Hiring a new salesperson is exciting, an investment in your company’s future. The right hire will bring in new deals, strengthen client relationships, engage new partners, and grow revenue.
The wrong hire?
They cost you time, money, team morale, and even tarnish your reputation. I’ve been there. I’ve watched companies hire big personalities with impressive résumés, only to find out later that they clashed with operations, ignored marketing, and overpromised things they couldn’t deliver. Hired because they were full of potential, but in actuality they were full of hot air.
I’ve also seen collaborative, process-driven salespeople outperform the flashy “hotshots” because they knew how to sell within the company’s structure. By the way, I place myself here - willing to break dumb corporate rules, not your classic hot shot sales leader, but I get stuff done!
Hiring great salespeople isn’t just about finding hunters, it’s about finding the right fit.
What You’ll Get in This Post
• The hidden costs of hiring the wrong salesperson.
• The six most important qualities of a high-performing sales hire.
• How to find and attract salespeople who actually fit your culture.
• A sneak peek at my latest podcast on aligning sales & operations.
• Bonus: AI strategies to increase sales without adding headcount.
The Cost of a Bad B2B Sales Hire
Think about the last salesperson you hired. Now imagine that person not closing deals, missing quota, and draining your team’s energy. Or maybe you don't have to imagine because you're living it?
Hiring the wrong salesperson is more than just a bad quarter. It’s a financial, operational, and cultural setback.
Lost Revenue & Productivity
A bad hire doesn’t just fail to bring in deal, they actually lose business.
According to DePaul University, the cost of a bad sales hire averages $97,690 when you factor in hiring, onboarding, and lost deals.
The Harvard Business Review found that 80% of sales hires fail within 24 months.
Missed quota? A salesperson earning $60K/year base with a $200k-$300k annual quota could cost your company hundreds of thousands in lost revenue.
Internal Team Impact
Ever worked with a salesperson who blames their performance on marketing, economic conditions, ignores ops, and expects customer success to clean up their messes?
One misaligned hire can:
Increase friction between sales, marketing, and operations.
Drain leadership’s time with constant performance management.
Lower morale when other teams have to pick up their slack.
Damage your reputation in your industry or you local community.
Hiring the right person isn’t just about finding a top seller, it’s about finding someone who fits your company’s way of doing business.
Six Essential Traits of a Great Sales Hire
Instead of focusing on what to avoid, let’s focus on what to look for. Here are six traits to prioritize when hiring sales talent:
Process-Driven (Not Just Charismatic)
Great salespeople don’t rely on personality alone, they have a structured, repeatable process that works.
What to Look For:
How do they sell? Do they follow a structured methodology? Doesn't even have to be a branded process like SPIN or Challenger sale, we're looking for people who don't just do things helter skelter. or worse, someone who does whatever the prospect asks.
Can they explain how they qualify leads and move deals forward?
Red Flag: If they can’t explain their process, or worse, say “I can't comment on that because I don't know your procedures.", you’ve got a problem. We don't want order takers here.
Aligned with Marketing & Operations
Salespeople don’t sell in a vacuum. They need to work with operations, marketing, and customer success.
What to Look For:
Look for candidates who understand the post-sale journey and set realistic expectations for clients.
Do they value collaboration, or just want to close the deal and move on?
Or worse, do they fail to comment on this because "I'll just follow your procedure".
Side Note: Also ensure you have someone who isn't solely reliant on marketing. Understand how they find leads and seek a balance among marketing leads, partners, independent hunting, and nurturing past prospects.
Adaptable to Your Sales Model
A salesperson who crushed it at a high-volume SaaS startup might struggle in a long-cycle enterprise sale.
What to Look For:
Gain knowledge on their typical sales cycle and how they navigate it. If they're used to transactional one-call closes, but your deals are larger and take months, they will struggle no matter how good they are.
Can they handle long sales cycles, multiple stakeholders, and complex buying journeys? Or on the flip side, can they qualify and close quickly if that's your process - you don't want them turning small deals into multi-touch cycles.
Even if they have their own process and style, are they coachable? The B2B world is changing rapidly and you'll need someone with the ability to adapt.
Comfortable with AI & Sales Tech
Speaking of rapid change, this is one of the reasons. If a salesperson refuses to use AI, automation, or CRM tools, they’ll struggle to keep up.
What to Look For:
Find out what tools they use on a daily basis.
Look for experience with CRM systems, automation, and AI-powered prospecting.
Are they willing to learn new tech to be more effective?
Red Flag: If they are proud that they don't use AI, you've got someone resistant to change. And you can't afford that.
