| A | B | C | D | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Area of Evaluation | Exercise | Assessment Points | Red Flags | Ideal Responses |
2 | Account Management | ||||
3 | Response Time Management Scenario | Simulate a situation where the candidate must juggle multiple client requests, prioritizing and responding in a timely manner. | -Evaluate their ability to manage time and prioritize tasks effectively. -Observe how they communicate delays or challenges to clients. | Prioritizing clients inappropriately, showing signs of being easily overwhelmed, poor time management. | Prioritizes tasks based on urgency and importance, communicates proactively with clients about timelines, manages time effectively. |
4 | Upselling Strategy Role-Play | Role-play a scenario where the candidate must propose additional services to a client in a way that genuinely adds value. | -Assess their ability to identify and articulate the value of additional services. -Observe their sensitivity to client needs and their avoidance of aggressive sales tactics. | Pushing services that don't align with client needs, high-pressure sales tactics, lack of understanding of client's business. | Identifies opportunities that genuinely add value to the client, communicates benefits clearly, avoids pushy sales tactics, understands the client's business. |
5 | Long-Term Relationship Building Exercise | Discuss strategies for maintaining and growing client relationships over the long term. | -Evaluate their understanding of the importance of building trust and rapport. -Look for creative ideas for keeping clients engaged and satisfied over time. | Pushing services that don't align with client needs, high-pressure sales tactics, lack of understanding of client's business. | Suggests innovative strategies for long-term engagement, emphasizes the importance of trust and consistent value delivery, shows a proactive approach to client needs. |
6 | Client Education Challenge | Present a complex digital marketing concept and ask the candidate to explain it as if to a client with limited knowledge in the field. | -Assess their ability to simplify complex concepts without losing key information. -Evaluate their communication skills in educating clients. | Using overly technical jargon, inability to simplify concepts, showing impatience or condescension. | Breaks down complex concepts into understandable terms, uses analogies or examples, remains patient and ensures client comprehension. |
7 | Crisis Communication Simulation | Create a scenario where a client campaign faces a major issue (e.g., a PR crisis) and ask how they would communicate with the client. | Evaluate their crisis management skills and their ability to maintain client confidence. Observe their approach to transparent, timely, and effective communication. | Panicking under pressure, being overly defensive, failing to take responsibility, lack of a clear communication plan. | Demonstrates a calm and organized approach, takes responsibility, communicates transparently and timely, outlines clear steps to address the crisis. |
8 | Scope Clarification Role-Play: | Engage in a role-play where the candidate must clarify and set boundaries around the scope of a project with a client. | -Evaluate their ability to communicate project limitations and set realistic expectations. -Observe how they handle client requests that fall outside the agreed scope. | -Inability to clearly define or articulate the project's scope, suggesting a lack of understanding or preparation. -Showing signs of frustration or impatience when faced with client questions about scope, indicating poor communication skills. -Agreeing to client requests that significantly expand the scope without considering the implications on budget and timeline, reflecting poor judgment or a lack of project management skills. | -Clearly and confidently defines the project scope, outlining what is included and what is not, showing thorough understanding and preparation. -Patiently and effectively addresses client questions, ensuring the client understands and agrees with the scope, demonstrating excellent communication skills. -Diplomatically handles requests that are out of scope, suggesting alternatives or discussing potential adjustments in timeline and budget if necessary, showing good negotiation and project management skills. |
9 | Budget Discussion Simulation | Simulate a conversation where the candidate must discuss and justify the budget to a client. | -Assess their ability to explain the budget in a clear, transparent manner. -Observe their skills in managing client expectations about what can be achieved within the given budget. | -Unrealistic budgeting, lack of understanding of cost implications, inability to justify expenditure. -Inability to clearly explain the rationale behind budget allocations, indicating a lack of understanding or preparation. -Becoming defensive or evasive when questioned about specific budget items, suggesting poor communication skills or lack of transparency. -Unwillingness to consider or discuss potential budget adjustments, showing inflexibility or a lack of client-centric approach. | -Provides a clear and logical explanation for each budget item, demonstrating a thorough understanding and preparation. -Responds to questions about the budget calmly and transparently, reinforcing trust and credibility with the client. -Shows willingness to discuss budget concerns and explore adjustments if necessary, balancing client needs with project feasibility. |
