General manager interview questions

What this hire must get done

Write the scorecard before you interview, then hire against it. Set the bracketed targets from your own numbers.

What to tell candidates before the interview

Say the hard parts plainly. People who wouldn't stay drop out early, and the ones who stay knew what they signed up for.

• List the departments and managers the GM will run, the decisions the owner keeps, and the GM's spending limit.
• Show finalists last year's results and this year's budget in summary, so they know the gap they're signing up to close.
• Be specific about hours: peak-season days, on-call duty for serious incidents and how often they'll be on job sites.
• Explain how the bonus works and what it's tied to, such as net profit, safety and reviews.

How to run the interview

1. Same questions, same order. Ask every candidate the questions below and the same follow-ups. It is the only way to compare people fairly.
2. Two interviewers. An owner or manager and someone who does the work. Take notes on what the candidate says, not on how you feel about them.
3. Score right after each answer. 5 sounds like the strong answer, 3 like the mixed one, 1 like the weak one. Use 2 and 4 for answers in between.
4. Rate alone, then compare. Compare candidates question by question, and talk only after everyone has scored. Big gaps are worth a conversation.

1. Behavioral · Running the P&L

   Take the last [two] branches, departments or businesses you ran. For each one, what did the P&L look like the month you took over, and the month you left?

   Before-and-after numbers for each job show whether they've truly owned profit, and give you specifics to check with references.

   Follow-ups

   • Who asked you to fix what, and how was it measured?
   • Which change moved the numbers most, and which didn't work?
   • Why did you move on, and what would your boss there add to your account?

   5Strong

   Gives starting and ending revenue, gross margin and net profit for each, ties the change to specific actions (a price change, a manager replaced, a schedule fix), separates their effect from a good or bad market, and the exits fit the story.

   3Mixed

   Knows revenue growth well but is hazy on margin or net profit, or credits the results mostly to a strong season.

   1Weak

   Has never owned a full P&L, or the numbers change when you probe them.

2. Technical · Running the P&L

   Walk me through how you build next year's budget for a branch, from the sales plan down to net profit.

   A GM who builds the budget from capacity and cost can defend it and run to it. One who adds a growth rate to last year can't.

   Follow-ups

   • How do you work out how many technicians or crews you'll need?
   • Which overhead lines do you push back on hardest?
   • How do you get each manager to own their part?

   5Strong

   Starts with sales by service line and month, turns that into billable hours and headcount at a realistic billable rate, costs labor with burden, sets materials from last year's job costs, builds overhead line by line, and has each manager build and sign their piece.

   3Mixed

   Builds from last year plus a growth rate, without turning sales into crews and hours.

   1Weak

   Gets the budget from the owner and runs to it, or has never built one.

3. Situational · Balancing sales and delivery

   Your sales manager is beating quota, but jobs are booked out [five] weeks, cancellations are rising and the production manager wants sales to stop. What do you do this week?

   This fight happens in every growing home service business. The answer shows whether the GM fixes the system or picks a side.

   Follow-ups

   • What numbers do you pull before you meet with them?
   • What do you change in how work is sold?
   • How do you settle it so both managers can still hit their goals?

   5Strong

   Pulls backlog, crew capacity, cancellations by wait time and margin by job type. Meets both managers together. Changes what's sold (prices on long-wait work, booking to capacity, steering to better-margin jobs), adds crews only if the numbers hold, and ties both managers' goals to work completed.

   3Mixed

   Picks a side, telling sales to slow down or the field to work overtime, without changing how either is measured.

   1Weak

   Leaves the two managers to sort it out, or adds crews without checking margin.

4. Behavioral · Developing managers

   Tell me about the last department manager you hired: how you defined the job, how you found them and how their first year went.

   How a GM hires managers predicts the bench they'll build for you.

   Follow-ups

   • What did you test them for, and how?
   • What did you do with them in their first [90] days?
   • What would you test for next time?

   5Strong

   Wrote the outcomes first, used the same questions for every candidate and checked references, ran a clear first-[90]-day plan with weekly one-on-ones, and can show the department's numbers from that first year.

   3Mixed

   Hired someone good from their network, but with no written goals, so the first year depended on the new manager's own drive.

   1Weak

   Promoted the best technician or salesperson without testing whether they could manage, and they struggled.

5. Situational · Developing managers

   Your service manager hits every number, but [two] strong technicians quit this quarter, and both said the manager belittles people in front of the crew. What do you do?

   A manager who drives people out can look great for a year. The GM's response shows whether turnover counts as a result.

   Follow-ups

   • How do you check the story beyond what the two who left said?
   • What do you say to the manager?
   • What would make you remove them?

   5Strong

   Gets facts first: talks to the crew without the manager, checks turnover and exit notes, and brings in HR if it sounds like harassment. Meets the manager privately with specifics, sets expectations and a short deadline, and follows through, up to removal. Counts turnover in the manager's results.

   3Mixed

   Coaches the manager but gives the numbers more weight, with no deadline or follow-up.

   1Weak

   Keeps the manager as is because the department makes its numbers, or fires them on the word of the two who quit.

