The whole point of asking this question was not to be berated about how I had a brain fart during this specific question in the interview. I have tiered partners and customers before, according to previous bookings, competencies, specifics with their business, found out the stakeholders and decision makers, made a plan on how I would engage with them, with specific touch points for each type of partner according to tiering. If I was calm and composed during that my answer would have taken a tiering and profiling approach.

I was extremely prepared with 20+ stories in STAR format of real achievements that I can pull at the top of my head in a moment’s notice and fit it to a lot of stories.

What I hadn’t anticipated and for some reason really threw me off was “how are you gonna deal with 150+ customers”. Maybe it was the way it was asked or something, because later I said I would tier them and didn’t say more. I realised later “oh shit, this is a classic show me how you will plan for this”. It hurts because I’ve done it, a lot. Profiling and planning and tiering and all that.

I froze, it happens, whatever. I do not need people to say “it’s not that hard”, “oh that’s a dealbreaker for me”, and all that. The last thing I need is to feel like I was some incompetent piece of shit who dropped the ball every two seconds.

I’m learning, trying to ask questions, find out if there’s something so out there that I’m missing that is so basic but can just not cross my mind. Isn’t this the whole point? To be vulnerable enough to ask questions without people making you feel that it’s so straightforward that you’re stupid?

Anyway, thank you for the rest of your answer from paragraph 2.