Hire the seller you would buy from: build a rubric
Stop hiring the best of the five people you interviewed. Hire the one you would buy from, and let a rubric make the call.
- A rubric is a behaviour matrix, not a skills list.
- The test: not best of the five, but I would buy from her, any day.
- No starting point? Build it backwards from your one great hire.
If you are not a sales expert, hiring sellers feels like a guess. A simple rubric turns the guess into a decision.
A rubric is a behaviour matrix, not a skills list
Douglas Mancini's test for a good hire is blunt. After the interview you should not be saying she was the best of the five. You should be saying I would buy from her, any day. A rubric names the handful of behaviours that matter to you and lets you score candidates against them, so hiring stops being a gut call. If you do not know where to start, build it backwards: take your one great hire, look at the behaviours and skills that made them work, and map those.
It works for managing too. With a rubric you can self-score, compare, and have a fair development conversation at two or three months instead of hoping for the best.
Get the sales skills rubric (free in Resources), and see how it fits Strategic Sales Enablement.
Related: The Founder-Led Sales Guide.
