term strategy, a short-term strategy
• an ideal strategy, usually a mistake
• a good primary tactic, a good secondary tactic

 

Which of the following should be the primary focus of your sales onboarding program? 

• Your company’s goals and initiative
• The products or services you sell
• Your team’s culture and values
• Your sales process and playbook

 

Which of the following is a best practice for onboarding newly hired salespeople? 

• Cover everything they might ever need to know and then provide review sessions later on to reinforce what they learned.
• Have them start selling immediately and then coach them on the mistakes they make.
• Cover the things they need to get started and train them on the rest later on when they need it.
• Get input from every department at your company to ensure your onboarding program is truly comprehensive.

 

Which salesperson would most benefit from a coaching program? 

• An underperforming salesperson who is dedicated to improving
• A top performer who wants to get even better
• A top performer who doesn’t like following the sales process
• An underperforming salesperson who doesn’t engage in group trainings

 

If a highly dedicated salesperson is unable to improve their low sales performance despite coaching efforts, what is your best course of action?

• Fire them.
• Help them find a different role within your company.
• Continue coaching them.
• Leave them on the team but focus your coaching efforts elsewhere.

 

During the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, what is the buyer becoming aware of? 

• Your product or service
• A problem they have
• The principles of an inbound strategy
• Changes in the market

 

During the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey, what is the buyer considering? 

• Different categories of solutions
• Different solution vendors
• Whether they want to make a change
• How much of a priority their current problem should be

 

Which of the following is true of most sales organizations?

• They would be better off not implementing a coaching program than implementing an ineffective program.
• Their salespeople’s performance is unlikely to be improved by coaching.
• They spend too much time coaching their salespeople.
• They don’t coach their salespeople as much as they should.

 

During the Options step of GROW coaching, what is your role as coach? 

• Provide the salesperson with a list of options for achieving their goal.
• Help the salesperson explore their options for getting from where they currently are to where they want to be.
• Explore what options the salesperson has if they fail to achieve their goal.
• Help the salesperson consider whether the goal is optional.

 

Which of the following is the most important responsibility of a sales leader? 

• Researching market trends and making sure the team adapts to them
• Setting team goals and ensuring every team member contributes toward hitting them
• Hiring new salespeople and integrating them into the existing team
• Making sure the sales team is following an effective sales process

 

Fill in the blank: Every step of your sales process needs to be _____. 

• Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely
• Required, factual, inspectable, and buyer-centric
• Urgent, important, qualified, and profitable
• Clear, concise, complete, and correct

 

Which of the following has the biggest impact on potential leads? 

• Your existing customers’ word-of-mouth
• Your company’s marketing collateral
• Your sales team’s ability to answer questions and respond to objections
• The quality of your sales hires

 

When choosing a sales methodology, what’s the most important thing to keep in mind?

• How well the methodology matches the personalities of your salespeople
• How long the methodology will take to implement
• How likely your sales team will be to fully adopt the methodology in all of their sales conversations
• How well the methodology will work with your process and your target persona

 

What’s the sales manager’s role in the fourth phase of a sales training, when the team applies their new skills in the real world? 

• Ensuring what was covered in training is kept top of mind for the members of the sales team
• Assessing team members on how well they can apply what they’ve learned
• Coaching individual team members to help them reach mastery
• Holding team members accountable to integrating the training into their actual workflow

 

What’s the sales manager’s role in the final phase of a sales training, where each team member continues to improve on the skill until they’ve fully mastered it? 

• Increasing team members’ quotas to encourage them to apply their new skills
• Communicating the key outcomes of the training to the executive team and other departments inside the company
• Coaching individual team members to help them reach mastery
• Removing any team members who don’t apply the skills

 

True or false? During a training, having participants role play with each other is an effective way to build skills, even if there isn’t an experienced person evaluating the role play. 

• True
• False

 

What’s the difference between training and coaching? 

• Training teaches salespeople what they need to do, and coaching helps them improve how they do it.
• Training happens in group settings, and coaching happens in one-on-one conversations.
• Salespeople can train each other, but only a sales leader can coach.
• Training is better for salespeople who are at the beginning of their career, and coaching is better for more experienced salespeople.

 

True or false? Job interviews are highly predictive of how successful a person will be after they’re hired.

• True
• False

 

When building a recruiting strategy, which of the following is a good long-term tactic? 

• Building relationships with top sales talent at other companies
• Building relationships with high-performing business development reps at other companies
• Attending networking events
• Looking for employees in other departments of your company who can be moved to the sales team

 

True or False? Allowing salespeople to coach each other will distract from their primary responsibility of finding and closing new business. 

• True
• False

 

True or false? You need to define your target persona before you define your sales process. 

• True
• False

 

What’s the sales manager’s role in the first phase of a sales training, when the team is learning something new? 

• Designing and delivering the training to the sales team
• Ensuring all team members are present and actively engaged while the training is taking place
• Ensuring the selected topics are presented in a way that will drive improvements to the way the sales team executes the sales process
• Leading by example in attending and participating in the training

 

True or false? At the end of a good onboarding program, the newly hired salesperson will know everything they’ll need to know in their new role. 

• True
• False