To find a salesperson, separate the skills they need from the start from the knowledge the company is ready to teach. Start with the reasons candidates are rejected: if salespeople are screened out for being unfamiliar with the catalogue, even though an engineer selects the equipment, your own requirement is narrowing the search. In 15 minutes, you can decide which filter to keep and what to replace an unnecessary one with.
Another CV has been rejected: the person sold industrial equipment but has not worked with pumps. The job advert for a supplier of pumps and components requires experience with these specific products. Meanwhile, an engineer prepares the technical solution for the customer. I will combine several similar situations into one composite example: this is not the story of a specific client.
It is easy to understand the business owner. They do not want to explain every word to a new recruit or be responsible if the wrong equipment is selected. So they ask for someone who already knows everything. But product knowledge has become a reason for rejection before anyone has found out whether the candidate can gather the initial information, negotiate and make sure agreements are carried out.
I think this is where we should stop tightening the requirements. If you add another point to the candidate profile after every rejection, by the end of the search you will have a description of someone who already works for your company.
The first four minutes: find the reason for the last rejection
Open the current job advert and the record of the last interview, or the comment on a rejected CV. You also need a list of tasks the head of sales intends to hand over to the new salesperson. This is the information the business owner needs for one decision, without going through all the sales department’s negotiations.
Ask the head of sales: what specific action will this candidate be unable to perform? The answer must name a task. For example, they failed to establish the purchasing terms in an exercise; refused to look for new customers; failed to understand a technical requirement they must be able to handle independently.
Lack of industry experience does not give you that answer. In the composite example, the person was screened out because of the name of the product they previously sold. No one has yet seen how well they can talk to an equipment buyer. So there is a formal reason for rejection, but not enough evidence to judge their suitability as a salesperson.
If the reason has not been recorded at all, do not reconstruct it on the recruiter’s behalf. Tell the head of sales to get the reason for rejection from the person who made the decision. Until then, the requirement remains unexplained; it is too early to add further restrictions.
By the ninth minute: separate knowledge from responsibilities
Now find the point in the task list where the salesperson passes the request to the engineer. Who selects the model, confirms that the components are compatible and answers technical objections? Compare this with the requirements in the job advert.
Below is a completed sample for our composite example. These are possible decisions about requirements, not a description of an actual recruitment process.
| Job requirement | Evidence that it is needed | Selection decision |
|---|---|---|
| Know our specific pump catalogue | Selecting equipment independently is not part of the salesperson’s role; the engineer does it | Remove as a reason for rejection and arrange catalogue training |
| Be able to put together a request for the engineer | Without information on operating conditions, the engineer returns the enquiry for clarification | Keep; give the candidate an information-gathering task |
| Look for new customers | The new employee’s assigned tasks include looking for customers independently | Keep; ask them to explain their previous method of finding customers |
| Select equipment independently | The engineer is not involved; the salesperson is responsible for the technical choice | Keep the requirement for relevant expertise or change how the work is shared |
The last row changes the decision. If there is no technical specialist, simply removing the industry experience requirement is risky. The business owner must choose: look for a salesperson with the necessary technical training or provide help from an engineer. Hoping the new recruit can work independently is no substitute for training.
And knowledge of the catalogue will still be needed. Specify who will teach them to use it, the materials and the process for allowing them to answer customers independently. Without this, removing the filter simply shifts the difficulty from recruitment to the first working day.
By the twelfth minute: replace the label with a task
For a skill you keep as a requirement, you need a way to see it before hiring. An industry listed on a CV is no substitute: the person worked around equipment, but what did they do themselves?
Here is an interview task you can use. The head of sales runs it; the business owner confirms whether it fits the future work:
A buyer is looking for a replacement pump. You have their brief request, a catalogue and the option to consult an engineer. Show what information you would ask the buyer for, what you would pass to the engineer and what next action you would agree on. Separately, state what you must not promise without technical confirmation.
The head of sales takes an anonymised company request in advance and, together with the engineer, identifies the missing information. The candidate receives the same starting material. They check whether the candidate has spotted the gaps, put together a clear brief for the engineer and tied further discussion to receiving a reply. The candidate is not required to guess the pump model itself.
For a salesperson who will be responsible for selecting equipment, this task is too easy. In that case, an engineer must also assess whether the choice of equipment is correct. The content of the test changes with the responsibility you are actually giving the person.
The last three minutes: make a decision on the vacancy
The assessment leads to one of three options: keep the requirement with a clear reason; replace it with a practical task; first provide technical help and training. The head of sales rewrites the advert with the recruiter. The owner does not need to review the entire flow of CVs themselves.
You can pass on the instruction in full:
By the end of the next working day, align the job requirements with the salesperson’s actual responsibilities. For each essential requirement, specify the task it relates to, the interview exercise and the signs of a suitable answer. For knowledge we teach after the person starts, name the mentor and the materials. Bring me decisions that require the engineer’s time separately. Once the requirements have been agreed, review rejections based solely on the requirement that has been removed.
Approve the completed work by checking how these fit together: the requirement in the advert, the corresponding exercise and the rule for making a decision based on the answer. If industry experience has been removed from the advert but the recruiter still rejects CVs on that basis, the search has not changed. Count how many such rejections you have had, and offer suitable candidates the chance to continue the conversation, without promising them a job.
For the agreed role, Robot Recruiter, a separate RENTROP product, lets you use AI interviews with scripts and situational exercises. If it is hard to see the salesperson’s work behind the list of requirements, you can discuss this precise dividing line in a free sales review with RENTROP: what the person must be able to do before joining and what the company is ready to teach them.
There will now be a meaningful basis for a decision about the rejected CV from the start of the article. The company is entitled to require deep knowledge of pumps when it asks the person to select them. When selection remains the engineer’s job, it is worth giving the salesperson a chance to show their work before the name of someone else’s catalogue rules them out.