Free live workshop · For owners & sales leaders

Why Are Salespeople So Hard to Hire?

A 45-minute workshop on how to stop betting on resumes, likability, and gut feel, and know who can actually sell before you make the offer.

Thursday, November 19 1:00 PM ET Live on Zoom · 45 min
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Sound familiar?

If you've hired a salesperson, you've probably lived at least one of these.

They interviewed like a dream. Ninety days later, the pipeline was empty.

Hundreds of applicants. Maybe three worth a phone call.

Your calendar is packed with interviews, and the bad ones are starting to look good.

Your gut said no. You hired them anyway because the seat had been open too long.

They came with a great list of contacts. The contacts never turned into deals.

You kept an underperformer way too long, because starting over felt worse.

None of that is bad luck.

It's not a people problem. It's a process problem.

Sales is the one role where the candidate's entire job is to sell themselves to you.

ExperienceLikabilityGut feel

And most of us still choose on the three things that prove nothing.

What you coach your reps

  • Qualify hard.
  • Don't chase a bad-fit deal because the pipeline's thin.
  • Watch behavior, not words.

How most of us actually hire

  • Ignore the red flag.
  • Fall for the likable one.
  • Skip steps because the seat's been open too long.

We hire the way we tell our reps never to sell.

Do the math

The salary is the small part.

A bad sales hire costs you in places that never show up on the offer letter.

Salary and commission draw

Months of your time, and your team's

Training that walks out the door

Lost and poisoned pipeline

Team morale and broken trust

Running the whole search again

Add it up. It's probably 3× what you think.

What we'll cover

The 6-step process for hiring salespeople who actually perform

The same process we use to hire our own people, and the one we install for clients.

01

Define the role before you write a word

Sort every trait into Must, Should, and Nice. Keep it to ten must-haves or fewer. Past that, you're describing a person who doesn't exist.

02

Write an ad that filters people out

The right rep reads it and thinks "that's me." The wrong one thinks "that's a lot of work" and moves on. Why "3+ years required" is the most expensive filter there is.

03

Assess before you talk

A 45-minute, sales-specific assessment before the first conversation, so likability can't cloud your read. It measures the 21 core selling competencies, with built-in detection for coached answers.

The biggest shift
04

Interview to validate, not to vibe-check

Watch their feet, not their mouth. The blow-off test, the resume shred, the one question that exposes excuse-makers, and a role play that matches the real pressure of the job.

05

Align on reality before the offer

Name the hard parts now: comp, ramp time, call volume. See who flinches. Then ask the question that pulls tire-kickers out of your pipeline.

06

Onboard so you don't kill a good hire

The first 90 days decide everything. A 12-week plan, built before they start, so a strong hire doesn't decide they made a mistake.

Not a lecture

You'll leave with working tools, not just notes.

The Role Definition Worksheet

Results, functions, attitudes, and skills, sorted into Must / Should / Nice so you know exactly what you're hiring for.

The "one more step" assessment email

The copy-and-paste note that moves every applicant through the assessment before you spend a minute on the phone.

The question that separates owners from excuse-makers

And exactly what a good answer sounds like, so you know what you're listening for.

Realistic hiring math

How many applicants it really takes to land one great salesperson, so you stop chasing headcount and start chasing fit.

Attendees only

Bring a candidate. We'll assess them for free.

Everyone who attends live can get the full sales assessment we teach in the workshop, on a real person, at no cost.

  • Hiring now? Assess your top candidate before you make the offer.
  • Not hiring yet? Assess a current rep and see exactly where they can grow.
  • Then walk through the report 1:1 with a Sandler | Lushin coach.

Details at the end of the workshop.

Proof it works

Three rounds of interviews missed him. The assessment didn't.

Glenn's company had made three bad sales hires in a row. Here's what changed when they started assessing before they interviewed.

3

straight bad hires

before they started assessing

~100

applicants assessed

One came back Recommended: elite hunting and commitment.

#1

producer a year later

Out-producing the cocky veteran, with a worse territory.

Great hiring is a funnel, not a coin flip.

For every hundred people who apply, here's roughly what a disciplined process looks like. You're not chasing more interviews. You're chasing the one.

100
apply
15
take the assessment
4
come back Recommended
1
great hire

Our own onboarding used to be "go call some people." So we built a real process. One firing in the ten years since.

The process in this workshop is the one we run on ourselves.

Who this is for

Built for the person who makes the sales hire.

Owners & sales leaders

Owner, President, CEO, VP, Director, or Manager of Sales. Hiring salespeople is your call.

You've been burned

A hire who aced the interview and was gone inside a year.

You hire on instinct

Resume, likability, a good vibe, and no real way to tell which hires will work.

You hire because you need a body

A seat is empty and a number is at risk, not because you found the right person.

Any industry, B2B or B2C. If you sell something and hire people to sell it, this is for you.

Questions

Before you register

Is it actually free?
Yes. No credit card, no catch. You'll get the full process whether or not you ever work with us.
Are you going to pitch me?
For about two minutes at the end, we'll explain how attendees can get a free assessment and 1:1 strategy session. The other 43 minutes are the process.
Do I need to be hiring right now?
No. If you'll hire a salesperson in the next year, this will save you from an expensive mistake. If you're not hiring, the same assessment shows where your current reps have gaps.
Who's running it?
A sales coach from Sandler | Lushin. We train and coach sales teams and leaders, and we've helped hundreds of owners hire salespeople.
How do I join?
On Zoom. Your link arrives by email the moment you register, along with a calendar invite. We'll send a reminder before it starts.
Can I bring my sales manager or HR lead?
Please do. Have them register here so they get their own link.

Your next sales hire is going to cost you either way.

Spend 45 minutes learning the process now, or six months finding out the hard way.

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Free live workshop · Thursday, November 19 · 1:00 PM ET

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