You hire what looks like a surefire top performer. Perfect resume. President’s Club plaques hanging in the background.
Week one: they blow off your coaching. Week two: they’re asking prospects softball, robotic questions. Week three: you ping them for a forecast update at 3pm… they’ve already logged off.
That ‘top performer’ you thought you hired? Turns out they’re your next offboarding project.
Here’s what most managers completely miss when it comes to hiring:
You screen for experience and skills, but you hire for traits.
Mark Kosoglow built a process to hire countless Presidents Club caliber reps that helped him take Outreach from 0-250M+ ARR.
So today we’ll cover Mark’s complete 3 part talent system:
- How to Interview For Traits
- Mark’s 4 Step Interview Process
- How to Source Your Next President’s Club Sales Rep
If you like this, sign up for an early access discount to the Sales Management Operating System course
Part 1: How to Interview For Traits
Most managers get duped by a shiny résumé and a couple of President’s Club plaques on the wall.
Instead when hiring, you should screen for skills and experience, but you hire for traits:
- Traits = who they are (e.g. EQ, work ethic, coachability, grit, dot-connecting). Hire for these because they are impossible to teach.
- Skills = what they can do (e.g. prospecting, discovery, deal process). These are important, but can be taught to someone with the right traits.
- Experience = what they’ve done (e.g. background, sales stats). Screen for these on the resume, but don’t make a hire off a shiny resume.
The best way to test for the trait is to literally put them in the state of the trait.
For example, test for coachability by asking if they want to do a roleplay. Run through it twice and see if they implement any feedback between rounds. If they don’t they’re not coachable!
Pick the 6 traits that matter the most for your sales org and test for each. (see photo above for 9 common ones Mark tests for).
Part 2: Mark’s 4 Step Interview Process
If your interview process only tests for skills and experience, you’ll likely hire someone who ignores coaching, asks softball questions, and checks out at 3pm.
Here’s Mark’s 4-step interview process he used at Outreach to screen for traits—not just skills and experience—and come away with President’s Club talent every time:
1. Recruiter Screen: Verify their sales background and test for their sales stats. If they talk around their numbers instead of hitting them dead-on, it’s a red flag.
2. Hiring Manager Interview (2 Traits): Test for your top 2 traits using the method from the previous section.
3. Interview Loop (4 Traits + Culture Panel): Test 4 remaining traits in 2 interviews + run 1 culture panel.
4. Sell You Out of It: Tell them everything wrong about the company and see how they react. If they see the challenge as an opportunity, you’ve likely got the right hire.
From here, score candidates 1-4 on each trait -> Pass on the 3s or less (no soft yes) -> Hire the highest scoring candidate.
Pro Tip: Go with your gut. If it feels off, it usually is.
Part 3: How to Source Your Next President’s Club Sales Rep
The worst time to source talent is after someone quits or gets promoted.
Now you’re scrambling with an empty bench—rushing a hire just to plug the hole instead of landing a real top performer.
That’s why you should always be sourcing talent, even when you don’t have an opening.
Here are the 5 candidate sourcing channels Mark uses — ranked from most to least effective:
- Your Squad: Past top performers who’ve worked for you.
- Internal Promotions: Build your internal pipeline from SDR to AE and beyond.
- Referrals: Ask your network for referrals to specific candidates (not just: “know anyone great?”)
- Outbound: Send 1:1 LinkedIn DMs to top 10% profiles (or get your recruiter to send from your profile)
- Inbound: This is the lottery ticket bowl of whatever’s left. Don’t rely on it.
Pro Tip: Your goal should be 1 interview a week to keep a steady pipeline of talent.
And that’s a wrap, folks!
Want every trait-based interview guide and sourcing template? Get Mark’s one-pager hiring guides to find your next President’s Club rep.
And if you like what we’re covering for free with Mark here, this is just one part of Mark’s Sales Management Operating System course — which covers everything from AE prospecting, metrics, hiring, and more.
It’s literally the last sales leadership resource you’ll ever need.
Get early access to Mark’s Sales Management Operating System by signing up for the free launch event.
