HOT TAKE: Skill and Talent based hiring
Right, let's cut to the chase. Hiring in sales can be an absolute minefield, can't it? You've got seasoned pros with compelling narratives jumping from gig to gig, promising the world, delivering for a hot minute, and then vanishing before you ever see a decent ROI. Sound familiar?
In a market saturated with folks vying for the same "skill sets," we need a new playbook. And guess what? The answer is staring us right in the face: Skills-Based Hiring.
Dropping off and staying on
Now, I get it. Your recruitment process might be out of your hands - but if you’re stuck, make the business case for a pilot. Look at your recruitment funnel, those massive drop-offs, and how many "ideal candidates" you’re losing. That’s your leverage!
(Note: if you don’t have any metrics to track ideal candidates or different groups of candidates, isn’t there room for improved tracking there also?)
The real magic happens when you uncover those innate abilities and developable skills during the recruitment process. You want to gauge who truly has the propensity for success in your organisation.
The three categories
A boss of mine, a true revenue engineer if ever there was one, shared a cracking categorisation for what you want in your people, both on day one and 90 days down the line. It's brilliantly simple:
Knowledge: This is the easy bit, folks! It's super specific to your product, your industry, your go-to-market strategy. You shouldn't be testing for this in recruitment. But by day 90? Absolutely, they should have it dialled in. It's easily teachable, especially with solid sales enablement and onboarding processes.
Skills: Ah, now we're talking! These are things you should be testing for during recruitment. Can some be developed? Absolutely. Think about that superstar graduate who's never had a sales job before. Does that mean they can't learn the sales process optimisation and techniques to become a top-tier salesperson? Nonsense! You want to understand what they've got "under the hood" to personalise their onboarding and accelerate their journey to sales efficiency.
Talent: This, my friends, is the golden ticket. What do they have inherently? What are they pre-packaged with that's almost impossible to teach? These are the traits that don't always show up on a CV or in previous tenure. We're talking natural curiosity, innate drive, resilience – the stuff that fuels genuine revenue growth strategies.
Quick tips for uncovering Talent
Ditch the “Tell me / show me / how have you dealt with X” questions - they’re too easily prepped for and only show you what someone can articulate in the room.
Switch it up to real life examples of problematic situations you experience. For example:
Share three opportunities with the AE you’re looking to hire
Give them some data on a spreadsheet / screenshot of a CRM
The data can be age, opportunity size, associated contacts etc
Ask them - “If you had to close lose one, and pick push one forward, which would you choose?”
They can ask as many questions as they like - you want them to
This showcases real life experience and actual skill / talent and aptitude for the role at hand and gives you, the hiring manager, an insight into what it’s like to work with them on a pipeline management call.
So, how are you truly testing for those talented, skilled individuals who will actually stick around and drive the revenue engine forward? It's time to shift gears and focus on potential, not just pedigree. Your sales team standardisation and future success depend on it!
