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.
What a Bad Sales Hire Really Costs (and How to Work Out Yours)
The famous "30% of salary" figure has no traceable source. Here's what the research does say, and a simple way to add up what a wrong sales hire would cost your business.
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.
Performance Management for Small Business: Beyond the Annual Review
The once-a-year review feels like accountability. Usually it just measures how well your manager remembers the last six weeks. Here is what actually moves performance instead.
The HR Policies Every Ontario Employer Needs (and the Order to Build Them)
You do not need forty policies. You need the right six, built in the right order. Here is the required-versus-nice-to-have stack for an Ontario SMB, sequenced.
The Employee Handbook That Holds Up in Ontario
A handbook you copied off the internet is not a shield. In Ontario it can quietly become a promise you did not mean to make. Here is what belongs in it and what to leave out.
Org Design for a Growing SMB: When the Org Chart Stops Working
The org chart that got you to 40 people is often the thing holding you at 40. Here is how to tell when the structure is the bottleneck, not the people.
Building a Compensation Structure That Does Not Break as You Scale
Paying by negotiation feels flexible until the day two people doing the same job find out they earn thousands apart. Here is how to build pay that scales without that landmine.
How to Hire Your First VP of Sales (Without Betting the Company on a Title)
Your first senior sales hire is the one you cannot afford to get wrong, and it is usually the one chosen on the thinnest process.
What Does a VP of Sales Actually Do?
If the honest answer is "sells the big deals himself," you did not hire a VP of Sales. You gave your best closer a raise and a new business card.
VP of Sales vs Sales Director vs Sales Manager: Which Sales Leader Do You Actually Need?
The three titles get used as if they mean the same thing. On a payroll run and an org chart, they very much do not.
When Should You Hire a VP of Sales?
Most owners ask this too late, and a few ask it about five years too early. Here is how to read the signals instead of the revenue line.