Sales training and coaching · Hiring and onboarding sellers
Check five things are in place before you post a sales vacancy.
A sales hiring readiness check is a one-page test of whether your business is ready to take on a salesperson. It scores five prerequisites: a written sales process, a target buyer, a profile of your best rep, a fixed interview and a plan for finding candidates. It ends in a go or no-go decision on paper.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A sales hiring readiness check is a one-page test of whether your business is ready to take on a salesperson. It scores five prerequisites: a written sales process, a target buyer, a profile of your best rep, a fixed interview and a plan for finding candidates. It ends in a go or no-go decision on paper.
A packaging manufacturer in Peenya loses its only field salesman in March. The owner posts the vacancy on Naukri the same week, interviews six people over a fortnight, and hires the one who talks best. Four months later the new hire has two small orders and the owner has no way to say whether the person or the job is the problem.
The job was the problem, but nobody could see it, because the business had never written down how it sells. There was no target customer list, no description of what a good rep does in the first ninety days, and no standard set of questions to ask. The hire was a guess.
This check puts that guess on paper before the money is spent. You rate five prerequisites as absent, partly there or in place, with one line of evidence each. A zero on any of them does not stop you hiring, but it tells you what you are about to ask the new person to invent for themselves.
The owner fills it in, alone, in under an hour. It comes before the top performer profile, the interview kit and the talent pipeline, which are the pages that fix each gap, and it uses the same process document you built for sales management.
Where this sits
Topic 7 of 8 in sales training and coaching: hiring and onboarding sellers. Building the early team, hiring against evidence and ramping new reps.
- The topic before
- Coaching the sales team
- The topic after
- Training programme design
If you want this done for you
The last three hires interviewed well and could not sell.
The work
What this is actually like.
“A missing process is a hidden job description”
If the steps from enquiry to order are in the owner's head, the new rep has to guess them, and will guess the way their last employer did. Write a one-page version before you hire, even a rough one. A rep who follows a poor written process can be corrected; one who follows no process cannot.
“Hiring is the wrong fix for a lead problem”
If enquiries are thin, a new salesperson sits idle or chases poor leads and the owner calls it a bad hire. Count the enquiries the current team could not handle last month. If the answer is none, fix the flow of enquiries first, because a second pair of hands has nothing to pick up.
“Your best rep may not be hireable twice”
Owners describe the ideal hire as a copy of the star performer, when the star's results came from ten years of relationships with a particular set of buyers. The readiness check asks what the star actually does that a stranger could learn. Anything that rests on old relationships goes in a separate column.
“Registrations belong in the check, not the offer letter”
A written appointment letter, your state shops and establishments registration and PF and ESI enrolment where they apply should be sorted before the offer goes out. Rules differ by state and change, so ask your own CA or labour adviser. Finding this out after the joining date makes the first week awkward for everyone.
What we do
What you end up with.
The documents this topic produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The five-row readiness sheet
Rows for process, target buyer, successful-rep profile, standard interview and recruiting plan. Columns for score (0, 1 or 2), evidence, and who fixes it. Evidence means a document you can point at, not a belief that it exists.
Result: Finished when every score has a file name or a date beside it.
The enquiry load count
Last month's enquiries, how many were answered within the day, and how many were lost for lack of someone to follow up. Three numbers from your own register or WhatsApp log.
Result: Finished when you can say how many extra enquiries a new rep could handle on day one.
The fix list
Every row scoring below two with the page or document that fixes it and a date by which it will be done. Order by what blocks the hire first.
Result: Finished when the first item has a name and a date next to it.
The go or no-go note
Three lines: the total score, the decision, and what you will check again before reposting if the answer is no. Keep it with the sheet.
Result: Finished when someone who was not in the room can read it and know why the vacancy is or is not open.
The paperwork checklist
Appointment letter draft, probation and notice terms, variable pay rules in writing, and the registrations your CA says apply. Ask the CA or labour lawyer to look it over once.
Result: Finished when the letter is ready to issue before the joining date.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
What if we score low but need someone urgently?
Who should score the sheet, the owner or the sales head?
Is this needed for a second or third hire?
Do we need a lawyer for the paperwork row?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this topic further.
The rest of hiring and onboarding sellers
Or read all of sales training and coaching.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.