How to Create Sales Hiring Guides

I spent over 35,000 hours learning to interview salespeople successfully — because I didn't learn it in school. Here's salesperson interviewing boiled down into 7 simple steps (that you can start using today): 1️⃣ Create Job Characteristics. No, this isn't a job description. If the job was to speak to you, what would IT tell you it needs for superior performance? Write down 10-12 must-haves and nice-to-haves. 2️⃣ Define the Characteristics There's nothing worse than two interviewers disagreeing on the meaning of the word "Coachable" or "Optimistic." Write down the specific definitions in your benchmark. 3️⃣ Develop Behavioral Interview Questions Behavioral interview questions ask about how they handled past situations. Real stories. Tell me about a time when you... Come up with 3 per characteristic. Add to your benchmark. 4️⃣ Develop a Fast, Thorough Interview Process Great salespeople aren't going to wait months for you. Multiple thorough steps that take 2-3 weeks tops to get through. And not too quick either. "Offers on the spot" raise red flags. 5️⃣ Actively Source Candidates Yourself Sales leaders must always be recruiting salespeople themselves. Don't trust Recruiting to do it all for you. Get on Linkedin yourself and pull candidates into the process 6️⃣ Conduct a Respectful Interview You're not trying to trick them. Create an interview with them that makes them feel comfortable so they can open up to you. Don't be a jerk. Sell them on the job too! 7️⃣ Do Backdoor Reference Checks It's too easy to find people that your candidate used to work with/for. Seek them out. Knowing what they know now, would they hire them again? If you do these 7 dead simple things, you'll be on your way to conducting world-class interviews that attract A-player candidates to help you crush your goals. And one more thing, if you want to see what a sample salesperson hiring benchmark might look like, download my guide here: https://lnkd.in/gZD9GXTP

Getting alignment on your Ideal Candidate Profile (ICP) is the first step, but what you do next is what separates well-intentioned hiring from repeatable hiring. We take the output from our ICP alignment session and build an interview guide that ensures every interviewer knows: - What we’re hiring for - How to test for it - What “great” actually looks like Here’s how we do it: 1️⃣ Prioritize the ICP traits We test the most important traits first. If we’re hiring for goal orientation, we don’t wait until round 3, we test it in round 1. 2️⃣ Pull the actual ICP language into the guide We copy/paste, not paraphrase. This keeps every interviewer anchored on the same definitions and behaviors. 3️⃣ Define success What does a 90% confidence hire look like? What should the candidate experience feel like? Clarity here improves both outcomes and experience. 4️⃣ Choose the right method As Laszlo Bock said in Work Rules, the most predictive interview format is a work sample test. So we simulate the job: - Prioritization exercises - Real-time role play - Scenario breakdowns We also use behavioral and situational questions, but never rely on polished stories alone. 5️⃣ Design the flow We script the structure: how much time, what’s being tested, how to build rapport, when to go deep. 6️⃣ Write the actual questions Yes, literally write them down. The difference between “good” and “great” often comes down to how sharp your questions are. 7️⃣ Build a scorecard with signal anchors We include: - 1–5 rating scale - Clear examples of what “great,” “good,” and “red flag” answers look like - Traits mapped back to ICP This makes calibration possible and helps avoid post-interview chaos. This system helps us avoid the “feels good” hires and focus on the ones that perform. What’s your process for turning strategy into signal? #hiringstrategy #interviewing #talentops #salesleadership #structuredinterviewing

Founder of an $8M company is growing his sales team He and 2 sellers did it all After raising money and initially building out a marketing team, things were starting to move quick He was worried about hiring the right sellers and not messing up what had been built He heard the horror stories of hiring and the business moving in the wrong direction We sat down and game planned out what to do: 1. Review his current sellers and identify the attributes in them that make them so good 2. Rank the attributes with weights on a scorecard 3. Assign questions to the attributes so you can test them 4. Discuss and identify what is a good answer to the questions and what is BS 5. Define the hiring process, interviewers and prep them with this scorecard 6. Create a sales assignment to test for the skills the sellers need to show 7. Build the ideal sales candidate profile 8. Create the job description including responsibilities & expectations 9. Build the quota formula (how to achieve & exceed quota) 10. Schedule reflection times weekly to review the scorecard, candidates, etc with the hiring team This type of intentionality in hiring is what reduces mis-hiring It takes work It takes roleplaying It takes meetings and critical thinking It takes time to process and get everyone onboard The results speak for themselves When I see founders and leadership cut corners, mis-hires happen There are a lot of great sellers out there right now Plenty of bad ones It’s challenging to decipher the good from the bad sometimes Their #1 job is to sell themselves Want some help building (or rebuilding) your sales team - dm me