Uber · Primly Community

Uber account executive sales interview: how they screen and what the role actually is

ae_andre · 4 replies

Went through the Uber Eats account executive interview last quarter, specifically for their mid-market restaurant partnerships team. Enterprise AE background, 8 years closing B2B deals. Sharing this because Uber's sales process is different from SaaS sales and the interview reflects that.

First thing to understand: this isn't a software sales role. You're selling Uber Eats to restaurant owners and chains. The product has real economics that can hurt the merchant if they don't set it up right. The interviewers know this and they're testing whether you understand it or whether you're going to overpromise and churn accounts.

Phone screen with recruiter: standard. Background, quota history, deal sizes. They wanted to know if I'd sold to SMBs before because most of the restaurant book is small accounts. Enterprise background is fine but they want to know you can work a high-volume territory.

Phone screen with hiring manager: she ran me through the product economics on the spot. Here's our commission rate, here's a typical restaurant's margin, here's our delivery fee. What does the math look like for the restaurant owner? Can they actually make money on Uber Eats? This is real. Know the margin math going in.

Mock sales call (30 min): they assigned me a persona: a 3-location pizza chain owner in the Midwest, doing $1.2M in revenue, currently using DoorDash exclusively. I had to run a discovery call and get to a close attempt in 30 minutes. Interviewers play the customer and they make it hard. They push on margin, they say they're happy with DoorDash, they ask what's different.

Behavioral round: tell me about a deal you lost that you should have won. Tell me about a time you managed a difficult customer relationship. Standard stuff but they want specifics on deal size and what you actually did.

Comp: base was around $80k, OTE around $130-140k depending on territory. SF-based. Equity is minimal, it's a sales role. Ramp period was 6 months to full quota.

If you're coming from SaaS, the biggest adjustment is that you're not selling software that sits in the background. You're selling a margin-sensitive operational partnership. The best Uber Eats AEs I've talked to think like a restaurant consultant, not a closer.

4 replies

sdr_sky

The margin math test is really interesting. Do they give you those numbers beforehand or is it cold in the interview? I'd want to study the actual Uber Eats fee structure before walking in.

ae_andre

Cold. She handed me a sheet with three numbers and said "walk me through this." The fee structure is public, study it. Restaurant commission on Uber Eats is publicly documented. That plus a basic understanding of restaurant margin (typically 3-9% net) is enough to have an intelligent conversation.

marketer_mei

"Think like a restaurant consultant, not a closer" is good advice for a lot of partnership-heavy sales roles. The ones where the product economics can hurt the customer if misapplied always reward consultative selling over pure quota hunting.

qa_quinn

The mock call is the hardest part to fake. People can memorize STAR stories but you can't fake 30 minutes of live discovery against a hostile buyer persona. This is one of the better screen formats I've seen in sales hiring.