Hiring
How to hire salespeople who actually hit quota
Sales interviews reward the skill of interviewing — which happens to be the same skill as selling yourself. That is exactly why so many confident hires never make budget. Here is the process we use to tell the difference.
1. Verify the number before you fall in love with the story
Ask for the actual quota, the actual result and the period it covered — then ask where they ranked in the team. "I was over target" means little without context. A rep at 105% in a team averaging 140% is a below-average performer. A rep at 92% in a team averaging 60% may be your best hire this year.
Follow up with how the number was made: how many accounts, average deal size, new business versus renewal. Genuine performers recall their metrics without hesitation because they lived in them every week.
2. Test the part of the job that is hardest
For most Australian sales roles, the hard part is not presenting — it is creating pipeline and holding price. Ask them to walk you through the last three opportunities they created from nothing: who they targeted, how they got the first meeting, what the objection was and what they did when the buyer went quiet.
If every example is an inbound lead or a warm account handed to them, you are looking at an account manager, not a hunter. Both are valuable — but only one will build your pipeline.
3. Use a real-world exercise, not a personality quiz
Give a short, respectful task tied to your market: research one prospect and outline how they would approach them, or run a ten-minute discovery call with you playing the buyer. Score two things — the quality of their questions and whether they controlled the next step. Weak salespeople finish a call without an agreed action.
4. Reference-check the manager, not just the referee
Ask specifically for a former direct manager, and ask them one question that cuts through: "Would you hire this person again into a role carrying a number?" Hesitation is the answer. Then ask what the person needed to be coached on — every real manager has one.
5. Move fast, and be honest about the role
Strong sales candidates are usually employed, well paid and in two other processes. Long, multi-week interview loops lose them. Compress your process, be direct about the earning potential and the difficulty of the territory, and you will both hire faster and lose fewer people at the offer stage.
6. Hire for the market you actually sell into
A star SaaS closer does not automatically succeed selling forklifts to a family-run transport business, and vice versa. Look for transferable buying environments — deal cycle length, decision maker seniority, and whether the sale is relationship-led or transaction-led — rather than an identical industry on the résumé.
Hiring a salesperson this quarter?
One Up Partners runs founder-led sales searches for growing Australian businesses. Targeted, proactive headhunting — quality-led shortlists, not CV volume.