Sales training and coaching · Hiring and onboarding sellers
Interview a sales candidate by making them do a small piece of the job.
A skills-based interview kit is a fixed set of questions and exercises that every sales candidate goes through, scored on one rubric. It replaces the free conversation with a role-play, a small consulting task and a ride-along. The page ends with the question list, exercise cards and a decision record.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A skills-based interview kit is a fixed set of questions and exercises that every sales candidate goes through, scored on one rubric. It replaces the free conversation with a role-play, a small consulting task and a ride-along. The page ends with the question list, exercise cards and a decision record.
An interior-fit-out firm in Kochi shortlists three candidates for a business development role. One interview runs for an hour over tea, another lasts fifteen minutes between site visits, and the third is a phone call from a car. The owner picks the one they liked talking to and cannot explain afterwards why the other two were rejected.
The kit gives every candidate the same questions, the same exercises and the same scoring sheet. Two of the exercises matter more than the questions. In the first, the candidate role-plays a sales call, gets two minutes of feedback and plays it again, and you score how much better the second attempt is. That is a measure of coachability, which is hard to see in a conversation.
In the second, you give the candidate a real problem from your business, such as a customer who keeps delaying the payment, and ask them to advise. You are looking at how they ask questions before they answer.
The sales head runs the interview, the owner joins for the last round, and a salesperson who joined recently sits on the panel. It uses the weighted scorecard from the page before and passes the finalists to the onboarding ramp.
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 candidate who talks well in an interview is doing the one sales task you cannot check”
Interviews reward fluency. The role-play and the real-problem exercise reward asking before answering. Score the questions a candidate asks you, not the length of their answers, and note whether they changed approach when the feedback came.
“A recent joiner on the panel sees what you miss”
Someone hired six months ago remembers what confused them, and candidates speak to them more frankly than to the owner. Ask the recent joiner to score separately and speak first at the debrief, because seniors anchor the room.
“The ride-along is a two-way test”
Take the finalists on one real customer visit or call. You see how they behave in front of a buyer and how they treat the driver, the receptionist and the junior. The candidate sees the job as it is, which cuts early resignations.
“Some questions put you in trouble”
Do not ask about religion, caste, marital status, pregnancy plans, age or health. They also tell you nothing about selling. Write the allowed questions into the kit so a hurried interviewer does not improvise. Collect candidate details with consent and keep them only for the hire.
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 question list
Eight to ten questions in a fixed order, each tied to a trait on the scorecard: how they found their last new customer, a deal they lost, how they handle a price cut request. Interviewers do not add or skip questions.
Result: Finished when each question maps to one scorecard trait and no trait is left without a question.
The role-play card
A buyer description, the opening line, three pushbacks the interviewer must give, and a feedback script of two things to do differently. Run it twice and record both scores.
Result: Finished when two interviewers play the buyer the same way.
The real-problem exercise
A one-paragraph business problem from your own files, with names removed, and a time limit of fifteen minutes to advise. Score the questions asked, the assumptions stated and the next step proposed.
Result: Finished when the problem is real enough that you do not know the best answer yourself.
The independent score sheet
Each panel member scores alone, writes the evidence for each score, then the sheet is handed to the sales head before any discussion.
Result: Finished when no panel member has seen another's score before writing their own.
The decision record
Candidate, total, the one thing that decided it, offer made, joined or declined, and a ninety-day check on whether they stayed.
Result: Finished when you can count offers, joins and ninety-day exits across the year.
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.
Will good candidates refuse a three-hour interview?
Can we run the kit on video call?
What if the owner insists on interviewing alone?
Do freshers need the same kit?
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.