10 | Timeline Negotiation Exercise | Present a scenario where the client wants a faster turnaround than is feasible and ask the candidate to negotiate a realistic timeline. | -Evaluate their negotiation skills and ability to set feasible timelines while keeping client satisfaction in mind. -Observe how they balance the urgency of client demands with the practicalities of project execution. | -Unrealistic timelines, failure to account for potential delays, lack of detail in planning. -Making unrealistic promises to shorten the timeline without considering the impact on project quality or team workload. | -Demonstrates flexibility by exploring feasible adjustments to the timeline while clearly communicating the implications of such changes. -Balances client expectations with realistic project delivery capabilities, ensuring promises made are achievable without compromising quality. -Maintains a professional and collaborative tone throughout the negotiation, working towards a mutually agreeable solution that respects both the client's needs and the team's capacity. |
11 | Project Change Request Handling | Give a scenario where a client requests changes that affect scope, budget, and timeline, and ask how they would manage it. | -Assess their approach to managing scope creep and maintaining project integrity. -Evaluate their communication skills in renegotiating project terms. | Resistance to change, poor communication in conveying changes, lack of contingency planning. | Adapts flexibly to changes, communicates effectively with the team and stakeholders, develops a revised plan maintaining project integrity. |
12 | Expectation Setting Case Study | Present a case study of a project that went off track due to poor expectation setting and ask for their analysis and approach. | -Evaluate their ability to identify where expectation setting failed. -Assess their strategies for better managing client expectations from the start. | -Inability to identify where the expectation setting failed in the case study, suggesting a lack of insight into client communication. -Providing generic or superficial solutions without considering the specific context or needs of the case study, indicating a lack of strategic thinking. -Blaming clients or external factors entirely for the misalignment of expectations, showing a lack of accountability or understanding of the account manager's role in expectation management. | -Clearly identifies the points at which expectations were not properly set or communicated in the case study, demonstrating an understanding of the importance of clear communication. -Proposes specific, actionable strategies for better managing client expectations from the start, tailored to the context of the case study. -Includes proactive measures for ongoing communication and alignment throughout the project lifecycle, showing foresight and a commitment to maintaining a positive client relationship. |
13 | Client Meeting Simulation | Role-play a client meeting to assess communication and expectation management skills. | Assess communication effectiveness and ability to manage client expectations and build rapport. | Lack of active listening, being overly defensive or dismissive of client concerns, showing impatience or frustration. | Demonstrates empathy, actively listens, provides clear explanations, offers realistic solutions, and builds rapport. |
14 | Conflict Resolution Scenario | Present a conflict with a client and ask how they would resolve it. | Evaluate problem-solving approach, professionalism under stress, empathy, and focus on win-win outcomes. | Blaming the client, avoiding responsibility, lacking empathy, or failing to propose a constructive solution. | Takes a calm and empathetic approach, seeks to understand the client's perspective, proposes constructive solutions, focuses on maintaining a positive relationship. |
15 | Client Pitch Simulation | Prepare a pitch for a hypothetical client, focusing on understanding and addressing their needs. | Judge strategic thinking, alignment with client's business goals, and presentation skills. | Overpromising results, lack of alignment with client needs, unclear or confusing presentation, inability to answer questions convincingly. | Tailors the pitch to the client's specific needs, clearly articulates the value proposition, demonstrates strategic thinking, engages the client, and answers questions confidently. |
