A common hiring mistake is searching for generic talent. The true skill is assessing a candidate's inherent characteristics to determine if they can thrive in your company's unique culture and pace. The critical question isn't if they're a great employee, but if they can be a great employee *for you*.

To efficiently screen sales reps, hold a group interview where candidates perform a pre-sent script. Then, provide live feedback and ask them to try again. This quickly assesses their preparation, ego, and coachability.

When interviewing salespeople, the biggest red flag is blame. Strong candidates demonstrate humility and self-reflection by taking ownership of lost deals and analyzing their own shortcomings. Weaker candidates deflect, blaming the product, competition, or other external factors, signaling a lack of coachability.

To hire for traits over background, Mark Kosaglo suggests testing for coachability directly. Run a skill-based roleplay (e.g., discovery), provide specific feedback, and then run the exact same roleplay again. The key is to see if the candidate can actually implement the coaching, not just if they are open to receiving it.

Senior commercial leaders are professional interviewers who excel at telling you what you want to hear. A hiring process based solely on conversation is flawed. To truly vet a candidate, you must incorporate exercises that force them to demonstrate their abilities and "show you the receipts" of their claims.

Top salespeople know their numbers precisely. When interviewing, demand specific dollar amounts for their quota and actual performance. Resistance, vagueness, or answers like "100-plus percent" are strong signals they are either hiding underperformance or lack discipline.

Hiring managers are biased by "interview ability"—a candidate's charisma. Lou Adler’s 'Four A's' (Affable, Articulate, Assertive, Attractive) seduce interviewers but don’t predict on-the-job performance. The only antidote is to focus on a clear, objective scoreboard of past and expected performance.

During interviews, listen for how candidates describe their successes. Top performers who lead through collaboration naturally talk in terms of 'we' and credit their team. Those who constantly say 'I' often lack the collaborative skills needed for modern enterprise sales.

A common hiring mistake is prioritizing a conversational 'vibe check' over assessing actual skills. A much better approach is to give candidates a project that simulates the job's core responsibilities, providing a direct and clean signal of their capabilities.