What's this episode about?
When the Raptors traded for Marc Gasol in 2019, he arrived knowing how to read the game and learned their playbook on the fly. That same season, 19-year-old Luka Dončić showed the same read with a fraction of the years. This episode uses both to sort what a sales hire must bring on day one from what you can teach by Friday, and why a job knowledge test predicts far better than years of experience.
Want the research and the steps? Read Competencies vs Skills vs Experience: What You Are Really Hiring a Salesperson For on Field Notes.
Key takeaways
Gasol arrived in Toronto at the 2019 trade deadline without time to learn the system's terminology, and within two games was directing the defence and running the offence.
Dončić was named EuroLeague MVP and Final Four MVP at 19, the youngest ever, then NBA Rookie of the Year. The read of the game didn't need a decade.
In Sackett and colleagues' 2022 review, job knowledge tests predicted job performance at about .40. Years of job experience came in at about .07.
Split the job into what a hire must know on day one and what you can teach by Friday, then test only the first list.
A years requirement you can't tie to the job can screen out good candidates, younger ones included.
Full transcript
Last week I said hire the learner, and the hours will come. We've done traits, values and skills. Today, the last ingredient... knowledge.
Here's my call. Hire for the knowledge you can't teach, and stop screening people out for the knowledge you can teach by Friday.
Let me tell you about Marc Gasol.
February 7th, 2019. Trade deadline. The Raptors trade for Gasol. He's 34. Eleven seasons, his whole career, in Memphis. He's never run a play in Nick Nurse's offence.
As a hire? New company. New boss. New playbook. Halfway through the year.
So what happened? Within a couple of games, Gasol was directing the defence and running the offence through himself. He hadn't had time to learn the system's terminology. But he processed what he saw, fast. A Raptors assistant coach said Gasol "sees the next play a split-second before" the other team does.
Four months later, the Raptors won their first championship.
Gasol walked in knowing how to read the game. Where the ball should go next. What the other team likes to do. The play names, the calls, who stands where? Toronto could teach him those by Friday.
Now you could hear that and think... great, hire the guy with eleven seasons. Not so fast.
That same season, a rookie named Luka Dončić walks into the league. Nineteen years old. He'd made his EuroLeague debut for Real Madrid at sixteen. That spring he was named EuroLeague MVP and Final Four MVP, the youngest player ever to win either one. The EuroLeague called his basketball IQ unprecedented for someone that young. First NBA season? Rookie of the Year.
Gasol took eleven seasons to learn to read the game. Dončić could do it at nineteen. Same knowledge. Very different years.
The years aren't the knowledge. They're one way to get it.
Now you're the GM of a team that sells industrial generators.
You've got two finalists. One has fifteen years in your industry and knows your product line cold. But when you ask how they'd handle a buyer who's gone quiet after the proposal, you get a shrug and a discount. The other has four years in sales, none of them in your industry. But they can tell you who's really deciding, what's probably stalled the deal, and what they'd do on Tuesday to find out.
Which one can read the game?
I'd lean toward the second one. Not because product knowledge doesn't matter. It does. But your price list, your CRM, your spec sheets, your jargon... you own all of that, and you can teach it. What you can't hand someone in a binder is the ability to size up a sales situation.
The research leans the same way. In 2022, Paul Sackett and his colleagues reran the big numbers on hiring tools. A job knowledge test came in at about point four oh. That's nearly as predictive as a structured interview. Years of job experience? About point oh seven. Close to nothing.
So test the knowledge. Don't count the years... not for the veteran, and not against them either. Just make the test check what the job needs on day one. Quiz people on product trivia and you'll hire whoever memorized your website.
Years in your industry isn't a knowledge test. It's a guess about one, the trap from episode eight. And a years rule you can't tie to the job can shut out good people, younger ones included. That's hard to defend.
So what do you do Monday?