6. Situational · Customer recovery

   A customer's install failed one month after the labor warranty ended. They're threatening a bad review and a complaint to the state, and your install manager says no. What do you decide?

   Warranty edge cases test whether the GM weighs cause, cost and reputation, or just reads the policy.

   Follow-ups

   • What do you want to know about the install first?
   • What does it cost to say yes, and to say no?
   • What do you tell the install manager afterward?

   5Strong

   Checks the install records, photos and likely cause. Weighs the cost of each path, not just the dates. Calls the customer personally, covers the labor if the work was at fault, explains the decision to the manager and fixes what caused the failure.

   3Mixed

   Makes a fair call for the customer but overrules the manager without explaining, so the next case comes back up too.

   1Weak

   Hides behind the warranty dates, or gives everything away to avoid the review.

7. Situational · Safety and standards

   It's the busiest week of the season. A technician tells you a crew lead skipped fall protection on a quick second-story job to stay on schedule. Nothing happened. What do you do?

   Shortcuts that work become habits. How the GM responds when nothing went wrong sets the standard for every crew.

   Follow-ups

   • What do you say to the crew lead, and who else hears about it?
   • What would you check about why it happened?
   • How do you make sure the schedule doesn't push this again?

   5Strong

   Deals with it that day, in person. Applies the written discipline policy the same way for anyone, protects the technician who spoke up, checks whether scheduling or missing gear drove the shortcut, fixes that, and tells every crew what changed.

   3Mixed

   Talks firmly with the crew lead but treats it as a one-off and doesn't look at what pushed it.

   1Weak

   Lets it go because nobody got hurt, or tells the crew lead who reported it.

8. Behavioral · Working with the owner

   Describe a decision in your area, such as a price change, a hire or a big purchase, where you and the owner or your boss disagreed. What happened?

   You want a GM who argues with numbers in private and then carries out the decision fully, even when they lost.

   Follow-ups

   • How did you make your case?
   • Whose call was it, and how did you know?
   • What did you do after the decision went against you?

   5Strong

   Made the case privately with numbers, knew whose call it was, and once decided carried it out fully without undercutting it with managers. Came back later with results if the issue was worth reopening.

   3Mixed

   Made a good case but went along grudgingly, and the team could tell they disagreed.

   1Weak

   Went around the owner, or says they've never disagreed with a boss.

9. Situational · Running the P&L

   With [two] months left in the year you'll miss budget. A manager suggests pushing some vendor bills into January and billing jobs that aren't finished. What do you do?

   A GM paid on profit against budget is tempted to move the paperwork. This shows whether they keep the numbers honest when their own bonus is at stake.

   Follow-ups

   • When does the owner hear about the gap, and from whom?
   • What real levers do you still have?
   • What do you say to the manager who suggested it?

   5Strong

   Says no to both: costs belong to the month the work or goods came in, and revenue to the month the work was done, whatever the invoice date. Tells the owner now, with the gap and cause. Collects what's owed, bills finished work and defers spending that can wait.

   3Mixed

   Refuses the timing games but waits until the year closes to tell the owner.

   1Weak

   Goes along with it, or calls it normal year-end practice.

Work exercise: branch month review

Give finalists a made-up month for a branch: budget against actual by department, overtime, callbacks by crew, backlog, reviews and [two] notes from managers who disagree. Allow [20] minutes to prepare, then [20] minutes to walk you, playing the owner, through what happened, what they'd do in the next [30] days and what they need from you. You can model it on a real month, but change the numbers and remove the names.

Use made-up materials, never real customer work, and keep it to the time shown. Follow your own safety rules for anything hands-on.

Reference check questions

Tell finalists you'll call a former manager, and get their permission first. Ask about what they did, not whether they were nice.

• Which managers did they hire or develop, and how are those people doing now?
• Tell me about a time sales and the field were pulling in different directions. How did they handle it?
• When they disagreed with you, how did they raise it, and what did they do once you'd decided?
• How did their branch compare with your others on safety and customer complaints? Would you put them in charge of a branch again?

Questions to skip, and what to ask instead

Ask only what the job needs. Questions that touch age, health, family or pay history can break federal, state or local law, even when you mean well.

• SkipWhat did your last company pay you?

  AskBase pay is [range], and the bonus is tied to [branch profit, safety and reviews]. What are you looking for?

• SkipDo you have young kids? This job has on-call weekends.

  AskThe GM takes on-call for serious incidents [how often] and works [peak-season hours]. Can you meet that schedule?

• SkipYou'll be climbing around job sites. Are you up to that physically?

  AskDescribe the site visits to every finalist in the same words: [stairs, ladders or roofs, and how often]. Then ask whether they can do them, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Common mistakes when hiring a general manager

• Promoting your best department head without testing the whole job

  A great sales manager or production manager has run one side of the business. Give an inside candidate the same scorecard, questions and branch review as outside candidates, and ask how they'd manage former peers.

• Paying the bonus on revenue

  A GM paid on revenue will get you revenue, at whatever margin it takes. Tie the bonus to net profit against budget, with safety and reviews counted too.

• Calling only the GM's former bosses

  Bosses see results. The managers who reported to the GM see how those results were reached. Ask the candidate to set up a call with one of them too.

General manager interview FAQ