Best tips for hiring ENT reps

As a Talent Acquisition Manager, Sales Recruiter or BP, you know this by now - Not all salespeople are created equal - and hiring the wrong type can hurt your pipeline and team performance, and most importantly - the business' goals.

As someone who’s led sales teams and built enablement functions from scratch, I’ve seen too many recruiters left guessing during interviews - without the tools or support they need from the hiring manager.

The results?

• Bad fits

• Long hiring cycles

• New hires who struggle to ramp (or never do)

  So I put together a few quick tips below to help you spot the right sales talent faster and hire with confidence.

Know the Difference: Transactional vs. Enterprise Selling

Transactional Selling:

• Fast, high-volume sales cycles (SMB, MM)

• Engage with a single or very few decision-makers

• Price driven

• Tactical focus (product demos, short-term wins)

• Success is activity-based (calls, demos, deals/month)

Enterprise Selling:

• Very long and complex sales cycles (18 months and longer)

• Tens of stakeholders involved (multi-threading, process orchestration)

• Business case & ROI driven

• In most cases, you’ll need someone tech-savvy like a Sales Engineer or Pre-Sales expert

• Success is outcome-based (multi-year contracts, expansion)

  
  

👀 What to Look For in an Enterprise Seller

1. Marathon runner mindset (resilient, long-game oriented)

2. Someone who can stay focused while working closely with SEs, CS, legal, procurement and a lot of paperwork

3. Strong business acumen and industry fluency

4. Able to influence cross-functional decisions

   
   

The ORCA-SHARK Test 🐋🦈

🦈 Sharks hunt alone. They’re fast, aggressive, and instinct-driven. But they’re also easily distracted and tend to operate under the (CRM) radar. They rely on standalone spreadsheets, and only update deals once they’re confident they’ll close.

🐋 Orcas, on the other hand, hunt in pods. They strategize, collaborate, and adapt. They thrive in environments where teamwork and alignment are essential.

When hiring, choose the right type based on your business model: 

• The industry you operate in

• The complexity of your product

• Dependencies on other teams (like Legal or Engineering)

• And how critical cross-functional collaboration is to closing deals

Here are few examples for great discovery questions

“Describe a time you mapped out an account and identified hidden influencers”

“How do you keep a buyer engaged during a 16-month sales cycle?

”“Describe a time you influenced multiple stakeholders to approve budget”

“Tell me about a time you turned a skeptical prospect into a champion”

“How do you build trust with both technical and business buyers?”

"What are the core challenges when dealing with complex tech?”

Ready to explore more?

Interviewing Questions, Cheat Sheet & Guides, Hiring Playbooks and more....

My online course “Sales Recruiting Excellence” is built specifically for Talent Acquisition Managers, Sales Recruiters, and HR Business Partners who are in the process of hiring and interviewing Sales Applicants.

It’s packed with Moneyball best practices, step-by-step guides, cheat sheets, and a powerful set of interview questions tailored for sales roles.

The course and provided tools will help you to interview sales candidates like a salesperson so you can spot top performers faster and avoid costly bad fits.