Hiring
Start with the product and buying problem, not a generic request for “SaaS experience.” For a marketing automation role, define the campaigns and workflows the salesperson must discuss. For analytics, specify the reporting decisions your product supports. For AdTech, identify the campaign, audience or advertising workflow your product addresses.
Map your intended buying group: marketing leadership, demand generation, marketing operations, analytics, IT, security, procurement and finance. Distinguish users from budget owners and technical approvers; do not assume one marketing contact controls the purchase.
For a United States territory, state account size, vertical focus, named-account rules, time-zone coverage, travel expectations and ownership of inbound leads. Write these boundaries before sourcing.
Build your hiring requirements from recent opportunities, including losses and stalled evaluations. Ask which steps actually delayed decisions: access to usable data, integration questions, security review, unclear workflow ownership, budget approval or disagreement over success criteria.
Assess whether a candidate can separate product capability from customer readiness. HubSpot, for example, describes campaign automation and performance reporting within Marketing Hub; that documentation does not establish another vendor’s capabilities or customer outcomes.
Use your CRM records to set sales-cycle expectations by segment and deal type. Avoid importing a candidate’s previous cycle length without comparing buying complexity.
Use the same scorecard for every candidate applying to the same role. Rate evidence from one to four: unsupported claim, partial example, clear example, or clear example plus sound judgment under follow-up questioning.
| Capability | Evidence to request |
|---|---|
| Problem discovery | Questions connecting campaign issues to an operational decision and accountable owner. |
| Technical judgment | A clear distinction between known capabilities, assumptions and questions for a specialist. |
| Buying-group navigation | An example of identifying missing stakeholders and securing their participation. |
| Commercial discipline | A mutual next step, explicit evaluation criteria and defensible forecast reasoning. |
| Communication | A concise follow-up that records uncertainties without overstating value. |
Set role-specific thresholds before interviews. An SDR needs accurate qualification and handoff discipline; an AE needs evaluation and negotiation skills. Do not compensate for weak judgment with presentation polish.
Define the job’s scope before benchmarking compensation. Use O*NET to research task and skill alignment, then use BLS occupational wage tables to select the closest appropriate occupation, geography and data year. Check the occupation definition and wage measure. A broad national occupation is not a local salary quote or a complete MarTech compensation benchmark.
Document base pay, target variable compensation, quota, payout timing, crediting rules, accelerators, adjustments and account ownership. Explain how renewals, expansion, split deals and cancellations affect earnings.
Pressure-test quota against your available pipeline, observed conversion, deal values, territory capacity and evaluation timelines. Model ramp around training and opportunity development rather than assuming immediate full productivity. Have the appropriate internal compensation and legal reviewers check the plan and current requirements before making offers.
Run a consistent sequence: scope screen, evidence interview, work sample and references with permission. Ask candidates for anonymized examples rather than confidential customer materials. Assign interviewers distinct scorecard areas and have them record ratings independently before discussing.
Give every candidate the same fictional brief: a marketing team runs campaigns, but sales disputes lead quality. Marketing and sales use different definitions of a qualified lead. The CRM connection is unverified, no workflow owner is named, and leadership wants clearer reporting.
Allow 20 minutes of preparation, a 15-minute discovery role-play and a short written follow-up. Provide a simple product capability sheet so the exercise tests selling judgment, not memorized vendor knowledge. State that unsupported product claims are unacceptable.
Score whether the candidate clarifies data definitions, maps integrations, identifies workflow owners, asks how reporting will be used and proposes a bounded next step. Reward explicit uncertainty. Do not reward guaranteed ROI, attribution accuracy or productivity gains.
Teach buyer workflows, product boundaries, approved messaging and escalation routes. Have the hire map a sample buying group, explain key data definitions and shadow discovery and implementation handoffs. Certify basic discovery and product-claim accuracy through role-play.
Give the hire a defined account set and review call plans, discovery notes and follow-ups weekly. Coach one observable behavior at a time, such as identifying the reporting decision-maker. Review whether proposed evaluations have owners, criteria and technical support.
Evaluate qualification quality, stakeholder coverage, next-step completion and forecast reasoning alongside commercial results. For SDRs, inspect accepted handoffs; for account managers, inspect renewal and adoption-risk plans. Adjust coaching or territory assumptions when evidence warrants it, rather than treating every shortfall as an effort problem.
Make it essential only when the role requires immediate domain fluency you cannot teach during ramp. Otherwise, test transferable discovery, technical judgment and learning ability using the same exercise.
Define the boundary explicitly. You may need someone who can uncover integration requirements and coordinate validation, rather than someone who designs the architecture. Test escalation judgment accordingly.
Compare the work behind the number: stakeholder complexity, evaluation ownership, negotiation responsibility and support resources. Ask how they would adapt to your segment instead of assuming larger deals mean stronger fit.
Use the linked vendor overview only to understand that vendor’s described capabilities. Recheck current product documentation before assessing technical claims. Verify occupation, geography and year in BLS when planning pay, and use O*NET for task research—not as a substitute for your own role definition.
Once the scorecard and compensation plan are ready, browse salespeople on Salesfolks against your criteria. You can create an account and check current employer plans before choosing your next step.
Candidate perspective: MarTech Sales Jobs: A Candidate’s Guide to Roles, Interviews and Offers.