It's not easy to impress a Hiring Interviewer. Hiring Managers receive hundreds of applications, and they may interview countless candidates before they pick someone for a single position. What can you do to stand out? Here at SV Academy, we believe a crucial way to stand out is through your research. If you've done your homework, you'll have more confidence, convey more excitement about the job, and signal to the employer that you're really knowledgeable about the industry. Let's learn how to research a company and ace your interviews. I'm here to talk about researching a company before an interview. We'll cover five different areas of research. One, is the interviewer's background; their personal brand, their online presence. Two, is company culture; their mission, media references, things like that. Three, is the company finances and funding history. Four, is the industry news, trends, and competitors. Finally, it's a little bit about the product itself. We'll also learn how to showcase your research through well-chosen questions. First, the interviewer. It's really important to know each of your interviewer's backgrounds, their personal brands, their online presences. You have to look for facts like their names, of course, but also how long they've been with the company, their professional backgrounds, their roles at the company. I think the roles are especially important because it's really important to identify which interview persona you'll be interviewing with. For example, a recruiter in a first-round interview will look for certain things like a basic knowledge of the company product, SDR terminology, and your interests in a sales career. But an SDR Manager will look for something else. They are usually interviewing in the second-round interview. They'll look for information like your ability to craft a multi-channel campaign, using SDR tech tools and your knowledge of qualification frameworks. LinkedIn is a great research source for researching interviewers, so make sure you guys use that. Next, the company culture, mission, and media references. What are some of the company's core values? What is their mission? What would it be like to work there or to spend a day in the life of one of their employees? Be sure to comb through the company's social media posts including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, for this kind of information. For industry and company news, make use of resources like TechCrunch as well as social media. I think you should look for news about recent product releases, fundraising, mergers, expansions its new markets, and company successes like awards or recognition. As you research, look for facts about the company finances and funding history. If you are interviewing at a startup, what is the startup? What phase are they in the startup life-cycle? Have they announced any recent funding? Is the company public or private? These details can help you understand the context of a company, the challenges that the team might be facing, the types of goals that they are striving to achieve. The better you understand the company's current context, the better you'll be at positioning yourself to offer value. Don't forget about the product itself. What problems does the product sell for the customer, and how? What is the quantifiable impact of the customer if they choose to purchase the product? How does this compare to the customer's current situation? Remember, companies can focus on multiple customer segments and buy our personas depending on the product. It's important for you to be able to articulate the value proposition to at least the primary segment and persona. Also be sure to know the company's competitors. That's one way to impress your interviewers by knowing how their company's products stands out in the market. Now that you have an idea about what to research, let's talk about how to showcase that research. Great place to do this is in your questions for the interviewer. Avoid asking generic questions that anyone would ask, like, what's the company culture? Also avoid asking questions you already should know the answer to, like, what kind of product you sell? Use your questions at the end of an interview to demonstrate that you've done your homework. Some additional tips from me, is to try to reach out to some of the other SDRs or BDRs that already work there. Well, first of all say no, "I'm actually trying to interview for this company, would love your help." I think that researching out to BDRs and SDRs at the company will, one, demonstrate that you know how to do the job already. Reaching out to people for their time. Two, you'll be able to get a lot of information that you would have not been able to get through just researching on the internet. You're now equipped to boost your confidence and your interview performance through research. To recap, we've covered five areas of research. One: The interviewer's background, personal brand, and online presence. Two: The company culture, mission, and media references. Three: The company finances and funding history. Four: Industry trends, news, and competitors. Finally, the product itself.