Hiring a salesperson in 10 steps: Interview best practices, questions & examples
Making the wrong hire is costly. Here's how to ensure you get the right candidate.
By Margaret Deflieze, Staff Writer
Last updated January 5, 2023
A better hiring process means attracting great candidates. Remember, you’re not the only one deciding on the partnership, and providing a seamless and professional interview process is the first step in finding quality candidates for your team. With the average annual turnover in sales being 20 percent, you need to take the right steps and ask the right questions to ensure the role is a good fit for the candidate from the get-go.
How to hire a salesperson
Whether you’re hiring for an entry-level salesperson or an account executive, follow these steps to create a better interview process.
- Confirm your interview process
- Prepare your job listing
- Review resumes–and watch out for hiring bias
- Screen applicants
- Prepare for the final interview
- Ask the right questions
- Use interview best practices
- Make final decisions
- Send out notifications
- Learn from your process
1. Confirm your interview process
The first step is to confirm your interview process. Here are a few things to consider.
- Do you need to backfill or is this a net new position?
- What type of person do we want to be part of the cycle?
- How many people will be included in the hiring process?
- How many rounds will be included?
- How long will each interview last?
- Where will you conduct the interviews?
- What criteria is the hiring team using to evaluate the candidate?
- Will your team work from a structured list of interview questions or bring their own?
2. Prepare your job listing
Putting together a great job description attracts the right kinds of candidates. Decide on the criteria for your ideal candidate and what the position should look like:
- Full-time or freelance?
- Entry level or experienced?
- What region is this for?
Looking for more guidance? Check out our sample sales rep job listing below.
Sales rep job posting example
Job description
Excited to grow your career at ABC Sales? [Add a quick description about your company.]
What you’ll be doing
- Generate new business opportunities for pipeline
- Work closely with Account Executives to develop targeted lists, call strategies, and messaging to drive opportunities for new business
- Conduct high level conversations with Senior Executives in target accounts
- Research and build new and existing accounts (i.e. adding contacts, sending regular emails and qualifying opportunities into the Account Executive/Account Manager’s pipeline)
- Achieve or exceed monthly quotas of qualified opportunities.
What you offer
- The ability to strategize and prioritize
- Individuals that are passionate about SaaS, customer service, and high-tech
- Self-starters with track records of success in their professional and personal or collegiate lives
- Experience with high outbound calling
- Someone with sales grit and not afraid of a “no”
- Experience in quota carrying roles
What we offer
- Immediate Benefits – Health, Dental, and Vision
- Wifi reimbursement
- Cell phone reimbursement
- Competitive PTO Parental Leave for all parents
Requirements
- Past experience in high-volume outbound sales. Ability to understand customer requirements and identify potential solutions to fulfill requirements
- Excellent communication skills
- 1-2 years of sales experience
- Shown success in meeting targets, KPI’s, quota’s, etc.
3. Review resumes–and watch out for hiring bias
According to Forbes, the average number of people who tend to apply for a single job is 118, while only 20 percent of them get invited to an interview. Select who you would like to move forward with based on resume and LinkedIn information that align to your company’s goals and priorities. Here are a few questions to help guide you:
- Is the resume filled with “fluff” such as generic sales skills?
- What’s the tone of the resume?
- Does the applicant include impressive awards or certifications?
- Did they demonstrate a time when they solved a specific sales problem?
Avoid common hiring bias and educate yourself about bias in the workplace such as gender bias, affinity bias, recency bias, and the halo effect. The more you are aware of your implicit biases, the easier it will be to keep away from them when hiring.
4. Screen applicants to narrow options
Consider the phone or video screening of sales candidates as your second vetting process. You should be able to cull down candidates even further to find out who is actually worth interviewing with the larger team.
At this stage, you’re looking more at the qualifications of each candidate and their overall manner rather than their cultural fit. You want to make sure they can back up their statements on their resumes. The more preparation you put into screening, the higher the chances that you’ll have a great candidate for the final interview.
Here are screening best practices and questions to consider.
Screening best practices
Keep it short. Spend 15-30 minutes (or less). You can go more in-depth if the candidate makes it to the next stage.
Take detailed notes. What is your impression of the candidate over the phone? How are their communication skills? Are they enthusiastic? Also, note the amount of time they spend answering a certain question. For example, are they focused on salary or on company culture?
Ask about any concerns. For example, do the dates of their selling experience line up with their former position?
Review your notes. Directly after the phone interview is complete, add any additional impressions to your notes about the candidate to determine if they can move on to the next stage.
Initial screen questions
Here are a few general example questions:
- Tell me briefly about your responsibilities at your past jobs.
- Where are you in your current job search?
- What are your salary expectations?
- Why did you leave (or are leaving) your current position?
- Why did you apply to our company?
Be prepared to ask questions that are relevant to the position and your company. Six out of ten employees feel that the job they’ve chosen doesn’t match with what they actually interviewed for. Make sure the questions you ask fit the actual position, so you don’t risk employee turnover later on.
5. Organize and prepare for the final interview
To prepare for final interviews, make sure you know the ins and outs of your company: You are the first line of contact to the candidate. Additionally, look at LinkedIn profiles and a candidate’s website. What types of companies did they work for in the past?
And most importantly, be sure to set up an agenda.
“Interviews go better when you set an agenda and expectation up front, just as you do with sales calls.” Mickey DeFellipo, Business Development Manager, Zendesk
6. Ask the right questions
Try to ask questions to incorporate real world examples that would be good indicators of the key attributes you’re looking for in your future salesperson. Understanding how they tackle challenges and wins from previous scenarios will be a good indicator of how they will perform for your team and give you a sense of their salesmanship.