Resilient & Self-Motivated
Sales is hard. Great salespeople handle rejection, stay focused, and keep going.
What to Look For:
We covered what they do when they win a deal, you also need to find out how they handle lost deals.
Do they have a track record of persistence and problem-solving?
Are they hungry for success but not desperate?
Do they have a strong "why"?
Red Flag: If they walk away without looking back, they lack resilience. B2B sales often require patience, waiting until prospects are ready to engage. You'll need someone willing to nurture contacts for months or even years.
Strong Communication & Emotional Intelligence
Great salespeople don’t just talk, they listen. They know how to read the room, handle objections, and build trust.
What to Look For:
Someone able to carry on an engaging conversation, not someone who dominates you with a brain dump.
Do they ask thoughtful questions and respond with empathy and insight?
Can they adapt their style to different types of buyers?
Did they do research on your company beyond what's in your job description?
Side Note: If they can build rapport quickly with you, that's a good sign. If they bored or annoyed you, they'll do that to your prospects and clients too.
How to Find a Good Salesperson
Great salespeople must be found and can sometimes be curated. Many people ask me how to find a good salesperson, so I'll share some of my secrets. In my VP of Sales era, I became known for building a strong sales team on a tight budget using unconventional tactics. My boss often doubted my moves, but I proved her wrong, even impressing our skeptical sales coach who began recommending my methods.
For small or growth-stage businesses, creativity is essential in hiring. Conventional wisdom suggests looking for a salesperson in their 30s, but they can earn more at larger competitors unless they have a passion for small business instead of earning, which is rare among driven salespeople. Thus, simply posting a job ad won't suffice; you need to be proactive in your search.
I’ve seen companies hire too fast just to get the position filled, bring on big personalities because they "crush it", and a host of other challenges who end up being a nightmare for marketing and operations. And their sales leader, or you too! I’ve also seen companies wait too long, rejecting perfectly good candidates because they didn’t check off all the boxes. You'll lose a lot of revenue potential waiting to find that unicorn.
Finding the right salesperson is a mix of clarity, strategy, and knowing where to look.
Let’s break it down:
1. Get Clear on Who You’re Actually Looking For
Hiring without a clear Ideal Salesperson Profile is like trying to close a deal without a defined ICP.
Ask yourself:
What kind of sales process do they need to thrive in? Enterprise deals? High-velocity SaaS? Complex consultative sales?
What’s their role in the sales cycle? Full-cycle hunter? SDR-to-AE path? Account management & expansion?
What kind of buyer will they be working with? Fortune 500 CFOs? Mid-market HR leaders? Growth-stage founders? Small local business owners?
If you don’t define what “great” looks like for your team, you’ll waste time interviewing candidates who aren’t the right fit.
Pro tip: List your non-negotiables. If collaboration, adaptability, and operational alignment are more important than "aggressive closing," don't let a flashy resume mislead you into a bad hire. Be flexible on other qualifications to avoid wasting time searching for the perfect candidate.
2. Look Beyond the Resume - Assess the Potential AND the Personality
A lot of hiring managers get seduced by personality. Someone talks a big game, knows all the right buzzwords, and you think, “Yep, they can sell.” But can they actually follow a process? And how will your prospects and clients respond to all that big talk?
A great salesperson isn’t just a smooth talker, they’re a structured executor.
Ask them: “Walk me through your sales process, start to finish.”
Have them role-play a discovery call and watch how they ask questions.
Give them a real-world scenario: “A prospect tells you they’re happy with their current vendor, what do you do?”
You’re not looking for memorized scripts. You’re looking for critical thinking, adaptability, and strategy. You're also looking for someone who will ask questions and not just try to dazzle the prospect. My old coach used to say "telling isn't selling".
Red Flag: If a candidate can’t articulate their sales process, they probably don’t have one. And if they say "I'd explain..." instead of asking probing questions, you've got a pushy salesperson who cares more about selling than helping solve your prospect's problems.
3. Test for Coachability (Because No One Is Perfect on Day One)
No matter how experienced a salesperson is, they need to be coachable.
I don’t care if they were top 1% at their last company—if they’re not open to feedback, they won’t last.
How to Test It:
Give them a scenario. Ask, “If you lost a deal, how would you analyze what went wrong?”
Look for humility. Do they own their mistakes, or blame bad leads, the product or pricing, the economy, or other outside factors?
Run a quick coaching exercise. Give them a small piece of feedback and see how they respond.
Ask where/how they learn. Look for listening to podcasts, reading books, blogs - anything that shows consistent learning or personal growth.
A coachable salesperson is one who will truly grow with your company.
