← Algolia
Algolia role-play cheat sheet
For the mock cold call at the end of most SDR interviews.
What they sell, in one line
A search and discovery platform that gives websites and apps fast, relevant, AI-powered search through an API.
Who you'd be calling
VPs of Digital, Heads of Product, Engineering leads and ecommerce managers at retailers, marketplaces and software companies.
Your opener
“Hi Sam, this is Alex from Algolia. I know I'm calling out of the blue. We help teams make the search on their site or app fast and relevant, so people find what they want and buy. Do you have a minute to tell me how your search works today?”
Problems you solve for them
- Site search returns poor or no results, so visitors leave
- Building and maintaining search in-house takes developers months
- Hard to personalize results or add AI-style answers
Discovery questions to ask
- Who owns the search experience on your site or app today?
- What do you do now to fix queries that return poor or empty results?
- Have you tracked how many visitors who use search end up converting?
Objections they'll throw at you
“I'm busy right now.”
→ I get it, I'll keep it short. I only have one question about your site search. Can I book 15 minutes next week when it's calmer?
“We're not interested.”
→ No worries. Often that's because search feels good enough until someone looks at the numbers. Do you know how often searches on your site come up empty?
“We already use something for this.”
→ Makes sense, lots of teams do. How happy are you with the relevance and with the developer time it takes to tune it?
“Just send me an email.”
→ Happy to. To make it useful, is your focus better relevance, faster build time or adding AI features?
Competitors worth knowing
Elastic, Coveo, Bloomreach, Constructor
Interview tips for this company
- Try a few search boxes on big shopping sites before the interview and note what works. It gives you real talking points.
- You'll call both technical and business buyers, so practice explaining search in simple business terms like more sales and fewer lost visitors.
Written from public information about Algolia to help you practice. Ask an insider what their role play looked like; it's the best prep there is.