“Can they define what would make us better than a competitor? Salesmanship is important. We want people to connect before they dig into the details.”Jeff Atwood, Regional Vice President, Corporate Sales, Zendesk
Sales interview pillars
Does this candidate have the right characteristics?
- Do they have a determined mindset (perseverance amd pushing beyond the first no)?
- Do they have the ability to be vulnerable and honest about shortcomings?
- Do they demonstrate self development and learn from mistakes?
- Do they have the ability to work well under quota and pressure – at the end of the month are they going to be fighting to the end?
Does this candidate have the right skills & knowledge?
- Do they take initiative to expand their knowledge on business acumen and how to be successful in the role?
- Do they understand how to outbound from account selection?
Does this candidate bring the appropriate experience?
- What sales experience do they have?
- Have they had experience closing deals, and how extensive has their past experience with that been?
Will this candidate enjoy doing the role?
- Are they excited to be in a competitive environment?
- Are they curious about how businesses work, and can they do the proper research on accounts?
Sales development representative example questions
- Think about a time you missed quota, tell me about your mindset in the last 4 days of the period?
- When was the last time you thought outside of the box to get a hold of a prospect and how did you do it?
- What are the last 3 resources you used to expand upon your business acumen?
Account representative example questions
- If I were to talk to your manager and peers at your last company, what are things they would say that you did really well?
- How would you handle a personality conflict with a client or colleague?
- Tell me about a time you successfully upsold a current client and how you achieved the sale.
7. Use interview best practices
Here are 7 interview best practices to consider. Check out our sales interview blog for more.
-
Introduce yourself and recap the process
-
Take notes
-
Create a scorecard or scoring system
-
Observe the soft skills
-
Pivot your questions as needed
-
Leave time for their questions (and be honest)
-
Be yourself
You want to make a good first impression yourself. When you begin the interview, make sure to set up front expectations of the interview and agenda.
Make sure to be engaged during the interview while also taking appropriate notes.
When deciding between multiple candidates who are all qualified for the role, a scorecard system may help with your decision process. On a scale of 1-5 for each core fulfillment, how do they rank? The candidate with the highest score may be the right person to choose. Here’s a template you can use.
Characteristics | Skills & Knowledge | Experience | Enjoyment |
4 | 5 | 3 | 4 |
Total score: | 16 |
While very important, exemplifying hard skills is not always the best determinant of the best candidate. Knowledge can always be learned, but grit and strength cannot.
“Do they have that hunger? Do they have the grit? I would choose someone with the right soft skills over experience and knowledge.”Jeff Atwood, Regional Vice President, Corporate Sales, Zendesk
Depending on the candidate’s answers, you may need to pivot your questions. Is there something you want to follow up on?
“First impressions are big. If you’re looking at your clock more than once or twice, then you’re bored.” said Atwood.
Allow several minutes for questions from the candidate, but use their questions as an additional determiner of their fit to their role. Answer honestly; they’re also interviewing you.
Being yourself and allowing candidates to feel comfortable during the process will also go a long way.
“The marketplace is competitive, try your best to demonstrate how you manage to show a level of employee experience. It’s equally important because people are looking for a place where they feel safe, heard, will grow, and their manager will have their back,” said Tang.
8. Make final decisions with any stakeholders
Connect with other stakeholders to get different points of view.
“Acknowledge that no interview is going to be perfect. You need to discern what you’re willing to accept and not accept. Coming up with a guide for yourself and sharing ideas with stakeholders will make things easier and help you not fall to biases, ” said Aydan Tang, Business Development Manager, Zendesk.
“Sharing ideas with stakeholders will make things easier and help you not fall to biases. ” Aydan Tang, Business Development Manager, Zendesk
9. Send out notifications to all interviewees
It’s never a good experience when a company ghosts you. Follow up with everyone you interview.
Rejection email tips
Rejecting a candidate is never easy, but providing feedback about where they went wrong can help them ace a future interview.
Personalize your interview rejection letter, while keeping concise. Speak to attributes that stood out to you, and provide 2-3 examples where they can improve. And add a sentence about keeping an eye on candidates who just fell short in case they apply again.
Backup candidate email template
Dear [Applicant Name],
Thank you for your interest in the Business Development Representative position with ABC Sales! We are reviewing your application and will let you know within 7-14 days if you’re a good fit for the position.
Again, thank you for your interest. We’ll be in touch soon.
Best,
[Name of Hiring Manager]
Job offer email template
Congrats! You’ve selected the perfect candidate to join the team, now what?
Dear [Candidate Name],
[Company name] is delighted to offer you the position of [job title] with an anticipated start date of [start date], contingent upon [background check, drug screening, etc.].
As the [job title], you will be responsible for [brief mention of job responsibilities and expectations].
You will report directly to [manager/supervisor name and title] at [workplace location].
The starting salary for this position is [dollar amount] per [hour, year, etc.].
[Company name] offers a comprehensive benefits program, which includes [medical insurance, 401(k), paid time off, etc.].
Please confirm your acceptance of this offer by signing and returning this letter by [offer expiration date].
Sincerely,
[Your Signature]
[Your Printed Name]
[Your Job Title]
10. Learn from your process
There is no one-size-fits-all way to conduct your hiring process to choose the right candidate, however learning from your past experiences and adjusting your practices in the future will help make the process more efficient for next time.

Ask the best sales interview questions
Bring your A-game to the interview with our comprehensive list of sales interview questions designed to help you find the best fit for your team.
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Bring your A-game to the interview with our comprehensive list of sales interview questions designed to help you find the best fit for your team.
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