Stop making important hiring decisions on gut feel. We design a complete, structured recruitment process for sales roles — scorecard, interview guide, practical assessment, and onboarding framework — so every hire is evaluated against the same criteria and ramps faster.
What a Recruitment Process Design covers
We build a complete, end-to-end hiring process for sales roles across five components.
Role Scorecard
A written definition of what success looks like in the role at 30, 60, and 90 days, and at 12 months. Replaces a generic job description with a specific, measurable success profile used to evaluate every candidate against the same criteria.
Structured Interview Questions
A competency-based question set designed to reveal actual capability rather than interview performance. Covers prospecting, qualification, objection handling, pipeline management, and resilience — with scoring guidance for each.
Practical Assessment
A realistic, role-specific task — a cold call roleplay, written account plan, or live discovery demonstration — that shows how a candidate actually performs, not how they talk about past performance.
Reference Check Structure
Specific questions for reference calls that probe sales performance, quota attainment, and reasons for leaving — rather than generic character references that tell you nothing useful.
Onboarding Alignment
Connecting the recruitment criteria to the first 90-day onboarding plan so new hires know exactly what is expected, what support they will receive, and how performance will be assessed from day one.
What you’ll get
Six ready-to-use documents delivered within two weeks.
- Role scorecard — a 1–2 page document defining success criteria, required competencies, and what “good” looks like at 30/60/90 days.
- Structured interview guide — 15–20 questions with scoring rubrics, covering competencies that predict sales success in your specific role and deal type.
- Practical assessment brief — a realistic task or roleplay scenario with evaluation criteria, calibrated to your typical sales cycle and buyer type.
- Reference check template — structured questions for 2–3 reference calls, focused on sales-specific performance evidence rather than general character.
- Offer & onboarding framework — what to include in an offer, the 90-day onboarding plan template, and a first-week schedule for a new sales hire.
- Interviewer training guide — how to run the structured interview consistently, with calibration guidance so everyone is scoring against the same standards.
Who this is for
Recruitment process design is most urgent for growing B2B companies that are hiring salespeople more frequently and finding the results inconsistent. Common signals:
- Sales hire turnover is above 30% in the first 12 months
- Time-to-productivity for new hires is 6+ months (well-onboarded B2B sales hires should ramp in 3–4 months)
- Hiring decisions are made primarily on interview impression rather than structured criteria
- The same role has been filled 2–3 times in 2–3 years without sustainable success
- Different interviewers have completely different ideas about what a good hire looks like
- A recent hire looked great in interview but struggled with the actual work
- You are scaling the team and need a repeatable hiring process rather than ad hoc decisions
Best fit: B2B service companies with 5–50 employees making 2+ sales hires per year, or companies preparing to scale their sales function significantly.
How we design your recruitment process — 3 stages over 2 weeks
Week 1 — Discovery
We run a session with your sales lead and, where possible, your best-performing sales hire to understand what predicts success in the role. We review the last 3–5 hiring decisions — what worked, what did not, and why — and examine the current interview process and job description to identify the gaps.
Weeks 1–2 — Design
We build the scorecard, interview guide, practical assessment, and reference check template. The assessment task is calibrated to your specific deal type and sales cycle — a roleplay for a transactional £3k deal looks very different from one for a complex £50k solution sale.
Week 2 — Handoff & Training
We deliver all documents and run a 60-minute session with everyone involved in hiring on how to run the structured process, how to score consistently, and how to handle common edge cases. The process can be used for a hire in progress immediately after handoff.
Results you can expect
Based on B2B companies that have implemented structured sales hiring processes:
- Bad hire rate reduces 50–70% — structured interviews and practical assessments significantly outperform unstructured interviews at predicting job performance.
- Time-to-productivity improves 30–50% — new hires assessed against a clear role scorecard ramp faster because expectations are aligned from day one.
- Interviewer confidence increases significantly — a structured process gives interviewers clear criteria and removes the discomfort of making important decisions on gut feel.
- Reduced mis-hire cost — a bad sales hire typically costs 1.5–3× their annual salary in recruitment fees, salary, management time, and missed revenue. A structured process that prevents even one bad hire typically pays for itself many times over.
- Better candidate experience — structured processes signal professionalism to candidates and attract higher-quality applicants.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to design a recruitment process?
Two weeks from kick-off to full process delivered and hiring team trained. This covers discovery, process design, document build, and a training session with your interviewers. The process can be used for a hire in progress immediately after handoff.
How much does this cost?
Pricing is bespoke and depends on the number of roles covered, complexity of the assessment design, and whether onboarding plan development is included. Most engagements land in the Foundation tier — £3k–£8k one-off. We scope and quote after a short call.
Can this work alongside executive recruitment if we need help finding candidates too?
Yes. Recruitment Process Design covers the assessment and selection methodology. If you also need help sourcing candidates, our Executive Recruitment service covers the full search process — the two work together as a complete end-to-end hiring solution.
What if we use a recruitment agency — can we still use this process?
Yes. The scorecard, interview guide, and practical assessment are yours to use regardless of how candidates are sourced. Sharing the role scorecard with agencies also improves the quality of candidates they present — agencies submit better-fit candidates when they have a specific success profile rather than a generic job description.
Does the process need updating when we hire for the same role again?
The core process remains valid unless the role, deal type, or market changes significantly. We recommend a brief review after each hire to update the practical assessment if the proposition has evolved. All documents are delivered in editable format so your team can make minor updates independently.
Ready to hire better salespeople and get them productive faster?
A 30-minute call is enough to review your current hiring approach and identify where the process is letting in bad fits.
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