Bravado shares the LinkedIn Relationship Manager interview questions, interview process, and interview tips to help you ace the interview.
Interview Basics
How many years of experience do you need for this role?
An entry-level Relationship Manager, RM1, ideally has three years full sales cycle experience in the Tech or SaaS space.
Each level up generally requires 3 more years of experience, but exceptions can be made if you really performed well in a previous role.
- RM2: 6 years sales experience
- RM3: 9 years sales experience
- RM4: 12 years sales experience
What are the Relationship Manager responsibilities?
Relationship managers are essentially account managers. Their responsibility is to grow the revenue within an existing customer account. Account executives are responsible for making sales in new accounts.
To learn more about this role, view our relationship manager review guide.
Which LinkedIn offices do Relationship Managers work at?
Relationship managers work out of multiple offices, including the Detroit, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Sunnyvale locations.
How do I get an interview for this role?
The best way to get an interview is through an internal referral, or directly reaching out to a hiring manager via cold email or LinkedIn. LinkedIn had over a million people apply for jobs with a 3% hiring rate in 2020, so having an internal resource pushing your resume will help get you in the door.
Can you choose what account size you will sell into?
No. Your account size that you sell into will be determined by your level.
- RM 1: SMB
- RM 2: Mid-Market
- RM 3: Enterprise
- RM 4: Key Account
Interview Process
What is the interview process like?
A standard process will look like this after you apply online or get an internal referral.
- Recruiter Interview
- Direct Hiring Manager Interview
- Role Play Interview with Direct Hiring Manager & Two Other Managers
- Director / Senior Manager Interview
- Culture-Fit interview with current RM’s on the team (not always required)
In total, you will typically have 4 interviews, although you could have 5 interviews if you also get put through the culture-fit interview with the other RM’s.
How long was the interview process?
Two to six weeks is the normal interview process length.
Interview Questions
Recruiter Interview
The recruiter interview is a very basic screening call to make sure you meet the basic requirements, understand the role, and fit the culture.
- Why LinkedIn
- Are you a team player or lone-wolf salesperson
- Describe your previous role
- What was your performance like in your previous role
- What do you know about LinkedIn’s product suite
- General STAR Questions
Direct Manager Interview
This interview will be to confirm your background, sales aptitude, and culture fit. Like the recruiter interview, this is more of a screen rather than a high pressure interview. This interview will likely be with the manager who you will directly report to.
Describe your previous experience in sales
- Walk me through a deal you closed previously
- Were you a full cycle seller, and if not, where did your role fit in
- Were you a top performer in your previous role
- What got you interested in LinkedIn
- Tell me about a time that you were a team player
- What do you do outside of work to contribute to the community
- Tell me about a time that you were a leader
- What would you do if [X] situation happened with a customer
- How do you navigate a deal with multiple stakeholders involved in the decision making process
- Tell me about a time you worked with other lines of business at your company to win a deal
- Do you have experience selling into the C-Suite and executive level?
- STAR Questions
Role Play Interview
After you get past the direct hiring manager interview, you will be given a prompt in advance for your upcoming roleplay. It will outline the background of the customer you’re pitching to, the customer’s needs, and the goal of the roleplay, which for an RM is generally to renew an existing contract.
To prepare for this interview, prepare a clear cut agenda, strong discovery questions, include the appropriate stakeholders in the roleplay, and establish next steps.
This interview will take place with your direct hiring manager and one to two other sales managers. They want to see if you ask good discovery questions, how are you with customers, and how do you handle objections.
The interviewers will make this a tough role play. Potential role play scenarios include good cop-bad cop, angry customers who are set on cancelling, etc.
Director / Senior Manager Interview
This goal of this interview is to allow the director to confirm you are a strong candidate – dot I’s, cross T’s. The questions will be about your past sales experience and how you believe this will translate to this role. It is a very similar interview to the direct hiring manager interview (interview #2).
- What lines of business did you sell into?
- What personas did you sell into it?
- Did you sell to the C Suite?
- What previous deal are you most proud of and walk me through it
- Describe how you prospect
- Describe your sales process
- Tell me about a time you had to sell to multiple C-suite stakeholders in a deal
- How were you able to manage the multiple stakeholders
- How do you overcome failure
- How you collaborated with cross functional partners to win a deal
- How were you able to navigate that deal with cross-functional partners involved
- What are the things that you want to do outside of your role in sales?
Culture-Fit interview
This interview is not always required but the hiring manager might request it if they believe there might be a potential culture fit issue. You will interview with other RM’s on the sales team and they will ask you culture based questions. They are really looking for a team seller.
It is very rare for anyone to get cut because of this interview.
Interview Preparation
What are your recommendations to prepare and succeed?
To succeed in the LinkedIn sales interview process, consider taking the following steps to prepare.
- Be able to speak to why you want to work for LinkedIn
- If you have any type of community driven work or side-business, side-hustle, or entrepreneurship experience, play this up
- If you’ve ever leveraged cross-functional team members or sold into an account with multiple stakeholders at the C-suite level, continue to tie back to this
- Develop 6-8 strong STAR stories around your previous sales experience
- Understand the products
- Go on the LinkedIn website and learn the LinkedIn Mission and Vision
- Go on Youtube and learn about LinkedIn’s five year plan
- Know your five year plan
- Practice your role play out loud in front of the mirror
- Prepare potential role play objections and how you will respond to them
Salary and Commission
How much does a LinkedIn Relationship Manager earn?
Compensation depends on the level you come in at, 1 to 4, and office location.
For detailed information on compensation, visit the LinkedIn company page.