16 | Client Retention Strategy Presentation | Create strategies to retain a dissatisfied high-value client. | Assess understanding of client needs, creativity in finding solutions, and balance between business and client satisfaction. | Short-term fixes instead of long-term solutions, ignoring client feedback, focusing solely on upselling without addressing underlying issues. | Presents long-term solutions that address the client's core concerns, shows understanding of client needs, prioritizes relationship building, and offers innovative ideas to improve satisfaction. |
17 | Client Feedback Analysis | Analyze and respond to a summary of client feedback. | Evaluate interpretation of feedback, actionable insights extraction, and communication strategies for addressing issues. | Taking feedback personally, becoming defensive, failing to identify actionable improvements, or overlooking negative feedback. | Analyzes feedback objectively, identifies key areas for improvement, communicates a clear plan to address issues, and shows commitment to enhancing client experience. |
18 | Negotiation Exercise | Role-play a negotiation scenario with a 'client' to test negotiation skills. | Evaluate clarity, tone, professionalism in written communication, and effectiveness in proposing solutions. | Aggressive or confrontational attitude, sacrificing important agency interests for quick client appeasement, inability to find a balanced solution. | Balances client needs with agency's capabilities, demonstrates understanding of both parties' objectives, negotiates with respect and tact, and finds mutually beneficial solutions. |
19 | Client Onboarding Simulation | Demonstrate how to onboard a new client effectively. | Judge ability to establish trust, set clear expectations, and thorough understanding of client needs. | Overlooking key client details, failure to set clear expectations, lack of enthusiasm or engagement with the client. | Focuses on understanding the client's business and goals, sets clear expectations, communicates the onboarding process effectively, and builds a foundation for a strong relationship. |
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22 | Project Management | ||||
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24 | Deadline Adherence Simulation | Give a scenario where unexpected challenges put a project deadline at risk and ask how they would handle it. | Assess their ability to manage time effectively under pressure. Evaluate their skills in re-prioritizing tasks and communicating with clients about delays. | Making excuses for missed deadlines, poor prioritization, lack of proactive planning for potential delays. | Prioritizes tasks effectively, communicates proactively with clients and team about delays, shows ability to re-plan and adapt to ensure timely delivery. |
25 | Quality Control Test | Present a scenario where the quality of work delivered to a client has been below expectations and ask how they would rectify it. | -Assess their approach to maintaining high standards and rectifying quality issues. -Evaluate their ability to implement processes for ongoing quality control. | Deflecting blame for quality issues, lack of a clear plan for improvement, underestimating the importance of client satisfaction. | Acknowledges quality issues, takes responsibility, outlines a clear plan for immediate and long-term improvements, implements rigorous quality control measures. |
26 | Client Involvement Scenario | Discuss how they would involve a client in the project management process without overwhelming them with details. | -Evaluate their strategies for effective client communication and involvement. -Observe their understanding of balancing information sharing with client overload. | Overloading clients with technical details, lack of clear communication, failing to gauge client’s interest or understanding. | Effectively balances information sharing with clients, keeps clients informed without overburdening them, tailors communication to client's level of understanding. |
27 | Adapting to Client Feedback | Create a scenario where client feedback significantly changes the project's direction and ask how they would adapt. | -Assess their flexibility and responsiveness to client feedback. -Evaluate their ability to realign project goals and communicate changes effectively. | Showing resistance to client feedback, lack of flexibility, failing to align project changes with client goals. | Demonstrates flexibility and responsiveness to client feedback, realigns project goals to incorporate new insights, maintains clear communication throughout changes. |
28 | Resource Overallocation Challenge | Present a situation where resources are stretched thin across multiple projects and ask for their solution. | -Assess their resource management skills and ability to make tough decisions. -Evaluate their capability to balance client needs with team capacity and well-being. | Inefficient use of resources, favoritism in allocation, lack of strategic thinking in resource management. | Allocates resources strategically, maximizes efficiency, considers team strengths and project requirements, maintains balance between various projects. |