4. Don’t Just “Post and Pray” - Use Proactive Recruiting
Most great salespeople aren’t actively looking, they’re already closing deals somewhere else, but they're often open to new conversations and willing to see what else is out there.
That means you need to go where they are.
Where to Find Great Sales Talent:
Referrals: Ask your best salespeople who they’ve worked with before.
Industry events & LinkedIn: Engage with people who are sharing insights and networking.
Sales communities & groups: Join places where high performers hang out (RevGenius, Pavilion, etc.).
Outbound recruiting: Don’t wait, headhunt the best talent just like you’d prospect a dream client.
And please, don’t just copy-paste a job description and call it a day. If you want A-players, you need to sell the opportunity just like you’d sell your product.
Your salesperson needs to manage a balanced pipeline of opportunities to drive company growth. You need to manage a pipeline of qualified candidates to fill open roles and ensure uninterrupted revenue growth.
5. Make Your Hiring Process Sales-Friendly (Because Great Salespeople Are Evaluating You Too)
Want to know a big reason you’re losing out on great sales hires? Your hiring process is too slow or you fail to sell them on why they should spend part of their career with you.
If your top candidate has to wait three weeks between interviews, you just lost them.
If they have to jump through unnecessary hoops, you just frustrated someone who is literally in the business of making things easier for buyers.
Move quickly. The best candidates don’t wait, they’re being courted by other companies.
Make the process feel like a great buying experience. If your hiring process is slow and disjointed, they’ll assume your sales process is too. Candidate experience matters!
Give them real insights into the role. Let them meet with marketing, ops, and other salespeople, show them how your team truly works together.
A-players want to work for A-player companies. If you move with urgency, communicate clearly, and treat them like a valued prospect, you’ll close top talent just like you close top deals.
6. Think Outside the Box
Small or growth-stage companies can't always command the top talent in the middle of their careers. You might have to get a little creative to fill your role.
Look for someone earlier in their career who has potential. An SDR or Client Success person - everyone had to get their first outside sales opportunity. Maybe you can coach up the next superstar.
Look for someone at your target customer, someone with deep knowledge of the ICP, their challenges, and how they buy.
Look for an experienced rep who's later career. A superstar that other companies would pass on because of age. Ageism is illegal, but we know hiring managers do it anyway.
Don't require a college degree, actively recruit Veterans or people with disabilities, second chance candidates (within your company's risk tolerance)
Bonus: When you look for, curate, and support an unconventional talent, you often get a much more loyal employee.
Sneak Peek: Why Most Sales Onboarding Fails (And How to Fix It)
Recruiting and hiring a great salesperson is only the first part. Getting them ramped up quickly is where many companies drop the ball. A weak onboarding process leads to confusion, frustration, and missed revenue targets. So, what separates the companies that turn new hires into top performers from those that churn through reps who never hit quota?
In my latest mini pod, I break down the biggest mistakes in sales onboarding, from lack of structure to misalignment with marketing and operations. I’ll also share the strategies that actually work. Structured plan, milestones, the power of peer mentoring, real-world role plays, and AI-driven enablement.
In this 30-second clip, you’ll hear why peer mentorship is a game-changer for ramping up new reps. Want the full breakdown? Catch the full episode here!
Bonus: AI Strategies for Sales Growth (Without Adding Headcount)
Before you rush to hire another salesperson, ask yourself: Are you making the most of the team you have? Could you drive more efficiency and sell MORE, but without hiring more people? (Hint: your existing team will probably love this play.)
Instead of immediately expanding headcount, companies are using AI to:
Automate lead scoring so reps focus on the highest-converting prospects.
Personalize outbound sequences at scale without burning time.
Streamline CRM updates so salespeople actually sell (instead of updating fields).
Improve forecasting with AI-driven deal insights.
Sometimes, the best way to grow revenue isn’t hiring—it’s optimizing what you already have. Get more details here.
What’s Next?
Free Resource: Download my Guide to Sales Interview Questions to find the right hire.
Listen to This Week’s Podcast
Book a Free 15-minute Review: I'll review you onboarding process with you and make at least one recommendation.
Hiring great salespeople isn’t about luck. It’s about knowing where to look and how to evaluate talent. Let’s make sure your next sales hire is a growth driver, not a revenue drain.
Rise of Us is a practice run by Summer Poletti, specializing in revenue growth: sales, strategic partnerships, customer success, marketing alignment. We generally work with financial services and SaaS companies from $3MM - $10MM ARR and help them plan and execute for their next stage of revenue growth. We concentrate on strategy, coaching, and organizational alignment.
留言