One. Take a page and draw a line down the middle. Left side, what this person must know on day one. Right side, what you can teach by Friday, or by the end of month one. A lot of the left side will slide right.
Two. Test the left side directly. Give your finalists a real situation from your business, names removed, and ask them to read it. Who's deciding? What's stuck? What would you do next?
Three. Build the right side so Friday is real. A one-page product cheat sheet. Two days riding along with your best rep. If you can't teach it by Friday, that's an onboarding problem, not a hiring problem.
If you're down to your last two and want a second set of eyes on what they actually know, that's exactly what our Final Candidate Review is for.
Next week: what actually drives sales performance... and why some of it is your job, not theirs.
Hire the read. Teach the playbook.
This episode is general information, not legal advice. Before you change how you hire, check with an employment lawyer.
Frequently asked questions
Do years of experience predict sales performance?
Not well. In Sackett and colleagues' 2022 review of hiring methods, years of job experience predicted performance at about .07, close to nothing, while job knowledge tests came in at about .40. Years are one way to build knowledge, so test the knowledge directly.
What can I teach a new sales hire instead of hiring for it?
Your product line, price list, CRM, spec sheets and internal terms belong to you, so you can write them down and teach them in the first week or month. Reading a buyer, spotting who's really deciding and knowing what to do when a deal stalls are much harder to teach, so test those before the offer.
Can I require a set number of years of experience in a sales job posting?
Only with care. A years rule you can't tie to the real job can screen out good candidates, including younger ones, and age is a protected ground under the Ontario Human Rights Code. This is general information, so confirm the details with an employment lawyer.
Work with us
Down to two finalists and not sure what they actually know? We help Ontario owners pick the right sales hire. Our Final Candidate Review validates the match before you make the offer, using documented, job-related evidence, and it’s covered by our handshake guarantee.
References
Barnewall, C. (2018, May 20). NBA Draft prospect Luka Doncic wins EuroLeague title, Final Four MVP and EuroLeague MVP for Real Madrid. CBS Sports. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-draft-prospect-luka-doncic-wins-euroleague-title-final-four-mvp-and-euroleague-mvp-for-real-madrid
Botkin, B. (2019, June 14). Warriors vs. Raptors NBA Finals Game 6 score, takeaways: Kawhi Leonard fairy tale complete, Toronto wins first title. CBS Sports. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-finals-2019-watch-warriors-vs-raptors-game-6-live-stream-tv-channel-odds-date-time
EuroLeague. (n.d.). Final Four club legend: Luka Doncic, Real Madrid. https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/news/final-four-club-legend-luka-doncic-real-madrid
Herbert, J. (2019, February 11). Marc Gasol already energizing Raptors' offense, even if they're not ready for his passing just yet. CBS Sports. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/marc-gasol-already-energizing-raptors-offense-even-if-theyre-not-ready-for-his-passing-just-yet/
Lewenberg, J. (2019, February 12). Gasol making immediate impact with Raptors. TSN. https://www.tsn.ca/gasol-making-immediate-impact-with-raptors-1.1256729
Maloney, J. (2019, June 25). 2018-19 NBA Awards: Mavericks sensation Luka Doncic beats out Trae Young for Rookie of the Year. CBS Sports. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2018-19-nba-awards-mavericks-sensation-luka-doncic-beats-trae-young-for-rookie-of-the-year
NBA.com. (2019, February 8). Report: Grizzlies trade Marc Gasol to Raptors. https://www.nba.com/article/2019/02/07/marc-gasol-toronto-raptors-report-trade
Sackett, P. R., Zhang, C., Berry, C. M., & Lievens, F. (2022). Revisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection: Addressing systematic overcorrection for restriction of range. Journal of Applied Psychology, 107(11), 2040-2068. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000994
Disclaimer: This episode and page provide general HR and business information, not legal advice. Employment law turns on the specific facts and changes over time. Before acting on anything here, confirm it with an Ontario employment lawyer.