29 | Scope Management Workshop | Conduct a workshop where the candidate must define and document the scope of a hypothetical project. | -Evaluate their thoroughness in defining project scope and identifying potential areas of ambiguity. -Assess their skill in creating a clear scope statement that can be understood by both team members and clients. | Allowing scope creep without proper evaluation, failure to communicate scope changes to the client, lack of assertiveness in managing expectations. | Manages scope creep effectively, communicates scope changes clearly to clients and team, maintains project focus and quality. |
30 | Budget Planning Task | Ask the candidate to prepare a budget for a hypothetical project, including justifications for each line item. | -Assess their ability to create a realistic, detailed budget. -Evaluate their understanding of cost factors and their ability to allocate resources efficiently. | -Unrealistic budget allocations that don't align with project scope or market rates. -Lack of detail or justification for budget items, indicating a superficial understanding of project costs. -Inflexibility in adjusting the budget to accommodate project changes or unforeseen expenses. | Creates a detailed and justified budget, shows understanding of cost implications, makes strategic decisions on resource allocation. |
31 | Timeline Development Challenge | Provide a complex project brief and ask the candidate to develop a comprehensive timeline, including key milestones. | -Evaluate their skill in creating a realistic timeline that considers all project phases. -Observe their ability to identify potential bottlenecks and plan accordingly. | -Overly optimistic timelines that don't account for realistic task durations or potential delays. -Lack of contingency planning for unexpected events, indicating poor risk management. -Failing to incorporate key milestones or checkpoints, which are essential for tracking project progress. | Develops a realistic and detailed timeline, accounts for potential delays, sets achievable milestones, and plans for contingencies. |
32 | Client Expectation Management Role-Play | Role-play a scenario where project constraints require setting or resetting client expectations regarding scope, budget, or timeline. | -Assess their communication skills and tact in managing client expectations. -Evaluate their ability to maintain client trust while making necessary project adjustments. | -Making promises or commitments that are unrealistic or beyond the project's scope. -Avoiding difficult conversations about project limitations, which can lead to unrealistic client expectations. -Lack of clear communication or failing to reset expectations when necessary, risking client dissatisfaction later. | Communicates effectively about project constraints, maintains client trust, negotiates adjustments without compromising project quality. |
33 | Project Adjustment Scenario | Present a situation where unexpected events impact project scope, budget, or timeline and ask how they would communicate and manage these changes. | -Assess their adaptability and problem-solving skills in response to project changes. -Evaluate their effectiveness in communicating changes to clients and maintaining project alignment with client goals. | -Resisting necessary changes or showing an inability to adapt to new project directions. -Poor communication with the client and team about the implications of changes. -Failure to realign project objectives and deliverables in response to adjustments, risking project success. | Responds adaptably to project changes, effectively communicates the impact and solutions to clients, realigns project to new circumstances while maintaining client goals. |
34 | Project Plan Development | Evaluate their ability to create a comprehensive and realistic project plan, including timelines, resource allocation, and milestones. | Assess their understanding of the project's scope and their ability to foresee potential challenges. | -Vague or generic project plans lacking specific details and milestones. -Ignoring potential risks or challenges, indicating a lack of foresight and planning. -Overlooking stakeholder input or failing to incorporate key project requirements. | Presents a detailed and realistic plan, considers potential risks, sets clear goals and milestones, and demonstrates thorough understanding of project scope. |
35 | Risk Assessment and Mitigation Task | Ask the candidate to identify potential risks in a given project scenario and propose mitigation strategies. | -Evaluate their ability to identify potential risks and their foresight in planning for contingencies. -Assess the practicality and effectiveness of their proposed risk mitigation strategies. | Overlooking critical risks, proposing ineffective mitigation strategies, downplaying potential problems. | Identifies key risks accurately, proposes effective and practical mitigation strategies, shows foresight and proactive planning. |
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