Field Notes
Where Sales Strategy Meets People Strategy
Practical, research-backed lessons on hiring salespeople and sales leaders, paying them well, and keeping the good ones.
Two Good Finalists, One Job: How to Choose Between Sales Candidates
When two sales finalists both clear the bar, gut feel usually picks the one you liked most. Here's a fairer way to break the tie, built on what the research says about how hiring decisions go wrong.
The Sales Hiring Debrief That Stops a Bad Hire (Silent Write, Pre-Mortem, Devil's Advocate)
The consensus hire feels safe and is often the groupthink hire. Here is the debrief structure that surfaces the doubts in the room before they become your problem.
The Sales Hiring Scorecard: Hire to a Standard, Not the Best of a Weak Pool
The best candidate in a weak pool is still a weak hire. A scorecard sets the bar before you meet anyone, so you can say no to a full shortlist without flinching.
How to Read a Sales Assessment Report Without Getting Fooled
A sales assessment report isn't a grade. Here's what the scores mean, what they don't, and why the most useful comparison is your own best people.
Competencies vs Skills vs Experience: What You Are Really Hiring a Salesperson For
Skills can be taught in a quarter. Competencies take years and mostly cannot. Here is why hiring for the wrong one keeps costing Ontario sales teams their best seats.
Reference Checks That Actually Tell You Something About a Sales Hire
"Would you rehire them?" gets you a polite yes and nothing else. Here's how to run reference checks for a sales hire that turn up facts, not compliments.
The 30-Minute Sales Phone Screen (and the Questions That Actually Filter)
A friendly phone screen tells you who is easy to talk to. A structured one tells you who can sell. Here is the 30-minute script and the questions that earn their place.
How to Evaluate Interview Candidates for a Sales Role
You probably decided in the first minute. The research says that impression sticks for weeks. Here's how to score sales candidates on what they can do instead.
How to Screen Sales Resumes (Without Letting the Resume Do the Deciding)
The résumé is a fast first filter and a weak predictor. Here is how to use it as a gate to the phone screen instead of letting the paper quietly make the hire for you.
Structured Interviews for Sales Roles: Why They Work and How to Run One
The friendly chat feels like a good interview. The research says a structured one predicts performance far better. Here's how to build one for a sales hire.
AI Resume Screening in Ontario: The Filter That Quietly Rejects Your Best Salesperson
The AI screen that clears your résumé pile in seconds is not finding your best salesperson... it is finding the one who looks like your last hire. What Ontario now requires, and how to screen fairly.
Psychometric Testing for Sales: What Actually Predicts Performance
Psychometric testing for sales candidates only works if you use the right tools. Learn why standard personality tests fail and what actually predicts revenue.
Why Hiring on Gut Feeling Is the Riskiest Move in Sales Recruiting
The candidate who lit up the room is the one your instinct is worst at judging, and in sales that read is worse than useless. Here is what the research on gut-feel hiring actually shows, and the process that beats it.
Hiring for culture fit is a legal landmine. Here's what to hire for instead
Hiring for culture fit may seem like good judgment, but it is often a legal minefield and a bias trap. Here is what to hire for instead, using the four dimensions of fit.
The Candidate Your AI Just Rejected Is Also a Customer
Most job seekers have now been interviewed by an AI, and most weren't told. How AI screening and interviewing reshape candidate experience, and what it costs you.
AI Was Supposed to Take the Bias Out of Sales Hiring. It Just Learned Yours.
Everyone selling AI hiring is selling you Moneyball. The catch: the tool either learned bias from your history or showed up already carrying it. Here's what the research shows, and how to fix it.