How to Hire Reps Without Reading Their Resumes

(This is a guest post by Anastasia Milgramm of the Customer Contact Council, our sister program for heads of customer service and contact centers.)

A candidate's job search process is fairly straight-forward: send a resume, attend an interview, and provide references. In today's digital age, however, employers are relying on new and creative methods to gauge candidate fit.

In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, some companies have completely stopped asking candidates for their resumes. Instead, they rely on social networks such as LinkedIn, video profiles, and online tests to better understand employees' skills and measure cultural fit. For example, Union Square Ventures, a New York-based venture capital firm, asks candidates to submit videos demonstrating interest in an open role. Colorado-based StickerGiant.com makes resume submission optional, and instead uses online tests to determine whether an applicant would be a good fit.

Companies that have embraced these new hiring processes claim that resumes are not a good way to identify best-fit candidates.

Sales organizations are not immune to the challenge of finding best-fit applicants for frontline roles. In fact, as rep jobs have become more complex in recent years, identifying "best-fits" has become more difficult than ever.  Customers are buying in new ways, and requiring greater consensus to move forward with deals. As a result, new hires must be able to adapt easily to evolving job demands and buying environments.

The SEC tested the drivers of performance to identify the rep skill sets that are most suited for this more complex sales environment.  As many of you know, we found that the skills that have the biggest impact on rep performance are reps' abilities to teach for differentiation, tailor for resonance, and take control of the buying process. We call reps that embody these skills Challenger Reps.  Challengers are 4x more likely to be high performers in a complex selling environment.

The good news is that you can identify talent with innate Challenger capability—so from a hiring standpoint, sales organizations need to focus on screening out the few candidates who don't show the potential and zeroing in on the ones that do.

Since resumes are often not the only – or the best –method for finding best-fit applicants, what other strategies can sales organizations use to hire high-potential staff?

Screen out candidates with low potential for success using behavioral interviewing. Interview questions about an applicant's past behaviors can predict future behaviors, since candidates are asked to provide detailed evidence for each answer.

SEC Members, use our new Challenger Behavioral Interview Guide to uncover a sales candidate's true behavioral instincts and to get a holistic sense of their Challenger potential once in seat.




Watch candidates in action before offering them the job. To test for the important qualities and behaviors in applicants, several companies have watched candidates in action in simulated 'day in the life of' programs.

SEC Members, see how Hewlett Packard pre-certifies sales manager candidates' capabilities before extending offers with a full-day simulation skills assessment.

Do you think that resumes are useful in screening for applicant fit? Can you imagine a world without resumes?

SEC Members, for more resources on hiring Challenger Reps, check out our new Challenger Starter Kit.